Converting an A340-300 to an A330-300

[Madhatter]

Hi everyone

Well, I'm taking a break from my Galactica because quite frankly, I'm sick of looking at it at the moment and I have lost my enthusiasm for it (temporarily),so I am going to do a "fun" build. In this case, I am going to try and make a Qantas A330 out of Revell's A340-300. I have obtained a large amount of references and tips for the conversion, so it should go fine.

However, I may also live to regret doing this because me and airliners have never gelled that well (this will be my second ever civil airliner - the last was Zveda's TU134 and it looks awful).

This is all OOB with exception to the two-six GE engines Ii bought for this conversion. I looked for ages on Evil bay and other places for the A330 but I never found one and those Ii did find were way to expensive for my liking. Initially, I was going to build the A340 into the Qantas Prototype, but then I found the engines and changed my mind - 2 hours AFTER I bought the A340 decals from Hawke-eye decals. Anyway, I'll be using the majority of the A340 Decals and Ed Russell is making me the correct rego numbers.

Anyway, I have made a decent (I think) start to it and have finished the landing gear, cockpit, interior is all blacked out (I was going to light it, but I can't be bothered now) and am about to mate the 2 fuselage halves together. It is here that I know I will have issues because every time I have made an aircraft where you get 2 halves like this, I can never get rid of the seams properly and end up making a flat spot on the top (or bottom). However, I have been trawling YouTube getting hints and tips on how to do it right, so hopefully this time, I can get it right. This is also where I could quite likely suffer some serious forum embarrassment if/when it goes wrong.

Anyway, here's where I am up to presently:

As soon as the finished articles have uploaded to photobucket, I will post them.

Thanks for looking in and if you have any suggestions through out this build, please feel free to throw them at me

Best regards

MH

[Madhatter]

And the almost finished lading gear (just need to touch up those tires a bit)

that's all for now

Thanks again for stopping in

MH

[Sent-off]

Great job so far! Can't wait to see the progress!

And great inspiration for me how to deal with the landing gear as well!

[HOUSTON]

MH,

AWESOME start.

You are doing so well...

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice start on the gear, I wish I could make mine look like that!

What do you use to attach the wire and what type of wire do you use?

[Madhatter]

thanks for the kind words guys!

Trojan - the wires are just standard electrical wires. I have a bag full of wire offcuts and it's very handy to have. You could use an old lamp cord and strip it back to expose the copper inside. They are attached with super glue applied to a small area witha toothpick - really simple and easy stuff. The fiddliest part is bending tiny cuts and tring to place them straight.

I found by lying 3 wires side-by-side on the table and holding them in place with masking tape, I could position the small holding strips just right, like this:

Thanks for your interest guys

MH

[feifeitim]

My favourite airliner! I'm going to enjoy this! To be honest though, I much prefer the Trents on the A330 - it just finishes the aircraft off perfectly! However, an A330-300 build has got to be worth a watch! Love the start on the main undercarriage - looks great!

Edited May 7, 2013 by feifeitim

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Thanks MH, I will have a crack on my next build. I should get my KC-30 finished one day....

[Madhatter]

thanks guys

I'm trying not to pull out what hair I have left with dry fitting the 2 halves together. There are BIG gaps around the belly where the gear bays are. Is this common to this Revell Kit?

Anyone have this issue or is it just my mistake skills?

And I thought this was supposed to be a 'fun' build.... lol

[cuprar]

The kit should just fall together! But loving the UC

[Madhatter]

hmmm - must be just me then. If you say it should just fall together then I would believe that - especially seeing as you are the airliner king.

Well, will just have to persevere and fix it

[Val]

Best undercarriages ever! Glued to this thread!

[Madhatter]

thanks Val

OK, so I finally have the 2 halves together and despite my best efforts during dry fitting to eliminate the gaps, it was not meant to be. This issue encompasses a lot of the reasons why I don't do airliners.

So, some added nose weight - finally found a use for the old out dated 2c coins

I don't understand why Revell added details to the rear bays (where the clamp is) when it is covered by the doors - you just won't see it:

Over all - not really exciting is it?

Mind the gap!!

The trenches were filled with superglue and then baking powder was lightly shaken over the top so it dried instantly. Despite doing this, I'm going to leave it all now for a couple of days to set properly, then out with the sand paper. It's here that will make or break this kit for me. I am hoping like crazy to avoid the dreaded flat-top. This is also where I hope my investment in a flexi-file will pay off!

Tomorrow, it's off to my LHS to hopefully find Xtracolor paints - namely Airbus Gray.

Actually, while I'm on the subject of paint - anyone know what the most accurate color is for the coroguard?

Thanks for stopping by

MH

[Jessica]

Since each batch of real corogard is mixed at the time of application there can't be a "most accurate" match as such. A darkish metallic grey is most often used. Some people swear by Testors Steel in the little square glass bottle. As long as it looks like corogard, whatever you use cannot be wrong.

[pinky coffeeboat]

Coming along nicely.

Airliners are not particularly inspiring to some people so some detail is always welcome! but you could ask why bother including any fighter cockpit detail since most of it won't be seen once complete. But imagine the uproar if Tamigawa didn't add any detail to their next fighter release (probably another dull Mustang...)

The first Revell A340 kit I built (nearly 20 years ago!!!) I remember fitted reasonably well apart from the engines, but this won't matter to your build.

What are the twosix resin engines like? I'm sure I had some Braz Trents around somewhere but can't find them so may buy some GE or P&W instead.

Jeff

Edited May 9, 2013 by pinky coffeeboat

[XV571]

Great start MH; the Landing Gear is very well done, I'll be looking forward to seeing this build coming together. I think your problems with the fuselage are related to the moulds getting tired. The last two A340s I bought had very similar issues to yours, plus a ton of flash:

This was one of the vertical stabilisers:

As to the Airbus Grey, if you can't find it you can use X301 Boeing BAC707 grey it's the exact same shade! An alternative is Canadian Voodoo Grey FS16515. As Jessica says, corogard is aluminium pigment in a clear suspension so just about any variation in shade is possible. I used a combination of Alclad Steel and Airframe Aluminium on my, as yet unfinished, A300-600 conversion. BTW if you haven't got the red, Qantas red is available as X361 in the Xtracolor range.

HTH

Jonathan

[Madhatter]

You have the exact same issues with yours that I did, flash and all. I bought tamiya's Italian Red in a rattle can which I will decant at the appropriate time, but still need to find the xtracolor paint.
I thought about doing some preshading in black acrylic then spraying the pure white over the top (also rattle can) but hopefully not completely hiding the black. If anything, it'll be an interesting experiment.

Edit: I wrote the original reply on my phone and ran out of time to write what I wanted to say.

I'm going to try the mix of Alclad that you suggested because it was pretty much what I also had in mind. I also thought about maybe Titanium mixed with Aluminium or even Gunmetal with Aluminium, but I think that maybe a bit too dark. I'm hoping Xtracolor is available here in Oz, I haven't ever looked for it before. Is there a Gunze paint that is a close match? I think you said it was Voodoo Gray, so maybe that question is a bit redundant.

I can't remember if it's OK to spray lacquer over acrylic or not. I know you can't spray lacquer over enamel, but I'm sure it's OK over acrylic. Am I wrong there? I ask because I want to know if I need to spray the light gray on the wings first before the coroguard or the other way around?

Thanks everyone

MH

Edited May 10, 2013 by Madhatter

[Madhatter]

What are the twosix resin engines like? I'm sure I had some Braz Trents around somewhere but can't find them so may buy some GE or P&W instead.

Jeff

I just realised I hadn't answered your question Jeff - my apologies. To be honest, I am a little disappointed in them, but this could be because of my very limited experience working with resin parts.

The plugs on these are THICK! Once I cut them off and sanded them down, I found they didn't align properly. But as I said, that's more likely than anything else to be my fault. I have spent a large amount of time filling and sanding these and have just shot some primer onto them to see how I'm tracking: and it told me I still have a lot of work to do

Here's where I am with them at present:

As you can see, there is plenty more work to do. Naturally, I will loose some of that nice raised detail and some panel lines in the process. The lines are fixable probably but not so much the raised detail.

I've started to sand down the fuselage and it's so far, so good (or at least OK). I'm hoping to have the sanding done by Sunday (barring any interruptions life throws at me - or the wife) and should have some more pics up soon.

Well, I'm going to hit the sack, but thanks again for your interest everyone.

MH

[pinky coffeeboat]

Ooh, thanks for your reply. I think I'll look harder for my Braz Trents (even though they're not that nice either...)

[Madhatter]

Hi everyone

Well, I have been working on this most nights but progress has slowed some-what because of the amount of sanding that's required. And there is still more needed - mostly around the wing roots.

It's now coated in primer - mostly to weed out the imperfections. Thanks to my skill level, there are a few

I puttied in the front 2 and rear 2 windows because that's what my subject has. Wish I had the foresight to glue in a couple of small strips to the back of the windows to help hold the putty in there, but they've come out alright. I mustn't have let the putty cure enough, because after I sanded it back flush, they seem to have sunken in a bit.

As she is so far:

I am seriously contemplating finding some of that Humbrol clear stuff to put in the windows. I can't remember the name of the product though.

I haven't done anything to the engines yet except put more putty in. I'll start sanding back those later on once I have done the paint work on the body.

Well, that's all for now, but thanks for stopping by and for your interest

MH

[pinky coffeeboat]

Progressing nicely.

I had the same problem with putty shrinkage as you had even though I left it until rock hard. I might try Jennings method of using a plastic rod to replace the windows (as and when I fill cabin windows - much prefer open cabin windows but that's a whole different topic...).

I use PVA (wood glue) which works fine if I can't find any Humbrol Clearfix or Microscale Krystal Klear.

Jeff

[Madhatter]

Clearfix - that's the name! Thank you for that. Hopefully I can find some here in Australia now

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

You could also use Testors Clear Cement Simon, I have found it is more readily available down here in Canberra

[Jessica]

I puttied in the front 2 and rear 2 windows because that's what my subject has. Wish I had the foresight to glue in a couple of small strips to the back of the windows to help hold the putty in there, but they've come out alright. I mustn't have let the putty cure enough, because after I sanded it back flush, they seem to have sunken in a bit.

Perhaps you can try putting on a couple of drops of superglue on the shrunken windows, hit it with accelerator and sand it flush immediately. It should sand smooth and never shrink while at the same time supporting the putty so it doesn't crack in the years to come.

[Madhatter]

I'll do that with the superglue thanks Jessica and I'll try to find that cleat cement as well. Thank you both for the very helpful tips!!