Breathing new life into an old kit

[oldHooker]

Greetings,

Recently, I decided to "flap" one of the new Revell 737-800 kits, but seeing as how I haven't done that before, I thought I'd better practice a little bit first. I've had an old Airfix Boeing 737-200 in my stash for a while and figured that would be a good subject to hone a technique on. Once I got it started,
I realized I had one of the ATP Piedmont Airline decal sheets, so the "practice" subject has turned into my currect project. After this, the -800 should be a snap!




Here's my progress thus far......

732const2

732const1

732const3

newnose
Here you can see the difference sanding the nose makes!

732const6
Cut out Landing Light position

732const9

732const10

nav light lense
Nav Ligtht lens

detailing 1
Starting to detail the LE Flap bays

foil start 1
Getting the foil pieces squared away

foil start 2
The first 4 pieces are applied

Here's a couple update pictures of the just finished foil application and the engine pylon.

foil applied
foil workup
The fore section has *7* pieces of foil, and the aft has *11*. I still have to clean up the edges but the hard part's already done! It took a total of 9 hours (and a stab wound... I'll explain later) to apply all the foil! :blink:

engine pylon
Here's one of the engine pylons... like it?

Take care,
Frank

[oldHooker]

Update photo

I thought I'd show a picture of the progress I've made....

Here's a picture of the fuselage after cleaning it up, getting ready for it's 1st coat of glosscoat, after I paint the figures in the cockpit and install the windsreen... getting closer, little by little.

http://gunsagogo.org/monprogress.jpg

Take care,
Frank

[Simpleboy]

How difficult is applying foil? Ive never seen it used before on models and never though to use it on any of my own.

[MaxPower]

Interesting about the foils. How many times will your put coat on it. ?

[Chris@YYZ]

How difficult is applying foil? Ive never seen it used before on models and never though to use it on any of my own.

I've used foil for leading edges on some kits and on an AA model I made, I just used white glue to attach it. Its a bit tedious and you're almost guaranteed to mess it up the first time, but ones you've got a model or two under your belt its pretty easy (still a bit tedious though).

[Alex - Spot-This !]

Great work Franck. Very nicely done. Can't wait to see the final result.

About the foil. A few years ago I made a 1/49 B-29 totally covered with foil. The forms of the B-29 were perfect to practice the technics. Only the engine drove me crazy and I finally painted them. Unfortunatly I have no pics as my B-29 suffered a write-off after a hard mission during operation "MTANA III" (moving to a new appartement III)

Cheers
Alex

[oldHooker]

Scratched built Landing Light installation

Hello all, and thanks very much for your replies and questions....

I will attempt to address each one, but first, I'll show you the illustration I made detailing how I scratch-built the wing root Landing Light cluster on the -200 last night. I will finish the other side today and make photos for you to see.

http://gunsagogo.org/landinglights.jpg

MaxPower

Interesting about the foils. How many times will your put coat on it. ?

I generally apply two coats; The FIRST coat is meant to be a base for the decal application because it provides a *smooth* surface to put them on. (no milky film or bubbles) Then after the decals are set, I do another coat to seal them. The results are a beautiful glassy finish where the markings look like part of the paint scheme, instead of decals applied TO the paint scheme.
WARNING: DO NOT apply Testors Glosscoat over painted SILVER or ANY metallic paint, because the glosscoat will "Melt" it.

Simpleboy

How difficult is applying foil? Ive never seen it used before on models and never though to use it on any of my own.

As Chris@YYZ said, it is a very tedious process, but if you take your time and don't become discouraged if you mess a piece up, the results are WELL worth it! There are a few things you can do that will make the process MUCH easier, (1) Fill & Sand (using progressively finer grades of paper, then rub surface with #0000 Steel Wool, then a solt cloth) all panel lines. (2) Clean the plastic with a soft cloth and mild detergent and rinse, then a TACK cloth... from this point forward, your BARE fingers must not touch the plastic (I use surgical gloves). (3) To cover bends and angles smoothly, you must apply the foil sections in multiple pieces, trying not to overlap, but making sure there are NO gaps between the sections. (make sections in same sequence as the panel lines on the real aircraft). I use Testers GlossCoat as the bonding agent, brushed on, because it flattens out good and forms a tacky surface within a couple minutes.

Take good care, and thanks for allowing me to share this.
Frank

[oldHooker]

Engines get foiled

Hi all,

Here's some progress shots... I still have to do the rivet lines (accomplished with a selection of metal gears from and old wind-up pocket watch), then maybe I can finally get the first coat of slick stuff on.

http://gunsagogo.org/NMengine1.jpg

http://gunsagogo.org/NMengine2.jpg

http://gunsagogo.org/NMengine3.jpg

Take care,
Frank

[oldHooker]

Continued update...

Hey folks,

Finally finished all the sub-assemblies and began putting all the elements together.

http://gunsagogo.org/putnit2gthr.jpg

http://gunsagogo.org/putnit2gthr2.jpg

Then I took her out for her very first trip around the patch...

http://gunsagogo.org/1sttimeout1.jpg

http://gunsagogo.org/1sttimeout2.jpg

It is now covered in the slick stuff and resting in the hangar for the next couple days to keep the dust-bunnies off.

Thanks, and take care,
Frank

[Jerrycobra Boeing]

very nice! how do you take those pics?

[oldHooker]

very nice! how do you take those pics?

Hello Jerry,

Thank you!

Actually, I've used the "posing in flight" technique for a few years now because it will reveal flaws that are basically invisible at the work desk. I use a cut coat hanger or stiff wire to mount the model, take it outside, hold it up in the air and take a picture... then remove the wire/hand using Photosuite. I "uniform" the fog affect at the next to lowest setting, which gives the image "depth of field", and walla!
http://gunsagogo.org/posingtheplanes.jpg

... or like on my last build....
http://gunsagogo.org/inflight.jpg

Take care,
Frank

[Jerrycobra Boeing]

damn, that looks so real

[porter guy]

landing at an airport without landing gear?

[Jerrycobra Boeing]

the ATC told me it has been having some landing gear problems

[oldHooker]

Decals going on

Goodmorning all,

I thought I'd publish a couple of update pictures of my build, as the markings are beginning to make there way on the model.

I applied the blue cheatline from the ATP decal sheet, but it was too wide, so I applied some white pinstripe decals in an attempt to thin them out. That didn't work because the blue & white contrasted so bad it took several of those pin stripes to mask it.... which looked awful! I removed all of it, re-painted the white, and went to apply another blue cheatline from the YS-11 sheet.... even after overspraying the sheet before starting, the decal completely desintegrated when I tried to slide it on! Finally, I reverted to the "old school" method of masking and painting the cheatline.... take that!

After the blue dried, I applied a clear film decal over the window holes to make clear window glass, then tomorrow I'll put on the silver window frames.



http://gunsagogo.org/decalsgoingon1.jpg


After I get the rest of the decals applied, I'll overspray it with glosscoat and work on the landing gears while it's curing.

It's coming along... driving me crazy along the way, but it's coming along!

Take care,
Frank