Jump to content

Bombardier CRJ-100 - 1:144 BPK. ** Finished **


Viking

Recommended Posts

Bombardier CRJ-100

1:144 BPK


boxtop.jpg


The Bombardier CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet) is a a highly successful small airliner which started life as a development of the Canadair Challenger, and has been developed and stretched from the -100 series to the -1000 series. Entering service in 1992 the 50 seat CRJ-100 was soon developed into the CRJ-200 with more efficient engines, and sold widely to many airlines around the world, with a total of 1,021 of both models being delivered. The stretched CRJ-700/900/1000 series is still in production, with over 600 having been delivered. CRJ's can be seen at virtually any major airport around the world, and are likely to be in service for many more years.

BPK of Ukraine have just released a 1:144 scale model of the aircraft, Reviewed here.
When Mike asked me to review the kit I almost snatched his hand off, as I have a liking for these small airliners in the 10 - 100 seat class. Usually I have to build them from vacforms or short run kits.

Start.jpg


The range of injection moulded kits is growing, so it is good to see another manufacturer present a new subject.

In the review I was very impressed with the kit and intrigued to see how the glazing would work, so it went straight from review bench to workbench.

As an airliner modeller, it is great to be able to say 'Work started with thh cockpit'. We hardly ever get to say that!
A floor, bulkhead, center console, and two seats are provided, along with decals to detail them. (If you build this model, note that the bulkhead sits on top of the cockpit floor).I painted the seats dark blue with light blue straps and white headrests, in the hope it will make them stand out when viewed through the windscreen.

CRJ-1.jpg


With decals on, and a penny to show how small the whole assembly is.

CRJ-8.jpg


Next the fuselage halves went together, showing the recess for the clear strip that will form the windows. Also dry fitted is the resin tailpane. I am not sure why it is in resin as it is also in plastic on the sprues, but it fits superbly.

CRJ-2.jpg


I wondered whether to paint the recess black, or cut it out. In the end I decided that it would be more interesting to cut it out. leaving a lip all around the inside to reatin the glazing strip. It was easy enough to drill a series of holes and roughly join them up with a blade, then neaten it all up. All 3 stages shown here;

CRJ-5.jpg


and the finished cut on the other side;

CRJ-6.jpg


And then with the glazing strips installed.

CRJ-7.jpg


When I cut the glazing strip to size I initially just pressed hard on the knife blade. Beware, I got stress fractures in the clear plastic. On the other side I made several cuts to trim it, which was the smart way to do it.

The plastic parts for the engines were assembled next. Note that part 8 (a lower cowl half) in mentioned twice in the instuctions. 8 & 9 should go together, and 10 & 11. Not 10 & 8. The fronts are resin inserts, which gives a nice seamless intake, as are the rear exhaust cones.

CRJ-3.jpg


On all my airliner kits I usually scrape the inside trailing edges of the wing halves to thin them a little more. It is not stictly necessary, but gives an even thinner trailing edge to the assembled wing. I did it here, it only needs a little scraping, a couple of minutes work on each mating surface is plenty.

CRJ-4.jpg


Finally, I attached the wing parts to the fuselage and glued the resin fin on. This is where we finish today;

CRJ-9.jpg


Thanks for looking,

John

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have the Revell Challenger that you could put it beside?

Jessica,

Unfortunately I don't have that kit. I'll see if any of my model building friends have one in their stash that I can borrow.

Cheers

john

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi John,

Great build so far, that's a lot of detail for such a tiny kit. I've been deliberating over what to do on the windows of the 1/72 737, and having seen what you're doing will follow suit. Good tip with the trailing edges too :)

Cheers, Neil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some more progress during the week.

Also Victorlas has solved the mystery of the resin tailfin. I hardly noticed and defect on the plastic one, so full marks for providing a replacement resin one!

Plastic keel has a defect, we will replace it with resin. I have build motors in a different order. first glued to the number 8 and 9, and then R2.

2c4546157637t.jpg

Thats good avicee on the sequence of building the engines, I should have done that. The reason I didn't was that I got absorbed in thinking about the painting sequence, and decided that I would leave the resin exhaust cones off, to make painting (Alclad) easier. They fit so well that they will easily go in afterwards. And in thinking about leaving said resin bits off, I forgot that I could have assembled the cowling halves around the resin intakes. Chump.

On with the build, I fixed the wings and resin tailfin on, and sanded the clear window strips to blend them in with the fuselage.

CRJ-10.jpg

It looks severe, but 2 minutes with some Micomesh polishing cloths brings them back to perfect. I left the nose off while doing this, so that I could clean any sanding dust off the inside. It gets evereywhere that stuff!

CRJ-11.jpg

The fit of the wing to the fuselage was superb. It's hard to tell where the joins are.

CRJ-12.jpg

I have now fitted the engines, winglets, flap track fairings (underneath), and nose.

I fixed a little bit of weight in the forward fuselage before putting the nose on. The instructions don't say that you need any, but I thought better to be safe. The fit of the nose was spot on. I had a moment of confusion with the nose gear 'floor'. It is marked on the instructions as part A5 but is actually D18. A minor point, and pretty clear when you are looking at the sprues.

Looking like an aeroplane now;

CRJ-13.jpg

CRJ-14.jpg

CRJ-15.jpg

I love this! Visble cockpit detail on an airliner model;

CRJ-16.jpg

CRJ-17.jpg

The fit of the clear nose part seems very good. I've done some gentle sanding around it, but it won't be until some primer is on that any joins might show. For that reason I'm going to run a little Milliput filler around it and smooth it off, whether it needs it or not.

CRJ-18.jpg

So far, so good. I'm really enjoying building this little model and can't wait to see how the cockpit looks through the glazing once the painting has been done.

Thanks for looking,

John

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update Sunday 24 August.

Cockpit joint to fuselage given a run of Milliput all round. I'm not sure if it needed it or not, but better safe than sorry, so on it went.
To keep it neat I ran some tape around.

CRJ-19.jpg

Applied Milliput;

CRJ-20.jpg

And smoothed it off. hardly any seems to have been needed, the join was very good.

CRJ-21.jpg

Next up was masking the windows. The best way seemed to be to apply the main strip, which has a profile of the front door to assist you lining it up...


CRJ-22.jpg

Then put each window into its 'hole'....


CRJ-23.jpg

And remove the main strip, leaving the window masks in place.

CRJ-24.jpg

The cockpit masks weren't qite deep enough to fill the windows, so I used a bit of Tamiya tape to get extra depth

CRJ-25.jpg

And then Halfords grey plastic primer from a rattle can. I used grey because it forms the cockpit interior colour.

CRJ-26.jpg


Then Halfords Appliance white from a rattle can. I put a thin coat on and afther 30 - 40 minutes carefully remove the masks. After this time the paint is firm enough to handle, but not set hard. If you remove masks when the paint is hard it tends to tear chunks of white with it. Also, there will be a slight lip where the white was up against the mask. After a day or so I will polish these down with micomesh polishing cloths, reapply the masks, and mist on a final coat of white.
A couple of gaps alond the bottom of the cabin window glazing strips have revealed themselves, so I'll white Milliput them and smooth them off with a wet finger before reapplying the masks.
Looks like a CRJ now!

CRJ-27.jpg


CRJ-28.jpg

Thanks for looking,

John

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Superb work as always John, and so quick!!! :shocked:

I love the detail in the cockpit - it really shines in a genre that is more used to decals for windscreens :clap2:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm liking the look of this !

Got me chomping at the bit to start work on their 737-200, but I've got a lot of derelict kits on the workbench that need to be cleared off first.

Watching with interest.

mike

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking very nice indeed. It seems to be going together nicely with little trouble. Have you decided on a colour scheme yet?

Jeff

Jeff,

It'll be the Delta scheme with the cheatline (the one on the boxtop).

I realised after doing the photos the other day that there is a full tailfin decal to go on each side. And what have I done? only stuck the tailplanes on.

I tweaked them off, withouit damaging anything, because there was no way the decals would be able to go on with them in the way.

I should get some more work done on it this weekend, I'll try to 'think ahead' for the rest of it!

Cheers

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the feedback & comments folks.
Mike - Get that 737 started, I'm very keen to see it being built!

Update 31 Aug 2014.

Got quite a bit done, started by masking off the white to spray the lower fuselage and wings in pale grey. I mixed my own from Tamiya Sky grey and white to match what I could see on Airliners.net. Notice the tailplanes are off now!

CRJ-29.jpg


Underside to show the curves at the front and rear;

CRJ-30.jpg


Then filled in;

CRJ-31.jpg


And with tape removed

CRJ-32.jpg


Then it was time for the bare metal areas. I've already done the engine intakes (Alclad Chrome), here it's the wing and tailfin leading edges;

CRJ-33.jpg


All done, engine hot sections in Alclad polished aluminium;and wheels painted up ready to fix on.

CRJ-34.jpg


I noticed on Airliners.net that this scheme has bare metal surrounds to the cockpit glazing, so I edged that with thin strips of Tamiya tape and replaced the cockpit masks;

CRJ-35.jpg


Sprayed with Alclad aluminium and masking removed.

CRJ-36.jpg


Then I could start decalling. I managed to split the cheatline when moving it around. It matched up ok, but on the other side I brushed some Microscale liquid decal film over the cheatline before cutting it off the sheet. No problems arose, so it is probably worth doing.

CRJ-37.jpg


Looking nice now, I'm leaving it alone until tomorrow now, seem like enough progress has been made.

Thanks for looking,

John

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Short update as I'm not going to get it finished this weekend. There are a few more decals to go on, plus the etched aerials etc, but here is where we are at now. I thought it better to hold back and finish it properly when I have time, rather than rush it;

CRJ-38.jpg

CRJ-39.jpg

Cockpit looks great, you can see the seats and centre console in there, its all tiny!

Thanks for looking,

John

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks as always for the comments guys.

but is it my imagination, or are the kit's nosewheels too small ? (I'm not a rivet counter, but...)


They look ok to me Mike, the real ones are tiny;

See here

I'm now thinking that I may have incorrectly fitted the noseleg though, it looks a bit long. I'll think about it and probably trim it off and re-seat it,

Cheers

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Viking, you assembled model perfectly. The model looks great. I did not expect it would be so beautiful.

Thanks for the review.

Thanks Victorlas, it is a beautiful little kit that goes together very nicely. I have enjoyed building it.

It is now finished, with all the photo etch added. I can't say I like working with PE, it always seems to zing out of my tweezers and fly off never to be seen again! I got there though.

I also removed the noseleg and shortened it, as I didn't think I had got it right first time The 'sit' is much better now.

The decals are very fine and fragile, I throughly recommend coating them with Microscale decal film before use. I touched up various areas such as the top of the fin, trailing edge of the rudder & winglets etc with Tamiya paints, mixed in a plastic lid to get a match.

CRJ-47.jpg

It is now finished, and in Ready for inspection

CRJ-42.jpg

Cheers

John

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...