Bjorn Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) Aware of its shortcomings, but blinded by the beautiness of the Concorde, I bought the Airfix/Heller 1/72 kit a few years ago. Recovering a little, I could see clear enough not to build it immediately, but last year I suddenly lost control and started it. Cockpit is fairly basic for its scale. But since most of it will be hidden anyway, I decided to build it OOB. The nose is moveable, which obvouisly is a bad solution. So I decided to skip that and glue it in raised position. Because of that. I had to scratch-build the interior under the windshield. The tail wheel wll also got some details. Dry-fitting after lots of sanding and fettling: Regarding that the kit is not that old, this must be one of the worst-fitting kits I have ever built. Here is just one example: After lots of sweat, tears, putty and sanding. This is a HUGE bird! Almost 87 cm long! One of many bad design decisions is that the fin is not a separate part, but a part of the body sections - which of course brings more problems. The front part was about 0,5 mm thinner than the rest of the fin, so I had to glue a piece of plasticard on the right side, and trimmed it to a decent shape (more sanding followed after this picture): Another example of bad design is the area around the landing lights; Airfix did not even try to get this right, leaving a "hole" behind it (left). I had to create new parts of plasticard (right), followed by more sanding and puttying: Did someone say "ejector pin marks"? After one of many sanding sessions: I started with grit 150... Two more examples of non-existent fit: After more sanding and fettling it was good enough: Ready for nose assembly: As I mentioned before: This one is huge! I can't count how many times I accidentally have hit things with it. Thanks to the hard and builder-hostile plastic, nothing has been broken. At least so far. At this stage I got tired of this one, putting it away for a while. Being a completely fool, I decided to go for anorher beast (I even bought it to build it immediately - I did not just picked it from my stash!): Heller's old 1/72 Boeing 707. Luckily, it turned out to be a much simpler build - at least compared to the Concorde. The basic buiding went so fast that I forgot to take photos. The biggest challenge was to get a good fit between the wings and the body, but this was solved by a little violence. It was also a little difficult to glue the engines to the wings. The canopy also needed some work. At this stage, I was completely exhausted and tired of large models. So a number of 1/48 jets and i dozen of old Heller kits in the Britmodeller GB followed. But a few weeks ago I decided to finish these two. Mainly since I was tired of moving them every time I wanted to build something else, since I had no other place for them than under my workbench. The Boeing was primed with Tamiya white primer and Bare Metal Silver from rattlecans. After that I painted it with Mr Paint and Vallejo Metallics. The fin recieved a Lufthansa-blue mix of Tamiya X4 Blue and X18 Black. The Concorde was of course easier to paint. But after priming it with Tamiya white primer, I discovered so many problems that I almost threw it away. Somehow I managed to fix it and painted it with several layers of Mr Paint white. I decided to use the kit decals in both cases. Heller's old Lufhansa decals were a little brittle and had lots of small errors, but were good enough and did not cause too much problems. I replaced the German flag on the fin and added a yellow background on the Stuttgart coat of arms. The Concorde decals were of better quality. The problem here is that they seem to be made for another (non-existing) 1/72 Concorde model. They do not correspond at all to the small hatches etc on the model... The decal for the 2nd door in the left side was also wrong, being too short. Luckily, I managed to find decals with almost the same grey colour, cut them to shape and added the strips to the kit decal making it longer. The decals had plenty of other errors, so Concorde rivet-counters, please look away... And here we are now! Just the final touch and the landing gears remain. And of course, convincing my wife that these two beasts will be an excellent addition to our living room. Edited August 11, 2021 by Bjorn 21 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busnproplinerfan Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 When you said you're building both, I thought you were going to swap the wings between the two. Imagine how that would look. Even though the Concorde(I'll be nice) doesn't sound easy to make I still want to get one. Both of these look great. I'm not counting rivets but I think you missed one. I can say that because I never saw one. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Great job on these! Ah, I remember building he 707 the first time, waaaaay back. That's an attractive color scheme, and as you said, brute force is the way to go sometimes. Did you prime this beast and sand it down before painting it with a rattle can? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back in the Saddle Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 I’m finishing off my Heller 1/72 Boeing 707 tonight and have an ‘almost completed’ Airfix 1/72 Concorde in the wings (probably going into this year’s KUTA GB) - I know the hassles you will have had with these two but the end result is a couple of stunning models.👍 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1978 Posted August 12, 2021 Share Posted August 12, 2021 Two stunning beauties. The Concorde is a bit of a beast to build but the result is a real eye catcher . The Heller 707 is a great kit,it just could be a bit more detailed OOB,but otherwise its one of the best 707 kits around. I am sure your wife will accept those 2 fine models in the living room. My missus doesnt seem to care much if there are continuesly new models turning up in our living room...😁😉 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted August 12, 2021 Share Posted August 12, 2021 Are those Lufthansa decals from HaHen? They look really good! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano353 Posted August 12, 2021 Share Posted August 12, 2021 Your 707 is looking awesome great metal paint on the fuselage looks really good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted August 13, 2021 Author Share Posted August 13, 2021 On 12/08/2021 at 21:00, TheyJammedKenny! said: Are those Lufthansa decals from HaHen? They look really good! No, they are the Heller kit decals. Not the best, but good enough for me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted August 19, 2021 Author Share Posted August 19, 2021 Final touches on the 707. This is a beast! I added some brake wires on the landing gears. Invisible on the picture as well as on the finished model, I guess. Windscreen vipers is a nice addition. Most of the weathering will be on the wings. Just a few steps remain. The final touches on the Concorde will follow soon... Stay tuned! 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1978 Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 Looks fabulous. What grey did you use on the wings ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back in the Saddle Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 Very nice! That weathering looks spot on.👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted August 20, 2021 Author Share Posted August 20, 2021 17 hours ago, Alex1978 said: Looks fabulous. What grey did you use on the wings ? Thanks! The light grey is Mr Paint's Boeing 707 grey. I thought it sounded like a good choice. The rest is painted with Vallejo Metallics. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianwau Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 Nice work! Have an Airfix Concorde - but have not done much more than give the box contents a stern gaze. Forewarned is forearmed - thank you! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diogo Monteiro Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 I’ve bought an Heller Boeing 727-200 at 1/125 scale and I must confess I didn’t had the best impression of Heller because the mold and the fitting were just HORRIBLE. I’ve wanted to build a 703 with TAP colors but I only found the kit of Heller at 1/72 with AF colors (I do presume is the same that you’ve used) so I was a bit decided to build it. Turns out there’s only decals for TAP at 1/144 🥲 After reading this topic I must confess I’ve melt by this kit. Certainly one thing I’m gonna grab from my dad for my BDay 😁😁😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted August 21, 2021 Share Posted August 21, 2021 Looks great! Don't forget the VHF antennas, top and bottom, the water drains, and the Q inlet on the vertical fin leading edge.... I may be forgetting something. Alex 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted August 23, 2021 Author Share Posted August 23, 2021 On 22/08/2021 at 00:53, TheyJammedKenny! said: Looks great! Don't forget the VHF antennas, top and bottom, the water drains, and the Q inlet on the vertical fin leading edge.... I may be forgetting something. Alex Thanks! They will all be left to the final finish. The Q inlet was oversized on the kit, so it will be replaced. On 21/08/2021 at 02:48, Diogo Monteiro said: I’ve bought an Heller Boeing 727-200 at 1/125 scale and I must confess I didn’t had the best impression of Heller because the mold and the fitting were just HORRIBLE. I’ve wanted to build a 703 with TAP colors but I only found the kit of Heller at 1/72 with AF colors (I do presume is the same that you’ve used) so I was a bit decided to build it. Turns out there’s only decals for TAP at 1/144 🥲 After reading this topic I must confess I’ve melt by this kit. Certainly one thing I’m gonna grab from my dad for my BDay 😁😁😁 In fact, the kit was better than I expected. The 1/125 kit is from the early sixties, while this one was released for the first time in 1985, and the same one that you had. Fit was not perfect, but not bad at all. Fitting the wings to the body was a little tricky, at first there was a pretty huge gap there. But then I discovered that by pressing the wing to the body, gave the model a correct (or at least almost correct) dihedral. And apart from that, the only difficulty was fitting the engines to the wings - and the size... So good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted August 23, 2021 Author Share Posted August 23, 2021 With the Boeing almost finished, I turned to the Concorde. Among all "worst parts of this build" is the challenge to give it a wash. The upper parts of the wings are full of hatches and panel lines, which are broad and shallow. At first I thought that I should not bother, but it looked a little too toy-like. So I wanted to give it a soft wash, not too pronunced. After several attempts wit different washes, I gave up and used a pencil instead. The result was not perfect, but good enough. After that, the mad beauty got more layers of Johnsons Pledge, which I use as varnish on glossy surfaces. Masking removed... Almost there now! 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 Landing gears finished. And soon also the whole model! And compared to an old Airfix/Heller Spitfire. Size is respectable! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted September 11, 2021 Author Share Posted September 11, 2021 And so the Concorde is finished! RFI thread here. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1978 Posted September 11, 2021 Share Posted September 11, 2021 Superbly build Concorde. A few years back,I built the Revell reissue of this kit.It was mostly enjoyable but the finished model is just huge...display space was difficult to find Thanks for sharing Alex 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted September 11, 2021 Share Posted September 11, 2021 Wow! That's beautiful. I appreciate your choice of colors for background contrast, too. Very impressive work on your part. We have a Concorde at the Udvar Hazy center (Air and Space Museum), and it's pretty huge, so I can just imagine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted September 12, 2021 Author Share Posted September 12, 2021 17 hours ago, Alex1978 said: Superbly build Concorde. A few years back,I built the Revell reissue of this kit.It was mostly enjoyable but the finished model is just huge...display space was difficult to find Thanks for sharing Alex Thanks! Yes, I have become aware of this problem now... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Posted February 3, 2022 Author Share Posted February 3, 2022 And so the Boeing is also finally finished! RFI thread: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back in the Saddle Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 Excellent work on those two behemoths!👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 Both look great to me, and I can imagine how much harder they were to build from those particular kits. Nice one. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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