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Boeing 747 fleet,Happy Birthday to the Jumbo Jet


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While the famous Jumbo Jet is celebrating its 50th anniversary,I took this chance in building some of my many models of the 747.

Even more so,since the COVID 19 pandemic leaded to the withdrawal of the type from almost all major airlines in passenger service.

Loving the 747, this was more than a shock to me,as also the chances to catch another flight in one of these majestic aircrafts,diminish significantly.

And while also Boeing announced to end the 747 productionline in 2022,I decided to increase production...so here we go

 

Starting with the Alitalia 747-100

Its the old Revell kit,its well known and around almost as long as the original.It shows its age but is still a good kit that produces to a nice replica of the mighty Jumbo.

But as with almost all Revell airliners,the newer the releases the more worn out the mould seem to be.

I have 1974 releases that are clean and nice but for example the anniversary release in Demonstrator markings from 2019 shows signifficant amount of flash,thin plastic and missing locator pins.The engines are almost beyond salvation.

On some of my Revell 747-100/200 kits,I used resin engines from Welsh Models.

 

The decals for the Alitalia version are actually from the Airfix kit but they fit well on the Revell release.

As I was building these through the first lockdown,I went through my decal stash and used what I had there instead of ordering a lot of stuff and wait forever for the items to arrive.

That way I saved a lot of money and cut down my stash and spare parts box as well.

 

The Lufthansa Cargo 747 was actually the first 747-100F that went into commercial service.

If I remember correctly,the decals I used for this build are from LS decals.

Interestingly,the first 747F for Lufthansa Cargo did not feature a side cargo door as that became a regular on all forthcoming 747F.

 

For my United Airlines 747-100 I used the decal set from my Revell/Monogram 747-400 kit as I have other plans for that one.

I always liked the 1993 scheme and when I found some pictures of some United 747-100s that also wore that livery,it was an easy decision.

Unfortunately,the decals were bad,not yellowed though but very brittle.

It was not noticeable while they were on the sheet,but once in water,they became brittle and tore at the slightest touch.

It was a nightmare getting them on,a part above the wings is missing,I will add that at a later point when i found stripes that match the color.

 

African airlines are a must in my airliner collection,so it was clear that also some 747s will appear in such liveries.

The first that I finished was the Air Gabon 747-200.

During their 747 operations Air Gabon used leased aircrafts,one had P&W engines,the later one had GE engines and was namend "Leon Mba"

I found these decals on ebay and I guess they are from Liveries Unlimited,not sur as there was no instruction sheet added but the quality looks like it.

They were in perfect condition and great to use despite their age.

 

While building 747 new,I also had one sitting on the shelf in urgent need of a redo.

Formerly built in Aerolineas Argentinas livery,the decals had badly yellowed over the years and also the paintjob I had done back then was not up to my standard.

So...off with the old decals and paint,repair the damages and putting on new paint.

While using paint remover from Revell,the tail suffered serious damage as it became very brittle during the cleaing process.

I had some leftover parts from a Revell 747-400,so I carefully cut of the damaged tail and replaced it with the -400 one.

For the redo I opted for a Lufthansa version as I had many decal sets from the Revell -400 kits.

I replaced the P&W engines with GE engines that I also had in the spares box,reworked them to give them a better shape,and the LH 747-230 was born.

Some of Lufthansas -200s were Combis,so I added a side cargodoor.

 

I always wanted a 747-400F in my collection but there is no model kit around.

Suddenly I had the idea of combining the fuselage of a Revell -200 with the wings of a Revell -400...

With a certain amount of reconstruction,the wings fitted on the fuselage.

For the wing to fuselage connection,I used some evergreen plastic cut and sanded to the wingbox shape and glued on the wings.

As I have 2 Cargolux 747-8F kits,one of those decal sets were used for this build.The red/blue stripe just had to be shortened by about 3 cm,the rest fitted perfectly on the -200 fuselage.

Cargolux operates their -400Fwith RR-211 engines,so I ordered a set from BRAZ.

I further added details to the landing gear from a detail set,very fiddly stuff those tiny PE parts.I found out that this is not really my cup of tea,so this was a one time experince...

 

Lufthansa is one of only 3 operators of the 747-8I in passenger service.

As I already built their first -8 some 8 years ago,I thought the Retro scheme and the actual livery should also be added to my fleet.

The new livery version is built straight out of the box,here i decided to build her gear up as this adds to the 747s elegance.

No additional stuff was added,as the decalsheet provides everything thats needed.

 

The retro livery comes from 8A decals Mexico and are of very good quality.

Here,the problem was to find a good match for the underbelly of the 747.

Its not bare metal as with the old 747s.Revell suggests grey 374 but thats just wrong.

I researched the net and came across an article from Lufthansa from the time that retro jet was introduced.

There they mentioned a "Mica-Silver" was used,I found something similar from Tamyia in a spray can.

The result is quite nice.

 

Another -8,my last -8I in my stash actually comes in the livery of Qatar Airways.

Its part of the Qatar Amiri fleet but wears full airline livery.

Only its limited number of cabin windows proves of its VVIP standard.

The decals are from DRAW decal and are great to work with.

After the gloss varnish was applied,no clearfilm is visible and it looks like painted on.

The grey is 315 from Gunze.

 

 

Enjoy the 747 anniversary collection

 

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Registration will be added when I find decals that match.

 

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Edited by Alex1978
Missing pics
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Hi Alex

 

Another fantastic collection and your comments are interesting and helpful but am I missing something - where are the photos of the Qatar 747-8? I have a Qatar 787 about to go for painting so I was interested in your paint suggestion but the photos don't seem to be there.

 

I see you also had a bad experience with Revell's own paint stripper. I ruined an A320 with it a while ago and wouldn't touch it again. Glad you managed to rescue the 747.

 

Dave G

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2 hours ago, Skodadriver said:

Hi Alex

 

Another fantastic collection and your comments are interesting and helpful but am I missing something - where are the photos of the Qatar 747-8? I have a Qatar 787 about to go for painting so I was interested in your paint suggestion but the photos don't seem to be there.

 

I see you also had a bad experience with Revell's own paint stripper. I ruined an A320 with it a while ago and wouldn't touch it again. Glad you managed to rescue the 747.

 

Dave G

Thank you very much Dave.

Yes,the paint remover seems to be more agressive than it should be...

Thats odd,after my problems with uploading pics from imgbb,I tried again later and could post the Qatar 747 finally.

Why its not here anymore is beyond me.

I will try to upload them again

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3 hours ago, Skodadriver said:

Hi Alex

 

Another fantastic collection and your comments are interesting and helpful but am I missing something - where are the photos of the Qatar 747-8? I have a Qatar 787 about to go for painting so I was interested in your paint suggestion but the photos don't seem to be there.

 

I see you also had a bad experience with Revell's own paint stripper. I ruined an A320 with it a while ago and wouldn't touch it again. Glad you managed to rescue the 747.

 

Dave G

Photos uploaded again.I hope this time they will be visible.

I still have to get used to my new equipment,not so the computer nerd,still need to work out the changed programs...

 

As for the Qatar 747-8 paint,I used Gunze grey 315 (FS16440) for the top of the fuselage and Boeing grey (Testors Voodoo grey) for the wings.

Edited by Alex1978
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5 hours ago, JWM said:

What a set of excellent Jumbos! The SP should be next there... Are you going to?

Congrats :)

J-W

 

Thank you very much.

Yes,the SP is currently under construction.

There is also a WIP on BM

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3 hours ago, Alex1978 said:

Photos uploaded again.I hope this time they will be visible.

I still have to get used to my new equipment,not so the computer nerd,still need to work out the changed programs...

 

As for the Qatar 747-8 paint,I used Gunze grey 315 (FS16440) for the top of the fuselage and Boeing grey (Testors Voodoo grey) for the wings.

 

Oh yes! The Qatar 747-8 is every bit as magnificent as I had expected. The grey looks spot on. As soon as our Covid restrictions allow it I'll be off to the nearest Gunze stockist for some 315.

 

Thanks again

 

Dave G

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20 hours ago, Abandoned Project said:

Wow! They are amazing! What a wonderful collection. You must have a huge display case to fit all those in.

Thanks for sharing and kudos to you.

Thank you very much.

Well...display space is getting rare with all those 747s...☺

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