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BPK 1/72 Boeing 737 800


kev67

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It has been ages since I did a work in progress on Britmodeller, so I present you with the long awaited 1/72 BPK 737 800, so hopefully there will be no short fulls, but as this is a short run kit there will be ups and downs, but it is not a cheap kit so I think putting it on here may give me more of a push, the kit its self is crying out for extra detail especially in the wheel bay, but I am just going to do it straight from the box, but maybe change the final scheme from the Qantas one into some other airline, I especially like budget Airlines, it's a pity that Easyjet do not use these as I like the big writing and the orange tail

 

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I have the same kit myself, but I am not ready to start building it yet (have to finish some other models first). I will watch your progress with interest.

 

Nils

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I like the "Big Plane Kits" logo! So the span works out about the same as the half-built Empire boat on my desk - and that's just a small airliner! The Quantas scheme on the box looks pretty nice and colourful.

 

I'll buy a ticket for this one...

 

Regards,

Adrian

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Cheers guys, anyway the fuselage is in 2 sections on either side, it does not have any locating pins so plastic tabs is a must on the edges, I have noticed though that BPK had damaged the mould on their original released kit last year, but have subsequently repaired it as the front port side of the fuselage looks a thicker plastic than the other side, if anyone has the newer release they can see there is a small step in the inside of the fuselage but does not appear on the starboard side, this has created a slight step when you mate both sides together, I also noticed the rear fuselage on mine was slightly warped

 

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sorry about the blurry photo, but you can see the difference, actually the photo makes it far worse than it is, and the tabs should bring them together, I will be attaching front and rear sections together first and then attach both sides together 

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Both sides are now glued together, and I have attached the tabs on the inside of the fuselage, it is now ready for both fuselages to come together, as can be seen the starboard side fits perfect with minimal amount of filler at the seam, but the port side where they probably had to re-scim the original front part of the fuselage mould does not fit as well, so a bit more filler is applied to align everything up, 

 

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Wow!  Nice job on that.  So what is your plan given the difference in thickness along the inside of the fuselage seam between left and right halves?  Will you first install a thin layer of styrene along the length of the seam to match the opposite side's thickness, then install a continuous tab along the the fuselage length?  This would greatly strengthen the fuselage against fracturing, but with all your vac-form experience, you probably intend something along these lines anyway, no? Alex

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4 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Wow!  Nice job on that.  So what is your plan given the difference in thickness along the inside of the fuselage seam between left and right halves?  Will you first install a thin layer of styrene along the length of the seam to match the opposite side's thickness, then install a continuous tab along the the fuselage length?  This would greatly strengthen the fuselage against fracturing, but with all your vac-form experience, you probably intend something along these lines anyway, no? Alex

Cheers, Alex, I have put tabs on both sides of the fuselage apart from the top part of the port side as I found that putting the tabs just on the starboard side allowed both sides to marry up better, otherwise there would be a step

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Moving swiftly on, both sides have now been attached with little problem and a minimal amount of filler along the seams, the tail and nose have also been added without any filler although the nose will require a bit of blending in to the fuselage, I have noticed though looking at photos of the 737 800 especially in the Qantas scheme is that BPK have mirrored the passenger windows from the port side to the starboard side but have missed out a window on the starboard side which will require some of the plastic to be removed where this extra window is

 

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One other thing at this stage I have also found that the cockpit and wheel bay can go in later as it is very easy to slot into the locating holes 

 

 

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Good progress on this, Kev! I’m seriously contemplating taking the plunge with this kit so am taking notes just in case my urges get the better of me!

 

Tom

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1 hour ago, tomprobert said:

Good progress on this, Kev! I’m seriously contemplating taking the plunge with this kit so am taking notes just in case my urges get the better of me!

 

Tom

Cheers Tom, Hannants is still the cheapest I have seen, BPK are going to bring out a KLM version so probably best to wait for that as the scheme looks really good, I have fitted the clear passenger windows, but they are a pain to fit flush with the fuselage, and required a lot of scrapping and sanding back of the clear plastic,  I think if I ever do this kit again I will remove most of the plastic where the windows fit and just leave some for strength if you know what I mean

The part where I cut the extra window out looks a mess really, as I only noticed this extra window after I had added the clear frame so I had cut the plastic out from the inside

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The main fuselage is now firmly glued together and all the joins sanded smooth, I have also added the vertical tail which was a perfect fit and required no filler, I have also attached the glazed cockpit, which did require a fair amount of sanding to get a good smooth surface, but this might be down to me rather than how the kit is, I did have a bit of trouble also with the passenger windows, as I found it had a step that required quite a bit of scrapping back and sanding to make everything blend into the body, I did lose a bit of detail especially on the nose, but will add these later on in the build, I think if I did this kit again I would cut out most of the inner plastic where the passenger windows are and just leave some pillars for strength, overall though the kit has loads of detail and the panel lines are very crisp.

 

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In the end I had to sand back all the detail on the passenger windows and ended up polishing the whole length of the passenger windows with no problem at all, masks will be positioned where the passenger windows are

 

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I did not go to mad with the detail inside the cockpit as not much will be seen, I am also going to make my own masks for the windows and the passenger windows as I don't really like the masks that are provided in the kit as they are to transparent and prefer the yellow Tamiya stuff, that way I can see where every thing is more clearly in my mind anyway.

 

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Hi

Bit more of an update on the BPK 1/72 737 800, I have now attached the centre fuselage section to the body, my personal preference though would of been to have this as one piece rather than two as it can been a pain to get rid of the join in the middle, I used some plastic tabs to give a better join. Fixing the lower part created a bit of a fit issue but I think that was more to my lack of modelling skills than the model itself as it required a bit of filler to blend everything in and some sanding in places, but worked out OK in the end, the engines mounts to both wings were also fixed into place and will require some filler in places to make good, but anyway so far nothing to demanding

 

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The wheel bay is very well detailed, and is open to further scratch building, but looking at photos I will let someone else do that, at it is jammed with pipes, wires etc

 

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For a comparison size, next to a VC10

 

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