Revell 1/144 A330-200 Conversion

[RayS]

I will be joining with the Revell A330-300 kit (the most recent Thai Airways boxing) being built as a Hawaiian Airlines A330-200. I will be swapping out the kit's Pratt and Whitney engines with Braz Rolls Royce parts and the vertical stab will also be removed and replaced with a Braz item for the -200.

[PaulBradley]

Such a cool scheme!

[biscuit]

that will look nice, flew on one of these from honolulu to vegas

[RayS]

This arvo I had a chance to start this one, let's start with the parts. The Thai Airlines boxing of the Revell A330-300, Braz Models A330-200 replacement tail (x2), Braz Model Roll Royce RB211s for the A330 and the decals from 8a Decs.


What's in the box?



The kit Pratt and Whittney engines and the roller replacing them


The tails, from the left the kit tail, Braz Models A330-200 premod 48979, Braz Models A330-200 postmod 48979. The last one is the one fitted to the Hawaiian Airlines aircraft. It differs from the premod tail by having the same height as the A330-300 tail but has a wider chord and larger mounting bulges (the premod tail was taller and had the standard sized bulges and was fitted to early production A330-200s).


The fuselage sections I need to remove to make a -200 from a -300, 21 mm (6 windows) forward of the wing, 15 mm (4 windows) aft of the wing and the tail.


My method, line the cutting lines with dymo tape, scribe the fuselage where the cuts are to be made as a guide and then cut though with a razor saw, 4 cuts on each fuselage plus one for each vertical stab 10 cuts in all.


Cutting done in about 40 minutes...


And we have an A330-200 length fuselage


Next was to remove the resin poor stubs from the vertical stab and engines, I used a razor saw on the stab but that was taking too long on the first engine, so I sanded the stubs down on my 60 grit sanding board I use for vacforms, top engine done in this image.


First fuselage half being reassembled, I cut up a couple of the sections removed and glued them in the fuselage to reinforce the join, you can see the reinforcement parts at lower left and mid right.



Both sides done and taped together to make sure I got the cuts/length right on both sides (looks like I succeeded )


The engines were glued together with super glue, but I stuffed them both up (misaligned).


Some filling and sanding now required to fix the offset parts. When you don't want superglue to set instantly it does.

[TeeELL]

Great work Ray, with some nice accurate cutting of the fuselage. Real shame about the engines, you have no superglue remover? What about a razor blade?

[RayS]

I did dip them in acetone for a while but to no avail, I will make a bigger mess trying to cut them apart. I think filling and sanding will sort them out.

[PaulBradley]

Well, that's a quick start, Ray! I think the good work done on the fuselage more than outweighs the slight problems with the engines - it would have been a much greater issue if you'd buggered up the cutting! Looking forward to seeing how it comes together!

I'd never heard of 8A decals before. They have some interesting products, but most of what I'd like to buy appears to be out of stock.

[Early Bird Fan]

nice work ray, luckily there's nothing you like more than a good filling/sanding session

[RayS]

Thanks guys, yes more sanding on my modelling horizon.

Paul, I have a few 8A Decs sheets now, Jon does a nice job with them too. He is very approachable with new subjects as well.

[TimJ]

Great job with the fuselage surgery.

[Clashcityrocker]

Nice cutting Doctor

Nigel

[RayS]

Some gluing and filling action has happened, I started to get the flying surfaces assembled


The cabin windows were filled and cleaned up, I also added nose weight


and then the fuselage halves went together




Finally the engines were sanded, I not happy with one of them (bottom one) as the nosed section was hugely off centre and has a noticeable hump leading down to the intake lip after sanding, so I think some more putty required to make it less noticeable

[PaulBradley]

Yikes, I think you are right!

[DavidWomby]

That lower engine certainly does look wonky, Ray. Sorry it's giving you such a challenge.

David

[iggie]

The fuselage certainly looks to have gone together well after the surgery