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PK-801 Boeing 747 British Airways [FINISHED]


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This is the Matchbox 747 kit in 1/390 scale.

 

I’ve built this kit in the Revell boxing / Air Canada scene in the past and it makes for a surprisingly good looking model despite the small scale.

 

The only thing that lets it down is the undercarriage.  So, this one will be ‘in flight’ on a makeshift stand made from an acrylic rod and one of the always useful and cheap shadow box frames from Jobbycraft.

 

Going for the BA livery of course although I’ll pick up one of the Revell kits and do the Air Canada version in the future…

 

… Providing the decals hold up!  I think they will.  Yellowing a bit but otherwise seem ok.

 

20220107_155618

 

20220107_155626

 

20220107_155630

 

And this is the Revell version I did and sadly destroyed moving it upstairs.  Hopefully this one avoids such an unfortunate demise.

 

20200130_094006v2


Good luck with your builds everyone!

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Nice plane. I built one of these in the Revell boxing maybe 15 years back. Not sure where it's gone now. Didn't know it was originally a Matchbox. IIRC, the mould quality wasn't great. The engines took a bit of work.

Best of luck

 

/P

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Wow… that little 747 looks great, shame it didn’t survive the upstairs transportation. Good to see you having another go at one for this GB. 

Cheers, welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 

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  • 2 weeks later...
8 hours ago, Adm Lord De Univers said:

When overseas travel used to be a thing, I'd specifically try to book a 747 flight, in the hope they'd rev it up and then release the brakes before takeoff. Favourite part of the holiday!

 

If this looks half as good as the previous one, it'll be gorgeous.

 

David

Always hoped to fly on a 747 and never got the chance.  Maybe I’ll get to fly on a A380 before they disappear.  Not quite as attractive as the Queens but quite  an experience I’m sure!

 

Started on this little project yesterday.  Ordered some little neodymium magnets to attach it to the makeshift acrylic rod stand.  Was dubious they’d be strong enough given their tiny size but they will be, even with the plastic between them.

 

So far, so good!

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On 07/01/2022 at 17:24, psdavidson said:

Nice plane. I built one of these in the Revell boxing maybe 15 years back. Not sure where it's gone now. Didn't know it was originally a Matchbox. IIRC, the mould quality wasn't great. The engines took a bit of work.

Best of luck

 

/P

If I remember correctly, the two engine halves didn’t quite line up when I did the Revell kit.  The two fuselage halves went together fine but I’ll need to manipulate this one as I zip it up.  Nothing to severe thankfully.

 

The panel lines are extremely fine on this kit and I’ll be surprised if they’re still visible after priming and painting.  At this scale it’s not a big deal except for the wings.  I’m sure I did a bit of rescribing when I did the Revell one.

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On 07/01/2022 at 21:55, JOCKNEY said:

Delighted to see another Airliner joining the GB,  I'll need to sedate Dave as he tends to get overexcited with these things :jump_fire:

Best of luck with the build. :like:

Cheers Pat

 

On 08/01/2022 at 10:48, Rabbit Leader said:

Wow… that little 747 looks great, shame it didn’t survive the upstairs transportation. Good to see you having another go at one for this GB. 

Cheers, welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 

Thankyou chaps!
 

Work has begun in earnest!

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21 minutes ago, BluesModeller said:

Always hoped to fly on a 747 and never got the chance

Managed 2 flights a number of years ago, LHR to Qatar and back. I almost had the plane to myself on the return leg between Doha and Riyadh

 

/P

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2 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

I never realised they did these kits, the Revell one looked sweet, shame it got destroyed.   

Must admit I only vaguely remember them and wondered if they were not originally made by Matchbox due to the odd range of  scales. Maybe they were just copying the early Frog policy of altering the size to fit one standard box? I can't think they sold all that well to anybody wanting a collection to the same scale, but am probably wrong.

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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6 hours ago, BluesModeller said:

Always hoped to fly on a 747 and never got the chance. 

 

You didn't miss much. Just another old, creaky aeroplane held together with rivets and willpower. At least that was the impression I got from the American Airlines 747 I flew on in 2007.

 

The 787, on the other hand... absolute gem. Admittedly, they're about 50 years newer, but they're also light years ahead in many ways. 

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1 minute ago, Rob G said:

 

You didn't miss much. Just another old, creaky aeroplane held together with rivets and willpower. At least that was the impression I got from the American Airlines 747 I flew on in 2007.

 

The 787, on the other hand... absolute gem. Admittedly, they're about 50 years newer, but they're also light years ahead in many ways. 

Sacrilegious Rob! The 747 was held together with majesty and wonder! And rivets...probably some gaffer tape too. Last one I went on was a Virgin flight and (I didn't expect it, she was an ol lass by this point after all) didn't creak too much! The power though 🤤

 

And honest to the modelling gods, the return night flight was on a busted 3-month old 787! That I specifically paid more to get on and see just how amazing it was. But that was poor airline maintenance (broken lockers, trays, toilets, seats, TVs, etc) than the plane's fault. Lighting still nice though. Never could fathom what happened on that plane to break so much in so little time.

 

David

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The comparisons between the old but ever reliable 747 and the plastic fantastic that is the 787 are quite interesting. The cabin interiors are quite separate to the overall airframe and many airlines just purchase essentially the airframe hull, then send them to another facility for their final cabin figment. From what we’ve experienced on our ultra long haul flights, passengers must get pretty fidgety after being in the air for more than eight hours and seemingly take out their frustrations on whatever they can inside the 787’s cabin. By the time they get to London, there is insufficient time, labour and parts to fix all these defects before they make the long haul journey back to Australia. Another tight turn around down here with more fidgety passengers and before you know it a six month year old aircraft feels and looks about 20 years old!  Anyway.. I digress. 
 

Now I did see a small Revell 747 kit at my LHS the other day, however am sure this was scaled at 1/450. As this original Matchbox kit is scaled 1/390 the one I saw must be a different kit altogether. A bit strange I thought. Must check Scalemates. 
 

Cheers.. Dave (Maintenance Controller, Qantas Brisbane). 

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On 1/20/2022 at 6:53 PM, BluesModeller said:

Always hoped to fly on a 747 and never got the chance.  Maybe I’ll get to fly on a A380 before they disappear.  Not quite as attractive as the Queens but quite  an experience I’m sure!

 

Started on this little project yesterday.  Ordered some little neodymium magnets to attach it to the makeshift acrylic rod stand.  Was dubious they’d be strong enough given their tiny size but they will be, even with the plastic between them.

 

So far, so good!

 

Hi,

 

There are still Lufthansa 747-8's flying passengers. 

And BA has been flying A380's between Heathrow and Frankfurt recently. I think one flight per day to keep crews current on the A380 until they can start normal long-haul operations again.

So, theoretically you could fly to Frankfurt on an A380 and continue onward in a 747. 

It could of course all become a very expensive mistake if due to sheduling/availablility, you get switched to an A320 and an A350.

 

Cheers, Stefan.

 

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3 minutes ago, Stefan Buysse said:

 

Hi,

 

There are still Lufthansa 747-8's flying passengers. 

And BA has been flying A380's between Heathrow and Frankfurt recently. I think one flight per day to keep crews current on the A380 until they can start normal long-haul operations again.

So, theoretically you could fly to Frankfurt on an A380 and continue onward in a 747. 

It could of course all become a very expensive mistake if due to sheduling/availablility, you get switched to an A320 and an A350.

 

Cheers, Stefan.

 

That’s unfortunately the problem…

 

Can’t justify spending the money on flights just to get on a certain aircraft.  But one fully they’ll both be around for a few more years so I’m optimistic the chance may come along.

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On 20/01/2022 at 20:43, bigbadbadge said:

I never realised they did these kits, the Revell one looked sweet, shame it got destroyed.   Good luck with your build. 

Chris

Been looking at the other three in the series.  The prices being asked on eBay for these are silly!  Got lucky with what I paid for this little 747.  Can only guess it’s the decals and box that are made of gold!

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8 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

The comparisons between the old but ever reliable 747 and the plastic fantastic that is the 787 are quite interesting. The cabin interiors are quite separate to the overall airframe and many airlines just purchase essentially the airframe hull, then send them to another facility for their final cabin figment. From what we’ve experienced on our ultra long haul flights, passengers must get pretty fidgety after being in the air for more than eight hours and seemingly take out their frustrations on whatever they can inside the 787’s cabin. By the time they get to London, there is insufficient time, labour and parts to fix all these defects before they make the long haul journey back to Australia. Another tight turn around down here with more fidgety passengers and before you know it a six month year old aircraft feels and looks about 20 years old!  Anyway.. I digress. 
 

Now I did see a small Revell 747 kit at my LHS the other day, however am sure this was scaled at 1/450. As this original Matchbox kit is scaled 1/390 the one I saw must be a different kit altogether. A bit strange I thought. Must check Scalemates. 
 

Cheers.. Dave (Maintenance Controller, Qantas Brisbane). 

It wasn’t the blue and white KLM 747 was it?  That model has been my paint mule for the past few years.  All was going well until I tried to get the decals to conform to the shape of the nose!

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Have been doing a bit of research on this 747 after having a good look at the instruction / decal placement sheet.

 

This is a 747 - 100 series unlike the Revell boxing which is a 747 - 200.

 

The name of the aircraft is “Coniston Water” but no reg decals are given on the decal sheet.  A quick search of Google doesn’t throw much up, but this could be G-AWND which had been called Christopher Marlowe and City Of Leeds. It was destroyed at Kuwait International Airport during the first Gulf War in 1990.  Wiki refers to it as being the City Of Leeds but I have seen a couple of people reference it as being Coniston Water.

 

Seems to be quite a story to this particular 747…. Or it never existed at all with that name.  Love to know the history of anyone knows more.

 

My other question is on wing colours.

 

The sheet calls out a silver colour for the wings except for the centre which should be a light greyish colour.  Top and bottom of wings.  The same as I did for my Air Canada 747 above.  Would this be correct for this type of 747 model / age?

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Quite a fascinating story. I've searched high and low this morning and, like you, can find no clear photo or official record of this flight being called Coniston Water - excepting passengers who clearly recalled the name durign their subsequent ordeal in Kuwait, the link below is quite convincing to me that this plane was renamed from City of Leeds to Coniston Water. There was a photo that could be Coniston water but it was too blurred to make out clearly (and could be Christopher Marlowe) but it didn't appear to be city of leeds. I did find a separate Derwent Water, renamed in 1988 and suggests that some of these were renamed from cities to bodies of water. Anyway,

 

Wiki  entry and military wiki entry, this seems to show a photo dated both as 1985 and 1988 in subsequent links.

Rumours of special forces aboard, no photos, just interesting

More info of Kuwait and older photo and wreck

planespotters page, older photos, no mention of CW name. And link to Derwent water plane renamed 1988,

Airhistory page, links and pic

Aviation safety page, more photos

 Jetphoto jetphotos page, only 1 photo as Marlowe

Airliners page, should be 8 photos, not sure if any or all are G-AWND...

Closeup photos of tail wreckage, definitely the blue and not earlier red,

Extract from bloodied but not beaten book with survivor testimony, no photos or mention of name, but interesting

Flight 149 hostage crisis book extract, with pretty convincing testimony to the Coniston water name.

 

From what I can see the livery and other paint jobs varies a bit, but hopefully you can piece together from photos above what she looked like at different parts of life. Apologies if I've duplicated your research, but it appears for some of its life as a blend of schemes compared to other BA 747s, particularly when moving from BOAC to BA.

 

David

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5 hours ago, Adm Lord De Univers said:

Quite a fascinating story. I've searched high and low this morning and, like you, can find no clear photo or official record of this flight being called Coniston Water - excepting passengers who clearly recalled the name durign their subsequent ordeal in Kuwait, the link below is quite convincing to me that this plane was renamed from City of Leeds to Coniston Water. There was a photo that could be Coniston water but it was too blurred to make out clearly (and could be Christopher Marlowe) but it didn't appear to be city of leeds. I did find a separate Derwent Water, renamed in 1988 and suggests that some of these were renamed from cities to bodies of water. Anyway,

 

Wiki  entry and military wiki entry, this seems to show a photo dated both as 1985 and 1988 in subsequent links.

Rumours of special forces aboard, no photos, just interesting

More info of Kuwait and older photo and wreck

planespotters page, older photos, no mention of CW name. And link to Derwent water plane renamed 1988,

Airhistory page, links and pic

Aviation safety page, more photos

 Jetphoto jetphotos page, only 1 photo as Marlowe

Airliners page, should be 8 photos, not sure if any or all are G-AWND...

Closeup photos of tail wreckage, definitely the blue and not earlier red,

Extract from bloodied but not beaten book with survivor testimony, no photos or mention of name, but interesting

Flight 149 hostage crisis book extract, with pretty convincing testimony to the Coniston water name.

 

From what I can see the livery and other paint jobs varies a bit, but hopefully you can piece together from photos above what she looked like at different parts of life. Apologies if I've duplicated your research, but it appears for some of its life as a blend of schemes compared to other BA 747s, particularly when moving from BOAC to BA.

 

David

David, thankyou for these links.  The Twitter one was interesting as it seems it was also called Spirit Of Yorkshire very briefly.  Although details are scarce it would also seem it was Coniston Water rather than City Of Leeds at the time it was captured and ultimately destroyed.  Probably not long after or around the time this kit was made.  A fascinating story surrounds this aircraft if it is the right one.  Makes me want to get a larger kit to truly do it justice!
 

I’ve tweeted BA so hopefully they can fill me in on this little mystery.

 

 

 

Still not sure on wing colours….  Research suggest BAC 707 for the wings or ‘Boeing Grey’ and a darker grey for the corogard.  Silver leading edge.

 

In which case I got the colours wrong my last one! 😳

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Still at the priming / sanding stage.  Has been a nightmare trying to get rid of the seams.  Not sure why I’ve had such an issue this time but it feels like the primer is reacting with the filler slightly and causing it to shrink back just enough to cause a shadow of the seam.  I’ve put some Mr Dissolved Putty - which I’m really liking - on it and will smooth it all out tomorrow before hitting the wings with some Racking Grey (I think it’s called).  Hopefully that’ll banish the pesky join!


Also taken some time to reshape the nose (And wing roots) a little.  Seemed a little too stubby for a 747.  Still is but it’s better than it was.  The magnet idea seems to have worked well so I’ll get onto the stand and engines whilst the Halfords paint cures for a few days.
 

20220129_005043

 

Mike

 

 

 

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On 1/21/2022 at 11:19 AM, Rob G said:

 

You didn't miss much. Just another old, creaky aeroplane held together with rivets and willpower. At least that was the impression I got from the American Airlines 747 I flew on in 2007.

 

The 787, on the other hand... absolute gem. Admittedly, they're about 50 years newer, but they're also light years ahead in many ways. 

Haha this was because you went AA, not because it was a 747! I had the crappiest experience of my airline passenger career on an AA 777 - they managed to make a relatively new plane also feel like it was from 1967!

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41 minutes ago, BluesModeller said:

Still at the priming / sanding stage.  Has been a nightmare trying to get rid of the seams.  Not sure why I’ve had such an issue this time but it feels like the primer is reacting with the filler slightly and causing it to shrink back just enough to cause a shadow of the seam.  I’ve put some Mr Dissolved Putty - which I’m really liking - on it and will smooth it all out tomorrow before hitting the wings with some Racking Grey (I think it’s called).  Hopefully that’ll banish the pesky join!


Also taken some time to reshape the nose (And wing roots) a little.  Seemed a little too stubby for a 747.  Still is but it’s better than it was.  The magnet idea seems to have worked well so I’ll get onto the stand and engines whilst the Halfords paint cures for a few days.
 

20220129_005043

 

Mike

 

 

 

Nice work so far! I am halfway through (and stalled) a KLM version of this kit. Must get back to it now that you've inspired me!

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Great progress Mike, she's looking very Jumbo like. I've recently mixed up a solution of sprue goo and have to say it goes on quite well and hides all the seams I manage to make. Needs a bit of sanding, but that's OK we are more than used to that! 

Cheers.. Dave 

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