1:72 Heller 707 - BWIA "Bird of Paradise" (now I need a Caribbean holiday..)

[Bangseat]

Since October I have been working on the 1:72 Heller 707. I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with 1:72 airliners at the moment, it just seems like the kind of slightly bonkers activity that one should embrace if at all possible. However, tempted as I am by Modelsvit and HpH super kits for £400, my fear of b*ggering them up precludes me from taking the plunge. (Money should as well, but until they take away my bank card its unlikely to work as a self-discipline mechanism).  

 

Happily, the Heller kit is an eminently sensible way to build a big jet in 72nd. This kit is fabulously good value - I have had 4 solid months building for £40 (£30 for the kit £10 for the PE) - and there are kits in this size class that go for 10 times that or more.

 

I am going to say quite a bit about this build, as I didn’t do a WiP but I’ve been at it for months and have a lot to unburden! But before I get that all off my chest, here are the pics:

 

 

 

..and for scale

 

 

 

I learnt quite a bit about 7 ohs and the kit along the way, and I'll record it here, although it's all been said before it bears repeating. There are many different models of 707/720, with different length fuselages, 3 different wings, and different engines, apart from smaller detail differences (there is an excellent guide here https://www.airlinercafe.com/page.php?id=72). The kit represents well the 300B/B Adv model, except the engines are slightly wrong, and need the small fan doors, which mark it as a lower thrust JT3D-1 or similar, sanded/puttied out and larger fan doors of the JT3D-3B engine scribed in, I did this. A 300C can also be represented by scribing in extra doors, specifically the big cargo door and the mid length emergency exit "hat rack door". To make other variants from this kit would need aftermarket stuff and/or advanced kitbashing skills.

 

There are so many 707 schemes to choose, stretching in time from the passenger flagships of the 60s to cargo hacks of the early 00s. I chose to do a 707-351C as operated by BWIA in the late 1970s. This appealed as I like making my own decals, and this scheme crucially has no white lettering! Many BWIA planes had names and nose art, and 4 707s were named after birds, specifically Toucan, Humming Bird, Scarlet Ibis and Bird of Paradise. I just went for the nicest looking bird, and 9Y-TEJ “Bird of Paradise” it was. The BWIA scheme is in a fetching scheme of sand brown and turquoise, although period photos show a considerable variation in the brown, presumably depending on light and film stock. There are plenty of good photos of BWIA L1011s and DC-9s in the 80s with a warm, golden sand colour, but to my eye this appears slightly different to the colour I saw on the 707s - not just old colour film playing tricks. There did seem to be a consistently greeny brown tinge to it, although with variation between pictures. It was almost, I fancied, a bit like one of the more controversial car colours favoured by British Leyland in the 70s:

 

 

So I mixed up Vallejo Model Color Yellow Green and Vallejo Model Air Concrete to make my 'Limeflower' mix. I used Vallejo not because it my favourite paint, but because I think they have the best range of non-military colours, particularly in the brush –formulated Model Color range, and I would rather start with something fairly close and do as simple a mix (ideally 50/50) as possible. The blue is VMC turquoise, straight up. 

In all, if I did it again, I would make it a slightly more golden brown, but it’s a ‘distinctive’ and very period colour, and I do maintain that in some light conditions they did look like that..possibly!

 

In terms of modifications to the kit plastic, I did a certain amount here as I noticed from reference photos that 707s at rest very often have the rudder deflected and the Krueger flaps deployed. The Krueger flaps were added to the 707 as it developed, by the time of the 300C series each wing had 5 outboard, 5 between the engines and 3 ones inboard, 26 in all. I cut out the recesses and scratchbuilt interior structure. In a perfect world I would have scratchbuilt the (I think) 104 actuators/hinges that join the flaps to the wing, but I opted for just glueing the flaps in place at various jaunty angles (as they appeared in my references).  My scratchbuilding in the end wasn’t so flawless as to merit going the full distance, but I’m glad I’ve achieved the Krueger flap look even though it took an age. I must say, 707 Krueger flaps would be a worthy (and epic) photo etch set..

Speaking of photo etch, I also used the Brengun photo etch set, which is a lot of bang for your buck and provides particularly worthwhile detail for the landing gear. It also provided the front nose gear doors, which were generally closed on the ground, but sometimes open for maintenance so I opened them up. The etch set also includes 50 odd absolutely tiny vortex generators, somehow to be attached to the wing – that for me is beyond my limit, so in the bin they went! 

 

The metallics were a mixture of Alclad sealed with Aqua Gloss (for the shiny stuff) and AK Extreme for the unpolished metal. The corogard was done by spraying Alclad dull aluminium on a light coloured matt primer. Streaking was mainly done with pastel, so as not to melt any metal paint with turps. For the fuselage, I used the salt technique with a couple of shades of AK Extreme to hint at the mottled alu look. It doesn’t look exactly like the real thing, but I like the effect, there is a time and a place for it definitely. It also took a few practice runs to get right – the key I found was using a hairdryer to quickly flash off the water, as if the salt is left too long it dissolves into the water and creates marbled effects which, although intriguing, bear no resemblance to anything. If you catch the salt particle before it completely dissolves, you get it to adhere mostly intact to the surface and create smaller, neater mottles.

 

Decals were almost all homemade, including the nose art for which I painted a funky chicken using my GCSE art skills. I’m no Audubon, but it scaled down well enough…

 

 

It has not been all plain sailing by any means, one of the challenges with a big bird like this is keeping the paintwork in good condition in the latter stages of the build, with the amount of handling required. Also, for various inexcusable reasons such as cack-handed use of a spray can and lack of patience, I ended up repainting the tail about 3 times. The tail markings were hard to do: I could have designed a decal, but I thought I’d struggle to match the paint colours, so instead I printed a decal with faint outlines and hand painted the brown and blue shapes onto decal paper. It worked – after 2 failed attempts! Also, full disclosure – I got the engine pylons wrong, and had to bodge on the hoof to get them to vaguely fit. The pylons are very misleading – the two halves of the long inboard pylons don’t match up symmetrically , there is an intentional step designed to fit with the step in the wing. Dry fitting should have happened or course, but I built up and painted the engines before I’d even stuck the wing together..  

 

All in all, I’m pleased with the way this turned out, although I’m not sure I’d be so happy if I’d spent an arm and a leg on the kit. It was certainly good training for building airliners. To wrap up - and well done if you’ve got this far - I’ll give you my lessons learned, so all you aspirant 707 builders don’t make the same godawful mistakes I did:

 

•    Check and dry fit the engine pylons with the built up wing before you glue them up. Label them once you’re absolutely sure they fit and know where they go
•    Make all your painting decisions, eg what shade/finish of metallic to use, what weathering to do, after experimenting with a mule. On the model, commit, do it once, do it right. Sanding, remasking and repainting this plane is not fun..
•    There’s not much sense in detailing most of the cockpit unless you love unseen detail, but the pilot seats are very visible and worth a bit of attention
•    The horizontal stabs have chunky locating pins that look like sprue – they’re not, so don’t snip them off
•    The wing fit is not good and is a known issue. The substantial gap between the top of the wing and the fuselage needs heavy duty filling, sprue goo, Miliput, whatever your chosen weapon. Whatever your process, don’t call it a day until you’ve put a test coat of metallic on it and found it satisfactory, this area is often NMF on a civilian 707. 

 

And finally..even though it is about DC-8s, I rather enjoyed reading this book as I built ‘TEJ’, and would recommend to any fans of giant silver skyships of the past...

 

 

Thanks for reading, and any critique very welcome!

 

Harry 

Edited February 5, 2020 by Bangseat

[andyf117]

Very nice, especially the homemade decals! I have a few of these in the stash, all destined to be military versions when I've somewhere suitable to display them - but for now, the stash is where they're staying!

Edited February 3, 2020 by andyf117

[pacificmustang]

great build and great write up

 

Bruce

[Viking]

very nice build and informative text, the dcals look superb.

 

Cheers

 

John

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

So very nice!

Great finish! And a wonderful outcome, especially from a dated Heller kit.

Congrats!

Cheers

[Back in the Saddle]

Fantastic build👍.

 

I have this in the stash, so thanks for the tips!

[noelh]

Great build. I really like the  BWIA colour scheme. It also brings back memories. Back in the eighties and nineties I worked for a now defunct jet engine maintenance and repair facility in Dublin.

 

BWIA was one of our customers. I personally dealt with paperwork for the JT3D-3B engines you mentioned although I don't think we worked on their 707 engines. But we refurbished the JT8Ds from their DC9s.

 

I was always hoping I might get sent out there on a business trip. Sadly it never happened for me but others were luckier. 

 

Good memories. 

 

 

 

[busnproplinerfan]

I have just one of these surprisingly, since I to am into the 1/72 airliner mood. mine is the E-3 but that may change if I can't the rotodome functional and not a big fan of Nato either. Prefer a seated bus anyway. Like this scheme a lot. The 7oh7s were great canvases for various colour schemes. I like the leading edge flap detail, gives it a nice touch of realism of one parked.

Edited February 4, 2020 by busnproplinerfan

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

There's nothing wrong with 1/72 airliners Lovely result 

[Graeme H]

Very well done 👍

[jeaton01]

Very nice!

[Bangseat]

Thank you for your comments all, much appreciated.

 

One more warning from history I forgot..the horizontal stabs have vortex generators on top, but you have to make sure the stabs mate with the fuselage to make a dihedral. Now, I'm not sure if I mated the wrong top to the wrong bottom, or if the parts are actually made wrong, but when I mated them up, they made a nice anhedral joint 😖. Dry fitting,  and possibly modification if the parts are wrong, is advised... And any clarification from seasoned Heller builders welcome!

[andyf117]

2 hours ago, Bangseat said:

One more warning from history I forgot..the horizontal stabs have vortex generators on top, but you have to make sure the stabs mate with the fuselage to make a dihedral. Now, I'm not sure if I mated the wrong top to the wrong bottom, or if the parts are actually made wrong, but when I mated them up, they made a nice anhedral joint 😖. Dry fitting,  and possibly modification if the parts are wrong, is advised... And any clarification from seasoned Heller builders welcome!

I've only ever built one of these, when I converted an E-3 (got a few of those, too!) to an E-6 some years ago - but I certainly don't remember any issues with the tailplanes...

[Work In Progress]

This is gorgeous and really puts me back in the period. You've even got a '70s kind of warmth in the photography.  I bet that 707 smells like an ashtray inside! Seems weird to even thing about it now now but the rising curl and smell of cigarette smoke on just about all modes of transport back then, and every bar, still lives with me.

Brilliant job, well done.

[SAT69]

Really pretty model. I have wondered what the finished Heller 707 looks like. Now I know it can be made into a very nice finished model. Thanks for showing your work.

[RidgeRunner]

Very nice. I remember these frequenting Gatwick in the 1970s. As I remember there were two 707-138Bs initially (9Y-TDB and -TDC, I think). After that the -300 series aircraft came through. Another nice memory brought back by a great build

 

Martin

 

  

[Abandoned Project]

Fantastic 707 there. I'm very tempted to get one myself. Love the decals and the 70's paintwork.

[Hobo]

That's a very impressive effort. A lot of work but well worth it. Love the BWIA schemes.

[Bangseat]

12 hours ago, andyf117 said:

I've only ever built one of these, when I converted an E-3 (got a few of those, too!) to an E-6 some years ago - but I certainly don't remember any issues with the tailplanes...

I must have dropped the ball somehow! It's such a simple looking kit out of the box, a bit like a giant Frog WW2 fighter, but the devil is clearly in the detail..

[Bangseat]

1 hour ago, Abandoned Project said:

Fantastic 707 there. I'm very tempted to get one myself. Love the decals and the 70's paintwork.

Do! There's some great stickers available from two six decals.

[Bangseat]

12 hours ago, Work In Progress said:

This is gorgeous and really puts me back in the period. You've even got a '70s kind of warmth in the photography.  I bet that 707 smells like an ashtray inside! Seems weird to even thing about it now now but the rising curl and smell of cigarette smoke on just about all modes of transport back then, and every bar, still lives with me.

Brilliant job, well done.

Thank you. Yes I imagine they are all chuffing away inside, including the pilots and the flight engineer.

 

It's funny how colours like BWIA brown, which is roughly the colour my gran's nicotine stained ceilings used to be, were more in favour back then..

[Skodadriver]

Thanks for sharing a superbly imaginative piece of modelling. Beautifully built, beautifully finished, splendidly photographed and excellently written up. Have a round of 

 

1/72 airliners are always impressive particularly when they are as good as your TEJ.

 

You probably know this already but the Robert Davis book was turned into a pretty decent film directed by and starring Cliff Robertson. It's one of the few films where airline flying is portrayed with reasonable accuracy and it has some wonderful in-flight footage of DC-8s.

 

Dave G

[Adam Poultney]

Amazing! I love this! Got to be seriously big in that scale

[Alan P]

Beautiful model, I bet it's a real showstopper 👏👏👏

 

 

I may have found your problem...they're meant to be underneath as the horizontal stab works in opposition to the wings to provide a stabilising downforce 😉👍

 

[gingerbob]

Lovely looking result, and photographed to do it justice.  Considering I've got a B-36 at my elbow, the 707 isn't THAT big !  No, wait, I've got a KC-135 (thus far in the stash)- it's pretty darn big.