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1/72 Boeing 737-200 Air Zimbabwe


mitchem

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On 7/9/2022 at 9:01 PM, mitchem said:

because of the atmosphere of self-levelling thinners

That is possible.  I would give this a one or two-week break to allow everything to out-gas before proceeding further.  What's your plan for tidying up the wing roots?

 

It's looking great so far, BTW.

 

Alex

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2 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

What's your plan for tidying up the wing roots?

 

It's looking great so far, BTW.

 

Alex

 

Many thanks for the advice Alex. Sounds like just enough time to try and mate the engines to the wings, although this could be harder than I had hoped - the raised portions under the wings appear to be slightly wider than the aperture in the tops of the engines. Not sure if I should try spacer bars or just pull out the old 240 grit and sand the the raised portions into oblivion.

 

I reckon I should be able to mask the fuselage up before adding the wings to the fuselage. The joints don't look to bad, and if the current paintwork is protected, I should be able to blend everything in before sanding it smooth.

 

mike 

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2 hours ago, mitchem said:

sand the the raised portions into oblivion

Sand them into oblivion.  They are worthless.  Place cross-braces in your engine pylon assembly that make physical contact with the underwing mating surface but do not, for the love of all that is holy, attempt to spread the pylon or rely on the wing to give the correct incidence of the engine relative to the fuselage.  Do it by sight.  If there's a resulting gap between the engine pylon and the wing, so be it.  The important thing is to have enough plastic-to-plastic contact so that the engines stay on.  You have many options when it comes to filling any resulting gaps.  I chose to use PPP mixed with gray chalk powder to emulate sealant on the original.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/11/2022 at 1:52 PM, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Sand them into oblivion.  They are worthless.  Place cross-braces in your engine pylon assembly that make physical contact with the underwing mating surface but do not, for the love of all that is holy, attempt to spread the pylon or rely on the wing to give the correct incidence of the engine relative to the fuselage.  Do it by sight.  If there's a resulting gap between the engine pylon and the wing, so be it.  The important thing is to have enough plastic-to-plastic contact so that the engines stay on.  You have many options when it comes to filling any resulting gaps.  I chose to use PPP mixed with gray chalk powder to emulate sealant on the original.

 

Thanks Alex. I've taken your advice and sanded the starboard bump off and....it hasn't been missed. There will be a gap at the top of the pylon, but I should be able to sort that out when I get there. (Famous last words)

 

On 7/12/2022 at 2:13 PM, keefr22 said:

 

That describes Mike perfectly....!!! 🤣

 

(sorry Mike, I'll get me coat...!! )

 

K

 

I'm speechless K, That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me (....the bit about getting your coat 🤣)

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Took the decals for a test drive and had a go at tidying up the fuselage sides by painting window frames using individual masks.

 

TeYGOu6.jpg

 

There is no easy way to do this and the cheatline is going to have to have the masking residue polished out. The good news is that you can see through the fuselage and the homemade passenger seats make the interior look busy.

 

zrJbz7i.jpg

 

I need to finish off the window frames aft of the Emergency exit before drumming up the courage to tackle the fin / cheatline join.

 

mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Starboard cheatline done..........following numerous touch ups here and there. Not 100% accurate, but it's as good as it's going to get. The curvature of the rear fuselage is a lot more complicated than the 1/144 Airfix kit ! 😀

 

emqwroR.jpg

 

You get a better view of the curvature from the front end. Of course viewing it from all angles while masking didn't help.

 

dUmBmqo.jpg

 

Bumps under the wings have been sanded off and the engines have been temporarily taped to the wings.....before taping the wings to the fuselage.

 

Next step is to finish off the port tail to cheatline join before ripping the house apart to find the kit instructions. Been absolute ages since I glued anything together on this build.

 

mike

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/30/2022 at 4:55 PM, keefr22 said:

Good luck with the instructions search!! 

 

 

Thanks Keith.

 

Instructions duly found and work has been started on fitting the engines and flap-track fairings to the wings.

 

Many thanks to @TheyJammedKenny! for his advice on the unwanted bumps under the wings. After sanding them off completely, I glued the engines on and held them in place over night with clamps. At the same time, the two halves of each flap track fairing were glued together before being cleaned up and added to the wings.

 

7bzfJ9C.jpg

 

Hardly any filler was required to blend the items in, so for me, this was almost a "hole in one" !...

 

muv0ZS2.jpg

 

...I say almost because the tops of the engine fairings need a bit more attention :

 

QNI0OL6.jpg

bSt6zBo.jpg

 

I need to ensure that there is no seam line on the wing leading edges, as well as coming up with a plan for the landings lights.

 

As luck would have it, Xtracolor Boeing Grey has come back into stock, so all is looking good.

 

mike

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Nicely done!  The wing landing lights are a real pain.  You could try drilling out the bulkhead, creating a new bulkhead farther back, installing light lenses, and using the kit's clear part.  OTOH, you could fair them over and use a decal as I did.

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On 28/02/2021 at 16:46, mitchem said:

Crew have emerged from the changing room and the co-pilot looks a bit like Rob Beckett?  May have to put some carpeting down in the front office :

 

5EK72sMl.jpg

 

Probably anachronisic (too recent) but perhaps you should have used this crew:

https://goodblacknews.org/2015/11/17/air-zimbabwe-makes-history-with-1st-all-female-flight-crew/

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

Try Airfix Heron.  Somewhat dated uniform.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Graham, but I don't think it would be fair of me to ask "63" to stand behind the control column for the duration of the flight 🤣 

 

Mx38x4Gl.jpg

 

mike

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13 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Nicely done!  The wing landing lights are a real pain.  You could try drilling out the bulkhead, creating a new bulkhead farther back, installing light lenses, and using the kit's clear part.  OTOH, you could fair them over and use a decal as I did.

 

 

...and after that brief interlude regarding the flight crew, it's back to the build !

 

Thanks for the advice once again @TheyJammedKenny!. Drilling and building is going to be the way forward.

 

mike

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Spent some time sorting out the landing lights this weekend in between home maintenance....

 

Drilled out the apertures and made some lenses out of thin plastic card, bare metal foil and gloss varnish. The housing profile was also made out of this plastic card, but when it came down to it, this was a bit of a waste of time.

 

vBHneeFl.jpg

 

The lenses were glued to a portion of the backing plate before being installed through the wing root. The clear kit part was then glued onto the front of the aperture with superglue, before sanding it back into shape, buffing it and then adding a lick of Gauzy shine enhancer.

 

0UusVjNl.jpg

 

Same done on the starboard wing before temporarily taping them onto the fuselage. When I get around to gluing the wings on permanently, the join could be a bit of a problem. I have an idea on how to solve this, but I'm still some distance away from this step.

 

LJTLqgDl.jpg

 

mike

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