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Boeing B777-300 (I mean -400) Conversion


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I received a nice pack of decals from Rich W on Friday so I decided to bring forward my attempt at a B777-300 conversion from the Minicraft kit. I started this yesterday.

I am using a fresh kit as well as one of my older builds to make the stretch.

I started by chopping up both kits, the built up kit was cut up to make the extended forward and rear fuselage sections while the new kit was cut up to use the centre fuselage and wings.

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So the 777-3 is obviously longer, what to do with the discards? Perhaps a 777SP :D

I used some pieces from my A330-200 conversion to reinforce the joins, could this be a first in Airbus-Boeing co-operation (or is it Revell - Minicraft???)

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I am also using the Contrails GE-90 engines and raked wingtips for the build. The engines are average, not up to Braz standard. I have cleaned one up and I needed to sand the intake lip flat and reshape the lip as it was not straight. The rear of the nacelle also needed squaring up

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I assemble the right wing and then cut off the tip to add the rake tip. It was slightly over sized in chord so I aligned it to the trailing edge when gluing and then cleaned up the leading edge to match the Minicraft wing.

I also tried to thin the trailing edge of the wing, this is an issue with the Minicraft kit. I took material form the inside of the wing and glued the halves together. I found this was not enough and proceeded thin it down from the outside from both top and bottom parts. Some rescribing of moving surfaces will be required later on.

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Edited by Romeo Alpha Yankee
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Next was to bring the fuselage sections together. My cuts did not end up being perfectly square so some adjusting was made. That is the beauty of using the internal reinforcing sections. You can adjust the square of the sections being added as the glue sets. I just flooded the areas with Tamiya thin glue and adjusted until the pieces were as aligned as I could get them in both horizontal and vertical plains.

 

I added the rear section first and got it sorted before adding nose weight to the forward section a securing it.

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After the second application of filler to both joins this is how it looks.

 

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Next job is to reshape the flap track fairings which is a pretty quick job, just removing some material to give them a more rounded cross section rather than the square shape they have at the moment.

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This is mad, would love to see the out come of this Ray! Virgin Australia new livery by any chance

Yep, that's right

Got the flap jack fairings sorted now, just getting onto the raked tip. Could be priming tomorrow if all goes well.

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Looking great so far...

Just a word of caution with the Contrails engines - they set very low when added to the wing and I had to do a bit of surgery to the pylon to get enough ground clearance.

Will watch the rest of this with interest!

Tom

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Thanks for the heads up Tom,

I assembled one and put it next to a Minicraft PW engine on the Built up kit I cut up. I noticed the size difference.

I also noticed the pylon shape where it attaches to the top of the engine is not right so I have started to reshape it.

Looks like before I attach them to the wing I will have to get the gear legs on and and check clearance. These engines are a bit of a disappointment but it better than trying to make new ones from scratch.

To report a little more progress, I have reshaped the flap track fairings and fitted the other raked wingtip. Cleaning up and fitting the engines is the next on the list. I also need to scratch build a tail bumper that I happend to notice in some pictures I took of one of these beasts at an air show back in 2009.

A test fit of the wings showed my how big this will be! I will be dragging out my 747-8f again soon as the airliner bug has bitten again.

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Nice work Ray! Good use for the A330 parts too ;)

I saw one of these at Christchurch airport the other day - they are a nice looking aircraft I must admit.

I like the scheme of the aircraft you cut up - never seen that before. What scheme it this one going to be?

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Thanks everyone, currently still sorting out some misbehaving seams. The wings are done and one engine is being attended to. Some pictures to follow soon.

On 8/19/2013 at 7:25 PM, Madhatter said:
 
 

Nice work Ray! Good use for the A330 parts too ;)

I saw one of these at Christchurch airport the other day - they are a nice looking aircraft I must admit.

I like the scheme of the aircraft you cut up - never seen that before. What scheme it this one going to be?

Si,

The donor model was a What if RAAF jet I did many years ago, my first Minicraft 777 in fact.

49706504358_91b6bf315c_b.jpg

 

I think the 'SP' will be an updated version of a RAAF VIP jet again. Much brighter colours. I like the look of the new Canadian Air Force A310 in VIP scheme, maybe it will be something like that.

Government%20of%20Canada%20A310-300%2015

This current build will be in Virgin Australia colours

 

I see Rich has just finished up is Virgin Australia F-50 and A320 sheets as well. Lucky I don't have ether of those kits in the stash :D (yet!)

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Here is the wing and flap track fairings before reshaping and compared to the fairings I reshaped on my first Minicraft 777 build. You can see how they are quite squarish in cross section

B777-3_11_zps8ba71a73.jpg

Tools of the trade :D

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The fuselage is filled and sanded and I am happy with it, time for some rescribing of lost details and to figure out where the baggage doors and cabin doors are supposed to be.

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The first engine in work, I had to flatten the intake and add some material to the top of the pylon above the nacelle, still a work in progress

B777-3_15_zps0279b57d.jpg

And finally the 'SP' starts to go together

B777-3_13_zps32f045eb.jpg

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The SP version looks interesting. Will you shorten the wings at all as they do look rather large for the size of the plane?

On a separate and slightly obscure note - I'm glad to see someone who posts pictures of their used cutting mat! On numerous threads I see pictures of cutting mats that look like they've never seen the sharp side of a blade or have ever had a piece of masking tape super glued to the surface let a lone a single drop of paint. I swear those builders have one mat that never gets used for anything other than photographs. :D

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That's what cutting mats are for, making a mess! :D

As for the wings I was thinking about adding a second set of engines to give it more get up and go!

Maybe cut them back and add some home made raked tips. I will see how I feel when the time comes.

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  • 3 weeks later...

With the modelling mojo back I have been working on a few projects. The 777 has progressed, actually the SP has had more of my attention.

I have fitted the wings to the -300 and hit it with some white. Still need to finish up some scribing and attend to the engines

The SP has had a few cosmetic changes.

Raked wing tips added:

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Fin extended:

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Horizontal stabs extended:

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Comparing the two builds...

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I have put the cockpit piece for the SP in a 'safe' place and can't find it now. So I may have to fill the void with card and build up a new cockpit area. So for now the SP will be on hold and I will progress the -300.

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Hi Ray

Great to see you back at this - I was wondering when the next update would be! :D

"I have put the cockpit piece for the SP in a 'safe' place and can't find it now." - LOL - I do that ALL the time, and the worst thing about it is once you've done your fix, you'll find the original part again

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

This one has been on the shelf of doom for some time after a decalling disaster.

 

I had to strip and repaint and am now back on this one.

 

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I had it to this point until I realised that the windows/doors were in the wrong place and had to remove it all.

 

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The SP is no more as I stuffed it up and binned it.

 

 

Edited by Romeo Alpha Yankee
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Fast forward to 2020, I was not happy with the engines and this one stood on the shelf of doom for some time,

 

I pulled it down a couple of weeks ago and decoded to re- engine it with GE CF-6s from a Revell B747 kit I had spare. I also resprayed the fuselage after a couple of sanding sessions

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Then the wings were painted and the metallic bit. Some of the the metallics reacted with the underlying paint and had to be rubbed back and re-applied. Second application was not perfect but I will live with it.

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Masking removed and ready for decalling, but what scheme?

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Well after some consideration I hunted through my decal stash and eventually found something that would fit. The scheme is for Australian Airlines which was a domestic carrier (Previously known as Trans Australian Airlines). I used 2 Hawkeye Australian Airlines A300 sheets for the tail markings and the green and gold bands, the blue on the lower fuselage and top of the tail were painted.

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That is the left side done, the right side will hopefully be finished in the next few days.

 

I still have the replacement Virgin Australia decals to go on a Revell 777-300

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