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First of many high-winged options in my stash, picked for no particular reason (except maybe because I've never painted a model purple before), is the Eastern Express DHC-8 Q400. Here's what comes in the box:

 

Eastern Express Q400

 

It's the Flybe boxing, which includes laser decals printed by PAS models - these should be quite nice, but I've also got screen printed decals from RJS, which I'll be using.

 

It's short run but pretty nice - surface detail is pretty good. No locating pins, and some of the subassemblies are made up of multiple parts where a mainstream kit would have used one. A good example of this is the nose undercarriage - the wheel well is made up of 3 parts and the undercarriage leg is another 3 very small parts with quite soft detail, and the instructions aren't all that clear on how they go together! The nose gear also has to go in the fuselage before it's assembled so I've started with that. I think I've got it right. Here's the assembled fuselage (with the Viscount 700 from the French Fancy GB in the background):

1:144 Q400 WIP

 

thanks for looking

Julian

 

 

 

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Welcome to the Group Build, Julian. 

I think Eastern Express may have designed their undercarriage like that, in order to make it more likely to collapse (and hence be more life-like ;))!

 

Cheers

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A little more progress today - seams dealt with and fin attached. The fin is one of the few parts that has locating pins - but they're useless, the angle of the fin fillet means you can't actually get the locating pins into the holes in the fuselage! Managed to get a strong enough butt joint after chopping them off.

 

1:144 Q400 WIP

 

more soon

Julian

 

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Quite a lot of progress this weekend. Firstly, assembled the wings and engine nacelles. The instructions want you to attach the undercarriage before closing up the nacelles, which I did,. although as I think about it now, I could probably have attached the undercarriage later. It's done now, just going to have to handle it carefully.

 

I attached the nacelles to the wing before attaching it to the fuselage - I thought it would make it easier to clean up the joints without the fuselage getting in the way. The nacelles needed a little fettling to achieve a good flush fit, but weren't too bad. Then the wing also needed a little fettling, but I think I've ended up with a pretty good fit. I have to say I'm quite liking this kit - it's fiddly in places (like the undercarriage), bits of it need minor adjustments to get a good fit, and you have to test fit everything and think about how it's going to go together more than you would with a more mainstream kit, but I'm happy with how it's shaping up.

 

Here how it looks tonight:

1:144 Q400 WIP

 

cheers

Julian

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's been ages since my last update. I've started painting - did the white for the tail. Then there's a red and yellow band. There's a decal for that, but it has to go over white paint and needs precise masking. Well if I've got to mask it precisely for that, I might as well paint the red and yellow band! So that's done, it's currently drying in the garage, and I'll move on to the purple tomorrow. And hopefully I'll try and remember to photograph it when I do.

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4 hours ago, CliffB said:

Yes, we definitely need some nice colourful photographs please Julian :coolio:

 

Cheers

 

3 hours ago, dnl42 said:

Looking forward to seeing this purple marvel! 

Here you go:

 

1:144 Q400 WIP

 

It's quite hard to get the white balance to show the purple in the right hue, but this is fairly close. It looks close enough to the real thing (or at least photos of it) to my eye. The purple is Tamiya X-16. I'm also feeling pretty happy with the decision to paint the yellow and red bands.

 

I've got the decals on this evening. These are mostly RJS decals, the de-icer boots are from the PAS decals included in the kit. Somehow much harder to get the purple to look right this evening - this looks too blue - must be the lack of natural light coming into the room.

 

1:144 Q400 WIP 2

 

thanks for looking

Julian

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finished. More in the gallery shortly. Really struggled with the colour balance with the photos - it looks far too blue - so I might try and get some better ones in natural light.

 

1/144 Flybe Q400

 

Moving on to the Pelican

 

thanks for looking

Julian

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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