The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Been quite a while since I've done any modeling at all, the better part of 18 months at least, so I am diving head first back into it with this airliner. It's the Airfix 1:144 Boeing 727. I plan on doing it OOB and in the Alitalia livery. The plan is to build it and mount it to a nice wooden base. The reason is that it is going to be a birthday present for one of my brothers. He's turning 50, so along with some other things, I thought I'd build this for him. I chose the Alitalia livery only because of our Italian heritage and thought it'd be nice.

Here's a few shots of the decals and sprues. The moulding is pretty crisp, and doesn't look like too much clean up on the parts.

I hope to get this done in the next few weeks so I'll post as I can.

Love the kit, beautiful bird the "Flying Parasol", I'll watch this with interest

I have two stalled 727 builds s in my stash. I hope you manage to take the project further than I did.

Lovely aeroplane, watch this interest as I have seen both of the aircraft that the decals feature.
Chris

Nice, I think there are too few civvies being build! Lack of supply on behalf of the manufacturers, being one reason

I'm pleased to see another classic jetliner being built, Tony and I really like the type's lines - I'm a bit of a sucker for high 'T' tails and rear mounted engines that leave the aircraft's wings nice and clean.

Hopefully your red box re-issue will be fine but the last time I built one of these kits was a Pan-Am/Lufthansa version back in the mid-nineties and the tail was badly warped!

I always liked the 727 and the Alitalia livery - Really looking forward to this.

ShaunW wrote:
Hopefully your red box re-issue will be fine but the last time I built one of these kits was a Pan-Am/Lufthansa version back in the mid-nineties and the tail was badly warped!

So far, from the look of it, it seems straight. The only issue I see so far is the engine nacelles have a bit of a mis-match, but nothing too drastic.

What a great set of decals. My wallets interest is piqued. I'll keep an eye on this.

Nigel

I made a start on this tonight. After looking at some photos, and browsing some previous builds of this on some forums, I decided to fill in the windows. Fortunately, they are supplied as decals, so I thought it'd be best to have the smooth surface. I took some plastic strip and glued a piece into each fuselage half:



Then I taped off the exterior before filling. I used Tamiya White Putty. I've had good luck with it. Seems to dry fairly quick, and not too much shrinkage:





I also assembled the wings, nacelles, and tailplanes.




That's the state of play as of tonight. I'll sand down the filler and clean up the other parts in the next day or two. I'll also have to figure out how I'm going to mount this to a base, and also decide if I want to do it wheels up or not.

Enjoy
Tony

That's the way I would approach it, Tony. I much prefer window decals on airliners in 1/144th.

Not a kit I've seen built before. Why didn't you use the kit windows and then fill the remaining gaps?

JamesPerrin wrote:Not a kit I've seen built before. Why didn't you use the kit windows and then fill the remaining gaps?

There are no clear windows with the kit. The openings are very small. The green decal runs the entire length of the fuselage right over the windows and doesn't have spots for windows. I suppose this is why window decals are supplied.

coptermech wrote:

JamesPerrin wrote:Not a kit I've seen built before. Why didn't you use the kit windows and then fill the remaining gaps?

There are no clear windows with the kit. The openings are very small. The green decal runs the entire length of the fuselage right over the windows and doesn't have spots for windows. I suppose this is why window decals are supplied.

A-ha! Thanks. Carry on

Progress today on this. Windows are filled in and sanded down.




Was out with the wife and daughter, and they wanted to stop by a local beauty supply shop. So, as I was just sitting there while they were shopping, I noticed this and picked one up. It's a soft foam sanding block used for fingernails, but it worked perfectly sanding down the fuselage. It conformed very nicely to the contours. I'll have to go back and pick up different grits.