1/200 Air Do 767

[Jessica]

Another review build commences. Hasegawa's venerable 767-300 is still an impressive model.

The first thing to do with the 767 is to fill in those ugly windows. Once again I used my Milliput snake trick. The left fuselage half is filled while the right side waits

Push the putty through the windows so it sticks out and completely fills each aperture

Trim each window flush with the fuselage and then run a dampened fingertip down the window line to smooth everything off. This will help to reduce the amount of sanding which will be necessary, an important task for a kit which has raised panel lines. Once the windows have been filled, fuselage assembly goes quickly

As do the wings. Test fitting reveals that the fit is a trifle too sloppy to allow for the wings and fuselage to be painted separately.

My model will sit overnight to allow the putty and glue to cure.

[Jessica]

Now I turn to the engines. My task is to hide the seams and make the hollow inside of the engines resemble an actual intake duct. Here's what the kit gives you

I'm using sheet plastic to create an intake duct. First glue the engine together, and slide in a rolled sheet of paper

Mark where the paper overlaps. This will become the pattern for the plastic duct.

Cut some thin sheet plastic to size and roll it around a knife handle to induce it to curl. Tape it in place

And dip it into freshly boiled water to set the curl

Glue small tabs cut from the sheet to the bottom of the curl. These will help to hold it in a tube because the gluing surface of the edges is very small. The tabs will be hidden inside the engine cowling

Roll the plastic into a tube and glue securely

In the event, the tubes shown in these pictures were just a sliver undersized so I had to repeat the process. This time I made them wider so they'd stick out the front of the cowling. The excess will be trimmed off and sanded flush once the glue has dried

And now the glue has dried, the excess plastic has been trimmed, sanded and tidied up. Now in place of the empty shell, my engines have intake ducts.

[MikeW]

That gives "some modelling skills required" a whole new definition.

Very clever idea there.

Cheers,

Mike