Invicta International Boeing 720B in 1/144

[Skodadriver]

Here is the Roden Boeing 720B finished as  G-BCBA, a former American Airlines aircraft operated by Invicta International in the summer of 1974. G-BCBA seems to have been the only jet to carry Invicta’s full red and black livery.

 

The model was inspired by reading “Take Off to Touchdown” by Malcolm Finnis, a fascinating book highly recommended to anyone with an interest in second-level British airlines and the lives of those who worked for them. To digress for a moment, the book also contains a thorough debunking of the official report into the 1973 Basel Vanguard crash which blamed Invicta’s pilots. The author argues a persuasive case that the accident happened because of problems with the airport’s navigation aids rather than errors by the crew. Since the pilots died and the aircraft had no CVR they were convenient scapegoats. Well worth a read for anyone interested in that tragic event.

 

Getting back to G-BCBA, this was my first build of the Roden kit and it didn’t give me any major problems although I was surprised by the amount of filling at the wing roots. I knew the fit of the engine pylons to the wings was poor so I attached these before painting and managed to achieve decent joints but at the expense of fiddly and awkward masking complicated by G-BCBA having unusual grey pylons. I replaced the over-sized and inaccurate nose wheels with a pair found in the spares box, possibly from a Revell B767. I also added plastic rod pegs to strengthen the rather precarious joint between the tailplanes and the fuselage. Otherwise the build was OOB.

 

White paint is Halfords. The lower fuselage was noticeably darker than normal Boeing Gray and I used Halfords Ford Polar Grey because I had a can handy. Natural metal is mainly AK Interactive Aluminium plus some rattle can silvers, a little Rub’n’Buff and a touch of MiG Polished Metal. Coroguard is a home brew of Humbrol 11 and 128 mixed by eye (probably about 1:5). The grey forward sections on the upper wings (which don’t show up well in the photos) is Revell 374 sprayed on to clear decal film. Some aluminium decal completed the ensemble.

 

Decals are by 26 with an Authentic Airliners windscreen. Although the decals are accurate and a good fit on the model I found considerable care was needed with the red ink which was very “fragile” - easily scratched and prone to flaking if I looked at it the wrong way. It didn’t help that the red is a difficult colour to touch up and a few areas of G-BCBA don’t really bear close inspection, particularly around the fin. If I was building the model again I would spray the fin with a circle masked for the logo.

 

Thanks for looking and as always constructive criticism is welcome.

 

Dave G

 

 

 

 

[Matt W]

That looks superb, very evocative of era. It’s great to see airliners on here, I must try some myself!

[Scotsman07]

Wow Dave this is simply stunning!! You definitely have gone above and beyond with this build and your attention to detail is excellent. I might need to start adding some more classic airliners to my collection, I’m too set in my ways with the modern era.

 

I hope this inspires you to keep going with some more Airliners to appear in RFI soon

 

Regards,

 

Alistair

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Very nice!  Beautiful job on this baby.  I had no idea Invicta was still in business in the 70s, much less flying 720s!  Regarding the size of the landing gear wheels, please keep in mind that the 720's main gear wheels were about the same size as the nosegear--in fact, the difference is almost nil.  According to Al Lloyd's D&S Boeing 707 and AWACS, in 1/144, the main gear wheels are .275" in diameter, and the nose gear wheels .27" in diameter.  Al should know: he was a customer rep for the 707 series aircraft.

Edited September 29, 2020 by TheyJammedKenny!
bad math

[jenko]

A lovely rendition of an aircraft I used to see a lot of, as Manston (Invicta's home base) is just up the road from me. 

Happy days

 

Dick

[Viking]

Another great classic, and its got a red cheatline!. I was unaware that Invicta had a 720 so I've learned something there.

As regards the Basle crash, it always strikes me as suspicious when the blame is pinned on a crew that can't put their side of the story.

 

Cheers

 

John

[mitchem]

That’s a beaut Dave 

 

I’ve just started on my second Roden 720 and If it comes out half as nice as yours, I’ll be happy. I’m currently having a torrid time assembling the engines and I haven’t even thought about trying to attach them to the wings yet!

 

mike

[JWM]

That is a great results! 

Regards

J-W

 

[Abandoned Project]

Beautiful 720 Dave. I must admit to being a sucker for a cheatline, just like this one.

[SAT69]

A beautifully built and very well displayed model. I remember seeing the United Airlines 720s at Denver Airport. They'd been retired by that time and were just parked. I have no idea what became of them. 

[stever219]

1 hour ago, Viking said:

As regards the Basle crash, it always strikes me as suspicious when the blame is pinned on a crew that can't put their side of the story.

 

Cheers

 

John

It’s a while since I read the accident report, and my memory is a long way from what I would like it to be, but I think that there was reference to defective wiring or soldering in at least one of the ADF sets which may have contributed to the crew’s inability to accurately locate at least one of the airfield marker beacons.  The phrase in the report that at times “the ground was clearly visible especially through the side windows” (my emphasis) indicates that the investigators might have been looking for a “quick win” or politically acceptable result.  Unfortunately the records of the co-pilot (if I remember correctly) didn’t help matters, being incomplete and/or inaccurate; I have an idea that he may not even have been properly qualified on the Vanguard.

[Vince1159]

She's a beauty (if you do another and need a livery how about Avianca)...

[Chanex]

What an absolute stunner Dave-you’ve done her proud! The 60’s and 70’s really were the golden age of the British independents.

I think this bird ended up with Monarch after the demise of Invicta. A sister ship to my rendition of ‘kilo mike’😉

Nick.

[Turbofan]

Hi Dave,

Awesome as usual, such a classic livery.

Can't see any evidence of touch-ups on the tail though!

Nice wing detail, makes it look really busy. I remember building as a kid and wings were all just Humbrol 11. No coroguard or anything!

Looking forward to more.

Cheers,

Ian

[michael301757]

Really nice job, absolute classic, those were the days.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Cheers Michael.

[RCI]

looks awesome dude, like a proper 720! were they always that clean?

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Beautiful model!

I must confess I have never heard before of that particular airline.

A great job!

[Britman]

Marvelous! As an ex Invicta employee I could be biased, however, this looks bang on to me and will eclipse the one that has been in the holding pattern too long over my bench. It was very clean initially having been totally repainted unlike its sister BB which only visited our Manston base once in total natural metal with very little mystery as to its previous owner, American Airlines. This aircraft went out on lease and so was never painted in Invicta colours. Malcolm Finnis was a good friend of mine and did a great job with the Invicta history and the other major Manston resident Air Ferry , Twilight of the Pistons.

 

Keith

[MartinSK]

Perfect job, as always, looks realistic.

[phildagreek]

Very smart!

[Eric Mc]

Lovely.

 

Didn't the 720 family have smaller mainwheels than the 707s?

[stevehnz]

Beautiful job on that Dave. The Invicta scheme is a very handsome one to my eye & you've made a super job of it.

Steve.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

6 hours ago, Eric Mc said:

Lovely.

 

Didn't the 720 family have smaller mainwheels than the 707s?

Yes.  The mains and nose-wheels were only 1" diameter apart:  39" on the nose, 40" on the mains.  Boeing lightened this design in ways big and small, and the landing gear changes were among the numerous differences.  I don't know if the skin was thinner also.

[Epeeman]

What a great result, Dave -

 

Beautifully finished

 

Regards

 

Dave

[Skodadriver]

Thanks for the kind and supportive comments everybody - makes it all worthwhile 

 

On 9/29/2020 at 8:39 PM, stever219 said:

It’s a while since I read the accident report, and my memory is a long way from what I would like it to be, but I think that there was reference to defective wiring or soldering in at least one of the ADF sets which may have contributed to the crew’s inability to accurately locate at least one of the airfield marker beacons.  The phrase in the report that at times “the ground was clearly visible especially through the side windows” (my emphasis) indicates that the investigators might have been looking for a “quick win” or politically acceptable result.  Unfortunately the records of the co-pilot (if I remember correctly) didn’t help matters, being incomplete and/or inaccurate; I have an idea that he may not even have been properly qualified on the Vanguard.

The Finnis book draws heavily on the work of a journalist and writer called John Godson who uncovered many significant matters which were "omitted" from the official report. For example on the morning of the crash no fewer than eight aircraft had radio compass problems with beacon BN (the critical beacon in the Invicta crash) and two of them diverted. A French pilot called Leluc later found interfering emissions from a power line about 4km from beacon BN and reported this in detail to the Swiss investigators but he was ignored. There are other examples and it seems pretty clear that the Swiss had decided to blame the pilots to cover up the deficiencies in the airport equipment and the poor performance of ATC in the period leading to the crash. A similar point is argued by ex-KLM Captain Jan Bartelski in his book "Disasters in the Air". The basic training of one pilot (Dorman) seems to have been a bit iffy but he was qualified on the Vanguard and the other pilot (Terry) was experienced, capable, the holder of a Master Green Ticket awarded during his time in the RAF and very well-regarded by his peers. 

 

On 9/29/2020 at 9:25 PM, Chanex said:

What an absolute stunner Dave-you’ve done her proud! The 60’s and 70’s really were the golden age of the British independents.

I think this bird ended up with Monarch after the demise of Invicta. A sister ship to my rendition of ‘kilo mike’😉

Nick.

Thanks Nick. Yes, she went to Monarch and spent time on lease with Cyprus Airways and Royal Air Maroc. 

  

On 9/29/2020 at 10:18 PM, Turbofan said:

Hi Dave,

Awesome as usual, such a classic livery.

Can't see any evidence of touch-ups on the tail though!

Nice wing detail, makes it look really busy. I remember building as a kid and wings were all just Humbrol 11. No coroguard or anything!

Looking forward to more.

Cheers,

Ian

Thanks Ian. The wings on the 720 seem to have had an unusual pattern of coroguard and natural metal. I used photos in Great Airliners Vol. 7 for reference and tried to fit what I saw there to Roden's panel lines. I was aiming for an overall impression rather than millimetre accuracy.

 

On 9/30/2020 at 7:35 AM, Britman said:

Marvelous! As an ex Invicta employee I could be biased, however, this looks bang on to me and will eclipse the one that has been in the holding pattern too long over my bench. It was very clean initially having been totally repainted unlike its sister BB which only visited our Manston base once in total natural metal with very little mystery as to its previous owner, American Airlines. This aircraft went out on lease and so was never painted in Invicta colours. Malcolm Finnis was a good friend of mine and did a great job with the Invicta history and the other major Manston resident Air Ferry , Twilight of the Pistons.

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, you really made my day!  Can you solve one minor mystery which puzzles me? There aren't many photographs of G-BCBA in Invicta livery but most of them show her with two emergency exits on each side like the model. However this photo shows a single exit. Was she modified at some point?