Converting a Heller KC-135 into a 720

[ANDYMO1962]

So, I decided to take advantage of a 4 week lay-up after a foot operation to tackle a project lurking in my loft: What to do with a Heller 1/72 KC-135, some spare Western Airlines 707 decals and a bunch of Cotton Buds? Sorry I'm new to this so only have pictures of the finished kit rather than a stage by stage break down.

So- a quick summary of the process: Inserted some strips of plastic card in between the fuselage halves at the top to widen it a bit. (I know this isn't quite the same as using a whole 707 kit but the idea was to use up what I had without having to buy a whole new kit)

Next I extended the forward fuselage by just under 1cm to get the right length: I used the break in the fuselage forward of the wing in the lower fuselage and cut the upper fuselage just ahead of the overwing exit and built new fuselage over sub structure using plastic card.

The extension to the forward wing root matches this distance so the extension nicely hides the join between the upper and lower fuselage sections here. I built up the forward wing using plastic card, filled & sanded into shape and then wrapped around with very thin plastic to create a new wing skin. Only when I added the window decals at the end did I realise that the whole wing should have been 1 frame further back, but by then it was too late to fix without re-doing the whole project.

The rest of the flying surfaces from the KC-135 appear to be the same as the early 707s, and the Heller kit has lots of crisp detail which came out nicely under metal foil (my choice for polished aluminium finishes). The only other change was the tailplane which I trimmed so that the elevators reached the full span of the tailplane. I built the flight deck as it was in the kit; and although all the detail behind the flight deck bulkhead is probably completely different to the 707 you can't see any of it so there's no harm done.

The undercarriage is nicely detailed, and there's a finely detailed main gear door which folds neatly into three sections with small hooks to attach to the wing, but good luck squeezing it into place between the main gear and the edge of the undercarriage bay: I ended up just gluing it to the bottom of the wing. The nose gear leg door folds back behind the nose leg and, in this respect, the early 707s were the same as the KC-135. I'm pretty sure the KC-135's J57s were the same basic engine as the 720's JT3's apart from the exhaust silencers on the airliner version: Here's where the cotton buds came in: I used the shafts trimmed to about 1cm length in groups of 8 around the exhaust to mimic the noise suppressors.

The colour scheme was a happy coincidence: I had the Liveries Unlimited Western Airlines (Indian Head scheme) decals available and Western operated a few pure jet 720s before they received all their 720Bs. It was easy enough to trim the decals to fit and even to adapt the 707-320 regs into N720W, which seemed the most appropriate one. I've just realise that I've left out two things: I cut out & painted a couple of windscreen wipers: excuse me while I go and stick them in place.

[Jessica]

This ought to be moved to "Ready for Inspection" (these discussion threads aren't the place for completed model photos). But apart from that, very nicely done. I'd really love to see a 1/72 early 707 kit so we don't have to do such butchery.

[ANDYMO1962]

Thanks Jessica- for the tip: can I move it to "Ready for inspection" myself or is that an admin task?

[stringbag]

Lovely job there Andy.

Regarding the relocation of your thread; drop a PM to one of the mods and ask if they can help out. I'm sure it won't be a problem given that it's only your second post.

Chris.

[Prop Duster]

Well done good to see an adaption such as this.

Have wondered if it could be done, now you show how well it can be

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice work Andy, impressive job to rework the 135. I have a spare A model, I wonder if I should have a go?