Authentic Airliners Convair 990 Spantax 1:144

[Malair]

My latest build is the Authentic Airliners 1:144 Convair 990 in Spantax colours (You can find the Dutch build report over here: https://modelbrouwers.nl/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=52016). I choose this livery because EC-BZO is still standing proud in Mallorca (albeit in a deplorable state). Hope is they will refurbish her and open her up for public display.

 

There is not much to say otherwise. The Kit by AA is a masterpiece as per usual. The kit comes highly recommended and is a much more accurate offering then the F-RSIN kit.

 

The flight deck decals are from Authentic Airliner decals. In wanted to use their window decals as well, but the spacing of the windows on the decals from TwoSix where too narrow to have them fit over it. As the windows were printed on the cheatline, there was nothing I could do (apart from applying the window decals from AA one by one, but obviously I wasn’t in the mood for that). Also, the engine logo decals were wrongly printed for the engines on the right side, but that was easily fixed by simply turning them around (laser printed, so no white background). Also the right side has two windows too many near the tail, but again no way to fixed that.

 

Anyway, on with the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for my next project; The 7th of October, KLM will celebrate its 100th birthday! Over at the Dutch ModelBrouwers forum we will honour this by having a KLM buddy build (i.e. anyone can enter with a kit, as long as it has a KLM logo on it). I have at least 23 modelkits laying around that I want to build in a KLM livery, so I will be around in this buddy build for a while. I want to start with the Authentic Airliners BAC1-11, followed by the Zvezda 767-300. However, as the 7th of October is still two months away, I will first make the PAS-Models 1:144 Antonov 74TK-300D of the Ukrainian Government, as this is a relatively easy kit and livery to make.

 

As always thank you kindly for the view and see you next time!

[Alpha Delta 210]

Beautiful model of a classic jet and great photography to boot!

[Turbofan]

Hi Martijn,

As expected, a fantastic piece of airliner modelling! It's a beautiful and uncommon aircraft and you've certainly done it justice, nice subtle weathering too, of course.

I think I'm going to offload my F-RSIN kit and buy the AA one instead!

Pity about the cabin windows but even with just the AA windscreen it still looks good.

1 hour ago, Alpha Delta 210 said:

great photography to boot!

I have to agree! Your choice of taxiway baseboard is very appropriate as it looks very much like a hot and dusty Spanish airport.

Roll on 7th October but in the meantime have fun with the An74.

Cheers,

Ian

 

 

[RMCS]

Superb 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Atractive photographic display!!

 

[petetasker]

Lovely. Although not really a civil fan these days I do like the 990. Regulars into Manchester when I was a kid. Noisy, dirty, you could see the smokey exhaust they left in their wake for miles. Those were the days - happy memories thanks.

[26Decals]

14 hours ago, Malair said:

The flight deck decals are from Authentic Airliner decals. In wanted to use their window decals as well, but the spacing of the windows on the decals from TwoSix where too narrow to have them fit over it. As the windows were printed on the cheatline, there was nothing I could do (apart from applying the window decals from AA one by one, but obviously I wasn’t in the mood for that). Also, the engine logo decals were wrongly printed for the engines on the right side, but that was easily fixed by simply turning them around (laser printed, so no white background). Also the right side has two windows too many near the tail, but again no way to fixed that

Very nice looking Coronado.

I could have printed the cheatlines without the windows on them, you only have to ask and the starboard engine logos have been corrected

[NorbertBu]

Beautiful 990! I agree, the AA kit is very nicely detailed. I also had started the F-RSIN one and finally gave it away to a fellow modeller with more Patience....

 

So, the AA is kit waiting to be built also with Spantax livery, also by 26, but the older Version.

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Doc72]

Great model! I always liked the CV-990. It's the most sexy aircraft of the 707/DC-8-generation (albeit the least successful). Spantax was also fascinating airline, I think they crashed or lost a significant part of the total CV-990 production (3 out of 37). It seems they had quiet a bad reputation due to their safety record at the time.

There is also the story of Spantax landing on the wrong airfield in Hammburg. The CV-990, with the company's president at the controls, was supposed to land at the regular Hamburg Fuhlbüttel airport, but landed by error on the (then) much smaller runway at Finkenwerder, only a few kilometers away across the river Elbe. This was the runway of the Hamburger Flugzeugbau factory, which was not at all suitable for a jet of that size (nowadays, its considerably longer as this is today the Airbus factory). The pilot, nevertheless, took off again and continued to Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel. This was widely reported in the German press at the same time and did not serve to improve their reputation. Nevertheless, Spantax did a lot to establish German mass tourism to the Canary Islands.

[Challenger350Pilot]

Very nicely done, Martijn! WOW. The Authentic Airliners kits coupled with fine liveries are in a class of their own. I would echo the compliments on your photography, and most especially the presentation. Looks really nice. Love the runway and taxiway bases...they certainly do NOT take away from the fine craftsmanship on the model build, but add to it. Congratulations on a job well done! 

[Skodadriver]

That's an absolute beauty Martijn. As others have said the photographs are great and really enhance the model. Spantax B737s used to turn up regularly at Glasgow in the 1980s. Sadly I never had the pleasure of seeing the CV990 in the flesh, so to speak, but this is definitely the next best thing. Your build article is very interesting, particularly your decision to attach the engines to the wings before fitting the wings to the fuselage. I would never have thought of doing it that way but it certainly worked for you.

 

You'll love the PAS An-74. I built the An-72 a few years ago and it's one of the easiest, fun builds I've ever done despite the weird shape of the real aircraft.

 

Dave G

[Viking]

That is gorgeous, a beautiful airliner. Looking forward to seeing your next build.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Adam Poultney]

Very beautiful aircraft and amazing build

[Dennis_C]

Really like how it looks like on the runway! Great model! And the 60s were a great period in passenger aviation with so many types in the airports from post wwii piston aircraft to super new large jets like Convair 990.

So different compared to today's airports where an Embraer is already an exotic bird among A's and B's...

[Paul J]

very nice.  I don't recall seeing them in this scheme though.  All thats missing is all that smoke coming out the back!! 🙂 

[Malair]

Sorry for my late reply! The stomach flue got me, so I was out for a couple of days.

 

Many, many thanks for all the nice words guys! Much appreciated

 

On 18/08/2019 at 10:33, 26Decals said:

Very nice looking Coronado.

I could have printed the cheatlines without the windows on them, you only have to ask and the starboard engine logos have been corrected

Many thanks for your offer! I will keep that in mind for futre projects  I really liked your decals and the errors I mentioned are only small ones.

 

On 18/08/2019 at 17:34, Skodadriver said:

Your build article is very interesting, particularly your decision to attach the engines to the wings before fitting the wings to the fuselage. I would never have thought of doing it that way but it certainly worked for you.

I usually don't do this either, but as the pylons go through the wings and need to be sanded I thought it was easier to do it this way to prevent accidental damages to the fusealge etc. while sanding the pylons.

 

On 22/08/2019 at 08:03, Dennis_C said:

And the 60s were a great period in passenger aviation with so many types in the airports from post wwii piston aircraft to super new large jets like Convair 990. So different compared to today's airports where an Embraer is already an exotic bird among A's and B's...

Couldn't agree more. I love all civil aircraft, but it's definitely more boring nowadays. Even the narrow bodies are just the Airbus A320 family (40%) and Boeing 737 family (48%)...