busnproplinerfan Posted January 2, 2021 Posted January 2, 2021 I’d love to get an AA kit but they’re a bit to much blood for me. They’re usually sold out when I check them. I do like there decals.
Alex1978 Posted January 9, 2021 Author Posted January 9, 2021 Not much progress on the -SP front. All sub-assemblies are done and the Jumbo awaits its airline markings. I am still waiting for my f-dcal set to arrive. Its in process since mid december,so I hope it will be delivered the coming week. Meanwhile I am working on my 747-300 in 1/144. For this project,I am using a Revell 747-400 fuselage and the wings of a Revell -200. I am not yet clear of the airline,I have some Japan Airlines "Super Resort Express" decals from a binned Kepuyan kit,and some KLM decals from Revell 747-200/-400. I have to check if the JAL decals are usable,some elements need to be trimmed off anyway,so I will see if it can be worked with. This as a small,even unrelated,update to keep the WIP post alive until the SP build can commence. Alex
Back in the Saddle Posted January 9, 2021 Posted January 9, 2021 57 minutes ago, Alex1978 said: I am still waiting for my f-dcal set to arrive. Me too - maybe he's away at the moment...? Hopefully worth the wait! 1
Alex1978 Posted January 10, 2021 Author Posted January 10, 2021 22 hours ago, skystyle said: We will be glad to see some photos ) As per request,some photos of the ongoing -300 build. Not much as there is just the fuselage-wing join being done. The wingbox had to be sanded flatter,as the wing goes straight into it and not curved as on the -400. Also the nose had received a reshape,if everything is in place,I will see after the first shot of primer. After todays huge sanding session,thats how she looks. This will most likely be the livery of joyce. The decals I have seem to be ok. https://www.airliners.net/photo/Japan-Airlines-JAL-Super-Resort-Express/Boeing-747-346SR/183013 3
Back in the Saddle Posted January 15, 2021 Posted January 15, 2021 Great job Alex, looking very nice.👍 Any word yet from F-DCAL? I'm still waiting for my decals...
Alex1978 Posted January 15, 2021 Author Posted January 15, 2021 49 minutes ago, Back in the Saddle said: Great job Alex, looking very nice.👍 Any word yet from F-DCAL? I'm still waiting for my decals... Thank you. No,its still stated as "in process" ,no idea whats going on😳 Thankfully,Ray from 26decals helps me out with a decal set for my Aerolineas Argentinas -SP.👍,so the WIP should continue soon again. In the meantime,I will continue my -300 build amongst other projects
Alex1978 Posted January 23, 2021 Author Posted January 23, 2021 The 747SP build can now officially continue.😃 Ray from 26decals was very kind to send me the Aerolineas Argentinas decal set that he produces for the Eastern Express kit. Again,a very big "Thank you" to Ray 👍for providing me these decals. Here is the decal sheet from 26decals Detail set esp. for the -SP Airline motives Most likely,and hopefully,tomorrow I will start applying the decals. Today work came in the way Alex 5
Michael Morris Posted January 26, 2021 Posted January 26, 2021 Great build thread. Thanks so much for sharing. I'm planning on bodging together a model of SOFIA. It's one of an ever-growing number of projects I have planned, so hopefully someone will come up a 3D printed or resin conversion kit for this whilst I get on with the other projects.. 1
Alex1978 Posted January 26, 2021 Author Posted January 26, 2021 5 hours ago, Michael Morris said: Great build thread. Thanks so much for sharing. I'm planning on bodging together a model of SOFIA. It's one of an ever-growing number of projects I have planned, so hopefully someone will come up a 3D printed or resin conversion kit for this whilst I get on with the other projects.. Thank you very much. SOFIA is also on my wish list. After finishing this one,the following -SP will be the Braniff "big orange" first. After that, SOFIA will be probably the last -SP. They are a bit expensive...😳
Alex1978 Posted January 26, 2021 Author Posted January 26, 2021 Yesterday and today was decal time. All major airline decals are now applied. Next step will be the cabin windows and the fuselage details. I also had to relocate the cockpit decal and the emergency door.While applying the other decals,I realized that they were slightly off. Now everything is in place. Its starting to get alive now. Very pleased with the "26 decals" ,very well designed and printed,they fit perfectly on the EE kit.👍 More updates probably tomorrow. Some little more work on the engines to do as well. Here the progress pics. Alex 9
BluesModeller Posted January 26, 2021 Posted January 26, 2021 In a word... Crisp! Those decals look great! 1
Alex1978 Posted January 28, 2021 Author Posted January 28, 2021 (edited) Finally found some time to continue decalling. It was quite a busy week at work that kept me off getting any progress on my SP. Today I spent about 2 hours with the details,such as cabin and cargo doors, and windows. I had some hard time though. The AA doors and windows somhow tended to "disappear" on the cheatlines. So I decided to stop using those and go with the 26-provided detail set instead. These are much better visible but the carrierfilm is incredibly thin. Its very difficult to handle these decals as they are not very forgiving moving them to their location once off the paper. The rear cargodoor folded over while pushing it off the backing.No chance for salvation there,so I used the door thats provided on the Eastern Express set. I was surprised by this detail set,as I used them on other builds before and they were more durable. Maybe Ray changed the decal paper or the printing method ? Anyway,here we are...one side is done,hopefully tomorrow I will be able to work on the other side. Then its time for the engines detail decals. I also added some more structure and metallic shades to them according to photographs I found on the net. So much for today Doors and windows are done on the right side... A slight folding also on the forward cargodoor.I will adress that area at a later stage... One of the engines... ...to be continued Edited January 28, 2021 by Alex1978 12
Alex1978 Posted January 29, 2021 Author Posted January 29, 2021 Further progress on the SP. I have applied now all decals on the fuselage as well as on the engines. On photos I saw that under the airline titles on the engines are also the Pratt &Whitney Logos,but neither the decal set nor the detail set contained these logos. I went through my spare decals as well but to no avail.If I find some logos,I will add them at a later stage. Some more research on original photos and an input from a fellow modeller,revealed a few errors of decal placements.These had been corrected as good as possible as well. These consisted in moving the upperdeck windows slightly higher and a repositioning of the upperdeck emergency door and some cabin windows. It should now be as close to the original as possible. Some further details to the cockpit windows were added as well. Tomorrow I will give the fuselage a first layer of gloss coat before commencing adding all the smaller parts,such as landing gear,engines and antennas. So far,the construction went without much hassle,so I hope the rest of the build will be as smooth. Alex 11
mitchem Posted January 29, 2021 Posted January 29, 2021 40 minutes ago, Alex1978 said: So far, the construction went without much hassle Can't tell you how disappointed I am to read this 😢 You've single-handedly destroyed my only reason for buying ONE ! I hope you're proud of yourself ? 🥳 (On a serious note, you're doing a cracking job - very inspirational) mike 1
Alex1978 Posted January 29, 2021 Author Posted January 29, 2021 5 minutes ago, mitchem said: Can't tell you how disappointed I am to read this 😢 You've single-handedly destroyed my only reason for buying ONE ! I hope you're proud of yourself ? 🥳 (On a serious note, you're doing a cracking job - very inspirational) mike Thank you Mike. It seems I might have "destroyed" a lot of hopes...😉 None of the problems read on a certain other -not to be mentioned- site occured so far... 1
Alex1978 Posted January 30, 2021 Author Posted January 30, 2021 (edited) Today 2 things happened... I received my Braniff 747SP from Ray😀 and work on the Aerolineas Argentinas SP commenced. Todays work consisted of giving the fuselage its first coat of clear varnish and the installation of the landing gear. Installing the landing gear was not without trouble. The gear proved to be some bitch...It started quite a fight,the center gear in special. After some TLC and some nasty words,it was finally in place. After test fitting the wing gear legs,the center gear was off ground... Another round of trial and error combined with foul language and some adjustments,I managed to get all legs on the ground and levelled. Must be a universal 747 model thing with their landing gears...😉 I will let it dry over night and continue tomorrow with the installation of the gear doors,engines and tailplanes. Thats it for today, I present the now standing -SP...finishing line is in sight... Edited January 30, 2021 by Alex1978 10
Back in the Saddle Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 13 minutes ago, Alex1978 said: Must be a universal 747 model thing with their landing gears...😉 Its not the easiest alignment job! I’m putting that off a bit longer! great work on the SP👍. 1
Alex1978 Posted January 30, 2021 Author Posted January 30, 2021 14 minutes ago, Back in the Saddle said: Its not the easiest alignment job! I’m putting that off a bit longer! great work on the SP👍. Thank you very much. Me too,its always the part I hate the most☺
mitchem Posted January 30, 2021 Posted January 30, 2021 Looking really good Alex. Can't wait to see it on final approach display. mike 1
Alex1978 Posted January 31, 2021 Author Posted January 31, 2021 (edited) A tremendous amount of work today went into the installation of the gear doors and center gear parts. All hinges on the doors are separate parts and very small. A good 3 hours later,all gear parts and doors were in place.🤪 The engines are on as well. As there are no slots or pins,just a flat space,it took some time to have the engines holding on the wings. The pylons are shallow,so there was no way to insert wire or other material to help mount the engines. Next steps will be the application of the antennas and some touch ups that are needed,esp.around the gear and gear bays. Finally gloss varnish with my trusted Premium Gloss from Gunze and maybe some light weathering. Not decided yet,still thinking if I should keep my first EE SP factoryfresh. We will see. Some photos of todays work... Cheers Alex Example of those tiny hinges on the doors... With engines on...shes getting quite massive now Edited January 31, 2021 by Alex1978 8
Wolfhound32 Posted January 31, 2021 Posted January 31, 2021 Great job Alex! A real beauty and eyecatcher with these great colourful Argentinian decals (I ordered a resin Replicas by JC 1:72 MD-80 kit last week, with 'Austral' decals: https://www.facebook.com/643670012347411/photos/a.1050586701655738/1050587774988964/?type=3 ) This 747SP kit is something for my wishlist! Too bad there aren't any 1:72 scale kits available of this Queen.. 1
Alex1978 Posted January 31, 2021 Author Posted January 31, 2021 Thank you very much. That Austral MD-80 looks great If I remember correctly,only Anigrand and Aircraft in Miniature produce a 747 in 1/72. I dont know about Aircraft in Miniature but Anigrands 747 has a lot of shape issues,as I had seen on photos. Elsewere on BM,there is a thread about a new 1/72 747-100 that should come from a yet unknown russian firm. 3D renderings look very promising. No idea when this will be released but I am tempted to get one when its out.
Alex1978 Posted February 1, 2021 Author Posted February 1, 2021 (edited) Its done !😃 Today I've finished the Eastern Express Boeing 747SP. It was an enjoyable,interesting and almost troublefree build throughout.The parts fit was mostly very good / excellent. Just the landing gear installation gave some troubles but I got there in the end. None of the problems that were mentioned on a certain other site appeared. The shape of the model is very accurate.Only the bulge behind the cockpit is a bit too heavy but nothing that a little sanding cant fix. EE probably produced with the 747SP their best airliner kit so far in my opinion. For more information and photos,you will find it in the RFI thread. Teaser... Edited February 1, 2021 by Alex1978 7
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