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1/144 Dash 8 Q400 Luxair, Eastern express


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Some people call this airplane ugly, but I think she is sleek and cute.
Surprisingly it is one of the better fitting Eastern Express kits but still very stressful to build.
At some point I thought WIP would have been nice because there were some unexpected plot twists.
I have gone a long way choosing her livery, but eventually it came down to airBaltic which I have flown on and Luxair. I've already built an AirBaltic 757 so I went with the Luxair.
Eventually I've ordered Luxair decals along with a technical sheet from Nazca early May and gave up six weeks later. I think the international mail has stalled so I've spent a couple of eveninigs in Adobe Illustrator retracing Q400 drawings and researching Luxair colours and typefaces (RGB percentages of the desired colour gives you a rough idea of the eventual paints mix) I came up with something like this
luxair-livery-preview.jpg

I've gone to my office to print them out only to find out that all of my decal paper would jam in the printer. I went on to recover different pieces of paper that weren't damaged to make a livery, but it still lacked some details some of them redundant with a OOB decals (like doors), some of them not, namely front gear markings.
In the end some decals blended perfectly, but windows kept that horrible yellowish band which is probably the case of the failed print process. So for the first time trying the decals are alright, I think.
I've really enjoyed the sky blue colour, looks very fresh and crisp though it didn't really blend with the decal colours :(
The landing gear is very simple looking yet Eastern Express managed to make it still a nightmare to assemble correct height and upright. 

Okay, there she goes. Mind she's about the size of 735 i. e. pretty small

Cheers,

Steve

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Very nice model in one of my favourite liveries. Thanks for sharing.

 

I built the Welsh Models Q400 a couple of years ago and it sounds like it was a lot easier than the Eastern Express version!

 

Dave G

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2 minutes ago, Skodadriver said:

Very nice model in one of my favourite liveries. Thanks for sharing.

 

I built the Welsh Models Q400 a couple of years ago and it sounds like it was a lot easier than the Eastern Express version!

 

Dave G

Thanks! Yep, I'm just not up to the resin kits. Probably used some nosecones and engines for the conversion, but not the whole kit.
Eastern Express has some appealing aircraft types on offer, but one should be really cautious with their kits.

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49 minutes ago, Challenger350Pilot said:

Just beautiful! Really like the livery, too...and we ALL admire someone who steps out to make such fine decals. Really nice! Thank you for posting. 😉

Thank you for the kind words! Decals technology has to be fine-tuned for me, but this is definitely a way to improve!
Also if anyone is interested I can share them in any appropriate format.
Now I remember I was also really interested in Wideroe livery, but managed to find only for the Dash8 q300 at Lima November, sooo maybe someday I will do that

Thank you, everyone

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59 minutes ago, Bill.B said:

Love the Dash 8 (Q400) and have flown 1000’s of miles in them.

What’s not to like?

Fantastic model BTW.  :yes:

Yeah, I love turboprops, although once I hit my head on the wing structure inside the Fokker 50 cabin.
Probably some people just don't like supercritical wing profile along with a nice long fuselage🤔

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Very nice model of imo very nice looking airplane!!!

It's maybe close to be called disproportionate with shorter wing and very long fuselage. But I actually like its look and admire it as passenger. Never had any bad experience flying it. I was cautious before my first flight as the only other turboprop I ever flew was An-24. Problem is An-24 compares to Q400 as an old Moskvitch on gravel road compares to a modern family car on normal highway. 

Edited by Dennis_C
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1 minute ago, SodaCitron said:

Very nice build. Mine is currently stalled (Tyrolean / Autstrian Airlines). Do you have any tips for painting the propeller blades ?

 

Oh, best of luck. Mine was also Austrian airlines. I went light to dark with the propeller blades. First sprayed lemon yellow on unmasked blades, then put some tape on the tips. This is a pain because you can't really have a reference point and make them the same size (at least I didn't come up with a solution). But they look okay to the naked eye. So you just paint black on the masked blades, then I painted sides with a silver paint marker. 
Maybe rivet-counters would go with dedicated blade masks, but to me the result is not too clumsy. Yellow patches are a bit too big and they have a little curve, but I gave up trying to replicate it.

Will be looking forward to your build!

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10 hours ago, Dennis_C said:

Very nice model of imo very nice looking airplane!!!

It's maybe close to be called disproportionate with shorter wing and very long fuselage. But I actually like its look and admire it as passenger. Never had any bad experience flying it. I was cautious before my first flight as the only other turboprop I ever flew was An-24. Problem is An-24 compares to Q400 as an old Moskvitch on gravel road compares to a modern family car on normal highway. 

Thanks! I guess it is a bit like coloured pencils, some like blue, some like red. 
Yep, Q400 feels more like an Airbus with the props, clean tidy white cabin with tray tables and no vomit smell, fast and smooth flight. I guess nowadays (I mean reasonable future :) ) you can have your luck with AirBaltic or SAS. I don't know where Flybe and AirBerlin dashes went to. 

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56 minutes ago, Sent-off said:

Oh, best of luck. Mine was also Austrian airlines. I went light to dark with the propeller blades. First sprayed lemon yellow on unmasked blades, then put some tape on the tips. This is a pain because you can't really have a reference point and make them the same size (at least I didn't come up with a solution). But they look okay to the naked eye. So you just paint black on the masked blades, then I painted sides with a silver paint marker. 
Maybe rivet-counters would go with dedicated blade masks, but to me the result is not too clumsy. Yellow patches are a bit too big and they have a little curve, but I gave up trying to replicate it.

Will be looking forward to your build!

Indeed.

I initially to follow the rivet-counter path (the curved yellow tips) but yours is definitely good enough for this scale : straight lines ! And a clean straight line is always nicer than a clumsy curved one 😉

 

Thank you for revigorating me on this kit !

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3 hours ago, Sent-off said:

I guess nowadays (I mean reasonable future :) ) you can have your luck with AirBaltic or SAS. I don't know where Flybe and AirBerlin dashes went to. 

I actually flew it with AirBaltic and Austrian. Also I know LOT extensively uses this type. 

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