Search the Community

1:144 Boeing 737-200 Busy Bee. Lima November decals. I saw this humourously liveried Boeing 737-200C parked on the ramp at Oslo Fornebu airport back in 1986, and thought 'I would like to make a model of that', so 30 years on, I have! I started with the old Airfix kit of 1969, and decided to see what improvements to could be made to it. These came down to: - Replace the cockpit glazing with the part provided in Daco's 737 kits. - Scratchbuild some interior detail for the cockpit - Open up the main and nosewheel bays, which are just shallow opening on the kit - Improve the engines. They are too short in the kit, and have the early 'skinny' pylons only applicable to the first 100 or so machines produced. - The passenger cabin windows are just little square shapes. I filed the all top and botton to open them up to oval shape. 2 were filled in and re-done further apart to allow for the cargo door. - This aircraft was equipped withe the 'Gravel kit' for operation off rough fields and gravel runways. Basically this is a large deflector plate fitted behind the nose wheels, and some pipes feeding compressed air forwards from the engine nacelles to blast any FOD away from the intakes. The nose plate stays horizontal all through the retraction cycle as the leg retracts forward, and ends up in its own housing grafted onto the lower nose. There is a great youtube of one landing and taking off on Youtube here Just look at all the crud kicked up! This is actually the second 737 that I have applied these mods too, the fiirst (in Air Europe livery) is complete but I have not posted it yet as I am making a diorama, and painting the little passengers walking out to it is taking ages! Some of the scratchbuilt parts Cockpit and crew painted up Nosebay on an unmodified kit, and the modified/scratched parts Noseleg additions. Done by eye from internet photos, as I could not find drawings Main gear bay. Just a blank on the standard kit, looks so much better opened up; Engines after accurising/improving. Lengthened with a section from a 1:48 bomb (covered with a band of white filler), and pylons fattened with plastic sheet & Milliput; And finally 'with something else' - the other 737 waiting to be finished. I did even more on this one, opening up the front & rear galleys, and luggage bay, and integral front airstairs. It also has all the mods I did on 'Busy Bee' apart from the gravel kit. Special thanks to Skodadriver Dave who very kindly sent me the Daco clear cockpit sections & the frame decals for them, and enabled this project to go ahead. Happy new year to all, and thanks for looking. John