"Three, Two, One. Now!" -1:144 British Airways Concorde

[cathasatail]

"Three, Two, One. Now!"

1:144 Revell Concorde (British Airways)

 

Hi everyone!

 

After a pretty hectic start to 2021, I've now got a little bit of time to spend on modelling.

My attention has been drawn to the majestic swan of the skies, Concorde, for the past few months. Unfortunately the 1:72 kits have been just outside of what I'd be prepared to pay for the kit (and I gather that the kit requires a lot of work too)- so why not get a smaller Concorde and use the money saved to get some extra PE/resin?

 

 

I had toyed with the idea of modelling the flight deck and adding lighting to the kit (and sound to a base), but the killer for me was the nose windscreen. In the kit the windscreen appears flat when in reality it should be angled. The solution comes in the form of a BraZ resin windscreen, but sadly it also comes at the expense of a clear view into the cockpit. I also suspect adding lights for the reheats might be pushing it a bit too far. Perhaps one day when someone gets around to re-issuing the 1:72 kit...

 

Let's have a quick look at the PE and resin bits shall we?

 

First up is the Metallic Details set:

 

 

 

A very comprehensive set of PE!

 

 

And some rather crisp engine intakes and exhausts.

 

 

And the BraZ resin windscreen- perhaps at this scale cockpit lighting might have been too much...

 

I have been working on a 1:144 BA 747-400, but as it's quite a large aircraft I feel like I could do with a bit of a smaller canvas to gain some more confidence with scratchbuilding and (importantly) spray painting gloss white!

 

 

 

^Some of the progress so far on the 747 build (not 100% accurate, but I would like to make it as detailed as possible).

 

As for this build, with Concorde, I'm afraid that I'm a sucker for the Union Flag colour scheme, and I suspect I might model G-BOAG- purely because of the amount of reference material/walkarounds easily available.

 

Right, well that's all from me for now.

Many thanks for dropping by, I can't promise updates will be as frequent as I would like them to be but let's have a go!

 

Best wishes,

Sam

Edited February 22, 2021 by cathasatail

[cathasatail]

Right, here we go!

 

Let's start with the pointy bit first shall we?

 

 

(I've decreased the brightness of all of these photos to try and bring out the panel lines)

^I have yet to add any filler to the mid-line seam between the 2 nose halves

 

Ok, so that's all well and good. Now let's have a look at the engine/intake packs:

 

Seems alright...

 

Oh...

 

Well...

 

Oh dear...

 

Thankfully only one of the engine packs appears to be significantly affected. While I had mused about requesting a replacement part from Revell, but with the delays (and possible costs) in shipping I'm currently of a mind to have a go at fixing it myself. Alternatively, I do have a rather battered Concorde that was made some years ago, and might serve as a suitable donor for the affected pack.

The last of those pictures shows the main problem; the resin exhausts attach directly to the end of these engine packs, and the plastic has a deep gouge in it prior to the point of joining

 

Turning our attention to the fuselage now, I'm not entirely convinced that the nose gear bay is sufficiently deep enough. But given that the majority of the bay will be shielded by the doors, I've decided to focus on detailing the exposed rear part of the bay instead.

 

 

The fuselage also suffers from a few moulding issues (they shouldn't be too difficult to remove).

 

 

 

And finally, after a bit of work trying to get the pieces to fit, the windows were glued in place and filler applied from inside to fill any remaining gaps.

 

 

I should note at this point that almost all of the parts were afflicted by a lot of flash, this was trimmed off prior to the photos.

 

So that's it for the time being, I expect that fuselage will be closed up, filled and sanded next- ready for the detailing to start!

 

Best wishes,

Sam

[AliGauld]

That's a real shame about the moulding defects but I'm sure you will batter them into submission.

Sterling stuff so far.

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[cathasatail]

How time flies... Uni work has necessitated a slight pause in proceedings, but here we are- almost a month later!

 

In that time I've joined up the major sub-assemblies (wings, fuselage) and assembled the engine nacelles.

 

 

Turning first of all to the fuselage/wings: as hinted at previously this kit isn't exactly a walk in the park. The join between the two fuselage halves persistently stuck around between multiple bouts of filling/sanding/priming, but I think it's been finally vanquished.

 

 

The wing-fuselage joins were also rather troublesome and required a great deal of fettling to sort out. I should add that the photoetch gear bays fitted quite nicely, but were unbelievably fiddly to put together (one or two parts went missing in the process!).

 

Assorted exterior photoetch parts were then added:

-Of particular note are the engine intake ramps, parts for the main gear doors, and a variety of vents.

 

 

^Yes those are rivets on the underside of the fuselage.

 

After that, I had a go at tackling the engine packs. Despite the appalling gouges and scars that they arrived in, once they were mated with the resin intakes and exhausts (and were introduced to a small bucket of filler), they seem to have turned out alright:

 

^there are some PE parts still to be added to the both engine packs

 

^The rough surfaces on the intake interior is due to multiple test-fittings of the intake ramps.

 

^Note the plasticard shim that was added.

 

And finally, the pièce de résistance, the resin windscreen:

^Very happy with the fit of this. (And yes, those are supposed to be rivets along the front)

 

So there she is:

 

A final round of primer will be required, at least. I'm wondering whether to fill in the fuselage panel lines, as they (or indeed panel lines in general) don't appear to be particularly prominent on the real aircraft. I think I will end up filling them...

In addition, there's the nose, visor and "visor base" that needs building up, I intend to have a got at riveting the engine packs, the landing gear need working on, and then (finally) painting can begin!

 

But until then, thanks for dropping by!

 

All the best,

Sam

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by cathasatail

[crobinsonh]

One word- wow

[cathasatail]

Hi everyone!

 

After a rather busy week, I had a little bit of time to do some work on Concorde over the weekend.

 

To keep it short and sweet: I did a few more sanding/priming passes, followed by a can of Halfords white primer, another bout of fine sanding, and a Halfords gloss white coat. The gear bays were masked and sprayed with a custom mix borrowed from a Gulf War Tornado build, and then the decals were started on:

 

^You might notice the absence of one of the intake ramps- don't worry, it's safe and sound, and can be easily re-attached!

 

 

 

 

 

Lots more work needs to be done on decals, and especially on the windows (you can clearly see the issues in the photos above).

 

 

 

The engine pods were a little more troublesome, but I think they're turning out OK?

As with the aircraft itself, the engine pods require some more decals and detailing (and perhaps some more rivets too...).

 

Anyway, that's it for now- next up will be the gear assemblies, prior to final detailing (the nose/windscreen/gear doors/aerials, etc.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

All the best,

Sam

[cathasatail]

Well, she's done!

 

 

^Here's a little sneak peek until I make the RFI post

 

Many thanks for following along on this little journey- I had hoped to make more frequent posts, but alas studying had to take priority.

I've don a full writeup of my thoughts on the RFI, but suffice to say that I'm very happy with how this turned out!

 

RFI;

 

Thanks again for dropping by!

 

Best wishes,

Sam

 

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by cathasatail

[Back in the Saddle]

Beautiful!

[Team Aer Lingus]

Outstanding work Sam very well done 

 

thanks for sharing

 

Eamonn