In the red - Air Greenland A330-200 in 1/144

[Skodadriver]

Here is the Revell A330-300 converted to a -200 and finished as OY-GRN “Norsaq” of Air Greenland.

 

Norsaq was built in 1998 and delivered to Sabena as OO-SFP.  She joined Air Greenland in 2002 serving as their flagship until retirement in February 2023 and replacement by A330-800 OY-GKN. Norsaq was subsequent sold for parting out. On her final flight from Copenhagen to Tucson she made a low pass over Greenland’s capital Nuuk and most of the population turned out to wave her off.

 

Converting the Revell A330-300 to a -200 is theoretically straightforward. The -200 is ten frames shorter than the -300 and it’s easy enough to remove six windows ahead of the wing and four aft. I used the BraZ replacement nose (more of that in a moment) so at the front I just cut off the necessary length for it plus six windows. I had previously borrowed the kit’s fin for use on an A310 and I replaced it with a tall post-modification fin from BraZ which was warped and needed softening in boiling water to straighten it. Also the fairings at the base needed to be reduced in width by about 50%. I found this photo helpful for getting the fairings correct.

 

The BraZ replacement nose was a saga in itself. The main issue was that it didn’t match the cross section of the Revell fuselage and if it had been assembled as intended there would have been significant steps at the top and bottom. I believe BraZ worked from the actual Airbus drawings so the chances are they are right and Revell are wrong but that doesn’t solve the problem. Again I used boiling water to soften the resin after which I bent the rear of the nose halves closer to the Revell cross section. I then superglued them together at the bottom after adding the Revell wheel well and a decent amount of weight. Once the bottom joint was set I wedged the top joint apart and glued the assembly to the fuselage using 5 minute epoxy while trying (not very successfully) to align the top and sides with the Revell parts. The result was not pretty as the photo shows but after gap filling (scrap plastic, superglue and baking powder), copious quantities of Milliput and numerous rounds of sanding it more or less passed the T.L.A.R. test.

 

 

 

 

 

A further annoyance is that the BraZ panel lines bear no relationship to the Revell ones. I took the line of least resistance and just filled everything. Unfortunately using the BraZ nose also means you lose the kit’s nicely detailed forward baggage door but there isn’t much you can do about that.

 

The original Revell A330 was issued with GE and PW engines but both are poor. Norsaq had PWs and I replaced the kit engines with LACI’s 3D printed ones (LAC144134).

 

Small fairings and other details came from plastic strip and sheet. The satcom bump is by BraZ.

 

Red paint is Halfords Hyundai Electric Red. Sources disagree about the colour of the wings. Drawdecal say grey with coroguard which is definitely wrong while Lima November say plain Airbus grey. However photos suggest strongly that they were actually white. After much staring at Airliners.net and JetPhotos (especially this image) I decided that white was indeed correct, a conclusion supported by the fact that Norsaq would have had white wings in her original Sabena livery. I therefore finished the wings, stabs and engine pylons with the usual Appliance Gloss White. Metallics are by Tamiya and Revell.

 

Decals are a mixture of Drawdecal and Lima November, mainly the former. I added Authentic Airliners windows and a few bits and pieces from the spares box. Because of the design of the Drawdecal decals I had to overlay the AA cabin windows which inevitably were differently spaced so all 112 of them had to be applied individually, the sort of modelling job which makes me question my sanity.

 

Never mind, we got there in the end and the conversion, which was spread over about eighteen months, was actually quite an enjoyable project despite the problems. The finished result isn’t perfect by any means but I’m reasonably happy with it. If nothing else the large red model is a bit different and shows the “all airliners are white and boring” nonsense for what it is.

 

Since I began this model the Zvezda A330-300 has arrived on the market. In theory it should be a big improvement on the Revell kit although discussion on Airliner Cafe has flagged up an issue with the sit of the Trent engines. I have one on order and I’ll form my own conclusions before deciding whether to dispose of the remaining Revell kits in my stash or hang on to them. Although the Zvezda kit isn’t cheap it should produce an accurate A330-300 without the additional cost and hassle of a (very) badly fitting resin nose and expensive 3D printed engines.

 

Thanks for looking and constructive criticism is always welcome.

 

Dave G

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jasomir]

Such a beautiful jet!

[Bell209]

Great butchering job! I'm also a sucker for not building out of the box, so I really appreciate your work here.

[Roger Holden]

Great result ! I'm really hoping Zvezda will give us this version at some point, as it's an obvious gap in the market. Chopping up a -300 is too much work if you want to build several.  I feel your pain with the poorly-fitting Braz parts. I've recently been building an Embraer E175 using the Braz fuselage. There was a 0.5mm+ step between the 2 fuselage halves when joined, which took numerous filler and scribing attempts to rectify. Would have been easier to chop up 2 E170 fuselages, which is all Braz did in the first place.

[Alex1978]

Superb conversion and build.

The livery is very striking and something different.

I did a Revell A330-300 to -200 conversion a while ago but kept all original parts except the BRAZ tail and fin.

 

Mine came then in the LTU livery.Red as well but not as much...😉

 

As for the Zvezda A330 kit.

I have one already and its absolutely beautiful.

The RR engines from Zvezda look very nice,nicee than the BRAZ set imho.

I also have the new Revell A330 boxing with the 2018 Lufthansa livery and newly molded RR engines.

They look good but Zvezdas parts are slightly better.

I could not see an issue with the sit of the engines on the Zvezda kit.

In fact the sit of the RR BRAZ engines on my Thai A330 looks much more off.

 

But thats my opinion,maybe it helps ?

 

Thanks for sharing

Alex

[Viking]

Wow Dave, that seems to have been an epic struggle! It has come out looking spot-on though. Despite the problems with fitting the nose it does look so much better.

The -200 is definitely the better looking of the A330's (if not all Airbusses) and the all red livery is certainly different, and quite attractive.  Another excellent airliner model!

 

Cheers

 

John

[NavyWessex]

Fantastic job. Out of interest, what benefits does the BraZ resin nose section offer over the kit part?

[Donald]

A beautiful model that really stands out in that vivid red livery..

[Skodadriver]

Thanks for the comments and likes everyone.   Sorry if I've been slow to acknowledge some of these but I've been away for a couple of days.

 

@Alex1978 The issue with the Trent engines in the Zvezda kit isn't with the engines themselves. The problem is that they hang too low. Here is the link to the Airliner Cafe thread if you are interested.

 

@NavyWessex The Revell nose is poorly shaped. It's difficult to describe but it's as if Revell have given the A330 chubby cheeks and the uncorrected cockpit area looks fat and unrealistic. The BraZ nose sorts that and despite the issues I had with it I think it makes a big improvement to the appearance. I'm delighted to see that @Viking agrees with me! 

 

Dave G

[f5guy]

Looks great! Especially after a chop job like that.

 

I'm working on Titan Models 1/72nd 757-200, and fellow modeler Dutch keeps trying to get me to paint it as the Air Greenland red jet. No way, no how am I going to paint such a large kit all red, and then try to get white decals to go over the red without it showing through 🤣 Fred K.

[Skodadriver]

Thanks very much @f5guy

 

I can absolutely assure you that the Drawdecal decals (which are available for the 757 in 1/72) do not show the faintest trace of red through the white. I don't know how Greg does it but whatever wizardry he uses is 100% effective.

 

Dave G

 

 

[zebra]

That's a real beaut Dave. Fantastic scheme!

[f5guy]

16 hours ago, Skodadriver said:

Thanks very much @f5guy

 

I can absolutely assure you that the Drawdecal decals (which are available for the 757 in 1/72) do not show the faintest trace of red through the white. I don't know how Greg does it but whatever wizardry he uses is 100% effective.

 

Dave G

 

 

 

Hi Dave,

     Thanks for the intel. I've used some Draw Decals 737 wing escape path decals that were white on a past build, and they were very translucent. To the point that I had to mask off the pattern where the decal was going to go and paint it white so the wings grey color wasn't going to show through. I figured the red would REALLY show through, but apparently not. At any rate I've decided to build that kit as an Arrow Cargo jet using Draw Decals anyway. Thanks for the input! Fred.