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Following the BEA Comet, the next arrival will be what I consider the most iconic classic airliner of all time, the Pan Am Boeing 707. It exudes cool, 60's Americana; I can imagine the glamorous stewardesses and a mix of 'Madmen'-style execs on their way to a business meeting and suburban all-American families off on holiday to Yellowstone. Anyway, this is the look I'm aiming for ... And the kit I'll be using, a bargain from Kingkit: I'll need to choose a Pan Am one that had those ribbed jetpipes. Am I correct to think that would be a 707-331? I'll be using these lovely decals, courtesy of the fantastic generosity of @stringbag! Plenty of serials to choose from. I won't need to worry about masking all those cabin windows either!

Inspired and challenged by Moa's recent superb National Parks Airways mod of the venerable Williams Brothers 1/72 Boeing 247...I decided to break out my own kit for a slightly different modification. The Williams Bros. kit depicts the later-model -D version of the 247 with full-enclosure NACA cowlings and variable-pitch props. I elected to backdate my project to the original 247 configuration with smaller-diameter engine nacelles and wing fairings, and speed rings instead of full cowlings for the P&W R-1340 Wasp engines. I had in mind to depict a particular aircraft of that early production series, so I've also worked up my own set of markings to home-print a set of the decals I'll need. Although the fuselage will eventually be 'buttoned up' with almost nothing visible, I still had fun with some interior detailing. The kit supplies a basic cockpit with seats, control yokes, console and instrument panel decal; I added a few throttle levers from bits of pie-plate aluminum with white glue knobs. Likewise, the kit supplies very nice passenger seats and a detailed floor-pan for the passenger cabin---correctly depicting the exposed wing carry-through trusses, with adjacent floor cabin heaters that act as 'steps' over the trusses. I used N-scale 'siding' sheet to make tread-plates for those steps---mainly to cover some difficult-to-fill mold-release sinkholes on the top surfaces---and added prominent structural frames (visible in photographs) to the bare cabin walls. Further detail came in the form of luggage nets, curtains and fittings to the cabin walls, and seat belts to the passenger seats. I also found correct-to-period magazines and newspapers online to 'shrink down' and scatter throughout the cabin...simply because I could. My tiny passengers can enjoy the 'latest' issues of the Saturday Evening Post...Hearst's International Cosmopolitan Magazine...read 'The Truth About Katharine Hepburn's Marriage' in Modern Screen...or sample the premiere issue of Esquire, 'The Quarterly for Men' with new fiction from the likes of John Dos Passos, Erskine Caldwell and Dashiell Hammett. (Silly, I know...but it's fun.) Here's the completed interior...and a shot from 'outside' of the curtains, which will pretty much be all that can be seen: That's the first few days of work. Any comments, questions of inspired ravings welcome. Next up: wing mods.