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As a 12 year old,my grand parents took me with them to Kenya for hollidays. That was back in september 1990...how the time flies... We should have had a flight from Zurich to Mombasa on the Balair DC-10-30,but for some reasons this was changed,and instead Caledonian Airways took us to our destination on a Boeing 757-200. Due to the limited range of the 757,we had to make a tank stop in Athens. I always had a latent interest in airplanes but this flight actually started it all,my passion for airliners and modelling. In fact,my very first kit that I bought was a Hasegawa 747 in 1/200 soon after our return. But I always wanted to build the aircraft that started it all. Unfortunately back then,no 757 kit was available or none that I was aware of nor could I find decals for the Caledonian version,no internet back then,so tracing such items was rather difficult and one had to rely on the local hobbyshops to stock the latest kits. Anyone remember ? Some good 25 years ago I came across the AHS decal set but was still missing a 757 kit... Some years later Minicraft released a 757 kit that was average at least. I bought some of them but for some reason I never actually built one with the Caledonian decals that I had.Maybe the reason was that the AHS sheet had white parts that needed to be applied first before the yellow decals and also a lack of detail on it. Many years later,in 2021 Zvezda released a bew 757 kit which beats the Minicraft version in every aspect. 26decals released also many decals for the new kit,offering countless airlines,amongst them British Airways/Caledonian. So finally this year I came around building the very 757 that I had flown on back in 1990. The Zvezda kit is superb with almost perfect fit and only a minimum of filler needed. I built it straight out of the box The windows are open,no decals used,so also a bit of the cockpit can be seen. To get the correct windows/doors layout,I had to close 4 windows as Caledonian,as well as many other airlines,have/had an additional door aft of the wings. The last row of windows consists of 13 windows,so just need to count from the back forward and then close 4 windows in a row. The additional door is provided with the decals. The emergency exits on the wings need to be filled and sanded and one window between the former exits added. Yep,I still have the onboard magazine from that flight... Paints used,Tamyia Royal blue with a few drops black for the belly and engines,Gunze light grey 315 for the upper fuselage,Testors Voodoo grey on the wings,the corogard is a mix of dark grey mixed with aluminium. Othe metallic parts are painted with Gunze metallics. As mentioned,the decals are from 26 and are absolutely wonderful. The fit is perfect and the carrier film is almost invisible. The window frames are from the kit decal sheet Caledonian Airways was founded in 1988,emerging from British Airtours In 1999 it merged with Flying Colours Airlines to become JMC,which went to become Thomas Cook Airlines in 2003. Unfortunately,this company went into bankruptcy in 2019. The Boeing 757 G-BPEA was delivered factory new in march 1989 to British Airways and came to Caledonian in april 1989. It was frequently leased out during its service with Caledonian and after being sold in 2001 it remained in service with different airlines until its retirement in may 2018,aged 29. Sadly it was scrapped in 2019. I have still vivid and fond memories of that flight and those wonderful hollidays in Kenya and because of that,this model has a special meaning in my collection. Hence the slighly longer than usual thread... Here some pics from my grand parents photo album,of the 757 upon our arrival in Mombasa I hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane cheers Alex

My first Zvezda 757 build ,and I have to say it is a wonderful kit that goes together perfectly. Almost no filling required,all parts fit neatly. I had actually plans for the 757 with the Phoenix Suns livery but the seller sent me the wrong sheet although the correct instructions. While I checked photos of the Diamond Backs livery I found it also very attractive,so I decided to keep the decals and build it in this livery. The greenish fuselage colour had to be mixed. As these paints were Humbrol flat paints,I clear coated it with Future,as my usual Gunze varnish wasnt enough to get a smooth surface for the decals. The decals are Brasil Decals,they offer a great variety of liveries and the quality so far was quite good. But here the decals,esp. the red/gold stripes didnt want to stick on the model and most of the elements tended to silver after dry. Lots of careful trimming away the clear film took care of the silvering,not perfect but a lot better than without. Some elements overlay,so I clear coated them between each step to ensure that they will stay on the model. Some trimming was necessary as the decals are actually meant for the Minicraft kit. The windows are from Authentic Airliners and details are from the kit and a 757 detail set. Its in my opinion not quite up to my usual standard due to the problematic decals but it looks good in the showcase. Cheers Alex

Since Zvezda released their superb Boeing 757 kit,Minicrafts effort sank even more in the favour of airliner modellers. As I had 2 of those in my stash,I thought if they cant be sold I might build them as well so I started work on both simultaneously. On both I chose to use the kits decals as they seemed nicely printed and I liked the respective liveries. The Eastern 757 was planned to build factory fresh as I found some pictures on the internet showing the 757 highly polished. First thing I did on the kit was correcting somehow the tail fin. It should be straight at the top and not raising from front to end. I sawed off a piece of it to get it levelled. The interlocking mechanism of the wings were cut off as well,it makes the alignment much easier. The most work was spent on the engines; As they come,they look terrible and if built and glued to the wings oob,the face upwards like on the 737MAX ,but more steep. First thing I did was sanding out the inlets on both halves,then inserting a piece of plasic tube to create a new seamless inlet. The nacelle also has a enhightened top were the engine mounts will be glued on to. Those were sanded off and that area flattened,so that the engine mounts will sit flush on the nacelles. Then the rear of the mounts were pressed down to sit on the hot section,glued on with CA glue. The mounts were cut down a bit to have a pointy end and straightened out.So if the engines are glued on the wing they will sit straight. The engine inlet and outlet rings were recreated by using evergreen 0.5mm plastic sheet,glued to the front,resp. end of the engines. Once hardened for about 2 days,the plastic sheet can be drilled open and then sanded to shape. This way no seam will be seen at the end. A lot of work but it improves the appearance of the engines tremendously,if you dont want to spend money on replacement parts. Some slight correction work was also done on the nose section to get it more 757 like. Here some putty and sanding did the job. The rest of the build is more or less by the book. For the metallic finish,I used Gunze chrome with some aluminium areas,with a gloss black base. The grey for the wings and tailplanes is Gunze grey 315 and the coroguard my own mix of Tamyia metallic grey and light grey. The windows are from Authentic Airliners and some metallic decal stripes were added to the fuselage to give a bit more detail to the metallic finish. Sealed with a thin layer of Gunze Premium gloss on the fuselage and semi-gloss on the wings. Cheers Alex With the AA 757,which can be seen in the other RFI...

As mentioned in the RFI for my Eastern Airlines 757,I worked on both kits simultaneously. The mods I did are explained in the Eastern 757 thread,for the AA version I added the winglets,which come from a Eastern Express kit. They needed a fair amount of work to fit on the Minicraft wings...I always assumed the EE kits are simply copies of the Mincraft 757,but it seems not entirely. For the AA 757 I chose a more weathered look as pictures I found showed a quite worn and tired looking 757. The metallic look was created with Tamyia aluminium with a thin overspray Tamyia Mica silver from a spray can. Some silver decal stripes were added for more detail.The decals are from the kitwith the exception of the cockpit window being from Authentic Airliners. The cabin windows were printed on the stripes,so I could not use AA cabin windows. The coroguard panes are from a Flying Colors detail set,that I found in my spares box as well as some other details. The "AA.COM" logos on the winglets come from a Hasegawa 737-800 kit.They are a bit smaller than they should be but it was all I had in my stash.Most important that the logos are there at all... 😉 I sealed the fuselage with a light coat of Tamyia semi-gloss to tone down the metal and Tamyia matte varnish for the wings and engines. Weathering was done by using Humbrol graphite powder. Cheers Alex

Hi All and seasons greetings. Here is my latest completed model: Zvezda kit with 26Decals and Druz144 resin early RB211 engines. Merry Christmas 🎅