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Showing results for tags 'Lockheed Electra'.
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An X-Scale Lockheed Electra arrived in the post this week and I reckon I can squeeze it in before the GB deadline. I wasn't particularly interested in this kit when it was released - somehow the Electra never appealed all that much to me, the airliner subjects that most resonate with me seem to be those I've either flown in or that bring back childhood memories of Manchester Airport, and the Electra doesn't tick either box. But one thing I am interested in is the many colourful colour schemes used on Braniff's aircraft. I'm a sucker for a colourful airliner, particularly one with a bit of an old-school feel to it. So when Vintage Flyer decals released Braniff decals for the X-Scale Electra, I snapped them up. Here's the kit: It's pretty typical of many recent Ukrainian kits - clearly short-run but much more crisply moulded than they used to be, and a few more parts than more mainstream manufacturers would use. The clear cockpit part often takes a bit of adjusting and blending in, and it's got the wing join line a few mm forward of the trailing edge on the underside, which results in a nice trailing edge but usually a bit of a step underneath to deal with. Nice looking decals for an early American Airlines scheme, which I won't be using. Not looking forward to attaching 16 individual prop blades! I've made a start. The fuselage is together - didn't use the cockpit parts, I'll be using a windscreen decal. Fit is very good, no locating pins so careful alignment is needed. The clear part actually fits quite well and will just need a little blending in. I've also test-fitted the wings. There's a step on the underside but it's a small one. It won't take much effort with my usual method (aggressively attacking the inside of the lower part with a coarse grit sanding stick at the trailing edge) to eliminate it. more soon Julian
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This is probably one of the rarest Revell kits nowadays. The first release was in 1957 with only 2 or 3 re-releases the following years,one being a Revell/Lodela kit with VARIG decals and one with a special livery of an American football team if I remember correctly. As with the Revell Convair 990 kit,I also found this rarity on a Swiss auction plattform,and also here I got together ,with the new kit,a finished one with some missing parts and apart from the applied decals,it was completely unpainted. As there are no aftermarked parts available,it was not easy to repair this kit. One wing had the propellers missing as well as the spinners and the rear cabin door was also gone. I decided to leave the propellers and mount it on one of those original Revell swivel stands and present it in-flight with "turning" props...by simply fit in new spinners that I found in my spares box.The are not completely accurate but they do the trick. I wanted to rebuild the kit in its original markings and I also found a wonderful new set at Vintage Flyers. My first attempt of painting an all-natural metal fuselage left me not very satisfied,so I went for a,at least for me, new approach. When I found a picture of a flying American Airlines Electra with that shiny bare-metal fuselage,I decided to use Bare-Metal foil to wrap the whole fuselage to achieve the same result. It was a tedious task and took hours to apply all the foils but the final result is very pleasing. The wings and engines are painted with Testors aluminium as these parts didn't look as hiny on the picture as the rest of the plane. Compared to the Minicraft 1/144 kit,Revells over 60 years old offering is far more accurate than the Minicraft version.It also has its faults,but the overall look beats the Minicraft in my opinion. Too bad that Revell altered the moulds to create the Orion out of it,so its impossible to ever see a re-release of this gem. The Electra logo on the stand comes from the original Revell decal set.It was stiff as a board but I managed to get it on the stand with lots of decal softener and laquer... Enjoy
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This rather involving modification of the somewhat dated Special Hobby kit came finally to fruition. In spite of a few shortcomings, it is a good thing that Special Hobby released long ago this kit and included Amelia's version, if inaccurately depicted, which can anyway be corrected. I took advantage of the Arctic Decals set, which corrects inaccuracies on the original decal sheet an provides a few more details. Many hours were dedicated to research and the making of details for the model. Here is the Lockheed Electra 10E as flown by Amelia beyond the point of no return, literally. Those interested may visit the step-by-step building article here: In this particular layer of the modeling multiverse, Amelia has safely arrived to fame and glory. After this, and realizing that she had tempted luck long enough and it was time for a quieter life, she dedicated her time to further propel women's education and rights, as she has been doing before. The long-traveled Electra (a star in the Pleiades, "amber" in Greek and Agamemnon's daughter in mythology) went to a museum, despite the wishes of Putnam who wanted yet more money and promotion. As she matured, Amelia eventually distanced herself from Putnam, and retired to the countryside, to an estate with a small airstrip, where she kept flying until advanced age, receiving the visits of her many friends. She passed away in peace, as if flying beyond.
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I would like to share that I am looking for project backers for my crowd funding metal display model projects as listed below, which have been posted on the new AeroBackers aviation crowd funding website. Please click on the links to view project details and the project video: 1/72 Austrian Airlines Viscount 800 cast aluminum http://www.aerobackers.com/campaigns/172-vickers-viscount-800-austrian-airlines-cast-aluminum-model/ 1/72 American Airlines BAC One Eleven cast aluminum http://www.aerobackers.com/campaigns/172-bac-one-eleven-american-airlines-cast-aluminum-model-2/ 1/72 Western Airlines L-188 Electra cast aluminum http://www.aerobackers.com/campaigns/172-lockheed-l-188-electra-western-airlines-cast-aluminum-model/ These projects require 10 backers to put each into production, and the projects are open for 10 days until AUG 24, 2014. I would be happy to answer any questions, and hope I can find sufficient backers as these models are fabulously accurate and deserve to be made!
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