1/144 Qantas Boeing 747-200 (Converted from Zvezda 747-8)

[Turbofan]

Here's one for our Antipodean members!

 

This is my biggest model to date and one that I've been working on for quite a long time, it's another aircraft I used to see spotting at Heathrow in the late 70s and early 80s.

The actual conversion isn't too difficult, I have used the Authentic Airliners Upper Deck Conversion and Bra.Z P&W engines and the rest is mainly cutting down the fuselage and chopping off the wingtips. The only tricky part is reshaping the wing leading edge/fuselage fairing.

 

Most of my problems came from paint which badly crazed due, I think, to laying it on too thick. It's not the first time this has happened to me and is probably because I am often in too much of a rush to wait for the paint to dry between coats so just keep on spraying until it's nice and opaque. Of course in the long run it takes longer as I have to remove the paint or spend ages rubbing it back down. I might learn to take my time one of these days! The other possibilities are I didn't shake the can enough, it was Halfords White Primer, or it was too cold when I was spraying.

 

My other paint related frustration came when I thought I'd use cling film to mask off the fuselage when I painted the wing leading edge. Big mistake as it reacted with the Klear on the white top and the NMF belly and left impressions of the creases in the cling film all over my nice smooth paintwork! As it happens this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because rather than redoing the NMF with paint I decided to use AA High Shine Metallic decal sheet which I'm very pleased with. I will be using this stuff for all my natural metal fuselage areas in the future!

 

The cheatlines and tail are painted with the ochre being a mix of Humbrol 9 Tan and 69 Yellow. Wings are Halfords Racking Grey with Coroguard sprayed on clear decal sheet. Tail logos are from the old Microscale sheet. I was worried about them not being opaque enough so I doubled up with another sheet I bought off ebay. Considering these sheets were possibly 35+ years old they performed perfectly. I used the titles from the Microscale sheet too. Door outlines and other details like the 'City of Fremantle' titles and crest were laser printed. Cockpit and cabin windows and landing lights are, of course, from Authentic Airliners.

 

I would like to build many more 747-200s and will definitely be converting the 747-8 again but will more than likely use the Revell Freighter as it already has the shorter upper deck. I could've built a 747-200 from the old Revell kit but I enjoy the challenge of converting kits and feel the Zvezda (and new Revell) 747-8s have the edge in shape, crispness and detail.

 

Anyway here are some pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking, hope you like it!

 

Cheers,

Ian

Edited June 24, 2018 by Turbofan

[busnproplinerfan]

Looks bang on, looks like her first revenue trip.

[stringbag]

I'm sure I know that woman sat in row 11 on the starboard side.

Looks absolutely superb Ian.  Really impressed with the finish and I like the colourful livery.

 

Chris.

[keefr22]

Another really stunning model Ian, lovely work!

 

Keith

[FAAMAN]

Just the way they looked, bravo sir on a superb rendition of what I think was the best Quantas livery, and you've modelled the 747 my Aunt Dizz flew to Blighty for hols in (VH-EBG)

[Unfinished project]

Love these early 747’s What a wonderful job you’ve made of this Queen of the Skies 👏👏

[Rabbit Leader]

Put simply - this is sensational modelling!

From someone who has been working for the 'Flying QF Rat' for over 30 years - this is just perfect.

You've nailed the Ochre cheatline colour and to be honest, everything else.

This is my all time favourite QF scheme and still think it works well even in this day and age.

 

Cheers and thanks for posting.. Dave.  

[stevehnz]

That is brilliant. I watched one of these land the first commercial 747 flight into Christchurch late 1972. I can still recall how big it looked & how it just seemed to hang in the sky on approach. You might have just sowed another seed in my ever receptive grey matter.  

Steve.

[Alpha Delta 210]

Despite your few tribulations, the end result is just sensational!

[Viking]

Outstanding Ian, even by your own high standards! You've produced the best looking -200 I've ever seen in 1:144, rounded off by a beautiful livery.

It was well wort the effort!

 

Cheers

 

John

 

 

[Skodadriver]

Absolutely fantastic Ian, a complete showstopper!  

 

Could I suggest a WIP if you do another -800 conversion?  I'd love to see how it's done.  

 

Meantime I'm just lost in wonder and amazement.........

[tomprobert]

That really is very, very nice! Superb conversion work - it looks like a high-end kit and not something that's had huge chunks cut out of it. Brilliant, inspiring work!

[Britman]

Exceptional! 

[Mr B]

Really nice looking...lovely finish

[UC880]

What an excellent result. I particularly like the idea of using the AA NM decal. Can I ask how exactly you applied this- did you cut individual panels to fit the fuselage contours or apply the decal and mask and paint over it? 

[mitchem]

(I'm afraid I've misplaced my dictionary of superlatives !)

 

 

mike

[MartinSK]

Looks great...this colour complications and all small or bigger stops during the build are happening to me too...but you have achieved realistic looking 747!

[michael301757]

Yet another stunning build you have done there Ian, absolutely marvellous, you really can't beat the old liveries.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Cheers Michael.  

[Horatio Gruntfuttock]

Just brilliant!! Love the conversion work and quality finish and the interest you have added to the windows with all those wee people inside. My gob is well and truly smacked!

[stevej60]

That's stunning work Ian.

[Graeme H]

OK, I know you have some nice photos up there, but can we have some of the model please

personally flew on this one twice, 

Is there a WIP on how you converted it to a -200, I'm considering converting one to a  -400, but this is way beyond that.

[Malair]

Wow, another stunner Ian, as expected. I'm really loving it, well done!

 

I especially like your work on the engines and other NMF work. Interesting choice of using the decals from AA for the fuselage. I’ve used this before on a small scale (leading edges etc.) but not on a fuselage scale. Like UC880 asked, how did you apply it that it would fit the contours, panel lines, etc.).

 

You did a very nice conversion job as well. As you know, Authentic Airliners has a whole 747-200 kit also. Do you have any idea how it compares to a conversion? 

 

More 747-200 in the future you say? Keep ‘em coming! I like those Vintage Jets. May I request a KLM livery? :p
 

[Turbofan]

Thanks for all the compliments everyone, glad you all seem to like it!

On 6/22/2018 at 11:37 PM, busnproplinerfan said:

looks like her first revenue trip

Qantas did keep their planes quite clean but, although it doesn't show up well on the pics, there is a bit of weathering on the wings so maybe not her fist revenue trip!!

 

On 6/23/2018 at 6:05 AM, Rabbit Leader said:

You've nailed the Ochre cheatline colour

Thanks Dave, I'm pleased you think so because every decal sheet and photo I've looked at shows the cheatline in a different colour so it's a difficult one to pin down.

On 6/23/2018 at 9:16 AM, Viking said:

You've produced the best looking -200 I've ever seen in 1:144

Cheers John! I'm quite pleased with it myself and although there's a lot of work involved I think it's worth it.

 

On 6/23/2018 at 7:35 PM, UC880 said:

What an excellent result. I particularly like the idea of using the AA NM decal. Can I ask how exactly you applied this- did you cut individual panels to fit the fuselage contours or apply the decal and mask and paint over it? 

Hi,

Yes I cut out each panel which I sized from my spare Zvezda 747-8 having filled all the panel lines on this model. The decal is so flexible, almost rubber like, that it conforms to almost any contours using a soft brush so the gentle curves of the fuselage are no problem at all. This was the last thing to be applied because it is quite delicate and definitely wouldn't stand up to any masking. It is a time consuming job though, one which can't be rushed, I took about five nights to decal the belly alone!

 

On 6/23/2018 at 9:34 AM, Skodadriver said:

Could I suggest a WIP if you do another -800 conversion?  I'd love to see how it's done.

15 hours ago, Graeme H said:

Is there a WIP on how you converted it to a -200, I'm considering converting one to a  -400, but this is way beyond that.

Dave and Graeme, generally I don't do WIPs because my builds do tend to be over such long periods of time. This one was probably started a couple of years ago and wasn't intended as Qantas but probably going to be Kuwait Airways.

However, I do have a couple more 747s, one Zvezda and one Revell which I will almost definitely convert to -200s or -400s. Maybe I'll do a WIP for one or both of these.

Personally, I'd use the Revell Freighter for the -200 and the Zvezda for the -400 because of the different upper decks. I only used the Zvezda for this conversion as I had a spare AA Upper Deck conversion piece.

The -200 conversion isn't much different to the -400 the only tricky bit is the different leading edge WBF but that's only really some sanding and filling. 

On 6/23/2018 at 10:37 PM, MartinSK said:

this colour complications and all small or bigger stops during the build are happening to me too

It's always the way with me Martin, I'd love to finish a model in one go and without any disasters along the way!!

 

10 hours ago, Malair said:

Wow, another stunner Ian, as expected. I'm really loving it, well done!

 

I especially like your work on the engines and other NMF work. Interesting choice of using the decals from AA for the fuselage. I’ve used this before on a small scale (leading edges etc.) but not on a fuselage scale. Like UC880 asked, how did you apply it that it would fit the contours, panel lines, etc.).

 

You did a very nice conversion job as well. As you know, Authentic Airliners has a whole 747-200 kit also. Do you have any idea how it compares to a conversion? 

 

More 747-200 in the future you say? Keep ‘em coming! I like those Vintage Jets. May I request a KLM livery? 😛
 

Thanks Martijn, as I said above the AA decal really is very flexible and easy to apply, as it dries it just settles nicely with only a little encouragement from a soft brush. Amazing stuff!!

I only have the AA 747SP so can't compare directly with a -200 but I'm sure they are superb as one would expect. I do enjoy converting models though and find they are very satisfying.

I have just added up how much I spent on this conversion and it's around £80 which includes the Zvezda kit, Bra.Z engines, AA Upper Deck, AA High Shine Metallic decal and AA windows and an extra Microscale decal sheet for the doubled up tail logo. Of course this is still cheaper than the AA kit but they are so much quicker to build!

I think unfortunately I'll only be modelling shorthaul KLM aircraft because generally I model those aircraft I remember from my time spotting at Heathrow in the late 70s and early 80s and I don't think I ever saw any KLM 747s, I am definitely planning a DC-9 sometime though. 

 

Once again thank you for everyone's replies it makes all the work much more worthwhile. Next up I think will be another conversion, although a somewhat simpler one, and it's also another Antipodean. Shouldn't be too long as I only have the wing and engine leading edge then decals to apply. Hopefully be finished before Christmas then!!

 

Cheers,

Ian

Edited June 24, 2018 by Turbofan

[Ed Russell]

Very nice - I have been in that one and it looked just like that! I think a WIP may well be of interest.

[Challenger350Pilot]

  What a beautiful model! You have captured a beautiful queen. Absolutely stunning. I really love the descriptions of your journey to complete the model just as you wanted it, even up to and including removing paint and starting over. Thanks for sharing. really inspiring. The Braz engines are spot on! I have an old Revell Boeing 747-100 in my unbuilt stash, wanting to eventually finish it in Delta Air Lines livery, and this may move that project up a bit...with Braz engines. Most excellent work!!