1/144 Super Guppy

[zebra]

I spent ages mulling over which of the Japanese kits in the stash to build and completely overlooked this one: The Otaki 1/144 Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Turbine from 1974, later reboxed by Revell, which is the kit I'll be using. The kit decals might well turn out to be past it, since the kit was last issued 37 years ago, but I've got a set of decals from Vintage Flyer for NASA's SGT, which is the last one flying. This is what I hope it'll end up looking like:

 

 

This was the last one built, first built as number 4 for Airbus. Back in the 80s and 90s the Airbus Guppies were regular visitors to Manchester and really stood out amongst the airliners of the day - this is my photo of the same airframe at Manchester, probably in the early 90s.

 

 

I've got four builds going on in other GBs at the moment so will have to leave this as a placeholder for now while I get at least one or two of them done and some space cleared on the bench.

 

cheers

Julian

[JOCKNEY]

Inspired choice Julian and I didn't know that Revell reboxed Otaki kits, so thanks for that 

 

I imagine that's going to happen a lot in this GB as previously unheard-of kits get their moment in the limelight. 

 

Best of luck with this one.

 

Cheers Pat 

[PHIL B]

Marvellous choice Julian!

 

BTW, Super Guppy SGTs 3 & 4 were supplied in kit form by Tracor Aviation (formerly Aero Spacelines) but were assembled by Airbus.

So the last Super Guppy in service carrying spacecraft and satellites for NASA was designed by Aero Spacelines using Boeing & Lockheed bits and built by Airbus!

 

Looking forward to this build. Will you swing the nose open? 😁

 

Phil.

[zebra]

Time to get cracking, so I dug the kit out of the stash today. Here's the sprue shot:

 

 

Not a lot of parts. Surface detail is quite nice, key things that need a bit of attention are the props, exhausts and undercarriage. The props don't look much like the real thing - the real props are the same as the ones on a C-130, so I might pinch them from a Minicraft Herk. I'll have to take a closer look at the exhausts and undercarriage before deciding what to do there.

 

more soon

Julian

 

[CliffB]

I just love the polished metal on that NASA Guppy 

[zebra]

7 hours ago, CliffB said:

I just love the polished metal on that NASA Guppy 

'

You're not the one who's going to have to paint it. I wouldn't say I love it, more that I'm slightly scared of it!

 

And with that in mind I've begun the process of assembling the fuselage whilst trying to maintain as flawless as possible a surface so that it can do justice to a polished metal finish. The fuselage is together and aligned as neatly as I could (there's a shortage of locating pins), the first of probably many rounds of fill-sand-scribe-prime-repeat starts tomorrow.

 

 

more soon

Julian

 

[zebra]

First round of fill-sand-scribe-prime-repeat is done and it's looking ok so far. In fact there were just a couple of spots on the upper fuselage that need a little more filler. And (unusually for me) the scribing has gone ok. Feeling cautiously optimistic about this one.

 

 

more soon

Julian

 

[PHIL B]

Great stuff Julian.

 

Have you seen this 2 1/2 hour walkround video of SGT no.4 on YouTube? Its amazing.

 

Phil

[zebra]

2 minutes ago, PHIL B said:

Great stuff Julian.

 

Have you seen this 2 1/2 hour walkround video of SGT no.4 on YouTube? Its amazing.

 

Phil

Thanks - seen it, but not all 2 1/2 hours of it yet!

[zebra]

I think I'm done with the fuselage, pretty happy with it:

 

 

[stevehnz]

I hope you're going to detail that cockpit.    This is the sort of odd ball aircraft I could fancy doing, alas, they seem a bit scarce &/or horribly expensive. I'll just have to follow this build instead.

Steve.

[dnl42]

Oh, this is cool! Like @stevehnz, I'd love to build this but the kit's availability and affordability won't let that happen.

[Planebuilder62]

Hi Zebra

Looking good so far, do you have enough nose weight in the fuselage?
regards Toby