Sailorman Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Now that I've completed my scratchbuilt 1:600 SS Windsor Castle (see image below) ,it's time for something a bit easier. I've pulled these two beauties out of my stash and will be tackling them together. Amazing how similar the planes were to each other! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 First step is gluing in all the open doors and hatches. The Tristar has 12 of them. Leaving them open would mean scratch building the interior which I am not really interested indoing! thankfully the DC10 doesn't have any open doors. Less filling and sanding. Gone are the days when I used to love having opening parts ....! Once that is done I will assemble the planes using masking tape so as to determine the amount of lead I need to pack into the noses to ensure they don't end up as tail sitters. That will allow me to glue the fuselages together. Once this preparatory work is done I can get started on scribing the panel lines. Will post pictures as I go along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirportsEd Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 I look forward to watching your progress with those two kits. I have the Airfix TriStar in the loft along with a Revell DC-10. Your build might inspire me to start work on them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Thomas Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 I would never consider making these but I am keen to see how they look when someone else has made them. Im building a Shackleton at the moment so seeing how you produce the white upper fuselage will be very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 I will be using Revell Gloss white No 70 for the upper fuselage. I will apply it using an airbrush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 Today I weighted the noses of both kits and painted the inside areas that will be visible with Matt Black. I've also started the tedious process of scribing new panel lines since the ones on this kit are raised. So nice to have recessed panel lines in the new kits! These are the Tristar tailplanes with their new scribed lines ready for sanding and cleaning up and then assembly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 More progress. Yesterday I built up a small plasticard "box" to serve as a container for the lead weight. I built this behind the cockpit bulkhead. Once the bits of lead were inside I pured in some resin to bind them all together and thus ensure they won't move around. Now I'll glue a plasticard lid to secure everything. I'll double check that I've put enough lead in before I glue the fuselage together. I've also painted some areas that might be visible later on in the build using matt black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 In the meantime I've continued scribing panel lines. Main wings top and bottom are also complete. I'll scribe a few lines in the wheel wells to give a bit of interest and glue them together. Once dry, I will sand them down and clean out the panel lines ensuring that the points where they meet up are clean and tidy. Incidentally the black you see is just pencil lead as I run a pencil along each scribed line as I complete it so that I would know which are done and which aren't I need to glue the fuselage together before I can start to scribe its panel lines since these wrap around the full perimeter. Same for the engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 A lot of panel lines have now been scribed. Some more work required on the Starboard fin ....but will get there soon. In the pic below you can see the lines have been painted very roughly with matt black. I do this to check for errors. They are easy to identify and I am in time to correct them after they are sanded. A quick sanding down with fine wet'n dry sandpaper using lots of liquid soap and warm water and the model ends up looking like the second photo. Incidentally, wings and tailplane have not been cemented in place yet. I'll do that after everything is filled and sanded. Unfortunately, the fuselage halve either didn't fit very well or I made a poor job of cementing them together. There is a lot of sanding / filling required to make the fuselage joint acceptable. When I finish this stage of the job I will assemble the wings, engines and tailplane and leave it aside for a week or two. I find that the glue / filler tends to shrink over the first few days and even though the joint is invisible it will appear again. Giving it time to shrink will mean I can go back and fill it again. Hopefully, it will then remain invisible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 A bit more progress on this build. Wings tail and engines are glued on. It has been primed and sanded with 1200 grit wet and dry sandpaper and the surface is silky smoot. All set for the next stage - painting. I won't start that yet to allow time for the filler and glue to shrink. Either way, I can't start painting yet as I don't know what colour scheme I'm going for! .... The problem is that mine is an old issue kit and the decals are past their sell by date! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SD45elect2000 Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 That's a nice pro looking build so far ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirportsEd Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 Rapid progress and looking good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 Have put the Tristar aside for a few days to allow glues and fillers to shrink before final inspection/ filling/ sanding and painting. In the meantime I've been working on the DC10. Scribing took ages - there are so many panel lines. Still need to correct the errors and some more sanding and filling before attaching the wings and engines ....... should bring it to the same stage as the Tristar by the end of this week ..........Now the search begings for the colour schemes and decals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Kavanagh Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 These two are coming along nicely. Civilian types aren’t really my thing, but I do like the way airliners look. They have a definite presence to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 Gidday Sailorman, that's a beautiful ship. Regards, Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 Thanks .... I love liner models ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 A bit more progress. I've airbrushed the grey areas and have started masking them prior to applying the metal finish. I've decided to go for the British Airways 1980 Livery. Blue underside and red tail. Will need to make my on decals. For the DC10 I'm going for a garish scheme. CP Air Orange top, red flash and metal underside. I've ordered aftermarket decals for that one though I will paint the main colours myself. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirportsEd Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Two excellent colour scheme choices, saw both countless times in my youth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 Didn't get much time to do anythng today ..... managed to make some masks for the cockpit glazing. Ready for the black undercoat and the aluminium finish ....maybe tomorrow with a bit of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 (edited) Today I airbrushed the black as a primer to the natural metal areas. Tomorrow I will airbrush an aluminium coat over the black. Slow progress but I will get there. In the meantime the ships plans I ordered have arrived and will have to decide whether to start with a scratchbuilt Rotterdam or the France converted to be the Norway ...... Decisions, decisions! Edited March 18 by Sailorman Forgot to insert the picture! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirportsEd Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 What colour primer do you recommend for underneath gloss white surfaces? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 By this stage I would have already applied grey primer and sanded it down with very fine wet and dry sandpaper using lots of warm water and liquid soap. I then move on to apply a first thin coat of the same paint I will be using for finishing. This first, thin coat shows up the defects which can then be rectified. Once it has dried I sand it very lightly and apply the finish coats. I used to use Humrol Satin white No 130 (because it didn't yellow with age), but of late I've been using Revell No 04. It seems to cover better and it too does not yellow. The old Humbrol enamel used to get a distinct yellow tinge with age. Bear in mind that whilst I am very fussy about my liners (passenger ships), I only build aircraft, tanks etc to hone my skills. I don't go into the same detail with them as I do with liners. The pic below is of the AIrfix Boeing 737 I built a year or two ago. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 Today I airbrushed the aluminium finish. metallic finishes really show up all the defects! Sometouching up required. I'm happy with the panel lines on the wings but not so happy with the circular ones on the fuselage ...... Still, you live and learn! Unfortunately my compressor broke down again. My fault. I left it working for too long and it overheated. WIll have to sort it out tomorrow but it wont be back in action for a few days after I apply the epoxy to the eccentric cam. That's going to push my programme back by a few days. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 Got my compressor going again .....though it failed again after half an hour!........ I think I was in too much of a hurry to fix it and didn't prepare the parts properly to receive the epoxy. Done it again, so it should be fine in another couple of days. I did however manage to treat the dark patches on the DC10's wing with more aluminium paint. Those were areas where I hadn't quite finished airbrushing the other day before the compressor failed. I also painted the first couple of coats of white to the fuselage of the Tristar. I'll let it dry till Sunday before applying the final coat. The undercarriages for both aircraft are painted and all ready to assemble. Masking the Wings was a chore .... I think next time around I'll pinch a could of plastic bags my wife uses in the kitchen and place the each wing into one bag and simply tape down the edge where it meets the fuselage. Can't believe I've never thought of doing that before! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted March 29 Author Share Posted March 29 Got my compressor working again .... hope the repair lasts this time. Manged to airbrush the blue area. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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