cathasatail Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 (edited) === Prelude === ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04:52hrs Zulu (21:52 local 17.08.19) Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas, USA "I think we'd better call it a day!..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:00hrs Zulu (13:00 local 17.08.19) Toncontin International Airport, Tegucigalpa Honduras After having spent a thoroughly exhausting, but enjoyable, 2 weeks in Honduras we were on our way back home. Incidentally, in those 2 weeks I had taken my first ever flight and I was looking forward to getting home with 7 flights under my belt. Now came the turn of flight 6, Tegucigalpa to Dallas-Forth Worth. Boarding went smoothly and the weather was remarkably pleasant! The voice from the captain came over the speakers, a storm was approaching... 22:10hrs Zulu (14:10 local 17.08.19 So much for the nice weather... We didn't end up taking off for another hour but my goodness what a flight. Rocked by turbulence, blinded by lightning, we made our way to Texas. 02:30hrs Zulu (19:30 local 17.08.19) Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, We were 2 hours late for our British Airways flight back to Heathrow, and to make it worse border control was jam-packed. Despite running through a seemingly endless terminal to find our gate, it was clear we weren't going to make the flight. Defeated (and breathless), we found the nearest airline desk and managed to get accommodation for the night. Tomorrow we would be taking an American Airlines flight back to Heathrow. to be continued... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Across the pond in a Triple Seven" Hi everyone! I hope you're all well. I thought I'd try something a bit different for this build. Ever since last August, I've quite fancied having a go at a 1:144 Boeing 777 kit. And so, armed with Revell's 1:144 777-300ER kit, a can of paint and a set of aftermarket decals, I thought that the time was probably right to have a crack at it! Although we flew on a 777-223(ER), I will be sticking with the 777-300ER variant of the kit. I don't fancy trimming the fuselage nor wings, and it'll still be a Triple Seven. I also plan to open up the starboard cargo door/s as if it were sitting at DFW ready before flight- as such I won't be modelling dropped flaps/slats for this model. I'll aim to do 7 main installments- matching 7 points in the flight (with photos and a little bit of text) to 7 build updates (landing gear, engines, wings, fuselage/cargo doors, painting, decals, finishing touches). Who knows, I might be able to finish by the 1 year anniversary! But for now, thank you ever so much for dropping by. Best wishes, Sam Edited July 23, 2020 by cathasatail 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 Is this a rebox of the Zvezda kit? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 2 minutes ago, SAT69 said: Is this a rebox of the Zvezda kit? Hi! Yes, I think it is. I was wondering whether to go for this or the Zvezda boxing, and settled on this one because I gather the plastic might be slightly sturdier and less prone to warping (?). Best wishes, Sam 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 2 hours ago, cathasatail said: Hi! Yes, I think it is. I was wondering whether to go for this or the Zvezda boxing, and settled on this one because I gather the plastic might be slightly sturdier and less prone to warping (?). Best wishes, Sam I have two Zvezda 787s and their 747-8i. I've heard it suggested the plastic is soft but I haven't been built any of the three kits I have so can't answer that. The molding is crisp though and the fit is good during test fits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 Part 1.1: Welcome Aboard ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:01hrs Zulu (15:15 local 18.08.19) Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas, USA (Apologies for the quality, the above photo was taken on my phone) Following our overnight stay a few miles from the airport, we headed on over for our flight. And after a brief lunch, we were soon onboard the aircraft- an American Airlines Boeing 777- 223(ER). What struck me about the 777 was its size- it seemingly dwarfs everything around it! But the weather was gorgeous, the cabin was surprisingly empty and I was very much looking forward to the return flight. to be continued... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nose Gear The whole nose gear assembly is made up of 9 different parts, and is a great starting point for adding additional detail. I added some wires with superglue and used plasticard to detail some of the other bits and bobs on the gear leg- drilling holes in the torsion links and scratchbuilding the tow fittings: Painting followed next, and I have to say that this was a real challenge. Despite its real-life size, at 1:144 scale there's not a great deal of room to maneuver! After a quick gloss coat I had a go at detailing the nose gear bay: (I won't glue the gear leg or bay in until later on in the build) Next on the agenda is the main landing gear. But for now, thanks again for dropping by! Best wishes, Sam 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggu Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 Sam, what a cool way to do a build thread, LOVE you photos, and trip explanation... I will follow this one for sure, awesome work on the LG and at 1/144 too ! Jeff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 What incredible work on the nose gear and wheel well! My eyes cross just thinking about trying to do that in 1/144 scale. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 Part 1.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Main Gear Hi everyone, Work continues on the gear, this time it's the turn of the main landing gear. The main gear is made of 4 main pieces (the gear leg, the retraction actuator, the steering assembly and a piece that seems to contain both the brake rods and rock guards. Frustratingly, the -200 and -300 777 variants have different landing gear assemblies (thank goodness I clocked onto that before I started!) so finding decent references was a little bit of a struggle. If anyone's particularly interested in a few of the references, there are some very useful walkarounds here and here. I think it's safe to say that I've never put so much energy into detailing these gear legs, and although it can be frustrating at times, I'm actually enjoying spending some time on these. -The wiring assembly hasn't been fully painted yet, and there are plenty of additional wires/details that need adding. But I thought it might be good to do a little update at this point. So that's it for now, more to come soon! Best wishes, Sam 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 Nice work Sam, love the detailing of the gear legs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme H Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 what a great lot of detailing on the gear, very realistic 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 (edited) Part 1.3 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Main Gear Thank you guys for the kind comments Wow, what a morning, earlier I had my virtual graduation and then watched the launch of NASA's/JPL's Mars 2020 rover as it makes its way to Mars for a February 2021 landing! After a great deal of work on the main gear, I'm happy to call them done for the time being. I'll add some final wiring when they're installed into their respective bays, but for now here a few pictures of how they look so far: Now with those out of the way, I will make a start on the mightily impressive GE90-115B engines. I'm looking forward to working on those as it will be a great opportunity to have a play around with the Tamiya spray paint (last time I played around with a spray can I ended up ruining an Airfix Valiant) and the new decals too (although if I'm honest, I will just be glad to get away from all those wires!). So until then, as always, thanks for dropping by! Best wishes, Sam Edited August 4, 2020 by cathasatail Turns out when talking about Mars 2020, it's helpful to not forget the words "Mars 2020"... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted August 3, 2020 Author Share Posted August 3, 2020 Hi everyone, Just a quick update from me, I've been playing around with a can of Tamiya mica silver (first time painting with a can in a long, long, time) and unfortunately the paint is a little bit too "silvery" for my liking. I've ordered a can of Tamiya pearl white that I'll try to mist over the top to get the desired look, but that won't be here for another week. Having said that, I'm already quite a fan of the silver- sprays very smoothly, gorgeous finish and dries relatively quickly! Best wishes, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted August 6, 2020 Author Share Posted August 6, 2020 (edited) Part 2: A Beautiful Day For Flying! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22:45hrs Zulu (16:45 local 18.08.19) Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas, USA Having moved seats to get closer to my group of friends on the flight (we were able to get a whole row each!) we pushed back from the gate and started the engines up. The weather was absolutely magnificent and made a real change from the torrential downpour that we had to battle through the previous night. (You get a sense of the size, and height, of the 777 when you come across the American Eagle CRJ-700 just below the trailing edge of the wing) A short taxi to the runway later, the throttles were opened and off we went. As the vast expanses of the Dallas suburbs swept underneath us, I settled down and took in what were going to be the last glimpses of US soil on the trip. Within minutes we had roared skywards and were cruising above the very few clouds that were around that day. I'd love to return to the US one day. Despite the heat and humidity, I developed a fondness for Texas and I very much look forward to being able to explore the area properly. And to think this wouldn't have happened if we hadn't missed our flight! But for now, the sun was falling low in the sky and I was finally on my way back- London bound! to be continued... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Engines The 777-300ER is powered by 2 General Electric GE90 engines, each producing approximately 94-115,000 lbs of thrust (depending on the variant) on takeoff. I'm not entirely sure which variant of engine comes with the Revell kit, I suspect it could be the GE90-94 variant but I can't say that with any real certainty. I'm sure someone will correct me! Either way, each engine is made up of a total of 10 pieces and includes a rather nicely detailed fan assembly. I then sprayed everything with a Vallejo black primer, painted the leading edge of each fan blade (by hand), laid down a Vallejo silver coat on the interior of the parts to the rear of the fan assembly, and had a go at painting the demarcation within the fan housing with 2 shades of grey. The spiral decals were from Revell as the aftermarket set came with black spirals for some reason... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was at that point I saw a shape out of my window and grabbed a quick snap of one of the RAF's C17's that can often be seen doing practice approaches into Birmingham airport these days. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As alluded to in a previous post, I masked up the engines and gave them a spray with Tamiya Mica Silver. Which was way too "silvery" for my liking... After finding some advice online, I gave them a misting of Tamiya Pearl White. Bingo! Next followed the usual gloss varnish, decals (including the red line decals from the aftermarket set), weathering with UMP's Earth wash, and a few touch-ups here and there: Well, well, well, there we are then. Barring some more minor touch-ups I think that's the engines all done! Next on the agenda are the wings (which are currently all built-up ready to be painted), but I couldn't resist sharing a sneak-preview of something that I've been working on for the rear fuselage...... So until then, thanks again for tuning in! All the best, Sam Edited August 6, 2020 by cathasatail 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 (edited) Part 3: A Brand New Day! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01:32hrs Zulu 19.08.19 Somewhere over the North Atlantic Almost 3 hours into our flight, the sun was being rapidly extinguished from the sky as we raced across the Atlantic. Despite the flight proceeding smoothly and this being my 7th flight, I just couldn't sleep while in the air. Maybe it was anxiety, maybe it was because I felt rested after our overnight stay in Texas- who knows! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wings + Fuselage I had planned to do a separate update for each of the wings and fuselage but it's all now rolled into one. The wings themselves were easy enough to do: 3 parts to make up the gear bays (which I spruced up with some wiring and weathering), and these are sandwiched in-between the upper wing pieces and the single lower piece. Absolutely no problems were encountered here With those out of the way I moved onto the fuselage. It was at this point (for reasons unbeknownst to me) that I pushed on with opening up the rear cargo hold/s and the cabin door on the port side. I'm fully aware that this extra detail probably won't be seen easily but, you know, I like to set myself a challenge! (Not the best paint-work in the world, but I think it'll do, given that the door is tiny- I'd quite like to build a cargo jet at some point, with lighting so you can properly see the detail!) I'm much happier with how this one turned out. Note: not 100% accurate! But what about the cabin, I hear you cry? Well, here's a little something as well: At 1:144 scale these 3 inserts are ridiculously tiny As things currently stand, I've closed up the fuselage, applied black primer and a mist of the Mica Silver. After making the schoolboy error of letting the can run out of paint (resulting in splatters over the model), I have managed to clean it back up and I'm now waiting on another can of silver and Pearl White to arrive before proceeding further. I've been giving some thought to the base, and I was thinking of a plain white base with the cargo/cabin doors open, a little square of text detailing the aircraft statistics, a few images from the trip and a "Unit Load Device" (LD-3) (read: cargo box) for scale nearby. I've also just realised that we're about 1 week away from the 1 year "anniversary" of this trip, will I get it finished in time? It's all to play for. But for now, thanks for having a look! Best wishes, Sam ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 05:30hrs Zulu 19.08.19 Somewhere over the North Atlantic Sunrise at ~30,000ft To be continued... Edited August 11, 2020 by cathasatail 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Impressive detail Sam, if I did not have so many kits I might try something like this on one of my 1/144 builds as well. I can only wish so I will continue to follow you build and lovely scratch building 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phildagreek Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Wow, lovely detail. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted August 24, 2020 Author Share Posted August 24, 2020 Part 4: Final approach ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 06:16hrs Zulu 19.08.19 Over Ireland After a rather nice breakfast, we crossed the Irish coastline. Or at least I think we did... the blanket of velvety clouds stretched right across the horizon. You almost felt that you could hold out your hand and scoop it up. But turbulence was minimal as we danced between pillars of cloud- we were almost home. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paint, Decals and Finishing Touches I have been waiting on another can of Pearl White and a can of Mica Silver for quite a while, and sadly missed the 1 year anniversary of the flight (close enough I suppose?). But when it did arrive, I must confess that I got slightly carried away and took very few pictures of the build process. After the fuselage and wings had been joined up, I went through the familiar routine of prime (with Vallejo Model Air Black primer), fill (with Vallejo putty), sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, etc.... until I was happy with the result. I can't say this was a wild success as a few of the seams still showed through, but I'll count it down to experience and work on that for the next build. However, I'm happy with the result. Next came a few mist-coatings of Tamiya Mica Silver from a rattle can. After that followed a few light sprays of Tamiya Pearl White (again, from a rattle can). A single coat of Alclad II Aqua Gloss was then applied and so began the decalling process! Some of the decals came from the kit, but most of them were courtesy of the Pas-Decals set. I didn't have many problems with them at all, and in fact they were remarkably easy to slide onto the model and adhered surprisingly well with Humbrol DecalFix. Another Aqua Gloss coat followed that, and then began the washing with UMP's Earth weathering wash. Gluing of the engines, cargo and cabin doors, landing gear/doors/struts and various antennas came after that. A final gloss coat helped to seal everything in. And so, nearly 5 weeks in the making, she's done: I added a little bit of weight to the nose before taking the RFI photos- don't worry! I'll save my final thoughts and opinions on the kit and decals in the RFI writeup. However, I will say that this is the first model in a long while that has been an immense amount of fun to complete. I've really tried to advance my scratchbuilding skills and try my hand at using a rattle can- something that I've only tried once before! (which ended in catastrophic failure...) So thank you so much for following along for this one! I'll be putting up the RFI shortly, and I will post the link to it here when it's up. See you soon ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 07:05hrs Zulu 19.08.19 London, UK 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggu Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 Excellent way to do a WIP.. I enjoyed the ride ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathasatail Posted August 24, 2020 Author Share Posted August 24, 2020 Part 5: Touchdown Well, here we are. After a great deal of work, but also a lot of fun, she's finally completed. Here's the link to the RFI I don't think a great deal more needs to be said at this point. The base is only temporary, but I'm relatively happy with how that's turned out. So, that leaves me to thank everyone for their kind comments and for following along with this build. I've had a great time working on it and I hope that you've enjoyed the ride too! All the best, Sam ...until next time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 07:14hrs Zulu 19.08.19 London Heathrow, London, UK 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now