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Well not really! It’s actually Eastern Airlines 5th TriStar that was used for the 1972 summer world tour by the Lockheed Aircraft Company of California. The aircraft came to the U.K. to be demonstrated to the two British customers for the TriStar- Courtline Aviation, and BEA. Arriving at Luton airport the headquarters of Courtline, 305 was adorned with Court titles and logos in preparation for promo flights around various U.K. airports, ending with a flight to Palma, on the island of Mallorca-a typical destination for the airline. The next stop for 305 would be a short hop down to London Heathrow, where BEA titles and tail markings were hastily applied in preparation for further publicity flights and a residency at the ‘Farnborough 72’ trade show. Onto the model, this is the venerable but still very accurate Hasegawa example first rolled around 1980! Sadly these models are becoming rarer all the time and commanding extortionate prices on auction sites. The only mods I made were to add the early type thrust reverser jacks to the RB-211’s made out of plastic Rod, and the extendable tail skid (courtesy of a pin!) Paints used were Halfords appliance white, Xtracolour light aircraft grey, and Humbrol chrome silver from a rattle can. The only problem I encountered with the build was with the Classic Airlines decals. Although beautifully printed they did not seem to match the Hasegawa model, and required some trimming and touching up. One place where this is really noticeable is the Courtline titles on the aircrafts belly which do not represent how they appeared on the actual aircraft-and after referencing and re-referencing numerous photos of 305, it is not my painting skills at fault(!) Overall though I’m pleased with the finished result in this unusual hybrid livery. Any comments or feedback is much appreciated-Thanks for looking.

Hi, new member here. The Story (feel free to skip) I am getting back into modelling after a brief suspension of, oh, about 41 years. I'm pretty sure the last model I built was in 1977 - I can't remember doing any in 1978 - that would have been an 1/72nd A6E Intruder... Back then I was in my teens, and a prolific if not exactly pro standard modeller. I'd model anything and everything, mixing all eras, scales, nearly always OOB, and they'd all end up festooning my bedroom ceiling gathering dust. After leaving home my parents reclaimed my room and unceremoniously dumped the lot; I don't think any survive. I started the hobby back in 1973, inspired by the jets I saw streaming out over our newly moved-to house in Hemel Hempstead. These were the Comets, Boeing 720s, 737s, Britannias, BAC 1-11s, and the best of the lot - the Court Line L-1011 TriStar that was brand new to Court and the UK that year. These colourful jets really made an impression on me, with that characteristic RB211 growl still at under 2000ft as they took off out of Luton over our house and school. Me and a friend would cycle up to Luton and gawp at the jets taxiing past the chainlink fence that marked the 'spectator area' in those days. I loved the Court liveries, they seemed so exciting and modern back then, and the TriStars were especially awesome. My planespotting friend and I vowed to become pilots. He did, I didn't - he now flies for EasyJet from Luton. I just write software. Anyway those planes inspired me in other ways, and one of the very first models I built was the Airfix TriStar. Of course it had to be in Court markings, not whatever the kit came with back in those days (maybe Air Canada?). I had no idea. There were no aftermarket decals available, and even if there were I wouldn't have known about them. I hand-painted the lot (with brushes) using approximations to the colours from the Humbrol range. The result was over garish, with horrible hand-painted cheat lines (not even masked). Gloss paint onto bare plastic, dust and fingerprints everywhere, seams unfilled. Yup, the typical rushed effort of a 11-year-old with no skills or patience. Still, I was happy enough with it. I did improve over the years, and the Intruder I built as my last effort to date was done pretty well I think (I owned the extremely crappy Humbrol hobby airbrush by then, powered by canned air). In thinking of restarting the hobby, I decided to see what was around on this internet resource thingy we have today, and discovered there are now aftermarket decals for the Court Line liveries. I also discovered this site, thanks to the inspirational efforts of others who have also 'done' the Court Tristars. In the intervening years I've forgotten a lot of the skills I'd gradually acquired, for what they were ever worth. But also, there are lots of new products and support for the hobby that I wasn't aware of back then. And of course there are a million YouTube videos to help learn how others do it - back in the day I rarely met other modellers, and I was usually ahead of where they were at (which nevertheless isn't saying much). The Model OK, so I have my subject. Initially, my first thought was simply to retread my steps and do the Airfix L-1011. I ordered one, but in the meantime thanks to this site and others I discovered that the Airfix version is not considered very accurate, and so I was advised (thanks Phil and Skodadriver) that the Eastern Express kit might be a better starting point. Once it arrived I compared the two and I can see that the Airfix one does have numerous shortcomings, so it was sound advice. The Eastern moulding also has excellent fine surface detail, though the overall quality of the parts fit and engineering is crude compared to Airfix. Still, I'll manage. I want to bring myself up to speed with the more realistic modelling that is in vogue these days (may have been back then, but I tended to build to a relatively pristine, unweathered finish), use a proper airbrush, photo-etch add-ons, extra detailing and scratching where needed to build something a bit more interesting. But also, since I'm so rusty, an airliner is a relatively simple build that shouldn't end up going unfinished due to overextending myself. But having said that, I decided to build it as if on short finals, with all the flaps hanging out, as that was often how I saw the plane in real life (or else shortly after take off). There's enough work in cutting out the flaps and building up additional details in the flaps mechanisms and undercarriage to make this a pretty good challenge. I'll also be using the Authentic Airliners decals for the windows, 26 Decals for the livery, and the Metallic Details PE kit. So I've made a start by tackling the most difficult bit (I think) first - the flaps. I carefully cut the flaps from the kit wings and used them with added styrene to build up the deployed flap shape. I then added the track fairings to the ends and shaped them. Using piano wire I made up the tracks/mountings. These will be hidden with some further styrene work and an added second upper flap (still to make), and some detailing on the exposed wing internals. At this stage I'm in two minds about the leading edges. I would like to set them deployed, but I'm not sure how to do it. Cutting out the leading edges of the wings would leave them with no material to join the upper and lower halves very well, so I'd prefer to simply add something over the top of the existing parts. Or I may end up deciding it's not worth the trouble. If anyone's actually interested in this build, I'm very keen to hear all possible advice and criticism - I want to do the best I can, but after so long there are probably good ways to do things that an experienced modeller can point out that I wouldn't be aware of. So please don't hold back if you see me doing something stupid, or think there's a better way to accomplish something. I'm hoping the build will take 6-8 weeks, work and other things permitting, but knowing me it'll probably overrun the estimate.

Just to put this in the proper place in addition to my post in the Classic Airliners sub-forum, I first saw this appear on the Airlinercafe site today. After following the linked picture it seems that Eastern Express have announced a new 1/144 scale Tristar 500 to be released sometime this year. Posted on the Pas-Decals forum in a thread on the Airfix kit: http://www.pas-decals.ru/forum/11--/5913-airfix-lockheed-l-1011-tristar-air-lanca#8845 Hopefully it'll be a decent kit, but given their track record I'd like to see the actual plastic before getting hopes up too high. Jonathan. P.S. Can any of our Russian friends shed any light on the A310 shown on the Pas Decals home page? Could it be we're finally going to be getting a new A310 kit.

Revell L-1011 Tristar G-BAAA Some time ago I purchased the Revell L-1011 with the intention of doing the wacky Court Line yellow livery. I quickly put this together with no thought of the inaccuracies of the revell kit. I'm aware that there are other options including eastern express and the wonderful authentic airliners kit but I'd really like to have a go at putting this right (if possible!) The only thing that i attempted to correct was the reshaping of the exhaust section using excess plastic and reshaped.... this is the view without the engine exhaust on, i also noted that this has the correct number of flap track fairings??? - i think the airfix kit was incorrect? I am also unsure whether the engines will sit too low....... should these parts be sanded away on the wing??? Oops!..... I left the plastic wall inside the engine. How on earth am i going to get rid of this without ripping apart the whole model?? maybe dissect the tail? this is going to get messy i also didnt plan accurately where the transfers would end up so near the nose i have a disaster there. also the radome is too big (and shiny..should be a matt black) the wings should be WHITE... not grey. also the doors are like trenches, looks like i filled the cargo door trenches but left the passenger doors - for some reason no engraving for the rear passenger door? looks like a fake door compared to the others and FINALLY... the decals, whilst good in appearance like most giant decal sections they crack and can come apart. applying this whole orange strip was a disaster, luckily the decals came with a square of excess decal so i could patch it up - but lets be honest, it looks crap. also just below the reg and the 2nd rear door the decals crumpled on a curved section of fuselage I've already started scraping of the paint. so far this is what i think has to be considered *nose reshaping?? too much like DC10? *straightening the tail profile - too curved? *etched wing areas - also like trenches. They seem very simplistic and I doubt they are correct?? This is what i know I have to do *get rid of the plastic wall in the no2 engine *fill trench passenger doors *insert a hole for the aircraft stand as I'd glued it straight on the fuselage (very unstable) *upper wing surfaces to be painted white *inner orange area to be painted rather than use giant decal (will use a sticky template of decal for accuracy) I'd also like to know if braz do any RR resin engines? as the ones i have aren't the best (like lumps of plastic) As well as ordering new decals from 26, I have ordered 3d cockpit and window decals from authentic airliners on recommendation - thanks!