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Embraer E190 - KLM Cityhopper


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I've been flying back and forward between Bristol and Amsterdam regularly in these little Embraer beauties over the last year and thus felt the need to model one.  Jadlam's recent clearance sale of this kit was the catalyst required. 

 

They do remind me more of a sports car than an airliner, and indeed the pilots seem to fly them in a slightly more aggressive manner than the Airbuses.  Plus, they are much more comfortable than Easyjet's A319s and A320s - and they feed & water you during the flight! 

 

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Although I previously built a Revell E195 a few years back, this is their recent E-Jet issue, featuring the shorter fuselage of the 190. It comes with rather plain Lufthansa decals in the box, so for this one I used the superb 26 Decals KLM Cityhopper set and selected a serial for one I know flies out of Bristol.  Mind you, literally minutes after I ordered these, I found another vendor in the US selling a set that included the current colourful KLM 100 yrs markings, but these still met the bill perfectly!

 

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The kit is a fairly easy build with no vices.  I added a little weight in the nose and had to fill and sand a few blemishes on the top of the fuselage where the sprue didn't detach cleanly.  Unlike my previous build, in this case I managed to keep the tiny antennae intact despite my sanding!  My kit was crisply moulded with little flash, although I have heard this is not always the case.

 

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For the KLM blue I used Revell 50 gloss enamel. The wings are Humbrol US Medium grey, which in retrospect is a little dark, but it all depends on the lighting of course!!!!

As always the kit was hand brush painted enamel, with Klear and Micro Satin acrylic top coats to finish. 

 

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FredT :)

Edited by gengriz
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3 minutes ago, RMCS said:

Superb,  are the windows aftermarket 

Cockpit no - the kit comes with a decal for the frames (white in the kit),  as does the 26 set (aluminium).  On this kit they were good and clear, but the 195 had turquoise spots in the middle of each frame that weren't apparent until off the decal sheet and effectively unfixable  (aaaargh).

 

The cabin windows are the kit moulded holes backed by some black plastic card inside, then the 26 decals for the aluminium surrounds (which have clear decal backing in between) were applied over them, followed by some Klear. I guess they are probably quite fragile, but I've done this on a few kits now and they have survived a few years without damage .  On other kits I have done the same internal plastic card trick, then filled each hole with Klear.

 

The kit and 26 set both come with blackened window decals if you prefer this approach.

 

FredT

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Hi,

Just beautiful! What a result, I wish I could paint with a brush like that it would save so much hassle and mess with the airbrush or spray can! It seems to be quite popular at the moment what with Alistair's recent builds too. Do you have any tips?

Very nice match with the blue to the decal too.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Ian

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Well I'm not an airliner modeller (yet!) but this really caught my eye - lovely job and I bow to your excellent brush painting skills. I have flown on one of these and they are indeed lovely to fly on as well as looking dead sweet!

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

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Hello gengriz,

Splendid finish and as a Dutchmen, it was good to hear that you liked the flight and service.

Regards, Orion - The Netherlands.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gorgeous!   I'm an E190 Instructor for a Quite Large American Airline and can vouch for it being a fun ship.  I have this kit and am hoping to scrape together decals to build one in American Airlines colors.  

 

Do KLM have the winglet mod?  They look canted out a lot more than the ones I work with.   

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11 hours ago, aeroplanedriver said:

Do KLM have the winglet mod?  They look canted out a lot more than the ones I work with.   

The 190s and 175s are definitely different.  I'm flying on both next week in daylight and hoping for a few pictures.

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/8/2021 at 12:19 AM, tommyinuk0 said:

Great finish and all brush painted, wow. How did you manage to mask the wavy line, as I see the 26 decals come with this as a 'thin blue line' ?

Tommy

Do you mean the bend down at the nose?  The decals have this bend in them - I cut them out and used them as a template for masking, then the blue decal was thick enough to provide a cheat line to cover any inconsistencies.  It's not quite as neat at the nose as I would have wanted, but it didn't pose any great problem.

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That looks very smart! I’ve flown on these too on the final legs of our Taiwan-Amsterdam-UK trips. I think so anyway, unless they were tiny Airbuses!
 

I like KLM, their cabin crews are always very friendly and professional in my experience. I often wonder how many of their pilots are ex-KLu F-16 jockeys.

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Hello Gengriz,

Museum master piece. Especially when I did read it was hand painted.

Regards, Orion

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Hand-brushed? Crikey, don't ever bother to buy an air brush, rather spend the money on more kits! 😄 Beautiful work BTW!

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Just wow!! 😮

 

Absolutely beautiful, I thought it was sprayed until I saw the brush comments, I missed that so reread the original post and appreciated it even more!!

I wish I could paint like that!

 

Also you did the new scheme 'bend' really well at the front, was it fiddly putting that blue stripe on?

 

Like many, I've had the KLM experience, was lucky enough to get the Cityhopper Skyteam Ejet from AMS to BRS. Took off like a bleedin rocket, and landing on 09 at Bristol he was determined to turn off at the middle exit so threw out the anchors, I'm surprised there was no smoke coming from the brakes 🤣

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