Hawker Siddeley Trident 1/144 1C to 1E conversion Northeast Airlines (UK) RESTORATION

[phil1]

Hawker Siddeley Trident 1/144 1C to 1E conversion Northeast Airlines (UK) RESTORATION

 

This is the Airfix 1/144 kit which I am converting from the 1C to the 1E in the colours of Northeast Airlines that was based in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the 1970s.

 

 

I'm by no means an expert but I believe the major changes are 

 

wingtip extensions

a more conventional leading edge slat arrangement

a larger wing root fairing (especially on the starboard side as it extends further back than port side)

extended tailcone

 

(If these are wrong or there are additional changes please feel free to let me know!)

 

My dad actually started the conversion but its remained abandoned for a couple of years. I decided to start again making some major changes. The clear plastic cockpit window became opaque and could not be rescued meaning I lost the beautiful interior cockpit that had been created. I decided to fill this along with all the windows and the undercarriage doors. 

 

 

since original paintwork has been stripped the plastic now looks worn out and lacking the original detail. I also cut a chunk out the fuselage to let me get into the model to make a gap for a stand. 

 

 

wingtip extensions added by adding flat plastic to the upper and lower portions of the wing and blending it into the existing wing. Originally these extensions were just plain milliput but were extremely fragile. I will have to look and measure the flap arrangement to see if they are the same length and size.

 

 

You can see the portion of the fuselage that was removed in this picture. This side of the aircraft has the shorter fairing above the wing, this whole area is missing for the 1C and looks totally smooth. 

 

 

On the part above the tail engines jet exhaust (the tailcone??) needs to be extended. again made out of milliput it was too fragile and came off when i stripped the original paintjob. I've made a hole and using a piece of plastic sprew to build the tailcone from inside the model so it can't just snap off. 

 

 

eventually i've built around the sprew and made the shape. Still needs a bit of work to get the exact angle. 

 

 

This is the starboard side fairing, perhaps someone can tell me why this is significantly longer on this side and what purpose it serves?

 

I'm thinking about using authentic airliners 3-D windows, they don't have them for this aircraft but i wonder if anyone can recommend which windows could be used instead??? would the windows differ much from narrow bodied airliners of the same era?? 

 

The cockpit windows I'm going to make myself from spares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Turbofan]

Hi Phil,

The Windows you'll need are these

https://www.authentic-airliner-decals.de/epages/17895661.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/17895661/Products/D144-01 they're what I used for my recent BA Trident 3B and I think they look good. Martijn, Malair on here, gave me the idea and also has designed some Trident cockpit windscreen decals, it might be worth dropping him a PM.

As far as other work on the Trident there was an article in an issue of the Airliner SIG newsletter way back in Sept 1997 by Steve Hopwood which detailed the work needed. I'll scan it and send you a copy.

Cheers,

Ian

[Azgaron]

Nice work so far!

 

Håkan

 

[phil1]

trying to get this one going again. after numerous problems including fuselage splitting open (twice) I finally give it a beautiful brown matt undercoat (why brown you may ask). At least with the undercoat down it has give me an opportunity to inspect the surface for imperfections that always show up once paint goes down. The main one appearing on the top of the fuselage which has now been filled with a tiny bit milliput. The centre of the fuselage is gloss white sandwiched between yellow on the top and light grey on the bottom. I always start with the lightest colour once I'm happy with a solid undercoat. I'm happy to overspray the area as the white underneath will help bring out the other colours. 

Also, a gloss white finish on the engines will prep them nicely for a polished aluminium finish (that will be the last stage of painting - hopefully)

 

 

The wingtip extensions have blended nicely but I have lost a bit detail near the end of the wing, hopefully a good paintjob will make this less obvious

 

 

[phil1]

The yellow is finally down. it looks a bit patchy on the tail but i will smooth that over and give it another coat. 

 

 

 

Sprayed the wings and base at the same time. All thats required now is a yellow coat underneath the wings, the radome sprayed matt black or very dark grey, the tailcone/ exhaust sprayed a dark metallic colour and the engines aluminium.

The paintwork is still quite rough at the minute but as soon as I'm happy with everything I will be buffing and polishing to get out them minor imperfections and to blend the 3 main colours where they meet

 

 

the decals arrived and the first thing I noticed how small the windows are. I have some universal windows from authentic airliners but they are definitely larger. The cockpit window is going to be made by tracing an outline of these cockpit windows onto a spare authentic airliners cockpit decal from a much larger aircraft for the 3D effect. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Azgaron]

Nice paint job! looks great!

 

Håkan

 

[phil1]

4 hours ago, Azgaron said:

Nice paint job! looks great!

 

Håkan

 

cheers dude, its getting there. hoping to get the transfers on the next few days!

 

Phil

[Eric Mc]

Looking good. One of my favourite 70s schemes.

 

What shade of yellow did you use?

[phil1]

On 7/26/2018 at 7:45 AM, Eric Mc said:

Looking good. One of my favourite 70s schemes.

 

What shade of yellow did you use?

thanks eric, mine too! its humbrol gloss 69. probably perfect for the shade of yellow i was looking for. i think i used the same i think for my tristar G-BAAA court line

 

phil

[Eric Mc]

Thank you. I would like to do a Viscount in this scheme and was looking around for the right shade.

[phil1]

8 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

Thank you. I would like to do a Viscount in this scheme and was looking around for the right shade.

the humbrol yellow i'd say is about 90% spot on.  for the grey area i used revell 371 which is probably too light, for your viscount I'd use something a shade darker

 

phil 

[phil1]

decals have started going on. I'm not happy with the emergency exit doors provided in the decal set as I need them to look more simplistic (and they have the original windows in them rather than the 3-d ones from authentic airliners, i think i have some spare DC9 or 737 exit doors which might be more suitable.

 

toward the rear of the aircraft the windows are closer together (why i don't know!) but it looks well dodgy, I'm going to have to apply one window at a time which is going to be painstaking

 

painting the nose was a nightmare, i hate brush painting but the model is to small to mask off and spray the nose

 

 

 

 

the cockpit will be next, I have an idea to accurately cut out the shapes to make the trident cockpit windows (from spare 3-d cockpit windows) using the existing decal as a mask - again a painstaking task but hopefully it will be worth it!

 

 

[Challenger350Pilot]

This looks beautiful! Wow. Really like the length you are going to make the windows look as real as it gets.....nice job!

[phil1]

On 8/13/2018 at 6:13 PM, Challenger350Pilot said:

This looks beautiful! Wow. Really like the length you are going to make the windows look as real as it gets.....nice job!

cheers mate!!! the windows have been a nightmare to tell you the truth.....had to cut out each one and put them on individually near the rear to decrease the spacing between the windows!

 

phil

[phil1]

ok I'm about 95% finished with this one. applying the windows was tricky to say the least. As i stated before this version of the trident has a strange window arrangement at the back of the fuselage so apologies if it looks like I've applied them in the dark. My biggest guess is that the rear of the plane had the reverse seating where seats actually faced each other which has displaced the spacing of the windows???  or it was just meant to be a higher density of seats at the back

 

the decals are very good and are virtually invisible against the background. 

 

there's some minor things that i might have to touch up, there has been a small amount of yellow paint that has shown up in the grooves in the wing which is not obvious on the pictures. The aerials on top of the fuselage are possibly black and not the same colour as the fuselage. Finally the cockpit is plain black at the moment and not 3-d like the windows, i hope to change that with a sharp pair of scissors and excess cockpit decal from other stuff.

 

 

 

 

the emergency exits already had windows in them different to the authentic airliners ones I'm using so again i've had to cut out an individual window and apply it once the emergency exit decal is immovable 

 

 

looking at reference photos of the web the last 2 windows next to the engine might need to be regular spacing like the windows at the front. there should be only 4 windows squashed together instead of 6!! 

 

 

i now have 3D cockpit windows!!!!! I snipped some shapes similar to the existing cockpit shapes already on the fuselage, making sure the pieces were just a little bit smaller so I didn't overlap the edges and keep it sharp. managed to get half a pilots head in one window!

 

think i will have to touch up the nose with a paintbrush as it's faded a bit

 

hopefully I will have it on the RFI in the next couple of days

 

[phil1]

[Darby]

That looks rather splendid.

[bzn20]

Great job.. Really is a great job.. I'm a bit  late seeing this so .. Don't know how to tell you but...

The wing is different from the 1C to 1E , its a bigger span and gets dihedral somewhere near that wing fence . I'm surprised nobody jumped in and told you.

Anyway, that said we all know what it is and you have done it proud .  neat work and paint job.

 

Well done and thanks for showing.

Thought of doing another in the original BKS colours ?

[bzn20]

On ‎6‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 10:04 PM, phil1 said:

This is the starboard side fairing, perhaps someone can tell me why this is significantly longer on this side and what purpose it serves?

Its a fairing for the APU fuel feed pipe,housed at the bottom of the fin trailing edge above No2 engine tail pipe ,That bullet shaped housing .

[spaddad]

tasty

[Graeme H]

Really came out well

[phil1]

On 8/22/2018 at 10:40 PM, bzn20 said:

Great job.. Really is a great job.. I'm a bit  late seeing this so .. Don't know how to tell you but...

The wing is different from the 1C to 1E , its a bigger span and gets dihedral somewhere near that wing fence . I'm surprised nobody jumped in and told you.

Anyway, that said we all know what it is and you have done it proud .  neat work and paint job.

 

Well done and thanks for showing.

Thought of doing another in the original BKS colours ?

thanks for your very kind comments, your so right about the wing and its one thing i think i missed when originally looking at the major differences. In general the wings are the only thing I'm disappointed with as I lost too much detail at the end of the wing and decided not to etch in where I extended the wings....but you live and learn!

 

the BKS colours is also one of my favourites too mate, if i do I'm skipping the conversion this time!!

[71chally]

Love Tridents, love the NE scheme - what's not to like!  

Beautiful rendition Phil, lovely clean and sharp result.