neilg Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 I fancied a large but fairly quick and simple build, and I decided to redo a kit that I built many years ago in United Airlines' battleship grey livery. The Minicraft 777 is a very basic kit, with some out-of-scale dimensions, such as the wing trailing edges, but like its overall representation. I wanted a companion for my Boeing 777-300ER, which is hanging up from my ceiling. One of the nice features of this kit is the positionable main landing gear bogies, which have a simple hinge, a feature that is not on the Revell kit. For the Revell 777, I had to do some surgery to position the bogies for in-flight. I bought this kit from Draw Decals, which came with a set of their United-Contintental decals. The decals were superb. The carrier film is so light, it seems to melt onto the fuselage and looks great when in place. I forgot how nervous I get when it comes to applying cheatlines, especially on such light decal film. Other decals are more robust, whereas the Draw Decals come away from the backing paper in seconds, and are very easy to wrap around themselves, and then it's almost impossible to salvage them. This was a good practice for the red Landor stripe for my upcoming Airfix Concorde in 1:72. The paints were all Halfords - appliance gloss white, Fiat Capri Blue, and racking grey. 21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchem Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Excellent salvage job 👍👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 3 minutes ago, mitchem said: Excellent salvage job 👍👍 Thanks, this one is a new build. The first one I made is still hanging up at my parents' - they won't let me take them down! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 You do very nice work with airliner models. The 777-200 and 777-300ER compliment each other nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abandoned Project Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 What is this? A triple, triple seven fest! Fantastic. Just got myself a zvezda 777-300ER. Hopefully it will look half as good as yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbofan Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Hi Neil, Very smart! Who would've thought Halfords Fiat Capri Blue would work for the Continental/United livery!? Looks good, I'll have to remember that one. I seem to remember the nose shape wasn't quite right with this kit but I wonder if it's possible to graft on a copy of the Zvezda/Revell 777-300 nose. Your pinstriping looks okay, are you now confident enough for the Concorde? I find the best way to check is to look along the length of the stripe from the nose or tail then any links or wandering is more apparent and easy to correct. They are a pain though! I don't remember the Austral 777-300, was it ever in RFI? Cheers, Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abandoned Project Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 13 minutes ago, Turbofan said: I don't remember the Austral 777-300, was it ever in RFI? Good question! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 Yes there was a short RFI for the 77W: It was the Zvezda kit (I thought it was Revell), but it's the same plastic nonetheless. The nose of the Minicraft 777 has the one-piece clear part approach, that you have to sand down to fit the fuselage, rather than the single-piece windscreen that slots in. I really don't like that approach. I masked the window panes, but it doesn't look right - I think they're a bit small. I still have the windscreen decal, so I can apply that at some point, but I wanted to preserve some clear windows. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 7 hours ago, SAT69 said: You do very nice work with airliner models. The 777-200 and 777-300ER compliment each other nicely. Thank you. Most of my modeling is airliners. It's only recently that I started doing more military. I go through phases - right now, I'm part-way through a triple Harrier build, GR.1, Sea Harrier, and GR.9 Airliners are less fiddly - until it comes to things like cheatlines and probes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 (edited) 26 minutes ago, neilg said: Airliners are less fiddly - until it comes to things like cheatlines and probes! I love airliners but the thing that puts me off from building them is the difficulty I have of finding a way to cut templates so that I can mask curved surfaces and curved markings. Edited June 21, 2020 by SAT69 Not properly worded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 3 minutes ago, SAT69 said: I love airliners but the thing that puts me off from building them is the difficulty I have of finding a way to cut templates so that I can mask curved surfaces. Yes, me too, that's why I never tackled the default 777 livery! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger350Pilot Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Nice work on those 7s! I am partial to the older gray/blue United colors...just seems so classy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted June 21, 2020 Share Posted June 21, 2020 Lovely job on the Minicraft 777s Neil. I currently have one to finish up and another 4 in the stash. They are a nice easy build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 8 hours ago, Challenger350Pilot said: Nice work on those 7s! I am partial to the older gray/blue United colors...just seems so classy. Yes me too, I have one of the old Revell 747-400s to build in the battleship gray livery. I can't remember which gray I used for the 777 though. I think the best United scheme was the rainbow livery. It reminds me of my first transatlantic journey in 1993 on the 747SP. The return flight was on the only battleship gray 747SP, which is still flying as the NASA airborne telescope. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 8 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said: Lovely job on the Minicraft 777s Neil. I currently have one to finish up and another 4 in the stash. They are a nice easy build. I had some problem with the interlocking fingers of the wings. Mine were slightly warped and they interfered with each other while I was trying to fit them into place. What liveries will yours be in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 3 hours ago, neilg said: I had some problem with the interlocking fingers of the wings. Mine were slightly warped and they interfered with each other while I was trying to fit them into place. What liveries will yours be in? Neil, I have built 4 of the Minicraft 777s so far and had my fair share of issues with the finger, so I just cut them down to half their length and have no issues. I actually have 2 others started, one will be Singapore Airlines (closest to finishing) and the other will be BA Chatham scheme. I also have decals for the older Air New Zealand (teal) colours and am tempted to do one with the current markings. As for the other two I am not sure at the moment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulfman Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Very neat build and finish on the 777, Lovely work ! Wulfman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilg Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 6 hours ago, Wulfman said: Very neat build and finish on the 777, Lovely work ! Wulfman Thanks, it's not the most detailed kit, but up on the ceiling it looks like a 777. I think I should start learning how to do weathering - I don't think I've seen a gleaming United 777! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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