Hoverboy01 Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Hi all. I hope I've got this linking stuff right. I've just spent a month building an old Heller 1:72 Super Constellation in the livery of the "Connie" that lives south of Sydney Australia at the HARS Aviation Museum. The kit only came with TWA decals but being a Graphic Designer I used my drawing programs (and some vernier calipers) and lots of images for reference to create scale waterslide decals and print them off at home using the home inkjet printer. They work well, but if you have white in your decal artwork, it will come out as transparent on the decal which requires some workarounds. The kit itself was quite basic with some inaccuracies and lack of detail, and I only discovered late in the piece that you could buy extra detail packs for the engines and landing gear and landing gear bays. I made a fatal mistake of using the wrong type of paint on the upper fuselage, and the Humbrol paint used for the red flash trim markings (between the grey and white) did not cure. I waited days, but it was no good, so I stripped it all off and started again. The model is tail heavy and requires lots of forward weight to keep it on its wheels. Hidden in the engine nascelles are 4x 18mm round lead sinkers and there is lead in the front wheel well. I'm really pleased with the final results, and would do some things differently if I had to do it again. (buy an airbrush). I spent a ton of money on Tamiya spray cans and small pots of paint to get the right shade of grey on the fuselage, but the basic light grey flat Tamiya spray primer was the closest I could find. The rest of the build photos are on Flickr. Just search Timothy Pryor. My photostream should come up. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesa Jussila Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Looks really good. I need to look Flickr for more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianwau Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Nice job! Connie looks magnificent in the air on her regular flights. Surprised that the Constellation has received so little attention from the kit manufacturers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bell209 Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Very nice! The real one was pushed outside the hangar recently so we could do the annual inspection on our AP-3C Orion but she's inside again now. I've often thought about doing a model of Connie and you may have just pushed me over the edge! Might be good to get the moderators to move this to the RFI section, though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Lyttle Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Mmm mmm... looking good, that's a great job. There's a lot of talk about after market add-on sets, but it reads like you skipped all that and did a good job with the kit. She looks fine. I'd like to have witnessed the process,esp as I have one in the box, waiting for my attention if I ever get around to it. You may have nudged it up the build order with this example. Well done (You've got a little bit of a "lift" on one of the front tyres which could probably be cured with a flatting of the other one just to bring them both into contact with the ground.Maybe even a couple of wheel chocks to the front gear? Just thinking aloud - you've probably sorted it already....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Lyttle Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 You might well find yourself inundated with requests for graphic design help, it's a very valuable skill set, and especially in the civil aviation area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisTheBear Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 19 hours ago, Hoverboy01 said: south of Sydney Australia at the HARS Aviation Museum (Shaking head sadly) Sydneysiders! It's in Wollongong. Yeah, it looks OK I spose (grumble grumble, bloody Sydneysiders grumble grumble). Almost not quite joking aside you've done a stirling job on that one. DennisTheGrumpyIllawarraBear 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Lovely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianBke Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 You've tempted me to try doing my own decals...super clean finish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k5054nz Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 21 hours ago, Bell209 said: I've often thought about doing a model of Connie and you may have just pushed me over the edge! Me too! I love seeing models of preserved/warbird aircraft (my poison of choice) and this is a terrific example. Well done Timothy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bell209 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 On 3/4/2023 at 9:13 AM, rob Lyttle said: You've got a little bit of a "lift" on one of the front tyres which could probably be cured with a flatting of the other one just to bring them both into contact with the ground. You could actually reset them both (if you want) - the Constellation is the only aircraft I know with canted nosewheels. Both nosewheels have a negative camber, so that they point outward when seen from the front (or rear). See https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/65376/why-are-the-constellations-nosewheels-canted-inwards for a good illustration. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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