FortyEighter Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 (edited) Unfortunately one of my intended builds for the Airfix group build has been ruled out as this particular version dates originally from 1983. So I'm intending to build the 1/44 Airfix Boeing 727-200 in the time span of the group build. This will be one of the few 727s ever to carry British Airways livery via its franchise partner Comair of South Africa, who operated five aircraft of the type on the Johannesburg to Cape Town route. My chosen example is ZS-NOV in the "Delftblue Daybreak" livery - the only BA 727 to have ever worn this livery. Decals are from F-DCAL - I've recently purchased a few of their sets and hope that they are easy to apply. The first stage will be to remove the raised panel lines and fill in the windows...……….more to follow. Regards Mike Edited August 14, 2018 by FortyEighter Title change 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbofan Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 Hi Mike, Hope you don't mind me offering some advice on your Airfix 727 build but, following on from your 737 GB BA duo, I know you care about accuracy and wanted to point out a few of the areas the kit falls down if you weren't already aware of them. The three main areas are as follows, Firstly, you might want to insert another Daco cockpit piece as the Airfix nose isn't very good at all in much the same way as the 737-200. I haven't tried the Daco part but I would imagine it would fit with a little fettling. Secondly, the wings do not include the leading edge fences but instead have fictional trailing edge fences instead! So these will need to be corrected. Thirdly, the crease where the centre intake meets the leading edge of the tail is depicted as being in a straight horizontal direction, this also is not quite right but should be angled down towards the exhaust area and be blended in so it is 'softer' than on the kit. The intake also can be improved with a piece of 8.2mm diameter plastic tubing in place of the kit intake. There is an article in the March 1999 issue of Airline Modeller which details some other corrections that I can scan and send you if you like. Looking forward to your progress. Cheers, Ian 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted June 1, 2018 Author Share Posted June 1, 2018 1 hour ago, Turbofan said: Hi Mike, Hope you don't mind me offering some advice on your Airfix 727 build but, following on from your 737 GB BA duo, I know you care about accuracy and wanted to point out a few of the areas the kit falls down if you weren't already aware of them. The three main areas are as follows, Firstly, you might want to insert another Daco cockpit piece as the Airfix nose isn't very good at all in much the same way as the 737-200. I haven't tried the Daco part but I would imagine it would fit with a little fettling. Secondly, the wings do not include the leading edge fences but instead have fictional trailing edge fences instead! So these will need to be corrected. Thirdly, the crease where the centre intake meets the leading edge of the tail is depicted as being in a straight horizontal direction, this also is not quite right but should be angled down towards the exhaust area and be blended in so it is 'softer' than on the kit. The intake also can be improved with a piece of 8.2mm diameter plastic tubing in place of the kit intake. There is an article in the March 1999 issue of Airline Modeller which details some other corrections that I can scan and send you if you like. Looking forward to your progress. Cheers, Ian Thanks for these "heads up" Ian, will look at them as I get to those stages. Cheers Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted June 13, 2018 Author Share Posted June 13, 2018 Time for an update: Windows filled and panel lines on fuselage sanded off (probably won't reinstate them as not very visible in this scale). Wings smoothed off and panel lines rescribed as ther ARE visible. Have also decided to use my last Daco 737 nose You may notice a slightly sunken band behind the cockpit window, which needs some more filler. Having cut out the original just behind the side windows I was surprised to find that the Daco part was much narrower than the kit fuselage. Turns out that the kit windscreen is too far back and moving the cutout forward gave a good fit to the width. When glued together both wings decided to warp downwards approx two thirds of the way to the tip. Some brute force has got them looking better but I won't join them to fuselage permanently for a couple of weeks just in case more attention is needed. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephLalor Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 (edited) Looking forward to seeing this one take shape. I recall BA became a 727 operator when they bought Dan-Air. Edited June 13, 2018 by JosephLalor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted June 14, 2018 Author Share Posted June 14, 2018 Will have to check on Planespotters what happened to Dan Air's 727 fleet. They still had six when the airline finished (according to my usual source aka BA History by Keith Gaskell) but I didn't think they went to BA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLC1966 Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 Somewhere in my brain is a little spark saying I saw an Ex-Dan Air 727 with British Airways titles at Gatwick immediately after the take over by BA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMB Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 (edited) 20 minutes ago, PLC1966 said: Somewhere in my brain is a little spark saying I saw an Ex-Dan Air 727 with British Airways titles at Gatwick immediately after the take over by BA. Your'e correct, BA leased a Series 100 from ATA which wore ATA colours and BA titles. Edited June 14, 2018 by AMB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLC1966 Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 On 6/14/2018 at 4:02 PM, AMB said: Your'e correct, BA leased a Series 100 from ATA which wore ATA colours and BA titles. Thank you. I knew that little spark had something behind it. I probably have photo's in the 30 or 40 aircraft films I have upstairs undeveloped from the 80's 90's upstairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 On 6/14/2018 at 4:02 PM, AMB said: Your'e correct, BA leased a Series 100 from ATA which wore ATA colours and BA titles. I somehow missed this reply while on holiday - have now found a picture of it in Keith Gaskell's book - N284AT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 (edited) Work has progressed slowly but it's now looking more like a 727; horiz stabs are not glued in as they need to go on after the tailfin decals Wing to fuselage joints required a small amount of plastic putty (more underneath than on top) PS Forgot to say that while on holiday the starboard wing decided to warp again, so have sourced another kit to get a spare wing. Gluing trailing edges, leaving to set and then gluing leading edges appears to have given a truer wing. Edited July 4, 2018 by FortyEighter Correction 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted July 4, 2018 Share Posted July 4, 2018 Looking good! Håkan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted July 28, 2018 Author Share Posted July 28, 2018 So, main assembly fully painted and starting to apply the tail section decals but still working on the engines and landing gear 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted July 29, 2018 Author Share Posted July 29, 2018 Decals applied to one side of tail area The decal for the vertical section comes as one piece but I decided to cut it into four sections to aid positioning - luckily this version of the DelftBlue design has some gaps, which helped. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted July 31, 2018 Author Share Posted July 31, 2018 Spent some time this pm putting on windows (Authentic Decals) and doors (cut from the F-Dcal sheet) 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray S Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 That livery looks nicely different, you have done a cracking job on the kit. All the best, Ray 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbofan Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 This is looking really good Mike, on the home stretch now! Cheers, Ian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzn20 Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 This looks interesting and different ! ... Not a fan of those BA world thing colours . Try working on a pan looking for .. was it a tablecloth or piece of pottery/ African looking thing ? at 1am and chucking it down in Stuttgart Here is your kite in Landor scheme , weird seeing a 72 in that. It's almost like a what if but it's a what was ! https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/6032920 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 19 hours ago, Ray S said: That livery looks nicely different, you have done a cracking job on the kit. All the best, Ray Thanks Ray, I must admit this is one of my favourites and must remember when it's finished to pose it alongside my DelftBlue 737 15 hours ago, Turbofan said: This is looking really good Mike, on the home stretch now! Cheers, Ian Well I've still got to do the windows etc on RHS Ian but at least progress can be seen once you start to apply decals to an airliner 15 hours ago, bzn20 said: This looks interesting and different ! ... Not a fan of those BA world thing colours . Try working on a pan looking for .. was it a tablecloth or piece of pottery/ African looking thing ? at 1am and chucking it down in Stuttgart Here is your kite in Landor scheme , weird seeing a 72 in that. It's almost like a what if but it's a what was ! https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/6032920 And some of them lasted long enough to have the current livery! https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/188034 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzn20 Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 3 hours ago, FortyEighter said: have the current livery Love that, thanks very much.... Still a bit weird though.. Sometime in the very late 60s or early 70s BEA had a visit in secret from a Boeing sales team with a 727 visit them with a view to get them off the Trident habit or on the 727 one anyway . Think it flew from Scotland ,probably Prestwick with BEA wheels on board . Obviously either Ted Heath or Basil Fawlty's 'arold bloody Wilson had other ideas 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FortyEighter Posted August 8, 2018 Author Share Posted August 8, 2018 Almost there; only the gear doors and engines to finish off and attach 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 Very nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 Very nice work with the decals! Håkan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halcyonjet Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 On 01/08/2018 at 18:39, bzn20 said: Love that, thanks very much.... Still a bit weird though.. Sometime in the very late 60s or early 70s BEA had a visit in secret from a Boeing sales team with a 727 visit them with a view to get them off the Trident habit or on the 727 one anyway . Think it flew from Scotland ,probably Prestwick with BEA wheels on board . Obviously either Ted Heath or Basil Fawlty's 'arold bloody Wilson had other ideas Boeing even allocated the customer code 18 (ie 727-218) to BEA in anticipation of orders. Dave 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzn20 Posted August 12, 2018 Share Posted August 12, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, halcyonjet said: Boeing even allocated the customer code 18 Thanks for that info . Didn't know that .18 is still BEA , I just checked the list of Boeing codes , never been reallocated which is surprising . Do you think it could been for the 737s ? They were after those around the time BAC came up with the 1-11 -500 and again stamped on anything not British for BEA by the Govt. Edited August 12, 2018 by bzn20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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