Einar Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 The Comet was the first commercial jet airliner in the world, introduced in the 1950's. The first versions of the plane had, however, several tragic accidents in flight because of metal fatigue in the fuselage. The rectangular cabin windows started to crack from the corners causing the disintegration of the fuselage. After a long research on the cause of the accidents the next versions of the Comet were built with reinforced fuselages and oval cabin windows. I decided to build the model in Olympic Airways livery. In the 1960's the company flew Comet 4B's between London and Athens in co-operation with BEA . Personally, I travelled a couple of times with Dan Air London's Comet 4's between Helsinki and London in the 1970's. I built the model from quite a challenging A-Model kit and for the Olympic livery I used the 26Decals set. The biggest flaw of the kit is its wrong size, which I only found out too late. It's not 1/144 scale but rather about 1/148 (for example the Airfix Comet kit is of the right size). Thus, the A-Model kit is that much smaller in every respect ! Building the model was a long struggle during which I almost threw in the towel. Applying and correcting the cheatline decal at the cockpit area was also a pain in the neck. I scratch built a lot of details and I also used the Comet photoetch set of NH Details. Especially the antennas and the wires near the rudder were challenging to get right. For the wires I used 0,08 mm EZ-line. The white areas of the model I sprayed with Tamiya fine surface primer and then with Tamiya clear gloss spray from rattle can. The metal parts I painted with Alclad white aluminium. In the end I sealed the decals with Humbrol clear gloss acrylic varnish. 37 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 Now that is really sharp-looking! I love it, despite all your problems with this kit, it looks like the genuine article. Now, if we can prevail upon A-Model to release an all-injected 1/72 version, that would be nice, too. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einar Posted June 30, 2021 Author Share Posted June 30, 2021 4 minutes ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: Now that is really sharp-looking! I love it, despite all your problems with this kit, it looks like the genuine article. Now, if we can prevail upon A-Model to release an all-injected 1/72 version, that would be nice, too. Thank you! ..and hopefully they get the scale right if they release a Comet in 1/72😉 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMCS Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 Fantastic 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skodadriver Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 Lovely job Einar and respect from me for overcoming the problems so well. The kit is a sadly missed opportunity - how on earth did they make the fuselage under-scale but get the 4B wingspan correct? I don't know if you saw Viking's WIP on building the 4C but it's worth reading in case you ever decide to do another one. I once tried to mate the Amodel 4B wings to the Airfix fuselage but I just ended up with two ruined models! If I ever try again I'll follow Viking's advice. Dave G 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1978 Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 Thats a great build and despite the problems mentioned,it came out really well. I am starting to get a bit worried about the Amodel Comet as I never really heard good reviews about that kit...and I have a few of them. I guess I should have sticked to the old Airfix kit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einar Posted July 2, 2021 Author Share Posted July 2, 2021 8 hours ago, Skodadriver said: Lovely job Einar and respect from me for overcoming the problems so well. The kit is a sadly missed opportunity - how on earth did they make the fuselage under-scale but get the 4B wingspan correct? I don't know if you saw Viking's WIP on building the 4C but it's worth reading in case you ever decide to do another one. I once tried to mate the Amodel 4B wings to the Airfix fuselage but I just ended up with two ruined models! If I ever try again I'll follow Viking's advice. Dave G Thanks Dave, If I decide to build another Comet its going to be the Airfix one or then I follow Viking's advice. Cheers, Einar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einar Posted July 2, 2021 Author Share Posted July 2, 2021 7 hours ago, Alex1978 said: Thats a great build and despite the problems mentioned,it came out really well. I am starting to get a bit worried about the Amodel Comet as I never really heard good reviews about that kit...and I have a few of them. I guess I should have sticked to the old Airfix kit Thanks Alex, If I had known of the Amodel flaws I would have chosen the Airfix kit. Cheers Einar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 It's a nice looking Comet, and I love the Olympic livery, nice job! It is a shame that as Dave says it is a missed opportunity to have produced a state of the art Comet. I got a bit carried away with my build, maybe when in a hole I should have stopped digging! Dimensionally my Comet is correct, but I think the fuselage is slightly too skinny now. Next time I think I'll just build an Airfix one, 😉 Cheers John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einar Posted July 2, 2021 Author Share Posted July 2, 2021 3 minutes ago, Viking said: It's a nice looking Comet, and I love the Olympic livery, nice job! It is a shame that as Dave says it is a missed opportunity to have produced a state of the art Comet. I got a bit carried away with my build, maybe when in a hole I should have stopped digging! Dimensionally my Comet is correct, but I think the fuselage is slightly too skinny now. Next time I think I'll just build an Airfix one, 😉 Cheers John Thanks John, I'm now familiar with the different flaws of the Amodel kit. I sincerely think that I'll call it day with Comet 4 models. This experience was so exhausting that I'll move to other airliners going forward😦 Cheers, Einar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epeeman Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 Lovely work on your Comet - Very sharp! Regards Dave 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger350Pilot Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 Nice job, Einar! And cudos for pushing on through and NOT throwing in the old towel. Thank you for sharing such a great rendition of a fine old classic. She looks really really good. Love this old airliner and the Olympic livery really makes her stand out. And you actually flew on one of these? Wow. Now that is a story to tell. Very nice build, indeed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einar Posted July 3, 2021 Author Share Posted July 3, 2021 1 hour ago, Challenger350Pilot said: Nice job, Einar! And cudos for pushing on through and NOT throwing in the old towel. Thank you for sharing such a great rendition of a fine old classic. She looks really really good. Love this old airliner and the Olympic livery really makes her stand out. And you actually flew on one of these? Wow. Now that is a story to tell. Very nice build, indeed. Thank you very much for the cudos! Cheers, Einar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natter Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 So glad you persevered with the challenges the kit threw at you, the result is an excellent model. Congratulations. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiampieroSilvestri Posted July 3, 2021 Share Posted July 3, 2021 Very nice DeHavilland Comet! From what I know Mach2 makes a 1/72 scale Comet. Saluti Giampiero 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Einar Posted July 4, 2021 Author Share Posted July 4, 2021 11 hours ago, Natter said: So glad you persevered with the challenges the kit threw at you, the result is an excellent model. Congratulations. Thanks Natter Einar 10 hours ago, GiampieroSilvestri said: Very nice DeHavilland Comet! From what I know Mach2 makes a 1/72 scale Comet. Saluti Giampiero Grazie mille Giampiero Einar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted July 6, 2021 Share Posted July 6, 2021 Lovely work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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