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Showing results for tags '26decals Transglobe'.
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Hi all, Here is another Britannia that I made a few months ago. It has languished on the 99% finished shelf just requiring the addition of antennae, nav lights and a one or two other things not covered by that lot. Transglobe can trace its origins back to the registration of a company called Air Links in 1958 who used a Dakota purchased from Aer Lingus. Over the next few years, Air Links flew a series of inclusive tour flights with the Dakotas and later Hermes aircraft (which commenced operations with Air Links in 1962) all over Europe, sometimes leasing out their aircraft to other operators as required. With the introduction of the three Hermes, the Dakotas left the fleet. However, with the increasing popularity of the IT flights, Air Links began searching for a Hermes replacement and initially thought they had found it when the they started negotiations with BOAC to buy their 100 series Britannias then parked up at Cambridge. But BOAC wanted too much money and Air Links walked away. Aware of the pressing need to replace or supplement the Hermes fleet, Air Links bought some C-4 Argonaut aircraft (there's a beautiful colour picture of G-ALHW resting at Gatwick in June 1965 on page 52 of Adrian Balchs' fantastic book Vintage Glory - this is probably the one book I want to be buried with - I love it) and together the fleet roared all over Europe during the 1965 season carrying passengers to such destinations as Brindisi, Zurich, Barcelona, Palma with some long range charters to the Middle and Far East for MoD trooping flights. May 1965 marked the introduction of the Britannia to Air Links fleet and shortly afterwards changed its name to Transglobe (August 1965). From then on, the Argonaut fleet were slowly withdrawn as more Britannias entered service, with two of the type ready for the start of 1966 operations followed by another in May. Expansion plans by the company saw them purchasing six CL-44 and applications for trans Atlantic passenger routes. Finally being granted permission to operate the CL-44 and given the licences they sought, Transglobe started passenger trans Atlantic charter flights in mid 1968. However, competitors were flying these routes with jets and so a couple of the CL-44 were leased to Trans Mediterranean Airways as passengers preferred the speed and newness of the jets. Suddenly in November 1968 operations ceased as the major shareholding companies sought to wind up the company that had been having financial difficulties for a number of years. As detailed in my IAS Britannia thread, this is the lovely model put out by Roden. This was the first one I built just after its release. I hadn't intended to build it, merely dry assemble it but things went so well that glue was used and by the end of the day the model was more or less built. Painting took the route of Revell matt black enamel then Tamiya XF-2 white followed by a couple of Kleer coats. The underside natural metal was AK Interactive xtreme matt aluminium. This over the matt black didn't work, so next time I'll use a gloss black. Decals came from 26decals and worked very nicely. However, I chose to leave the windows unfilled and noticed that the decal cheatline window spaces didn't fully line up with the kit. Not sure if I stretched the cheatlines a bit applying them, but Revell Aqua Lufthanse blue (I think) matched almost perfectly and was used to touch up. It's been sat on my 99% finished shelf which, sadly, means it'll probably never been fully completed. Once a model ends up there that's it. All i need do is add some antennae, paint a couple of nav lights and that will be it fully finished. Don't study the nose area too closely, the anti-glare panel is a bit rough. On with the pictures Thanks for looking, Jeff