Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

The Shared Build workspace and archive.
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

After basic priming, I sprayed Tamiya Gloss Black on all the areas that will be polished metal. Gloss Black is a good base coat for metallics.

Originally BEA Comets had their lower fuselages in polished bare metal but later they started painting them light grey. When they switched from the "Red Square"! era to the "Speedjack" era they retained those grey undersides.

I then masked of those black areas as I want to keep them black for the moment. This was so I can paint the centre sections of the wings in the classic BEA red wings. The next step will be to spray a white base coat onto the areas that will be red.

Image

Image
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

Also made some good progress on the DC-4. Main components assembled, primed and undersurface spayed with Alejo Aluminium. I've now masked
off the metallic areas so I can spray the upper fuselage white. It looks a bit like a demented pigeon at the moment -

Image
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

In the race between the DC-4 and the Comet, it looks like it will be the DC-4 that wins. The problem with the Comet is the red wings (and blue tail). Although I am an almost 100% convert to acrylics these days, when it comes to authentic airline colours there is only one source available, and that is Xtracolours Authentic Airliner range which are very slow drying gloss enamels. .



The red and the blue used by BEA between 1968 and 1974 was notoriously different to standard bright reds and dark blues. The red was more "orangey" in nature and the blue had an almost pearlescent quality to it that caused light reflecting from it to adopt odd reddish/mauve and even green tinges. It was most noticeable if a BEA airliner was taxying and turning at the same time. As the sun angle changed, you could see these odd colour effects along the blue cheatline and tail;. I used to find it fascinating as a teenage plane spotter.

Because of the uniqueness of these hues, there aren't really any acrylic alternatives available. It would be nice if, one day, Hannants chose to manufacture some acrylic versions of their airliner paints.

Once these enamel paints are applied, you need to leave the model alone for at least a few days to ensure the paint has hardened off.



Another thing I noticed relates to the black radar nose which was normally seen on most Comets, including the BEA Airtours fleet.. The kit markings depict G-ARGM and both the box art and painting instructions do show G-ARGM with the typical black radar nose. However, all the pictures I have found on the internet of G-ARGM in BEA Airtours markings show it without the black radar nose. So I will not include this feature in my build.
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

Latest update on the Comet.

I have sprayed the red areas of the wings and removed the masking from the previously sprayed black areas. The next step will be to mask the red areas and spray aluminium over the black areas of the wing.

I will leave the red paint another 24 hours to dry before applying any masking to it.

Image

Image
User avatar
iggie
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 23320
Joined: July 31st, 2013, 11:04 am
Location: North Somercotes, Lincolnshire
Contact:

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by iggie »

I kind of like it red and black!

Looking good Eric
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

I painted the tailfin BEA blue yesterday as I realised that the main pacing item on this build is waiting for Xtracolour enamel paints to dry. Even after 24 hours it's not quite dry yet. I think I will leave it for 48 hours before I start applying any masking to the tail fin.
User avatar
Gregers
Forum founder
Posts: 8181
Joined: April 10th, 2011, 6:13 pm

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Gregers »

Great progress. This is going to look more than a bit special.

All the best.

Greg
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

Progress has been made. The painting is more or less completed although some touching and tidying up will be required. Red wings are bit of a faff. They must have been a right pain on the real things.

Once the painting is completed to my satisfaction, I'll post up another set of pictures before I start applying the decals.

One area I'm a bit concerned about are the flight deck window frames. Airfix has incorporated the framing as part of the window cheatline. The problem is that they have left the window panel sections clear, the assumption being that you will have used the kit transparencies for the windows. However, as you can see from the pictures shown, I elected to sand and blend them into the fuselage as -

a) the windows didn't fit that well
b) they aren't very accurate from a shape point of view
c) I prefer decals for depicting airliner windows anyway

My plan was to paint a black area over the cockpit window area, which I have done which, in theory, should lie directly under the cockpit window framing decal. However, I'm not altogether convinced that this painted cockpit glazing area is going to match the decal shape precisely, which it needs to do. The problem is that I won't know until the decal is applied - and at that point it would be too late. So, I'm thinking about ways in which I can test the matching of the painted window with the decal without wrecking the decal.

If only Airfix had just given us a cockpit window decal option.
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

Where I'm at now. Next up will be the decalling -

Image

Image
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

The DC-4 is nearing completion. I'm hoping to get it done over the weekend.
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

I'm calling this one done. I could tweak it a bit more but I don't want to do any damage. Getting the undercarriage doors in position was a bit of a struggle. I also added on a few additional aerials and the DF loop fairing on the underside (which came from a Welsh Models Argonaut I never finished.

Image

Image
User avatar
Gregers
Forum founder
Posts: 8181
Joined: April 10th, 2011, 6:13 pm

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Gregers »

That is a real beauty. Very nice work.

All the best.

Greg
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein
User avatar
Gregers
Forum founder
Posts: 8181
Joined: April 10th, 2011, 6:13 pm

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Gregers »

Not much progress on the DC9 to be honest. Here's the state of play at the moment with the exception that I have a coat of primer on the fuselage. Here it is as a dry run with wings, engines and tailplanes in position but not glued. First coat of blue on the guselage tonight hopefully.

All the best.

Greg
Attachments
20170621_202818.jpg
20170621_202818.jpg (151 KiB) Viewed 2283 times
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein
User avatar
Gregers
Forum founder
Posts: 8181
Joined: April 10th, 2011, 6:13 pm

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Gregers »

Progress report on the DC9. I have primed the kit and put a first coats of grey and blue in the fuselage. Found I had used the wrong grey and gave it another coat. Painted the wings, tailplanes and engines. For some reason the paing on the wings and tailplanes wrinkled. Not a problen and a quick flat back and re-paint will sort that out. Here's a pic.

All the best.

Greg
Attachments
20170702_204008.jpg
20170702_204008.jpg (151.39 KiB) Viewed 2258 times
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
Albert Einstein
User avatar
Eric Mc
Modelling Gent and Scholar
Posts: 4789
Joined: May 3rd, 2011, 8:27 am
Location: Farnborough, Hants

Re: Civil engineering. The Airliner S/B

Post by Eric Mc »

Coming along.

I had to do some remedial work on the DC-4 (reposition nose wheel and tidy up nose wheel doors) which delayed work on the Comet. I aim to get back to it over the next few days.
Post Reply

Return to “Shared Build Workbench”