ANA Cargo Boeing 767-300 in 1/144 *Completed*

[Skodadriver]

When I put my hat in the ring for this GB nearly two years ago I was thinking of a Biman Bangladesh Boeing 787. However last year I built a 787 in Royal Air Maroc livery and I'm not really in a hurry to do another one so soon.

 

Instead I'm going a little off piste and I hope to contribute a Boeing 767 freighter in the livery of Osaka-based ANA Cargo. I'll use the Zvezda kit with Metallic Details p/e to add a bit of bling. A set of aftermarket GE engines is on order from Sergey Druz and should hopefully arrive in plenty of time. I have decals for the earlier and later versions of the livery and I'll decide which to use in due course. 

 

 

As the state of the box shows, the kit had been in my stash for a long time and when I opened it I discovered a badly warped fin so the first job will be some serious work with boiling water and a hairdryer!

 

 

 

Dave G

[Col.]

You certainly seem to have all the ingredients for a nice model there Dave and whichever scheme you choose will make for a striking result  

Hopefully that fin straightens up without too much effort or issues.

Edited July 23 by Col.

[Skodadriver]

I'm reasonably confident I'll get it sorted. If not I'll buy another kit. They are fairly readily available second-hand. Zvezda kits are among the best but every so often quality control goes awol.

[CliffB]

We don't see that many airliners in BM Group Builds and even fewer freighters.  A great choice! 

[Skodadriver]

Having dealt with the warped fin it’s now time to start building the 767 freighter.

 

I always model a specific aircraft and the chosen subject is JA8356 a 767-381/ER(BCF) (a bit of a mouthful!) which was built in 1991 and delivered to All Nippon Airways in passenger configuration. She was converted to a freighter in 2009 and flew for ANA Cargo until 2019 when she became N394UP with UPS. As far as I’m aware she remains active.

 

The Zvezda kit is very straightforward and pleasantly old school with a refreshing absence of gimmicks and unnecessary small parts. If I had more time I would open the cargo door and do a bit of interior detailing but I’m also signed up for the Made In Ukraine GB which starts next month and I have a couple of models to finish for the Aberdeen Model Show so I’m going to keep things simple and build more or less OOB.

 

 

I have decided on the earlier ANA Cargo livery which is slightly more colourful. It should allow scope for a bit of weathering and it also means I don’t have to bother adding winglets which ANA fitted to most of their 767s in later life. I'll be using Drawdecal decals:

 

 

 

I'm off to start sticking the plastic and I'll report back when I've made some progress.

 

Dave G

 

 

 

[Col.]

This one will look great at the show Dave

[Skodadriver]

Well, straight away I’ve run into a problem. After numerous bad experiences with after-market airliner decals I always start a model by running a ruler over the decal sheet and comparing it to the kit I’m going to use. It’s just as well I did because it looks like the Drawdecal decals were scaled for the less accurate Revell kit and they are too long for the Zvezda fuselage. I seem to have three choices: (a) switch to the later livery using the 8ADecs decals on the Zvezda kit (b) bodge the fit of the Drawdecals on the Zvezda kit or (c) put the Zvezda kit back into the stash and use the Drawdecals on a Revell kit. I’m ruling out (b). I’ll have a think about the other options overnight. 

 

It’s not the greatest start to the GB but that's modelling and at least I found the problem in plenty of time to get it sorted. 

 

Dave G

[Col.]

That's a pity Dave but, as you point out, better to uncover the issue now than further along into the project.

[Skodadriver]

OK, change of plan. I’ve decided to use the 8ADecs decals on the Zvezda kit.

 

That means instead of J8356 in the earlier livery I’m going to model JA605F, a purpose-built 767-316F/ER freighter, in the current scheme. The Metallic Details p/e and the Druz engines are both designed for the Zvezda kit and it makes much more sense to stay with it rather than start again with Revell. I’ll need to get a set of BraZ winglets but Hannants have them in stock so we’re good to go.

 

First step was to fit the cabin windows using superglue. These will be puttied over so getting them firmly stuck is more important than keeping them transparent.

 

If anyone is interested I always make nose weights from self adhesive lead strip.

 

 

An art teacher friend introduced me to this decades ago. It’s sold for stained glass work and comes on a reel like an old-fashioned cine film.

 

 

It’s not cheap but a reel will do an awful lot of models. It can be fixed in place with its own adhesive but I always use some Blu-tack to make sure. You can also bash it with a hammer to make whatever shape you need although that’s not necessary on this model.

 

The fit of the fuselage halves is pretty good. There are a few minor sink marks needing attention but cleaning up should hopefully be minimal. Following the earlier warped fin I checked and double checked that it was properly vertical. I also added the cockpit windscreen. I'm going to put the fuselage aside for a few days to set properly. JA605F is now officially under way!

 

 

Back soon.

 

Dave G

[Col.]

Good to see you getting progress made on this one Dave

[stevehnz]

On 8/4/2024 at 12:13 AM, Skodadriver said:

As far as I’m aware she remains active.

Seems like it.

I'll tag along on this Dave, I've one of these to do in Air NZ colours so it'll be good to see how it goes together. If I had the room, I'd be keen to do one in either DHL or UPS colours too, little chance of that though.

Steve.

[Skodadriver]

Since my last post I have cleaned up the fuselage joint and done what little filling was needed using superglue applied with a pin and a tiny spot of Milliput. The windows and windscreen have been filled with Milliput and are ready to be sanded down. The windscreen will later receive a “photo real” decal.

 

One reason why I originally wanted to model the BCF version (i.e. the converted passenger aircraft) was because the outlines of the passenger doors and windows remained visible although the doors were sealed and the windows blanked. The F version (i.e. the pure freighter) was - obviously -  built without passenger doors and windows so not only do I need to be 100% spot on with filling the windows but I also had to fill all except one of the door outlines and scribe the panel lines across them. In my book anything to do with scribing or re-scribing is a Very Bad Idea and to be avoided if at all possible particularly if it involves trying to match existing panel lines. Unfortunately avoidance wasn’t an option here. I did the best I could but inevitably it didn’t go particularly well and I’ll almost certainly need to do further work once I see the model under a coat of primer.

 

Anyhow, that’s the basic fuselage nearly done and the next job will be the wings. I have ordered a set of BraZ winglets and hopefully these will arrive before the weekend.

 

 

Dave G

[Col.]

Good progress Dave. Hopefully you don't need to perform too much remedial work after the initial primer coat.

[Skodadriver]

The BraZ winglets have arrived and they are useless. They are too big and wrongly shaped. According to Boeing the winglets are 3.4m high which equates to about 23.5mm in 1/144. The BraZ parts give a height of about 28mm. They are also too broad and bear no resemblance to the winglet decals supplied by 8ADecs which are not necessarily accurate anyway. Welcome to the wonderful world of after-market 1/144 airliner stuff!

 

 

This isn’t the first time I’ve had accuracy issues with BraZ products and if I plan to use any of their stuff I will never do anything irreversible to the model until I have the actual items on my workbench so fortunately I did not remove the Zvezda wingtips in anticipation of fitting the winglets. ANA Cargo operate several 767-300Fs without winglets and with a bit of reworking of the registrations and other decals I could model one of them. However a simple, plain, non-winglet ANA Cargo 767-300F is boring and not what I wanted or planned to build. I don’t intend to put time and effort into building a model which doesn’t interest me so I’m cutting my losses and starting again with the Revell kit and the Drawdecal BCF decals i.e. option (c) from my second post of 3 August. The partly built Zvezda kit with its Druz engines and Metallic Details p/e will go into the pending file for eventual finishing in another livery most likely Air Canada Cargo using V1 Decals which were designed for it.

 

There is nothing at all wrong with the Zvezda kit which was shaping up to be an enjoyable and easy build but in the world of 1/144 model airliners aftermarket decals and resin parts can be a complete lottery. I understand that decals designed for a Revell kit may not fit a Zvezda kit and I accept that errors can happen in obscure or difficult areas but winglet-fitted Boeing 767s are hardly rare and sometimes you have to wonder if the manufacturer to whom you have just paid good money for something unusable has even bothered to look at a basic source like Airliners.net. 

 

Sorry for a bit of a rant. Right, deep breath, let’s start again.

 

The Revell 767 is less accurate than Zvezda but it was the kit that got me started in airliners in the early 1990s so I’ve always had a soft spot for it. It’s also one of the few 1/144 airliner kits where the wing-fuselage joint is good enough to allow the fuselage and wings to be painted as sub-assemblies and joined later.

 

 

The big weakness is the engines. They are a weird hybrid of General Electric and Pratt and Whitney and not properly accurate for either. They are also hollow and a long way short of modern standards. Luckily my resin stash contains a set of BraZ GE CF-6-80s. I have used these before and I know that unlike the winglets they are acceptably accurate.

 

 

The Revell kit has no transparencies apart from the cockpit so I have filled the windows from the inside using a “sausage” of Milliput pushed down into the window openings and gently squashed on the outside. Once the Milliput is set I’ll close up the fuselage and we’ll be back in business.     

 

   

 

[Col.]

Ah, that's a bit of a nightmare, how easy or otherwise would it be to cut down the BraZ winglets to scale size? At least you have the parts necessary to get the Revell project underway now.

[Skodadriver]

Cheers @Col. I did wonder about cutting down the BraZ parts but I wasn't convinced I could get them to fit the 8A winglet decals which are of dubious accuracy anyway. Contrails in the USA used to produce winglets for the 767 and I've seen a model done with them on a German modelling site I follow. They look much better but I'm not sure Contrails are still in business. Even if they are, they never had a UK distributor and I'm not keen to pay double digit postage from the USA for an item costing a couple of dollars!

 

Anyway, unpacking a Revell 767 from the stash is like meeting an old friend and apart from a waste of time I haven't really lost anything.

 

Back soon

 

Dave G

[Skodadriver]

The Revell fuselage is assembled, filled and sanded. The design of the kit means that you have to install the nose gear along with the wheel well and I’ve made up a little cardboard sleeve to keep it safe. I removed the integral doors from the wheel well which just get in the way and I’ll reattach them after painting. I managed to forget the tail bumper but I’ll sort that later. I have added RDF fairings from plastic card and drilled the locations for the aerials.

 

In 1/144 you can get away with decals to represent details like doors and with my aversion to anything involving scribing I’ll use Drawdecal’s decal for the main deck cargo door. Filling the panel lines which would otherwise run across it needed careful measuring from the decal sheet. I just hope I’ve got it right! At the same time I filled the baggage doors for eventual replacement with decals. Revell have made the forward baggage door far too small and again using a decal saves re-scribing.

 

 

I have also assembled the stabs and wings. Unlike Zvezda Revell provide a bit of detail in the wheel wells but at the cost of sink marks on the upper surfaces. These have been filled with Milliput and Mr Surfacer 500 and sanded. I won’t be surprised if a bit more work is needed once the wings have been primed. A touch of filler was needed on the inboard leading edges and I have added wingtip lights from u/v activated superglue, much easier than messing around with transparent sprue.

 

 

The halves of the BraZ engines have been removed from their plugs, cleaned up and joined with five minute epoxy. The joint wasn’t brilliant on either engine but again Milliput and Mr Surfacer did the business. I still have to add the strakes on the inner faces and I’ll do that last thing before painting.

 

 

I now have a collection of sub-assemblies. I’m normally a “stick it together and mask it” builder but I mentioned earlier that the fit of the wings to the fuselage on the Revell 767 is good enough to allow them to be painted separately and joined later so I’ll get going with primer, white for the fuselage and grey for everything else.

 

I'll be back when I have more progress to report.

 

Dave G

[Col.]

Lovely progress all round Dave.

[zebra]

Looking good Dave. I share your aversion to scribing!

[Skodadriver]

Here’s the latest progress report. I had to prioritise finishing my Air Greenland A330 for the Aberdeen Model Show last Saturday but I have still managed to devote a bit of time to the ANA freighter.

 

I primed the fuselage with Halfords white primer then sprayed it with Appliance Gloss White decanted and airbrushed. The wings and stabs were similarly primed with Halfords grey primer then sprayed with Racking Grey following which the leading edges were masked and sprayed with Tamiya TS-17 aluminium. Coroguard will be represented by decals so there was no need to paint it. Likewise I will use silver decal stripe to represent the natural metal on the fin leading edge.

 

I then joined the wings and fuselage which I will leave for a couple of days to set hard. Perfect Plastic Putty will take care of what little filling is needed.

 

 

We now have an airframe. I need to finish painting the engines and after that I’ll get the model on its undercarriage before applying the decals.

 

Back shortly, I hope.

 

Dave G

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

8 hours ago, Skodadriver said:

I had to prioritise finishing my Air Greenland A330 for the Aberdeen Model Show last Saturday but I have still managed to devote a bit of time to the ANA freighter.

 

Well I guess I do still learn something new everyday ? I never knew there was an Air Greenland airline until you mentioned it. By the way nice Work on that and your ANA freighter. 

[Col.]

Everything looks to be coming together nicely for you on this one Dave

I didn't get much chance to have a look around the show on Saturday due to being busy with the kit swap tables and getting dragged into the whirlpool that was the competition but hope you enjoyed the event.

[Skodadriver]

Thanks @Col.  Sorry we didn't get the chance to speak on Saturday but the show was great. Sandy B had been asking me to do a display for about five years and this was the first time the date didn't clash with holidays. We really enjoyed ourselves and thought the venue was excellent, not least the ample parking. My wife winning a huge penguin mug (with hot chocolate!) in the raffle was a nice bonus. 

[Skodadriver]

That’s the engines done for the moment.

 

I added the strakes to the inner faces of the cowlings. These aren’t supplied by either Revell or BraZ but it’s a simple job to make them from thin plastic. At the same time I drilled the pylons to take plastic rod pegs which will fit into the location slots on the wings.

 

The engines were then primed with grey primer and sprayed with Racking Grey. The hot sections (which I think BraZ have made fractionally too long) were done with Hycote Aluminium and Halfords Ford Nimbus Grey The area around the vent will be picked out with some contrasting metallic decal when I get to the decal stage and then everything will be dulled down a little to look slightly more realistic. The fans were painted with Tamiya X-10 Gunmetal, lightly dry-brushed with XF-56 Metallic Grey and given a wash of diluted Revell Aqua 09 Anthracite. (Despite what kit painting instructions would have us believe, engine fans on real airliners are not normally bright shiny aluminium!) The spinners were painted with Revell Aqua 302 Satin Black. They will receive spiral decals and a coat of matt varnish in due course. The inner faces of the intakes were painted with Humbrol 56 Aluminium and finally the cowling rings were sprayed with TS-17.

 

 

 

 

I had hoped to get the model on its undercarriage today but I discovered that I managed to drop a spot of Revell Contacta on the white paint above the right wing root, presumably when I was attaching the wing. It’s annoying rather than serious but a bit of re-finishing is needed.

 

Back soon, I hope

 

Dave G

[Skodadriver]

It’s always a good moment when a model stands on its own legs for the first time. Progress is definitely happening although there is still plenty of scope to make a terminal mess!

 

 

 

If I had still been working with the Zvezda kit I would have used the Metallic Details p/e to smarten up the undercarriage. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any p/e available for the Revell 763 and I have neither the skill nor the inclination to fabricate 1/144 brake lines and similar details from scratch so the undercarriage is OOB. Considering the kit is over 30 years old the undercart is really not bad. It’s a bit basic but most importantly it makes for a nice strong assembly.

 

Next job will be the decals which will take some time. I'll be back when I have something to show.

 

Dave G