1/144 British Airways A380's with 'What If' Utopia World Image Liveries

[Back in the Saddle]

On 13/05/2022 at 22:25, desert falcon said:

Once again you are doing magic on those decals, thanks for keeping us posted  

Thank you!

Work on "Colour Down The Side" is progressing well, with the fin and rear fuselage artwork decals applied:

 

 

Getting the decal to cover the base of the fin is proving difficult, due to the complexity of the shape. However, there is only a slight gap and I'm confident that I can remedy this at a later stage.

[Terry1954]

That looks stunning!

 

Well done on the 787 rating!! ( Saw that in your other thread)

 

Terry

[Back in the Saddle]

On 25/05/2022 at 11:27, Terry1954 said:

Well done on the 787 rating!! ( Saw that in your other thread)

Thank you Terry, albeit belatedly!

 

As you may have gathered, I haven't looked at this one for a while... When I did, I noticed the decals had split, creating some gaps:

 

 

I couldn't leave it like this, so had no option but to strip the decals off completely:

 

 

There are still some marks visible around the edges, so I will give this area a gentle sanding to remove any remaining blemishes. As you can see, the tip of the fin has already had the paint stripped back to bare plastic along the edges, so a re-spray with be needed here. This got me thinking - if I need to paint the fin again, it might be a good time to change the entire design on this one? I have four more of these kits in the stash, so the artwork for this design will not be wasted, I'll just use it on a future build. However, I have re-worked it by tweaking the image slightly so that the joint between curved part of the fin and fuselage is predominantly white. This will simplify things greatly when I get to the decal application stage:

 

 

So what should I do with this kit? (That's a rhetorical question btw!)

 

I decided to go with a much simpler but classic design, that was used very frequently and would also be appropriate for an aircraft which regularly visited Asia.

 

Time to create some decals representing China (or Hong Kong in the design's original guise at the beginning of 1997). The design is called 'Rendezvous' and is by the Hong Kong calligrapher Yip Man-Yam. This is the basic version of his design - note the lack of symmetry due to the Chinese script, the different angles that the script adopts and the variable placement of the red seal:

 

 

One aircraft (a Boeing 757 registered G-BMRG, should you wish to look it up) was painted in this scheme but with a cream background on the fin and rear fuselage instead of white. That is the version I intend to replicate - I just need to design the decals and spray the rear of the model...

 

[Back in the Saddle]

I've had time to re-work the "Colour Down The Side" decals, which were the ones that were previously applied to this kit but split after application. I will apply these to just one side of the model to see how they look. If I'm happy, I'll print off a new sheet with this design and use it on a future model.

 

I've also designed the "Rendezvous" decals which will now be used on this model instead:

 

 

The other decals on this sheet are for my two 767 models and also my 1/48 Gloster Meteor - these models have all stalled awaiting replacement decals, so progress will hopefully be made on all of these again soon!

[Back in the Saddle]

Time for a quick update on this project...

 

Now the warmer weather has arrived the airbrush could be cranked up to spray the tail area in a cream colour. Reference pictures of G-BMRG (which this scheme is based upon), are relatively hard to come by. However, it looks like the edge of the colour has a slightly ragged edge, as if replicating torn paper. My solution for this was to use exactly the same medium when masking the tail:

 

 

The area was then sprayed with a blend of Humbrol 103 (cream), 130 (white) and 99 (yellow). This colour is intentionally a bit darker than that used as the background on G-BMRG, to give it some more contrast against the white paint and look more like parchment:

 

 

The paper was then removed and the area gloss coated, ready for the decals. The ragged edge that I was trying to achieve can be seen too:

 

 

The main decals were applied, starting with the right hand side:

 

 

Then the left hand side - note the asymmetrical nature of the design (rather than the usual 'mirror image' effect) and also the red stamp which was added to the fin. The "Hong Kong" titles and artist's signature are also in place:

 

 

The rest of the fuselage decals will be added next!

 

[Back in the Saddle]

With all the wet weather here recently I have returned to this kit, which needed to have the decals applied to finish it off - a great project for rainy days!

 

Just a shot of the wings for now, as the RFI won't show this angle. Talking of which, the RFI for the whole model should be up soon!

 

 

Time to crack open kit #3 and just for Dave @Skodadriver I will attempt the 'Avignon' tail on this one!

[Gimme Shelter]

wow - an amazing walk through of a build. I've built this bird a few times over and had forgotten how awkward the main undercarriage and fuselage insert could be.

 

A great choice of airline too

 

BA anyday..

[Back in the Saddle]

On 24/10/2023 at 09:36, Gimme Shelter said:

wow - an amazing walk through of a build. I've built this bird a few times over and had forgotten how awkward the main undercarriage and fuselage insert could be.

 

A great choice of airline too

Cheers John!

A belated RFI is now available:

 

 

Time to crack open the third kit and have a go at Avignon again for @Skodadriver!

[Back in the Saddle]

Time to get kit #3 underway...!

 

I'm not planning own posting too much about it, as I've covered most of this already on my previous builds. An hour on the bench was enough to construct the wheel bays and cockpit due to be inserted into the fuselage, and also the engine cores ready for painting:

 

 

I then buttoned the fuselage up:

 

 

A friend of mine had emailed me with a copy of the 'Avignon' artwork, which was invaluable for extrapolating the areas that needed to be designed - the A380 fin is a different shape from the 737, which was the only aircraft to feature this design. With the original artwork, I can fill in the gaps, something I touched upon earlier in this thread:

 

 

Time for some more Photoshopping!