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Air New Zealand Dash 8-300 - +++ All done +++


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Hello all. This will be my second entry into this GB. This one qualifies on two counts, it is for Air New Zealand, and it is Australian made by OzMods!

 

This is what I am up against. On the whole, it looks to be a good package. It will need a fair bit of work, but should be fun!

 

The box was nice and sturdy:

 

DSCN6798

 

The parts have a bit of flash and are  also quite stained. I am not sure if it is discoloured plastic or releasing agent. I know the bits will get a bath before I start though.

 

DSCN6799

 

There is a nice selection of resin parts, and an optional interior. There are marks inside the fuselage to indicate where to cut if I want to use the cockpit details. I will need to have a closer look at the glazing before I decide.

DSCN6800

 

The markings look very good indeed.

 

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There will be an interesting round of masking to get the black/white demarcation right.

 

DSCN6802

 

This is the inspiration for this project. I took this photo at Nelson Airport in 2017 when I was fortunate enough to get out to NZ and visit an old school friend of mine who I had not seen since 1982!

 

Anyway, I am looking forward to getting this started when the time comes. I will occupy my time in the meanwhile by building another EE Lightning!

 

Take care all,

 

Ray

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2 hours ago, CliffB said:

That's a very striking scheme Ray and I look forward to seeing your 2017 photo in due course :thumbsup2:

Cheers

 

New Zealand 2017 Compact 172

 

Done! I do not know what happened to the original picture, I probably forgot to post it! Now you know what you are up against!

 

Yours forgetfully,

 

Ray

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A nice choice and partner to my proposed B787-9 in ANZ colours.  Wouldn't mind the same dash 8 kit in my stuff either.   As for the scheme, I too need to think about how I am going to get around the black white shape and demarcation

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello all. Although in my intro I said this would be my second build for this GB, I decided to do it first!

 

The first thing I needed to do was start getting the parts off the runners. The gates are not small...

 

DSCN6883

 

A pair of side cutters and a fine file and a sanding stick sorted that out. After quite some time, I had a bit of a surprise for a short run kit...

 

DSCN6884

 

...location pins! There were three altogether. On two of them the corresponding location holes were filled with plastic during the moulding process. I drilled them out, and found the aft one was misaligned (or I drilled it out in the wrong place!). Then I re-drilled them larger as I used a too-small drill. I did warn you...

 

One of the other nice surprises when I bought the kit was the fact that there was a very nice looking cockpit interior supplied. The floor and bulkhead were injection moulded plastic, the rest (instrument console, two instrument panel transfers, two seats with moulded belts, and two control columns) were nicely done as resin items. A line had been moulded into each fuselage half showing where to cut off the moulded cockpit to fit the supplied glazing, which also incorporated the cabin roof. The glazing though, I felt, was not clear enough to show the detail:

 

DSCN6885

 

It did have some fine framing moulded in, so kudos to OzMods for the interior and the glazing option. I did originally decide to build the interior and see how it fitted, but in the end I just decided to add the bulkhead as a stiffener for the fuselage, and leave the interior out. I may still make it and display it separately. It would be a shame as the quality of moulding looked so good.

 

Anyway, after a little while cutting parts out and cleaning them up, this is where I am at at the moment:

 

DSCN6918

 

There will still be some cleaning to do, especially after putting it together. There has been some flash, but the plastic reacts really well to the sanding stuff. The only odd thing is the discolouration of the plastic. I did wonder if it was mould-release agent, but a good scrubbing with warm, soapy water and an old toothbrush did not remove it. It seems like it was just the plastic used. Not that I am worried!

 

Anyway, more soon with luck!

 

Take care all,

 

Ray

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Hello all!

 

I did not get much done today, just a little more prep work, this time on the nacelles. The runner connection points were rather large again, and took some sorting.

 

DSCN6920

 

They need a little more cleaning up, and possibly rescribing (if I decide to do that). At the moment it looks more like a vacform has been cut out rather than injection moulded having been cleaned up.

 

More soon, with luck.

 

All the best everyone,

 

Ray

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Yesterday evening I was able to whack a load of lead into the cockpit area to prevent this being a tail-sitter. The bulkhead will stop any lead movement if the huge amount of superglue gel did not work. Then it was time to do some gluing! I had test fitted the halves and there were a few gaps. I was unable to sand flat both fuselage halves, one was okay to do, the other had the fin fillet moulded so it would go over the other half and I did not want to sand that flat! I did try to straighten the half though. Just to be on the safe side, I used lashings of Revell Contacta cement and taped the halves up tightly so the glue would seep out and fill any remaining gaps.

 

DSCN6921

 

There will still be some remedial work to do underneath, especially where the runner gates were.

 

This afternoon, I tidied up the joins a bit (but will still need more work doing to them), and built up the tail fin. That had the rudder moulded into one half. I then could not help reverting to a seven-year-old and having a play to see how it would look - dry fitted the wings are in solidly and the tail fin seems to have fitted nicely once I adjusted the location tab and slot:

 

DSCN6922

 

The instructions point out that the wings inboard of the engines have zero dihedral, and that is just about how they fit. I need to fit the lower wing inserts still, and they will need a bit of fettling. At least I am now making progress on a plane that I have great affinity for, all because of one flight!

 

Take care all, Ray

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Nice choice Ray and a good start. Looks like a pretty crude kit but also looks like it fits quite nicely. The demarcation between the black and the white does look like it'll be tricky to mask correctly - never my favourite modelling task - good luck!

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Thanks for the looks, comments, and likes.

 

Well, as snow falls at Chez Ray, I was able to take myself away from staring out of the window and watching it, and get on with the serious business of building an aircraft!.

 

I spent a merry forty minutes getting these two things attached to the underside of one wing. The location tabs were quite large, certainly too big for the slots, and with these things being curved, I found it quite awkward holding them securely and filing and scraping the tabs. I lost count of the number of times they popped out of my grip like orange pips!

 

DSCN6935

 

They are somewhat more parallel in the plastic as compared to the photo, I think it is because of the wide angle. I also got the engine nacelles together, they fitted quite well. Again, they had location pips, but I removed those and that made things easier. An hour clamped with clothes pegs and they had set. I needed to adjust the cutouts on the nacelles a bit to get them to fit the wings. OzMods suggested that either engine pod could fit either wing, but I found that they fitted only one wing properly each, but that was enough for me as it was not the same wing!

 

DSCN6937

 

You can really see the discoloured plastic on these images, no problem with that mind, I am hoping a good primer coat will hide all that later on. I still need to add filler along the wing/nacelle joins, both sides, both nacelles, and clean up the engines too.

 

I have also filled the divots underneath where I was not neat enough trimming the fuselage halves from the runners, and along the base of the fin fillet. Anyway, it was time to dry fit wings, tail fin and tailplanes again (the fin was a bit wobbly this time so do not worry about that please).

 

DSCN6936

 

I will also need to work on the fin/tailplanes a bit.

 

Anyway, that is it for now. This lot would have been done quicker than I did manage, but the snow kept calling and I had to keep looking out of the window!

 

Take care all, more soon, with luck.

 

Ray

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Hello all!

 

This model is now beginning to look like an aireyplane. I needed to adjust the fitment of the wings a bit, otherwise the engines were angled upwards a bit towards the front, whereas they should be level (could not spell parallell!) to the ground. The fit overall was so good it only took a couple of smears of Tamiya thin cement to secure them. The tailplanes were a slightly different matter, they needed quite a bit of trimming to get them level and correct, fore and aft, and side to side. I am happy though. I will be letting this set before adding some filler.

 

DSCN6945

 

I think I am going to try and make replacement undercarriage doors and get them fitted next, along with the undercarriage, before I hit the spray cans. Or maybe prime it first to see if any reworking is required (he says hopefully!).

 

More soon, with luck,

 

Ray

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Having spent a little while yesterday cleaning and sanding the joins on this aircraft, today was the day to hit the primer. A few coats of Tamiya Grey Primer and I have this:

 

DSCN6950

 

I am quite pleased with the results, but I will check it out in hopefully better lighting conditions tomorrow.

 

On 2/2/2021 at 10:29 PM, stevehnz said:

I'm impressed by how you're bringing this together, I'd expected more grief, it being a limited run kit & all. Hopefully this bodes well for the one I have in stock come the day. :)

Steve.

 

I think you will be pleased with it Steve, it does require some work but I am very pleasantly surprised with it. In the hands of a better modeller than I am, it would be a brilliant one to do! I am sticking to 'out-of-the-box'.

 

More soon I hope, Ray

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Hello all.

 

I checked the primer and all seemed to be quite good. Oddly enough, I did not seem to get any stray bits of debris on the surface like I usually do! However, things were going to come back and bit me...

 

I decided to tackle to undercarriage next. There are a couple of parts each side, and, like the rest of the kit, required a little work with file and sanding board. I found I needed to check out my own photographs to see how the legs sat, and they seem to have a rearward slant. The painting and markings guide only show the 'in flight' state of the plane, and the instructions show views at various angles rather than side on. About ten minutes work per side and I had the main legs fitted to what looked okay to me. Then it was the nose leg.

 

It is small, but the location hole was even smaller! I drilled the hole out, just like a modeller should, and test fitted the nose wheel leg. It promptly fell out. I heard it bounce a couple of times, and then heard a curious rustle. 'Oops' I said, and had a look on the carpet for the bit. Orange-brown carpet, white part, sticks out like a sore thumb! Not! It was nowhere to be seen. Then I noticed my rubbish bin was next to me, so I emptied that (it had a bag liner in it), but could not find the part. Then, I put down some paper, and tipped the liner bag out on that, and there, in among the detritus and dust of a dozen builds or so, was the escapee leg! Whew, that was lucky.

 

Next time I did the test fit, I was more careful, and by and by, it was glued in place.

 

This morning, I got the white primer on to the plane, and this is how it looks now, standing up on its own three legs:

 

DSCN6952

 

I am not sure if I have enough Tamiya Gloss White in a spray can, so, as all the shops are shut, I will stick with giving the primer a gloss varnish instead when it comes to adding the transfers.

 

I will leave this to dry and set now, and then the bit I must admit I am a bit afraid of, masking the fuselage for the black tail area - a reminder:

 

DSCN6802

 

That curvature looks awkward in three dimensions, and no panel lines on the kit as a guide. The side view drawings though are 1/144 scale which may help.

 

That is it for now, take care Ray

 

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Hello all.

 

The masking went much better than I anticipated. I put some thin tape down at strategic points (where the black came to a point under the fuselage, and where the black started on the fin fillet) as a guide, and then used Tamiya tape for curves for the main outline. One long piece either side for the fuselage curves, and shorted pieces for the fillet. The box top was also 1/144 scale, so that gave me a good guide. Ithen brush painted a couple of coats of Revell 08 Matt Black and one coat of Revell 07 Gloss Black and ended up with this:

 

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And compared to the box top...

 

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... the curvature seems pretty good to this rather biased eye.

 

Next up will be to rub down the black a bit, give the whole lot a gloss varnish prior to masking again for the leading edge matt black, and the engine trim gloss blacks.

 

More soon with luck, all the best,

 

Ray

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  • Ray S changed the title to Air New Zealand Dash 8-300 - Now with added Black!
On 2/7/2021 at 7:06 AM, CliffB said:

That's worked really well Ray.  It can't have been easy masking a smooth curve over such a sharp contour change.

 

Cliff, I have to say it was with great trepidation that I started to mask it up, but the process was done really quickly! I still do not believe it. I used some thin Aizu tape to mark where the long curves started and finished, and things seemed to go well, and the tape for curves actually stuck where I wanted it to! It did take me a little while (on other projects) to get used to putting curves into the tape, and this was the first time I really gained the benefit.

 

Today's task was - more masking! OxMods supplied transfers for the leading edge strips on wings, tailplanes and fin, but I chose to paint instead. It took me 40 minutes to get that lot done, then I painted the strips with Revell 08 Matt Black acrylic. I gave that a couple of coats, and, after only about 10 minutes, I removed the masking. I was then able to clean up any bleeding with a wooden cocktail stick, and, where the paint was reluctant to shift, I moistened the end of the stick and that then helped a bunch!

 

DSCN6961

 

I then painted the leading edge lights with silver, and also the wingtip lights silver too, ready for the red and green later.

 

Hopefully it will be the transfers next!

 

Then, I have to decide on the props. Ozmods supply two options:- One with props moulded into the hubs, with the blades set 'in flight', and another option with separate resin blades and plastic hubs (with one spare hub, two spare blades) where the blades can be set at rest (feathered). I am going to build both and see how I get on, the 'in flight' set would be easier to use and mask (the prop tips are white/black/white). I hope I can get the feathered option to work.

 

That is it for now, thanks for looking.

 

Ray

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