Aurora 1:72 B737-100 vintage kit

[tommyinuk0]

Hi all,

OK so I know its not the greatest, however I like the vintage kits and then problems and issues they come with.

So when I found a 1:72 B747-100 Aurora kit for next to nothing I had to get it.....

Now what to do with it, (throwing it in the bin is not an option before anyone adds that!)

I guess my options are (based on the 100% chance the decals will dissintergrate in water) ...

1. Build as a 737-100 in Lufthansa or NASA (the preserved 737 prototype, 515 I believe) livery. Does anyone know where these could be sourced?

2. Use available (hannants) 737-200 decals, but then I believe I need to stretch fuselage 6' adding

4 windows each side? Not sure about engines though as some 200's seem to have similar engines as the 100 in pics.

I am sure there are many out there with more knowledge than me and maybe have even done this crazy idea before.

I am not after 100% perfection just whatever is needed to create a decent looking kit of an iconic ac using what's available.

Thanks for reading, feel free to reply if you can help.

Tommy

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Tommy,

A friend has built the Aurora kit in the NASA scheme, since he runs his own decal business he was able to create his own decals for it. I expect he could print off another set on request.

if you are interested I could ask him about them.

[DrewP]

Hello, Tommy. If you're looking to make a decent looking plane out of that kit, be prepared for a lot of work. I've actually made a list on my phone of 737-100 operators and their registration which I would happily PM you, but the best chance you have is hand-painting the plane. If you want NASA I would suggest taking Ray up on his offer. You could ask the other Ray at 26decals to look into making a sheet for you, or possibly scaling one up if he already has a print. As for making the kit look decent, one of the many things you would have to fix would be the wheel wells (or the facts that there are none!), build gear doors, check the overall shape of the kit, especially the nose, probably make whole new engines, as it would be much easier than trying to improve the ones in the kit. The only reason I've kept mine around is I hope to get enough modeling skills to get around to building it some day. Hope yours turns out nice.

All the best,

Drew

[Jessica]

There are proper extended 737 engines available from Contrails (Look about halfway down the page). You'll need them, because unless you're doing the prototype at roll out or very early delivery versions, every single aircraft had the extended nacelles fitted as soon as possible to prevent the reverse thrust from lifting them off the runway. The aft portion of the pylons isn't accurate for the short engines anyway.

You'll also need to make up the wing to fuselage fairing and the flap track fairings, which are nonexistent. IIRC, the wingspan also needs extending.

Or you could just build the model to represent an early Boeing publicity model from before the design was frozen (which is pretty much what the Aurora kit was).

[ANDYMO1962]

Hi Tommy

here's a rather poor snap of one I made earlier https://www.flickr.com/photos/96171173@N05/25923780030/in/datetaken-public/

I built up the wing/fuselage fillet using filler, and had completely forgotten about the flap track fairings until Jessica mentioned them so they must be home made too; The Lufthansa titles were from the Heller 707 kit as were the nose and engine logos; I can't remember exactly where the tail logo came from but it might have been the Airfix A300 one (I seemed to have a lot of Lufthansa spares in my decal box). The Boeing 737 logo is adapted from the Heller 707 one and the reg and aircraft name were made from Letraset. I chose D-ABEK, Konstanz as the city shield was a simple black cross on a white background with a red top- which was relatively easy to mug up with bits of decal. I think I've seen very early delivery shots of the Lufthansa -100s with the short engines so decided to leave those alone. It's far from a perfect model of a 737-100 but as a half decent representation made from a VERY approximate version of the plane I'm quite pleased with it. The real fun was finding a vintage injection moulded 737 kit in 1/72 in the first place.

[tommyinuk0]

Hi all.

News update. Thanks Andy for the great photo which has inspired me of what can be achieved.

I did as Drew suggested and Ray at 26 decals has said he can upscale his 1:144 Lufthansa 737-100 set. So that's fantastic news. Ray also came up with a great possibility for the NASA version. This still may be useful for a poss second build!☺ as Andy said it's fun just finding such an ancient beast! I think if Ray at 26 decals can supply it would be a travesty not to do that version.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions and I may well do a WIP thread for the build. Assistance may be sought for the scratch building bits but found a great photo walkaround online to help me.

Cheers again.

Tommy

[tempestfan]

If you really fancy the masochism of doing it twice, I suggest you look out for a (nont quite so scarce) Monogram boxing, which will probably be cheaper by some margin.

[steverog]

Hawkeye Models, Australia do those NASA decals to 1/144th scale, they might scale them up for you.

http://hawkeyemodels.com.au/wp-content/themes/hawkeyemodels/contents/Site.htm

Edited April 5, 2016 by steverog

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Hawkeye Models, Australia do those NASA decals to 1/144th scale, they might scale them up for you.

http://hawkeyemodels.com.au/wp-content/themes/hawkeyemodels/contents/Site.htm

These were the decals I mentioned in a previous post. I was not sure they were on the website. Hawkeye can resize most of his decals to the size you need.

[tommyinuk0]

Hi all,

I was never aware of Hawkeye models until you suggested them, so thanks. They certainly do a wide range of interesting stuff.

Tommy

[ANDYMO1962]

Cheers Tommy- would love to see your stage by stage build on this one