Boeing 737-130 Lufthansa. Airfix kit modified. - Now Finished.

[Viking]

3 minutes ago, Paul J said:

I Like the idea of adding some one in the cockpit' I think you have given me and many others a good idea on adding these to the Revell Cockpits.

Give it a go Paul, it's not that difficult once you've  tried. Model railway shops are a great place for 1/144 'N' gauge figures & vehicles.

[halcyonjet]

Lovely 'cut & shut'. In the words of Eric Morecambe "Can you see the join?"

 

Dave

[Paul J]

1 minute ago, Viking said:

Give it a go Paul, it's not that difficult once you've  tried. Model railway shops are a great place for 1/144 'N' gauge figures & vehicles.

My build is at a stage where I coulld cobble up a flight deck. Just need the excuse to go to Dorking Models to see if he has any N gauge peeps. Or a visit to The Engine Shed at Ford.

[stringbag]

11 hours ago, Viking said:

 (There is a lovely Airfix 727 on his workbench, with Authentic Airliners replacement engines. Come on Chris, get it finished!) This is the plan;

 

I will John one of these days. 

Looks as though you've cracked this little problem with the engines and I'm mightily impressed by your fuselage surgery

 

All the best

Chris

[Graeme H]

Just catching up with this one, some serious work going on, great work on the Daco Cockpit, looks great, and you are certainly going full bore on those Engines, this should be well worth saving for future reference

[pinky coffeeboat]

12 hours ago, Viking said:

Give it a go Paul, it's not that difficult once you've  tried. Model railway shops are a great place for 1/144 'N' gauge figures & vehicles.

Make sure it's UK N gauge. This is 1/148 scale but the rest of the world uses 1/160 scale (iirc). Just like the larger UK OO scale (1/76) and European/ RoW HO (1/87).

Sorry, I'll grab my anorak...

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Love your work John, just back from a week having fun in the sun...

 

Nice to see you progressing and the suceesful surgery you are performing.

 

[Viking]

Got a couple of hours to work on the engines today. Dave (Halcyonjet) sent me a very valuable picture of the thrust reverser/pylon arrangement, which was incredibly useful. Thanks Dave!

They were fairly rough &ready when I slapped Milliput on them last night, ready for final shaping today.

 

After initial clean up. I had added plasticard fillets on top of the Airfix rear pylons. The upper bit stands slightly proud of the wing upper surface...

...so I cut notches in the wings where the pylons protrude through. The wings are now fixed on and needed the usual run of filler along the join.

It looks about right, well I thinks so anyway! It is quite different from the rear and of the revised nacelle arrangement that was soon applied to the later 100 series & all 200 series.

I tapered the rear edges a little more after taking these pics.

 

 

The upper face, slightly proud of the surrounding wing.

 

Poppped them off again and gave them a shot of Halfords grey primer, which revealed a few blemishes to put right with Milliput.

I'll do a touch more refining to them tomorrow, but they are mostly done now.

 

Of course none of this engine work would have been necessary if I'd opted for the full blue tail Lufthansa scheme, the kit engines would have been fine with shortened fuselage. But I didn't realise until the decals arrived!

 

[halcyonjet]

Wow John, those engines really do look superb now. Top modelling!

Glad to be able help with the pic.

 

Dave

[stringbag]

I hadn't realised they were so different from the later units. 

Cracking on well with this one Matey.

 

Chris.

[Jabba]

Superb work with this one. I would not have noticed that difference with the engines, so well done with that. You really are a glutton for punishment with including the crew, but they are fantastic.

[zebra]

Great work on the engines, they really look the part.

 

I was looking at photos of early -200s the other day - I have a build of the Airfix kit as an early 200 in mind. There seems to have been a very small number of -200s delivered with the original thrust reversers. For example photos of G-AVRM of Britannia show them in 1968 and 1969 but G-AVRO has the new reversers in 1969. A later photo shows G-AVRM had been retrofitted by 1973.

 

So having contemplated an unmodified Airfix -200 build I’m now thinking about a very early one with the original reversers. If I go there this thread will be invaluable!

[Skodadriver]

This just gets better and better  

 

I've never seen anyone model the original engines before but you're giving us a real masterclass.

[pinky coffeeboat]

Very impressive work. The engines do give a very different look to the aircraft.

 

Jeff

[Graeme H]

This is great stuff on early 737's, I never knew about some of the features of those really early nacelles, and what a great workaround using the 727 back ends, I would never have thought of that

[Mr B]

Nice progress

 

great touch with the little men

 

rgds

 

[Abandoned Project]

Absolutely amazing! 

[bianfuxia]

this is great work! Enjoyed it so far, especially the cockpit. great job!

[Grandboof]

Awesome work very informative Thankyou 

Martin H

[Viking]

Slow progress this week, not too much has been done. The engines had the nicks & dents filled & sanded back.

I've attached the main undercarriage legs & made some nose doors. I like to have the nose doors on before starting painting as there is too much risk of mucking up the paint if I do it later. Also at this stage I like to check the 'sit' of the model as it is easier to make mods to the undercarriage at this stage. So I blu-tacked the nosegear and main wheels on, and cheeked it from various angles. Porky Pig;

 

 

It seems ok, so I took everything off again.

 

I forgot to mention earlier that I plugged the APU exhaust with a piece of tubing  squashed to an oval, and blended it in with Milliput.

 

Because I made a deeper nosebay, the leg needs extending with a bit of tubing. I also added a forward bracket/strut while I was at it;

 

I'm now wondering about priming & painting it. I think I'll do the engines in silver, completely mask them up to the pylons, and then glue them on. Any filling/tidying of the wing/pylon join can then be done, After that I'll prime and paint the rest of it. I'm a bit worried that If I attach the engines unpainted, it'll be difficult to get the airbrush to spray into the inner tops.

Mind you, I've done i that way before with 737-200 models. Hmmm, let me think on this one a bit more.

 

[zebra]

Great work Viking, shaping up very well indeed. I think painting the engines before attaching them must be the way to go - I'd have the same doubts about getting the airbrush in to spray the inner bits too. Will be doing the same with my -800.

[Graeme H]

I'm with @zebra on this, I think you should paint the engines before putting them on

[Turbofan]

Hi John,

Rather than painting the engines how about using this stuff?

https://www.authentic-airliner-decals.de/epages/17895661.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/17895661/Products/D144-03

I used it on my Aer Lingus 737-200 and I think it looks pretty good!

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235006623-1144-aer-lingus-boeing-737-200/&tab=comments#comment-2434778

 

Not sure how much reference material you've got but I've just found this page with a nice clear pic of a LH 731. Interestingly, the wing body fairing is painted two different shades of grey.

http://m.aviationweek.com/blog/1965-boeing-s-baby-jetliner-five-decades-growth

 

I'm really enjoying watching your progress with this one!

 

Cheers,

Ian

[Viking]

1 hour ago, zebra said:

Great work Viking, shaping up very well indeed. I think painting the engines before attaching them must be the way to go - I'd have the same doubts about getting the airbrush in to spray the inner bits too. Will be doing the same with my -800.

 

1 hour ago, Graeme H said:

I'm with @zebra on this, I think you should paint the engines before putting them on

Thanks guys, I think that's what I'll do.  In fact I've now sprayed the engines black as an undercoat for the silver!

1 hour ago, Turbofan said:

Hi John,

Rather than painting the engines how about using this stuff?

https://www.authentic-airliner-decals.de/epages/17895661.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/17895661/Products/D144-03

I used it on my Aer Lingus 737-200 and I think it looks pretty good!

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235006623-1144-aer-lingus-boeing-737-200/&tab=comments#comment-2434778

 

Not sure how much reference material you've got but I've just found this page with a nice clear pic of a LH 731. Interestingly, the wing body fairing is painted two different shades of grey.

http://m.aviationweek.com/blog/1965-boeing-s-baby-jetliner-five-decades-growth

 

I'm really enjoying watching your progress with this one!

 

Cheers,

Ian

Wow, great links Ian. Strange about those 2 shades of grey, I'll have to replicate that now!

I don't know how I missed your Aer Lingus 737, she's a beauty.  That silver decal looks good I'll investigate further but for now I've started on the paint rout!

 

Thanks again all for the feedback and help.

 

John

[stringbag]

Looking really good John.

Can't wait to see this one finished.

 

Chris.