Zvezda B737-8 Max TUI (Tuifly) 1/144

[JK_Models]

Hi,

 

I just finished my TUI Germany 737-8 Max. Was definitely one of my quickest builds ever as I think I did the whole plane within 4 weeks from start to finish.

 

Upon holidays in beautiful Madeira where we actually took Tuifly on our way towards there I saw a TUI 737-8 Max there and realised how cool it actually looks in that livery, IMO the livery is rather underrated. So I spontaneously had the idea of building one for the time after the holidays with a Max that was previously destined to be an Icelandair in my collection. Also had the beautiful TUI 757 of Ian Woodard as an inspiration that I once saw here.
The decals are from DRAW decals for the livery and they are excellent, really opaque and the carrier film basically disappears once they are dried. Windows and details are from Authentic Airliners.
All blues are painted. The light blue was kind of tricky, as all light blue I could find were rather too cyan, so I ended up mixing Mr. Hobby 45 with quite some red (to make it less cyan) and also some white. For the tail colour and winglets the same mix + even more white. The dark blue is Tamiya X-3. There's acutally a decal for the dark blue part, but it would be against my personal modelling values to not paint it and I guess it would never look really good as the area is too large and complex for a decal.

I imagined the painting tricky with its curves and getting both sides look the same, but with a small "trick" (that others used before) it was much easier than I thought. I took a real photo that was mroe or less exactly side on. I then resized the shot to the same size as the model on Photoshop and printed it twice (mirrored it for the other side). I cut the light blue part out on paper and put it on the plane with masking tape. I used certain reference points above or under the doors and then drew lines with a pencil on both sides upon the white plane and then its about using flexible masking tape. For the dark blue part one already has this as a reference so this isnt hard anymore.

 

Overall I am really satisfied. The kit is excellent and easy to build. The only downpoint is that a Max has 4 distinctive features compared to a normal 737NG. The larger engines, the different winglets, the APU-section that is 787 style AND the much higher front gear. Yet the Zvezda only has the normal front gear of 737 NG, where I feel that already on the rregula -700 or -800 kit  it sits a bit too low (or likely the nose door gears are just too large). Personally I felt the front didnt look like a proper Max anymore. So I used some spares that I had to make it 2mm higher. 
But yeah with knowing that (I wasnt aware) one can easily make it higher, in the end some polysterene would also do the trick.

For the pitots on front I used some Microdisin photoetched parts. Generally these sets arent really worth buying for me as I always end up only using veeery few parts of it, but I thought it was a cool feature.

 

The finish was done done with Tamyia X-22 and then a pass of Mr Hobby's GX-112 to protect it from UV light (although of course other than for those photos it wont see the sun) and some Tamyia polishing compound.

Enough said (likely even too much ;-), here are the photos. Thanks for looking, appreciate any comments.
Julien

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by JK_Models

[ssn705]

What an absolutely beautiful beast. Well done. I always struggle working in whites. Can you tell me how you did yours? Any particular tricks for it?

 

Again, beautiful build and I agree, the livery is striking.

 

Dave

[Samuraiwarrior]

Hi, 

An excellent job. 

That paint job is outstanding. 

It really looks like a a real airplane. 

Thanks for sharing. 

Kevin 

[eng]

WOWWWW! Thats absolutely stunning, I honestly had to do a second look at that first pic as I thought it was a photo of the real thing for comparison.

 

Beautifully finished and the colours are spot-on.

 

Lovely work,

 

Eng

[Skodadriver]

Thanks for sharing your lovely model Julien. The photos are excellent and really show it off. Thanks also for the helpful painting information.

 

It's very annoying that Zvezda gave us a lovely new sprue of Max-related bits but somehow missed the longer nose wheel leg. I have a Max in primer ready for final painting and I extended the leg using plastic rod and fuse wire. I'll write it up properly when I post the RFI, hopefully in the next couple of months.

 

Dave G 🇺🇦

[SAT69]

Extraordinary work!

[Berko]

Exceptional work as always Julien. Very clean result and sharp craftsmanship. Photos themself also deserve credit. 
 

Berk

Edited June 25, 2022 by Berko

[tMikha]

The really stuning MAX, congratulations!

and the livery is difficult enough to realise it on the model! Pretty looking scheme, for me it associates with dolphin or killer whale. 
 

once again, nice work, thank’s for sharing! 

[JK_Models]

Hi,

 

thanks for your kind words, I appreciate all the comments.
In reality I have far more photographic background than modelling, so glad the photos are appreciated 😉
Also glad that the livery is appreciated, I certainly feel it is one of the better ones currently and agree with the whale association.

@Dave: For working with the whites, I dont think there's a particular trick. I always use Tamiya fine white Primer first until it is more or less opaque, carefully sand or better say polish it and then give it only a light (and thin) pass of Tamiya X2 to make it look shiny. After that it is always important to wait at least 48 hours before working on it as in my experience the white acrylic takes some time to dry (more than grey for example). That's my way to do it, there might be others of course.

And yeah the front wheel is dissapointing, especially when knowing that the 320 neo comes with 2 front gear options, a larger one for being in the air (hydraulics out) and a normal one for the ground version. So to see they went for 100% accuracy there, but here...
Still an excellent kit overall, the way all parts easily get together and that it takes very little sanding and filling makes it a pleasurable build for me.

[BerndM]

Perfect result and the livery looks fantastic.

[ssn705]

Julien, thanks for the response.

 

Dave

[Eric B.]

Hi, 

 

Absolutely superb job.

Great modelling and great photography that just combined to fool me a while into thinking first, then second, then third photograph were photographs of the actual plane for comparison.

That is until I realized no model photographs were showing 😉 I just had to have a second look!

 

Simply great, great effort, beautiful painting and livery. 

 

Jetliners modelling at its best... inspiring

 

Eric B. 

 

PS : Julien, can you please tell us more about your background : what size is it? did you build it or is it printed? 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Eric B.
question

[RMCS]

Fantastic work 

[Maginot]

Looks great. Good work on the blues and thanks for the matching mask technique. Some knowledge of additive and subtractive primary colours would help in the mixing the light blue, I'd imagine, not to mention a keen eye. Good taxiway graphics.

[JK_Models]

Thanks again.

@Eric B.: For sure this is the nicest what can hear about a model when you thought a picture was the real plane. Merci beaucoup!

 

Concerning my background: I actually bought it like that. It is called Civil Airport taxiway from Noys Miniatures and has the following size: Length: 59.3 cm Width: 43.5 cm 
It is printed on paper, so I bought a self-adhesive cardboard from a large online retailer and carefully sticked it on that.. I think I had to cut one side a bit for that, but otherwise worked great.
I bought it at the dutch aviation mega store, but it seems to be not available currently and at least I couldnt find it elsewhere.. Surely one could do that on your own but would need a good & large printer for that which I dont have.

@Maginot: True, knowledge of primary colours and so on helps...I would not say I have a deep knowledge for that, but having worked with Photoshop for long years I know what colour to add and so on to remove colour casts for example (which helped me in that case) Thanks for your kind comment, well appreciated!

Edited June 29, 2022 by JK_Models

[Eric B.]

Hi Julien, 

 

It was sincere. Really nice! Daylight photographying at it's best. I love it. 

Thank you for your information. I have seen several printed taxyways but this one looks well printed and it is large enough to frame a B737-800. Interesting. 

 

Best to you. 

 

Eric B.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

This is outstanding workmanship!  Thanks for sharing it.

[Zulu Hotel Alpha]

Looks amazing! thanks for sharing.

 

Did Zvezda supply the anti-collision beacon lights? I don't think I have them with my 737-800 kit . So I made them them form the extra plastic i had... or did i lose them along the way?

(btw Zvezda 737-800 kit had 737-max winglets thrown in).

[MrMD11]

Excellent job on the Zvezda model.  This is probably the best 737 MAX 8 model that I've seen thus far.  I'm glad you addressed the nose-gear strut issue, as I have seen to many modelers just let it go and not address it at all.  Well done.

[stringbag]

Very nice indeed.  👍

 

Chris.

[JK_Models]

Thanks again for the kind comments! 

@Zulu Hotel Alpha: You didnt lose anything. I made the anti collision beacon lights on my own out of some small round plastic sticks that I painted red and cut into small pieces. It does not come with the kit, would be a cool feature though.

 

@MrMD11: Thank you. Having looked at so many photos to get the livery right I found the Max too odd looking with the small gear (compared to the original), so I had to change it. 

Julien

 

 

[tMikha]

On 02/07/2022 at 19:28, Zulu Hotel Alpha said:

Did Zvezda supply the anti-collision beacon lights? I don't think I have them with my 737-800 kit . So I made them them form the extra plastic i had... or did i lose them along the way?

(btw Zvezda 737-800 kit had 737-max winglets thrown in).

No, you are right, there is no beacons in 737 Zvezda kits (-800 or MAX as well) - I've built 3 kits and have one more in reserve.

And one little correction - in 737-800 kit there are 3 types of wing-tips: one without winglet (for very early 737-800's), usual winglet (most common) and double winglet, that sometimes applied on 737NG (optional)

This one is 737-800 with that double winglet:

And this one is MAX winglet:

You can see they are very similar, but a little different though.

 

And sorry if I was some boring 😳

 

Respects, tMikha

 

[Vesa Jussila]

Looks good. Thanks for sharing.

[Viking]

Lovely model, beautifully finished. Good tip on the noseleg too.

 

Cheers

 

John