Alex1978 Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 (edited) This is probably one of the rarest Revell kits nowadays. The first release was in 1957 with only 2 or 3 re-releases the following years,one being a Revell/Lodela kit with VARIG decals and one with a special livery of an American football team if I remember correctly. As with the Revell Convair 990 kit,I also found this rarity on a Swiss auction plattform,and also here I got together ,with the new kit,a finished one with some missing parts and apart from the applied decals,it was completely unpainted. As there are no aftermarked parts available,it was not easy to repair this kit. One wing had the propellers missing as well as the spinners and the rear cabin door was also gone. I decided to leave the propellers and mount it on one of those original Revell swivel stands and present it in-flight with "turning" props...by simply fit in new spinners that I found in my spares box.The are not completely accurate but they do the trick. I wanted to rebuild the kit in its original markings and I also found a wonderful new set at Vintage Flyers. My first attempt of painting an all-natural metal fuselage left me not very satisfied,so I went for a,at least for me, new approach. When I found a picture of a flying American Airlines Electra with that shiny bare-metal fuselage,I decided to use Bare-Metal foil to wrap the whole fuselage to achieve the same result. It was a tedious task and took hours to apply all the foils but the final result is very pleasing. The wings and engines are painted with Testors aluminium as these parts didn't look as hiny on the picture as the rest of the plane. Compared to the Minicraft 1/144 kit,Revells over 60 years old offering is far more accurate than the Minicraft version.It also has its faults,but the overall look beats the Minicraft in my opinion. Too bad that Revell altered the moulds to create the Orion out of it,so its impossible to ever see a re-release of this gem. The Electra logo on the stand comes from the original Revell decal set.It was stiff as a board but I managed to get it on the stand with lots of decal softener and laquer... Enjoy Edited October 23, 2018 by Alex1978 36 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Great stuff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unfinished project Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Another beauty Alex 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Lovely finish Alex, another great result from your stable 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeaton01 Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Lovely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Strasser Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Really nice!! Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger350Pilot Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Yep...another beautiful job on an old kit. Kudos for taking the old sow's ear you received and making it into a beautiful silk purse. And a great job on the bare metal foil work too. I've never tried it...but I have a great appreciation and admiration for those who have. 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchem Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Cracking job on that ! mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMB Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Good job Alex! With the props missing, might I suggest you cut some discs out of clear acetate sheet and fix them on to represent the props turning? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Brilliant, in everyway, that's a wonderful finish & a stunning model. Teal/Air New Zealand flew these trans Tasman from 1959 to 1971, alas I was never to fly in one but used to hear them drone overhead from Wellington to Melbourne. They have remained a sentimental favourite, yours has done that no harm at all. Steve. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Fabulous, Alex. A great tribute to a great machine Martin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ c Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Fantastic job on that old kit Alex, looks superb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Great job. Brings back fond memories of the Electra for me. At one point I was in line to become a co pilot on them for a cargo airline I worked with. In the end it was not to be. But I did get to taxi one across the airport for a compass swing. A memorable moment indeed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl42 Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Wow, excellent work! Also, thanks for the pointer to Vintage Flyers decals! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1978 Posted October 26, 2018 Author Share Posted October 26, 2018 11 hours ago, AMB said: Good job Alex! With the props missing, might I suggest you cut some discs out of clear acetate sheet and fix them on to represent the props turning? Thank you very much. I tried that out and the result was not very pleasing.Thats why I took them off and installed the spinners only. This result looks far better in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringbag Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Lovely job Alex. Chris. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Alex, you could just have one propeller visible, as in failed. We had problems with reliability, lots of stoppages. Remember the actual aircraft was as old as the model kit. The wings cracked a lot too. It was a bit of a beast but we all loved it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbofan Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Hi Alex, That's a beautiful nmf you've achieved! How did you find the Vintage Flyer decals, I like the curtains! Pity about the prop blades, have you thought about using these? http://www.propblur.com/store/c1/PropBlur.comMain So are you going to build the other kit or keep it as an investment? Cheers, Ian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-fever Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 SO nice, and good NMF finish! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazontipede Posted October 28, 2018 Share Posted October 28, 2018 So shiny, so chrome! Lovely. This is the old 'Astrojet' livery isn't it? It must have been a bit of a maintenance nightmare keeping these birds all polished up. Worth it though. When we arrived in Australia in the early 70's only Ansett was still running Electras, and only as freighters at that. I still remember the distinctive pre-dawn grumble of these old birds setting about their business to this day. Living in Adelaide I have the local (Edinburgh based) P-3 Orions keeping those audible memories alive to this day. Alas not for much longer though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1978 Posted October 29, 2018 Author Share Posted October 29, 2018 On 27/10/2018 at 21:10, Turbofan said: Hi Alex, That's a beautiful nmf you've achieved! How did you find the Vintage Flyer decals, I like the curtains! Pity about the prop blades, have you thought about using these? http://www.propblur.com/store/c1/PropBlur.comMain So are you going to build the other kit or keep it as an investment? Cheers, Ian Thank you very much Ian. I will check out that site,see if I can find something that fits. The other one will be built someday.Still thinking in what livery though. I fancy the Ansett/ANA version but still undecided Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzby061 Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 Bloody lovely. Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme H Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 Wonderful build, glad to see that you built rather than stash what is a no longer available kit and those Vintage Flyer decals really look the goods 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 Very appealing model, well done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 Very nice. Old Revell kits can be quite pretty - provided you aren't concerned about having consistent scale in your collection. Electras were fairly rare in Europe - the only main user as passenger aircraft being KLM. Later when they were converted to freighters we began to see a few more - such as those operated by Air Atlantique. I remember seeing one at Shannon back in the 1970s. It was being operated by an American cargo airline and was carrying a load of explosives. It was parked out in the middle of the airfield, well away from the terminal area. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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