Bra.Z A340-600 conversion - Inbox review

[Darren Rhodes]

Hi folks,

My first real post on britmodeller so please be gentle! I'm normally a 1/72 military aircraft modeller, but also dabble with civil stuff and the occasional 1/24 car. Well in a moment of desperation I decided to embark on my most expensive kit and conversion: the Bra.Z A340-600. Apart from 2 pieces cut from each fuselage and the undercarriage the rest of the donor Revell A340-300 kit is redundant So in due course I will have the wings, engines, horizontal tail and decals for spares!

Anyway I have a few queries about how to take this crazy conversion forward so I thought I'd also offer up a review of the contents to encourage some responses.

The rather small lid opening box (think large-ish 1/72 kit box) contains the following:

Replacement fuselage centre sections:

Replacement horizontal & vertical tail and tailcone:

Replacement wings:

Replacement engines (note mold flaw repeated on each fan face):

Replace centre undercarriage (note only two wheels so kit centre wheels need to be used):

The instructions or should I say lack of instructions (that also look like they've been printed on the worst inkjet printer known):

And finally the decals:

Now my big question is what's the best way to cut and attach the donor Revell fuselage parts (the donor fuselage is single piece). The instructions show the nose is required and the initial tapered portion from the rear fuselage. So do I:

1. Cut the separate Revell halves, attach to the Bra.Z halves, using a flat surface to ensure each half is straight, but risk misalignment at the ends? Or...

2. Glue the Revell halves, cut (with difficulty) and then attach to the joined Bra.Z halves and end up with something not straight? Or...

3. A half and half of the above, cut the revell fuselage halves, but glue together ensuring end alignment and then join to the Bra.Z centre, but still risk the whole fuselage not being straight?

Any thoughts, or comments most welcome!

Darren

[keefr22]

Hi Darren,

Sorry but I've never tried this sort of conversion myself so can't help directly. However, it might be worth joining the Yahoo airliner modelling group;

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/airlinermodelling/

This sort of conversion topic comes up regularly, & there are usually a lot of helpful replies posted.

Keef

PS

Edited February 22, 2009 by keefr22

[eng]

Hiya Darren,

In answer to your question I'd go for option 1 -

1. Cut the separate Revell halves, attach to the Bra.Z halves, using a flat surface to ensure each half is straight, but risk misalignment at the ends? Or...

I'd be inclined to line up the parts as best as possible and use a glue that can easily be separated again if reqd, for example PVA, then you can attach both tail halves, check the two halves together, if it's OK reinforce the join with superglue or Araldite and plastic strips for additional strength, then repeat for the nose sections.

There are probably other methods you can try and it would be worth seeing what everyone else comes up with.

Good luck with the project, look forward to seeing some in-progress pic's.

Rgds,

Eng

[Dave Swindell]

Hello Darren

I'm new here as well, but have been chopping up airliner kits and sticking them back together for a good few years now.

My method uses bits of your suggestions, and I find it works for me and gives you a straight fuselage (no Bananas!)

The first step is most important, I hope you haven't started anything yet:-

Place one fuselage half (the port one without the locating pins in this case) on top of a large sheet of paper on a flat surface, hold firmly in place and trace round the outline with a sharp pencil. This will be invaluable when aligning the parts for re-assembly later.

Next, check the location of the cuts to be made on the kit(s), mark or highlight the lines with pen or pencil, and check again. Place the fuselage half back over the outline drawing you have made and transfer each end of all the cut marks to the drawing, remove the half and join the marks together with a rule.

Ivo has designed the kit for the cuts to be made on panel lines, so most of the lines are already marked, you just have to pick the right ones!

Next up, using Dymo tape (preferrable), thick insulation tape or masking tape, mark the line to be cut so that the part to be kept is covered and the waste is exposed. Keep the tape right up to the line. Score the line lightly with a sharp blade, then more heavily. I use an Olfa P cutter next to score the line deeper, then run round the line with a razor saw to separate the parts. A quick rub with an emery board should leave you with a nice clean square cut. Repeat for the other cuts.

Looking at the photo's of the fuselage inserts, I'm not sure whether Ivo has made the flanges on the ends to slip under the parts of the kit or not, now's the time to check. With your drawing taped to a flat surface (I have a large sheet of glass) position the nose section over the drawing and align the cut with the marks, ensure it is accurately positioned and hold in place with blobs of blutak round the edges. Clean the forward edge of the flange on the insert and try sliding it up inside the nose section, if this fits, or can be made to fit, great, if not go to plan B and cut off the flanges as above so that the part is a butt join to the nose section. Place the new insert in position, using the line of the old fuselage to align the new section - hopefully if you've made the cuts accurately the ends should butt up against each other flush. Keep the insert in position with blobs of blutak again, and check alignment again. Tack the joint with a couple of spots of superglue applied at the outside of the join, towards the top and bottom. Check alignment and apply accelerator, then check alignment again. If all is OK run more superglue into the joint, if not break apart, clean up and realign. Once you're happy with the first joint, remove from the drawing and position the aft part from the kit on the drawing in it's original position as you did for the nose, then reposition the insert with nose attached to butt up to this section, using the drawing again to align the top of the fuselage. Join as before. The joint can be reinforced with strips of plastic laid across it from the inside if desired.

You will now have a complete lengthened fuselage half minus tail cone.

If using the flanges on the new insert, tape this in position and offer up the Nose and tail parts and adjust until they can be aligned.

If butt joining tape the starboard nose and tail pieces to this half, using the kit locating pegs etc to ensure alignment, then offer up and adjust the new insert to fit.

The fit here shouldn't be too tight as this can bend the fuselage, I find a slightly looser fit works best, the Superglue will fill any small gaps. When happy with the joints, tack them with a couple of drops of superglue and check again. If OK add more glue around most of the circumference, avoiding the top and bottom so that the halves can be separated. When you're happy with the joints, check the fit of the tail cone whilst the halves are still taped together.

Once you're happy with that, split the fuselage halves and reinforce the joins on the inside of the starboard half if required. Add the interior parts and join as you would for a regular kit.

This may sound quite long winded, but it's easier to do than explain!

[Darren Rhodes]

Hello Darren

I'm new here as well, but have been chopping up airliner kits and sticking them back together for a good few years now.

My method uses bits of your suggestions, and I find it works for me and gives you a straight fuselage (no Bananas!)

snip

This may sound quite long winded, but it's easier to do than explain!

Hi Dave, Thanks for a very detailed explanation (and thanks to the others that responded), honestly it does make sense and I would never have thought of tracing round the original Revell fuselage halves before chopping. And no I haven't started yet, this was some very early 'pre-planning' on my part and I thought the preview shots might be of interest to others. The flanges on the replacement centre section definitely go underneath the Revell parts, and look like they will make a good strong fit. In fact I presume I can test fit sliding these parts under the Revell nose piece as I progressively sand back the pour stubs. All sounds good.

As I say it will be a while yet before I commit to cutting, I thought I was making great progress on a Virgin Blue 737-800, until I took the masking tape off the white tail and it removed a huge chunk of paint from either side. And then the military side of me is fighting an ICM Mig-25PD with lots of filler...

Rgds,

Darren

[Dave Swindell]

Glad you found it useful, I fancied doing the Virgin one myself, but had heart failure when I saw the price Hannants are charging, some folk can obviously afford it as it's already sold out. Post some pics as you build it, I'd like to see how you get on.

[keefr22]

Hi Dave,

Can I just add my thanks for that excellent explanation - I've saved it for future use. You never know when it may come in handy!

Keef

[Darren Rhodes]

Glad you found it useful, I fancied doing the Virgin one myself, but had heart failure when I saw the price Hannants are charging, some folk can obviously afford it as it's already sold out. Post some pics as you build it, I'd like to see how you get on.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the price, my main concern is simply adding it to the stash and not getting round to building it. Already have some expensive resin that is long over-due for build and the postman just delivered a Virgin Atlantic B747-400 this morning from Hannants! Will be several weeks away before I start, but I'll endeavour to attempt some in-progress pics.

Darren

[Dave Fleming]

Starting to read the thread, I thought "He needs to use Dave Swindell's method" - then I saw Dave had posted! It really is the besy way of cutting and shunting fuselages.

[Mike]

Nice review Darren. Would you like me to move it to the Reviews section? You didn't put it in the wrong place, but there's a forum for reviews & it's about time we started moving some of the good reviews there

[Darren Rhodes]

Nice review Darren. Would you like me to move it to the Reviews section? You didn't put it in the wrong place, but there's a forum for reviews & it's about time we started moving some of the good reviews there

, please do! I was about to say where the hell is the reviews section, but after a relatively long search I see it's way down the bottom of the page. I'd never previously been past the buy and sell section... that review section is way outside my normal operating envelope! Since you're being so flattering, were the pics the right size, or do folks want bigger pics in reviews? I see it was your C-17 review that prompted me to include a ruler in the pics btw!

Edited February 25, 2009 by Darren Rhodes