Boeing 720 'Led Zeppelin' (Caesars Chariot)

[heloman1]

Airliners don't usually do much for me but when I saw Led Zeppelin heading, I had to take a peek!  Nice build and soem brave airbrushing going on. I like it a lot!!!

 

Colin

[Neil]

4 hours ago, heloman1 said:

Airliners don't usually do much for me but when I saw Led Zeppelin heading, I had to take a peek! 

Colin

 

I don't often go down the airliner route either in truth, it was the link with Led Zeppelin that inspired me to build this one. Makes a change from all the military stuff I tend to do though, nice to do something a little different from the norm once in a while.   

 

 

[Neil]

Decided to remedy the ovesized nose wheels. Unfortunately I had already assembled all the u/c components which made reducing the nosewheel size a little awkward, however I gradually reduced the overall diameter by careful scraping with a new scalpel blade and a bit of carefull rubbing down with abrasive paper. Unfortunately the outer circumference didn't look particularly concentric in places, is was surprisingly difficult to achieve that. Sorted that out by cutting a short length of thin-walled alloy tube, cut a slot along one side with a hacksaw, and fixed a small piece of abrasive paper in one end with double sided tape. This was then placed over each wheel in turn and rotated gently to remove any high spots on the wheel outer circumference. Because of the slot in the tube, that gave a little bit of 'spring' to it, so the amount of pressure applied could be varied with gentle squeezing, though not too much pressure, to avoid snapping the wheels off the u/c leg.

 

 

Overall diameter of the nose wheels is now 6mm, instead of the 7mm it was originally. Should look a bit more in proportion now. The mainwheel sizes remain unchanged.

 

 

 

 

[FortyEighter]

Just loving this paintwork tutorial!

[Neil]

The kit decal sheet, on the right hand side in this pic, is not great as I said earlier (what there is of it ....). The only bits of it I will use are the horse-and-chariot images, the door outlines and the Black outlined rectangles that contain the words 'Led Zeppelin' in White (difficult to see on light coloured backing paper). The serial number for the 'plane is incorrect, and also about 25% too small, and the Brown markings edged in Yellow for the fin will also be discarded as they have been airbrushed on instead. As I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, the circular 'Icarus' (winged man) logo's are obviously not good either, and are rather vague and messy in appearance, as can be seen, so they will not be used either.

 

I found a good, clear image of the circular Icarus image online, so I printed that off onto clear decal film, at the correct size ratio, so that can be applied to the fin/rudder instead of the kit decals. I actually printed the logo six times, (on the left hand side of the pic) just so I have a few to play with in case a mess any up! I am much happier with that image now, instead of the kit one.  .  All I need to do is seal the six images on the decal sheet with a coat or two of clear, and I should be good to go.

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

The fuselage band that surrounds the windows and goes up the fin now has the narrow stripes added either side of it; the Brown section on the rear fuselage/fin has Yellow stripes either side of it, and the Yellow band section on the forward fuselage has Brown stripes either side of it. These narrow stripes are cut from decals and really tried my patience when applying them. Circular area on the fin/rudder is ready for the Icarus logo, that I printed on decal film earlier, to be applied.  The correct serial number has also been added to the fuselage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

Was looking at an enlarged image, and it suddenly dawned on me that the fuselage windows have Silver frames to them, not easy to spot with pics that are taken at a distance. As luck would have it, I already have a sheet of TwoSix decals for the Boeing 720 and in amongst the generic stencils and such, are Silver window frames, which is something of a bonus. I have applied these frames to the eight rear windows on the starboard side, just to see how they look (second pic) and it does make a surprising difference in 'looks' as it were. The fuselage windows now look more 'complete' for the want of a better phrase, and not just holes in the fuselage side.

 

Also applied a disc of White decal to the area, on the fin/rudder,  that will eventually be covered with the 'Icarus' logo I printed onto decal film earlier, and after a little thought decided to remove the serial numbers I had previously applied because they were a little on the big side. I have some more Black decal letters and numbers lined up for the serial instead. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RCI]

love it!!!

[Neil]

Replaced my original serial number with one that now looks a little better, and all of the Silver frame decals have been added to the fuselage windows on both sides. My home-made circular 'Icarus' decals have now also been applied to the fin/rudder surfaces, and am happy with how they have turned out. Will probably add a coat of clear over all of the completed fuselage and fin decals, just to seal them in, and then once that has hardened off can get cracking on with the wing painting.

 

 

 

 

[stringbag]

So impressed with the paint and decal work.  👍

 

Chris.

[Neil]

22 hours ago, stringbag said:

So impressed with the paint and decal work.  👍

 

Chris.

 

I'm pleased with it so far, glad that the fuselage is now basically done. Those really narrow strips of decal either side of the band along the fuselage were a pain though, but it was fortunate that I had the TwoSix decal sheet kicking around, the Silver window frames really finished things off nicely, and I must say that it makes the windows certainly look more of a finished article instead of just basic blank holes. All the fuselage decals now have a coat of clear over them to seal them in, will leave it now for a few days to cure and then tackle the wings.

 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

23 hours ago, stringbag said:

So impressed with the paint and decal work.  👍

 

Chris.

As am I, fine attention to detail with the colours and markings on this Neil  

[Neil]

17 minutes ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

As am I, fine attention to detail with the colours and markings on this Neil  

 

Thank you kindly, I do have a bit of a vested interest in this one though, considering who used the 'plane at the time, so trying to make a nice job of it . 

 

 

One small detail, but for something that will be not installed until everything else is finished on the model, because they will be a little delicate. There are two antenna wires to be fitted, both of them are (essentially) attached at the same point on the leading edge of the fin, near the top, and then they enter the forward fuselage at two different and separate points. They both enter above and just behind the cockpit area, so in preparation for this I drilled two separate 0.3mm holes, in the relevant area, with the drill in a pin vice. Also made one 0.5mm hole in the relevant point on the fin top leading edge, where both will enter and attach. The Red circle on the pic is where they individually enter the forward fuselage, should be able to just about make out the two 0.3mm drilled holes (tiny Black dots!).  I also made a hole in the nose wheel undercarriage bay where both wires can be pulled through and kept taught when they are to be fixed with superglue. Will probably use some very fine fishing line for the wires.

 

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

Undercarriage units are now finished and ready to be installed, hubs were masked with discs of tape made with a Waldron punch and die set and the tyres sprayed Black. The White legs and hubs just need some subtle shading done to them. Did a dry-fit with the u/c units on the model and I am pleased that I reduced the overall diameter of the front wheels, they do now look more to scale in relation to the overall look of the model.

 

Made a start on masking and spraying the wings and tailplanes, with various Grey and Aluminium shades. Now, all of the pictures I have collected of this aircraft in use show it to have a hint of 'used' look about it, certainly not a factory-fresh pristine condition. That's not to say it was in a heavily marked, really dirty or grubby finish as such, it just had that mildly 'pre-owned' look about it (in the time frame that I am building it from anyway!).  So I will be adding a very subtle and faintly weathered finish to the paintwork, certainly nothing over-the-top to it though. 

 

 

 

 

[heloman1]

You could uase easy-line for the two wire aireals, works a treat.

 

Colin

[Neil]

8 minutes ago, heloman1 said:

You could uase easy-line for the two wire aireals, works a treat.

 

Colin

 

I have not used that stuff before, will look into it sometime.  

 

 

[Neil]

Applied some panel shading and light weathering to the wings, similar to the tailplanes, but kept it subtle and discrete. It would look out of place if it was heavily weathered and 'in-your-face'. The fuselage is not yet weathered, but it too will receive some subtle treatment. The engine nacelles and pylons are now ready to be masked up, and when masked will be given a coat of Gloss Black, in preparation for the airbrushing of a nice shiny coat of Alclad.

 

Note that some overwing exit marking decals were applied to the top wing surface, not included in the Roden kit (single-exit type decals, as there is only one overwing exit door above each wing) but again, luckily, they were included on the TwoSix decal sheet I had.

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

That single stage of finishing that never seems to end ...... paint masking.  Made a little more complicated because of bare metal sections adjacent to the pylon fairings where they join the wing leading edges, and a couple of tiny leading edge sections outboard of engines No.1 and No.4, aswell as the engine nacelles and pylons.

 

Looked closely again at all the available pics that I have of this 'plane, and very nearly missed something. The leading edges of the fin and tailplanes are in aluminium or bare metal too, so these were also masked up prior to the spraying of the Gloss Black sections. A detail that is easy to miss ...... 

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

All the relevant sections that will be coated in Alclad have been masked, and sprayed with a coat of Humbrol Gloss Black (enamel) thinned again with Cellulose thinners for airbrushing purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[stringbag]

I'd be frightened to death, spraying anywhere near those lovely hand painted cheatlines, no matter how much masking was applied.  Hope it all goes well Neil.

 

Chris.

[Neil]

16 hours ago, stringbag said:

I'd be frightened to death, spraying anywhere near those lovely hand painted cheatlines, no matter how much masking was applied.  Hope it all goes well Neil.

 

Chris.

 

There is an element of apprehension during the masking, no two ways about it. Masking over previous fully cured paint is not quite so bad, as such, the bit that always makes me nervous is applying masking tape close to (or over, in this particular model....) previously applied decals, alot of which are one-off hand cut items. The risk of tearing off these delicate little strips of decal film with masking tape are quite high, it would be a real pain to replace them. To say the least ......  

 

 

[Neil]

On 4/20/2019 at 11:32 PM, stringbag said:

Hope it all goes well Neil.

 

Chris.

 

After a little bit of holding of breath ...... things worked out fine  .   The areas previously sprayed Gloss Black now have a nice coat of Alclad, much to my relief.  The majority of it is Alclad ALC-119 Airframe Aluminium, with smaller darker sections on top of each engine nacelle and the turbocompressor housings on both inboard pylons sprayed in ALC-120 Gunmetal. The fin and tailplane leading edges and the small sections of wing leading edges next to the pylons are also in ALC-119 Airframe Aluminium.

 

The two antenna wires have been fixed into the upper leading edge of the fin top with superglue, and the other ends passed through the holes made previously in the forward fuselage roof and passed through the hole in the nosewheel bay I made earlier. They just need to be gently pulled taught, superglued, and painted Black to finish them off. I used some fine 3lb nylon fishing line for the antenna wires, apparently it has a diameter of 0.17mm (so it says on the reel).

 

Can make a start on the subtle fuselage weathering next, along with a few blade antennas etc. Getting close to being finished.

 

 

 

 

[stringbag]

Thank goodness for that.

 

Chris.

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

My SWMBO and I are big Zeppelin fans and this build is Beautiful . Im not normally a fan of commercial airliners, but this is one i had to comment on. 

 

Dennis

[Neil]

5 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

My SWMBO and I are big Zeppelin fans and this build is Beautiful . Im not normally a fan of commercial airliners, but this is one i had to comment on. 

 

Dennis

 

I normally concentrate on military stuff, rarely do any civil/commercial ones, but as it has the 'Led Zeppelin' connection I really wanted to give it a go, been on my to-do list for a while. Makes a bit of a change if nothing else!