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Super Guppy Airbus Skylink Otaki/Revell


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This was a kit that I searched for a long time.

They are rare these days and often change hands at ridiculous prices.

This one I got on a Swiss auction site for a reasonable price,not cheap though...

It was the 1985 Revell issue.

Its the same mouldings as the Otaki kit,just this time in the Airbus house color markings.

The decals were yellowed,so I ordered a replacement set from BSmodelle.

The cheatline on the new sheet seemed too wide,so I used the Revell ones instead and only used the numbers and the titles from the new sheet.

The kit has only a few parts,not very detailed but it has nice recessed panel lines and the fit is mostly fine.

I improved the engine outlets as the kit ones were plain and also wrong in design.

Photos of the original showed the outlets are pretty roughly installed.

This was created by using plastcard plates and tubes.

After the assembly,the whole model was sprayed gloss black as a baae coat for the metallics.

Here I used Testors aluminium and silver and Gunze duraluminium to give some nuances.

I tried not to overdo it because the real thing has a quite smooth metal surface.

 

Airbus used 4 Super Guppies for transporting all kinds of parts for the A300,A310 and probably also the A320.

They served fom the mid 70s to the early 90s,when they got replaced with the bigger Airbus Beluga,which is a heavily modified A300-600.

Super Guppy No.4 is still flying today,with NASA,while the others are preserved in Toulouse and Hamburg.

One was lost in an accident.

 

Alex

 

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Whow never knew that there’s a model of that one. I often saw this plane start and land in Bremen/ Lemwerder. Always a spectacle to see.

superb modeling. That makes me envious!

 

Andy 

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1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

And I thought the 720 looked strange. That's a marvellous model and a memory from a long way back.

 

Thank you very much

 

1 hour ago, Andy Dyck said:

Whow never knew that there’s a model of that one. I often saw this plane start and land in Bremen/ Lemwerder. Always a spectacle to see.

superb modeling. That makes me envious!

 

Andy 

 

Thank you very much Andy.

I never saw the original but it looks really special.

The kit is worth picking up,if found for a reasonable price

 

1 hour ago, Wulfman said:

Gorgeous Guppy !

 

Wulfman

 

Thank you very much Wulfman

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Super Guppy No.1,  F-BTGV, was stored at Bruntingthorpe until a couple of years ago when it was scrapped. Such a shame. A spectacular aircraft and a spectacular model of it Alex.

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16 hours ago, Tomjw said:

Very impressive build of a real oddity.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Tom

 

Thank you very much Tom.

 

14 hours ago, Sergei said:

Super Guppy No.1,  F-BTGV, was stored at Bruntingthorpe until a couple of years ago when it was scrapped. Such a shame. A spectacular aircraft and a spectacular model of it Alex.

 

Thank you very much Sergei.

 

Thank you also for the update on the remaining Guppies.👍

 

13 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

Nice model, trying to find out what it's original air force number was. I saw on Flikr, the nose is saved at the South Wales Avi. museum.

 

Thank you very much

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Another excellent result Alex.

 

I never saw the real aircraft, something I regret, but that's a superb model and a fine tribute.

 

Dave G 🇺🇦

 

 

 

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20 hours ago, Skodadriver said:

Another excellent result Alex.

 

I never saw the real aircraft, something I regret, but that's a superb model and a fine tribute.

 

Dave G 🇺🇦

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much Dave.

 

5 hours ago, John_W said:

Very nice build.

Amazing that they are still flying when you consider that the design started life as the B29 in the 1940s.

 

 

Thank you very much.

Its only one thats still active,but that proves the durability of the airframe.

Similar to the DC-3 and C-46,some are still going strong.

 

1 hour ago, Markh-75 said:

Well done! I rather like the unusual ones!😀

 

Thank you very much.

Its a very special design indeed.

While building it,I kept asking myself,how on earth it was possible for this thing to fly,those tiny wings compared to that huge fuselage...

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This looks tough to build!  The building and painting the windshield area seems challenging.  Overall, nice job with the clean metallic finish!

 

I am somewhat amazed how this plane can actually fly!

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30 minutes ago, cifenet said:

This looks tough to build!  The building and painting the windshield area seems challenging.  Overall, nice job with the clean metallic finish!

 

I am somewhat amazed how this plane can actually fly!

Thank you very much.

The build itself was not that tough,the kit has only about 30 parts with a good fit mostly.

The windshield was a bit challenging with its tiny size and small window frames

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On 5/10/2022 at 1:45 AM, busnproplinerfan said:

Nice model, trying to find out what it's original air force number was. I saw on Flikr, the nose is saved at the South Wales Avi. museum.

It seems to have had two identities on the French register, F-WEAI and F-GEAI, before going to NASA as N941NA.  I think we've been looking at the same information.

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10 hours ago, JosephLalor said:

It seems to have had two identities on the French register, F-WEAI and F-GEAI, before going to NASA as N941NA.  I think we've been looking at the same information.

Might be, this one's a bit confusing.

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