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Courtline’s Blue TriStar


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Well not really! It’s actually Eastern Airlines 5th TriStar that was used for the 1972 summer world tour by the Lockheed Aircraft Company of California. The aircraft came to the U.K. to be demonstrated to the two British customers for the TriStar- Courtline Aviation, and BEA. Arriving at Luton airport the headquarters of Courtline, 305 was adorned with Court titles and logos in preparation for promo flights around various U.K. airports, ending with a flight to Palma, on the island of Mallorca-a typical destination for the airline. The next stop for 305 would be a short hop down to London Heathrow, where BEA titles and tail markings were hastily applied in preparation for further publicity flights and  a residency at the ‘Farnborough 72’ trade show.
Onto the model, this is the venerable but still very accurate Hasegawa example first rolled around 1980! Sadly these models are becoming rarer all the time and commanding extortionate prices on auction sites. The only mods I made were to add the early type thrust reverser jacks to the RB-211’s made out of plastic Rod, and the extendable tail skid (courtesy of a pin!) Paints used were Halfords appliance white, Xtracolour light aircraft grey, and Humbrol chrome silver from a rattle can. The only problem I encountered with the build was with the Classic Airlines decals. Although beautifully printed they did not seem to match the Hasegawa model, and required some trimming and touching up. One place where this is really noticeable is the Courtline titles on the aircrafts belly which do not represent how they appeared on the actual aircraft-and after referencing and re-referencing numerous photos of 305, it is not my painting skills at fault(!) Overall though I’m pleased with the finished result in this unusual hybrid livery.

Any comments or feedback is much appreciated-Thanks for looking. 
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When you can produce a model that nice in 1/200 scale, you have all the bragging rights you could ask for.

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Wonderful job on the very handsome tri-jet. Great to see the capitalised "S" in TriStar as well because as a precocious youth, I wrote to Airfix to berate them for using a lower case "s" in the name on the tail engine decal of their 1976 BA release!!🤣

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What a lovely, unusual model in a scheme I've never seen before. Congratulations on a fantastic build and thanks for sharing :clap2:

 

I wish there was an injection moulded TriStar kit of equivalent quality in 1/144. I don't build in 1/200 but there's no arguing that Hasegawa made some of the nicest airliner kits ever produced.

 

Dave G

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That is really nice.  Lovely build and finish. 

I saw it at the '72 Farnborough show, in BEA colours.  The image is scanned from a slide so please excuse the quality.

 

TFU76Si.jpg

 

Cheers

Graeme

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I have always loved the Lockheed TriStar as I believe it is the most beautiful jumbo jet ever produced.  And you have done a wonderful job in bringing it to life, congratulations on a job well done!

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Hi Nick,

Just lovely!

An unusual livery, I've seen the BEA but not the Court one.

I love the Hasegawa Loveliners but they're too small for me you get more on your shelf though!

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Ian

 

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On 07/07/2020 at 01:51, SAT69 said:

When you can produce a model that nice in 1/200 scale, you have all the bragging rights you could ask for.

Thanks very much for your kind comments👍

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On 07/07/2020 at 10:42, Skodadriver said:

What a lovely, unusual model in a scheme I've never seen before. Congratulations on a fantastic build and thanks for sharing :clap2:

 

I wish there was an injection moulded TriStar kit of equivalent quality in 1/144. I don't build in 1/200 but there's no arguing that Hasegawa made some of the nicest airliner kits ever produced.

 

Dave G

Thanks very much. Hopefully be able to do a few more Hasegawa 1/200’s before my eyesight moves me onto 1/144 or larger scales-oh the joys of getting older!

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Beautiful model!

Excellent job there, and uncommon scheme.

 

Now speaking exclusively about the plane design, there is something about commercial jets with engines on their tales that makes me think of Buck Rogers or those props of early SciFi movies (the ones that threw sparks from their tails),

It's, aesthetically-wise, like two planes in one. Must have been an engineering challenge to have those power plants and associated paraphernalia, plumbing, pumps, controls, so far away from each other. Weight on the tail invariably feels in aviation as a bit unnatural.

 

Great build!

 

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