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f5guy

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Posts posted by f5guy

  1. Hi again folks,

         I got the glass on as well as the nose cone. There's about 2 or 3 ounces of weight in the nose. As with my Eastern 737 build, I had to do a bit shimming with plastic card to fill in some of the gaps. One of the shims fell inside and I couldn't get it out. At one point it came to rest against one of the existing shims that I had already put in, so I quickly hit it with liquid glue, and glued it in place. Well at least it won't be rattling around in the fuselage now. It's the white rectangle just behind the rear pilot's window. Once the model is painted, you'll never know it's there!

         I had similar fit issues with my Eastern -800 build and ended up sanding off the lightening strips on the nose. My plan was to glue them back on with small plastic strip. After several tries with that method, is quickly became apparent that I couldn't get them to line up straight for anything, so I just left them off. This time around I decided to draw a straight line to the end of the nose with a sharpie, using label making tape as a guide, so as to have some sort of reference to how they need to line up. We'll see if it works....  More filling, grinding, and sanding is up next, but I'm getting there. Regards, Fred.

     

     

    737nose.jpg

  2. Hi everyone,

       I got the lower wing fuselage section and wings on a few weeks back, and just like my Eastern -800, fit was not too great. It might have actually been worse on this kit. I had to add a length of Evergreen strip plastic at either end of the wing box section to help deal with a decent step(pic 1). Much filling, grinding, and sanding ensued.

      The cockpit was finished off and glued into the fuselage (pic 2). I didn't spend much time on the cockpit, as very little is visible once the canopy is on. Next up is getting the engines going. Stand by... Fred.

     

     

     

        

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  3. On 3/22/2024 at 12:35 PM, Drifterdon said:

    Thanks Fred.   I figured if anyone knew the answer to this it would be you.    And your Snipers F-5E is amazing.  That is exactly the bird I'm wanting to build.   Hard to believe it's the old Monogram kit.   I take it you used an aftermarket cockpit.

    Don

     

    Thanks for the kind comments Don! 

    Being an 80's Monogram kit, it was definitely a bit of a fit pig, but with a lot of sanding, re-scribing, and a Black Box cockpit set, it came out pretty good. Thankfully we have the MUCH better AFV kit now. Take care, Fred.

     

  4. 5 hours ago, Dutch said:

    Fred, KursadA has announced a 1/72 & 1/144 XB-70 sheet.  I suspect it will be available in the fall.  Fingers crossed! Dutch

     

    Hi Dutch,

         I saw Kursad's announcement regarding decals, but will likely just finish mine off with the kit decals, as they're in good shape, and I want to keep this build moving forward. Thanks! Fred.

  5. 13 minutes ago, southwestforests said:

    Ahh, so this handsome little 737 was merely a guinea pig for the true gloss white challenge. 🤔😆

     

     

    Well..... I started the XB-70 kit about 4 years ago, but hit the wall with it with all of the endless grinding and sanding involved. I also knew that my gloss white painting skills were not up to such a challenge, so it got set aside as painting approached. Now that I've tackled the "Rat 55" 737-200 and Eastern 737-800 builds, I feel that my gloss white skills are now up to the task of finishing off the XB-70. So I suppose both 737 kits were guinea pigs of sorts 🤣 Fred.

     

  6. Thanks everyone for your very kind comments! Once I get the AMT XB-70 kit that I'm currently working on finished, I'll get going on either the Titan Models 757-200 or BPK 737-900 projects that I've already started build threads on. Look in on those if its anything that interests you. Thanks for your support 👍 Fred.

  7. Hi Don,

         Here's a pic of the inlet. It looks like maybe light gull grey, or similar? As for painting it.... if you're using the AFV kit part, all I can suggest is painting it very carefully 😂 If you're using the Quickboost set, it will likely be easier.

     

         As for colors of the jet that you posted a pic of in Dave Roofs VMFT-401 decals thread... I built an E in that same scheme a number of years ago using the info from a Twobobs sheet, and the colors were dead on. The colors I used were FS36495 for the light grey, FS36375 for the medium grey, and FS35237 for the darker grey. Attached is a pic of that model (the very old Monogram kit) so you can judge for yourself. HTH, Fred.

     

     

    DSC_4038.JPG

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  8. Thanks everyone for your very kind comments everyone, and for tagging along on this extended build! 

     

    Next up for me is to finish off a 72nd AMT XB-70 that I started awhile back. Then I'll get going on either the Titan 757-200 or BPK 737-900 conversion that I'm doing progress builds on. Thanks for tuning in, Fred.

  9. Hi folks,

         Well after nearly a year and a half of struggling with this build I'm calling her done. Lots of goofs, so it's definitely a three footer. However, it looks great in my display case. A link to the build thread is here: 

     

    I definitely recommend the BPK 737 kits. Yes, they are challenging, but quite impressive when done, and also very rewarding. Thanks BPK for giving us something other than yet another teen fighter or Bf whatever that's already been done to death! Fred K.

     

    1325216780_EasternAirlines737-8003.jpg

    1569577571_EasternAirlines737-8005.jpg

  10. Alright everyone.... I'm calling this guy done! 

     

    Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but it is DEFINITELY a three footer (looks good from three feet away or further). I made a ton of mistakes on this build, but was able to salvage things and learned a few new techniques in the process.

     

    The biggest headaches were that gloss white paint, and the decals. Thanks to this build though, I have come up with a workable system for doing large amounts of gloss white now. The decals.... well.... they're very tricky. They are laser printed by V1 Decals, and I'm not bagging on them at all, but they were a handful. This is no doubt due to several things: Laser printing: The decals are quite stiff, and do not want to conform around any complex curves. They also do not react to well to decal solvents. Also their large size makes them difficult to apply, and they tend to want to fold over on themselves. You can see this problem in the close up of the right side cabin door. The decals folded over and I couldn't get it fixed, so I just had to cut it off and hope that I can find a correct size/color replacement in the future. In the future I will just paint the stripes, instead of using the supplied decals. This should greatly simplify things.

     

    Also in the close up pic you can see the pitot tubes. There's four total. These are 3D printed by ARC's own John, who has an ebay store. I cannot recommend John's parts enough! They are superb, and look far better than the photo etch pitots supplied by the kit. Here's a link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/186275226139

     

    So in the end it was a bit of a lengthy build, which is normal for me, but despite all of my goofs, I learned a lot, and it looks great in my display case. Even though it's a challenging kit, I highly recommend BPK's line of 737 kits. Two thumbs up 👍👍 Fred.

     

     

    836772887_EasternAirlines737-8003.jpg

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    1733040022_EasternAirlines737-8002.jpg

  11. 6 hours ago, southwestforests said:

    Putting any nature of adhesive masking material over decals is several orders of magnitude more modeling bravado than I have!

    🖖 My your successes with that live long and prosper.

    Wouldn't attempt that in the 1980s when custom painting model trains for money and bathing the Microsale decals in Micro Sol, and although those days are gone, still won't tempt that particular fate on what few models I now do for me. 

     

    🎨 That two tone blue Eastern livery has long been a favorite. Is both simple and classy.

     

    It's something that I generally try to avoid myself, but this time around I had to blend the nose colors into the decals, so some careful masking was in order. The next time that I have to do stripes on a big airliner model I will definitely be painting the stripes if possible! Lesson learned 😂

     

    Agreed.... that Eastern scheme is a real classic!  Fred.

     

  12. Hi everyone,

         I had some time to work on this build today. This involved painting the nose section. I had to mix the light blue, and got mostly there. It's not quite a 100% match, but pretty close. Thankfully the darker blue was much easier. Revell's #54 blue was a dead on match. It's actually a very dark purple. At first I thought that no way would it match, so I touched up a small pin prick spot on the decals and it was right on. I do need to go back and do some touch ups, but the base is there. 

         Interestingly I had the decals try to peel up under the masking tape (Tamiya yellow). In the pic it looks really bad to the rear of the cockpit windows, but it just got hit with Solva-set, and was still settling down. These laser printed decals certainly are much more tricky to use than the normal screen printed ones, and will require much touching up. All for now. Fred.

    20240308_163331.jpg

  13. Hi everyone,

         I got a bit more done on this build over the weekend. 

         First up I got the fuselage plugs in placed and glued. I used wide strips on sheet plastic to reinforce every joint (pic 1). In the pic you can see that there is a raised ridge on the fuselage half that will need to be filed off to get a good fit. I recently got in the BPK C-40A/B and E-7A Wedgetail kits in that I ordered several weeks back directly from BPK. Neither of these kits has this ridge, but every -800 kit I own has them. I also had to shim a few joints to get everything to line up straight.

         Also taken care of were the clear window strips. I had to cut extra pieces from the clear strips of the -800 donor kit to fill in the -900. They were glued in with lots of super glue this time because on my Eastern -800 build I used liquid model glue, and had a lot of problems with "ghost" panel lines showing right through the gloss white paint. Hopefully using super glue only will solve that problem. The fuselage doors were also filled in (pic 2). This way if the decals don't line up with kits doors, the decals will represent the doors.

         After that came a LOT of sanding with my coarsest grinder sanding stick. Once that was done, I laid out some sand paper on the flat surface of my metal paint booth. I used rare earth magnets to hold the sand paper in place, and carefully sanded the fuselage halves level just as one would do with a vacu-form kit. This leveled out the fuselage halves quite nicely (pic 3). All for now, Fred.

     

     

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  14. 14 minutes ago, Dutch said:

    Fred,  Way to go!  Can't wait to see all three, -700/C-40, -800 & -900!  That will make for a very nice comparison display!  K/r, Dutch

     

    Thanks for always following along on my rollercoaster style modeling adventures Dutch! I'd have to agree with you.... a set of all four NG 737's lined up in my display case would look mighty fine 👍 Perhaps someone will eventually make kits of the -300 to -500, and maybe even the MAX jets. Now that would be an impressive dispaly! Thanks, Fred.

  15. Hi all,

         Here's a few pics of the aircraft being built along with the decals. 

     

         The first pic represents the aircraft as it was when we flew on it.

     

         The second pic shows the aircraft as it is today, and how I plan to model it. Note that it has been retrofitted with a large WiFi antenna dome on the spine, and the newer "split scimitar" style winglets. The WiFi antenna will come from Click 2 models, and the winglets will be modified from the kit supplied parts.

     

         The decals come from Draw Decals, who kindly scaled up their 1/144th sheet for me. All for now, Fred.

     

     

    n811dz-delta-air-lines-boeing-737-932erwl_PlanespottersNet_605389_380c931c28_o.jpg

    Delta 737-900ER N811DZ L to Cabo 2-23.jpg

    1612792154_-900decals.jpg

  16. Hi again everyone,

          Continuing on....   With the two BPK -800 kits in hand, and the proper measurements calculated, I got ready to make the cuts. The -900 has a 5' 2" plug added forward of the wing. This translates to 22.2 mm in 1/72nd scale. It also has a 3' 6" plug aft of the wing. This translates to 14.6 mm in 1/72nd scale. I was never able to find out what the actual size of the plugs to be removed for a -700/C-40A are in actual feet, but in 1/72nd scale it comes out to 41.4 mm forward of the wing and 39.6 aft of the wing. So the difference in length between the -700/C-40A and -800 is more than enough to supply the proper sized plugs for the -900 build.

         At first all was going well, but then I found that my measurements were just not adding up. I measured and remeasured a number of times, but it was still off. I was at a loss until I realized that the length measurement for the aircraft goes to the tip of the tail. So if you draw a vertical line from the rear tip of the tail to the ground, then measure the length to the tip of the nose, it comes out perfect. Phew!

         As a side note: BPK has since released a C-40A kit available here https://bigplaneskits.com/shop/big-planes-kits/c-40a-clipper-b/  and also an E-7A Wedgetail kit available  here https://bigplaneskits.com/shop/big-planes-kits/e-7a/  I've already got one of each on the way 👍 Both aircraft are based on the -700, and no doubt BPK will be releasing a -700 kit proper before too long. I may go ahead and finish off my donor kit as a -700/C-40A, or further cut it down to a -600 in the future. We'll see.

         At any rate, here's the kits in their boxes, then with the first cuts made, and then taped together for the final result. As with the Eastern -800 build, I will be using decals for the cabin windows, so it doesn't matter if the clear window inserts line up with the actual window ports as they're going to get painted over anyway, and this greatly simplifies an already challenging build. As you can see, there's quite a bit of difference in length between the -700 (top) and -900 (bottom). All for now. Fred.

     

     

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  17. Hi everyone,

          I know.... you're thinking good Lord he's starting another In Progress thread! Bear with me as I find this helps me to get these bigger projects done if I know people are following along. Well this is sort of a follow on to my ongoing Eastern Airlines 737-800 build. In fact I will refer you to that build link below for the majority of this build, and just highlight the changes made to convert the -800 to a -900. I made a ton of self inflicted problems with the Eastern build, mainly with priming and painting, and now feel comfortable enough with the BPK kit to give it a real go. You know like the first time that you have to do something new it will take you an hour, and the second time takes ten minutes 🤣

         So the idea for this build started when my wife and I decided to take a week vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Baja Sur, Mexico last year (see pic at the Cabo arch). We booked airline tickets through Delta from Salt Lake City, Ut to Cabo. The aircraft assigned to the flight that day was 737-932ER N811DZ. As I stood in the terminal checking out the aircraft through the glass, I thought to myself "That'd be a pretty cool build!" So during the course of the last year I did my research, and found out that the -900 series is the longest of Next Generation (NG) 737s at 138' 2" in length. This is 8' 6" longer than the 737-800 that the BPK kit represents. The fuselage would need to be stretched, but how? 

         I pondered several idea's on how to do it before deciding to cut the proper sized plugs from a donor -800 kit. Good idea until I remembered that the BPK kits go for about $150 each! However, a little more research revealed that the needed plugs could be cut from the donor -800 kit, and then the donor could then be cut down to a -600 at 102' 6" in length or a -700/C-40A at 110' 4" in length. That will work for me!  I then sourced the needed two kits (pic 2). More in the next post, Fred.

         

     

    1405946880_FredMariaCabo2-23.jpg

    20230630_164507.jpg

  18. Alright! I finally got some time to get the blown off wing problem fixed and painted. Tonight I'll be doing decals. Then will come the fun part...... trying to match paint colors to the decals to do the wrap-around pattern on the nose. V1 supplied decals for the nose, but no way, no how are those laser printed decals, which are quite stiff, going to wrap around the nose. There's a few other areas that need to be touched up too. It should be fun 😳

     

    Pic 2 is a teaser pic of the Delta 737-900ER that I started a few weeks back. That involved cutting some fuselage plugs from another -800 kit. Thankfully, the donor kit can then be shortened to a -700/C-40 version, so no harm, no foul. If you look closely, you can see the plugs. I'll be using decals for the windows, so I didn't care if they didn't line up. They'll be getting painted over anyway. All for now, Fred.

     

    1085195538_-800repaircomplete.jpg

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  19. 58 minutes ago, Jonathan Smith said:

    Sorry Fred. I have been kind of releasing stuff willy nilly ...no offense meant to Willy...lately. Lots of requests to make this and that and doing my best to do so where I can. It has been interesting and I have been learning a few things here and there. It has been fun. I just put your order out earlier today. Should be in hands soon. I believe I threw in some 72nd ADU's so you don't need those maybe :>)

     

    Heh heh...... no worries John. I'm just laughing at my usual lousy timing! I'm looking forward to the goodies and will definitely be going after some Captors in the future 👍 Thanks, Fred.

     

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