carioca Posted May 8, 2009 Share Posted May 8, 2009 (edited) Hi everyone! Let me start this thread with apologies for taking me so long to finally get this build going... It's been 2 months now since I joined this airline, and these past few weeks on flight simulation have been tough on me. Now with a few days off before flying, got some time to join the GB. What better choice than my new "home in the skies"? The kit is the good old Minicraft, very first release with original AA markings. Decals kindly provided by RBX Decals, from Brazil. Webjet has recently unveiled its new scheme, which is based mostly on changes to the tail colors. RBX is the only decal producer to represent this airline. Pics: 1: the kit and the decal sheet to be used. 2: Even though it can be hardly seen on the picture, i punched 2 small holes on the forward fuselage, each side. The wire on top of it will be used as pitot tubes. 3: fuselage halves glued with CA cement. Ballast added to the nose. 4: sub parts assembled. Engines, wings, fuselage. All ready and waiting for the first session of sanding/puttying. This model is known to carry one or two flaws as far as shaping and accurate representation of the real thing is concerned. Not being a rivet counter myself, I think this model can be GREAT fun, as it proved to me many times before. So, no basic modifications will be carried onto this particular model. Hope my newbie schedule allows me to finish this bird on time. Regards Eduardo Edited June 22, 2009 by carioca Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 11, 2009 Author Share Posted May 11, 2009 UPDATE! Subparts assembled - separately - are: - Fuselage - Wings - Engines They have all been wet sanded (grits 280 up to 600), a few points had to be filled (used CA glue on them) and then sanded again. The engines: well, this is basically the one part of the MC kit that REALLY bothers me. The intakes just look too bad to be left that way, so what I do is shape some epoxy putty (Durepoxy, a similar american brand is used for pipe sealing) to it, and make sure it looks flat, covering link pins and seams in the inside. The next 3 pics show how the engines look after filling and smoothening with Durepoxy: More updates to come this week! Regards Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheFlyingDutchman Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Nice aircraft and nice colourscheme. Minicraft's engines are pretty bad indeed, maybe you can search for a Skyline Models (Daco) kit next time? It's better in detail and accuracy. I never heard of this airline but the decals look promising! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guilherme Kosciuv Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 (edited) WOW. It´s nice to see your build here. I didn´t know that you leave Variglog. I think this new paint scheme fits better to the 737. Let me post a pic just to illustrate: Waiting to see the progress.. :blink: Edited May 13, 2009 by Guilherme Kosciuv Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 13, 2009 Author Share Posted May 13, 2009 yep, left the freighters about 2 months ago... First flight with passengers scheduled for next wednesday, FIRST LANDING WILL BE IN YOUR CITY, GUILHERME! And just out of curiosity, my last landing on a B727 was also on CWB! Regards - abraço! Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guilherme Kosciuv Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 yep, left the freighters about 2 months ago... First flight with passengers scheduled for next wednesday, FIRST LANDING WILL BE IN YOUR CITY, GUILHERME! And just out of curiosity, my last landing on a B727 was also on CWB!Regards - abraço! Eduardo Oh, if you have any overnight here and want to visit our modellers club, just contact me abraço Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 15, 2009 Author Share Posted May 15, 2009 Model puttied, sanded, washed with mild detergent and primed. I use a special brazilian produced modeling paint ("Easy Colors") which as a matter of fact requires no primer at all! It adheres very well to styrene, has great coverage and dries quickly. However, I consider primer to be mostly "last part of a build" rather than "first part of a paint job". And so flaws show up as Easy Colors is a very fine paint, bringing up tiny seams and gaps before we move on to the colors. On this one, after priming with aluminum paint, seams showed up on one engine's lower nacelle halves joint, on a small portion of the main gear wheel well area, on the lower fuselage joint (close to the APU) and on one engine's pylon top. All were filled with CA glue, then sanded again, and primed again. After doing this I remembered that the recessed door lines on the MC kit are soooooooo wrong that I'll have to fill them too. So tonight our plan is to remove primer inside those lines with a needle, fill those lines with CA, sand them, and prime them to make sure they're gone before painting. And only then we'll be ready for some colors. Thanks for passing by!!! Regards Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheFlyingDutchman Posted May 15, 2009 Share Posted May 15, 2009 It's already very recognisable as a -300 series, well done! You said you use CA as putty, how do you remove the excess CA? Once dry, it's as hard as stone and very difficult to sand away, so how do you do it? greets, Jelle Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 15, 2009 Author Share Posted May 15, 2009 Hi Jelle!!! I use tiny little strips of CA glue over those hair-stray-thick seams that refuse to be sanded out before primer. Then I use a popsicle stick to smoothly spread it over the surroundings - and make sure it doesn't come out as a thick drop over the plastic. Then I wet sand it, grits 280 and 420, then finish it with 600. Grits 280 and 420 are usually enough to bring down any excess CA, if I don't 600-wet-sand it after such corrections, Easy Colors paints will show sand strikes on the plastic - it's that fine that paint! Thanks for showing up! Regards Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 16, 2009 Author Share Posted May 16, 2009 (edited) Another update - just fresh out of the paint shop! I filled the door lines, sanded and primed them. All gone and without a trace - which means I will have to be careful in order to correctly place decals in the end... Used the CA glue filling technique. As for the primer, you'll notice that it is now somewhat darker than the first coat. That is the color I used to paint the engine intakes and exhaust. This color is made out of 20 drops of aluminum, 10 drops of white and 10 drops of black, plus thinner. Tomorrow, I'll insert some wet cotton blobs inside the engines, and paint the aluminum on the engine lips. Then the white behind it, and then move on to the wings. Pictures: Regards! Eduardo Edited May 16, 2009 by carioca Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 19, 2009 Author Share Posted May 19, 2009 Colors! Aluminum on engine lips, white on engine cowls, and light gray on wings/stabs/gear struts! On the pic below - where you'll find only engines cowls and lips painted - you can notice I had an engine pylon broken (#2, right side). It had to be glued and filled, then sanded again - as I applied the light gray coat, it was ok. Here we go. First pic, with very first colors, and the broken pylon: Another pic before light gray was on: And now, light gray all over the wings (find the stabs on the picture, too): Tomorrow, it's on to the aluminum leading edges on wings and stabs. regards! Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheFlyingDutchman Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Looks good again, will the wings remain overall grey or are they going to get coroguard sections? You did a good job on the engines, no seams are visible in the intakes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 20, 2009 Author Share Posted May 20, 2009 Hi Jelle! The corogards - gosh! I hope to get this written ok, or Jennings will be mad at us! - will be custom printed decals. Thanks for the kind comments! Regards Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Mark Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Looking good - interesting that you build so much before painting. I guess it just works well with that kit. Or perhaps it's just my inexperience with this subject of model... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mike J. Idacavage Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 Eduardo: Great work so far! I am really impressed that you are able to have this looking so great and so much progress with starting the build only a few weeks ago. Well done!!! Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 23, 2009 Author Share Posted May 23, 2009 Mark, I'm really into the "build it all together and paint" modeler... can't achieve good results assembling subparts, painting them all and then attaching them - wish I could, I see some folks here who make wonders out of such building techniques! And yes, the kit requires some massive puttying and sanding , specially on engine pylons to look ok. So Painting them separately can be troublesome in the very end. Mike, thanks for the kind words! Actually, I had a few days off after my simulator training finished early this month, so time was on my side with this model - not much of a standard thing, but guess I'm lucky on this specific one! Regards! Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted May 28, 2009 Author Share Posted May 28, 2009 (edited) Here's another update to this bird - by the way, i have decided to make this PR-WJM rather than PR-WJA. -WJM was the first bird on the airline which I have flown carrying the new c/s. :) Earlier this afternoon I applied aluminum to the leading edges - both wing and horizontal stabilizer leading edges. After a few hours drying, came the "big white coat". Notice I had a little paint bleed under the masking tape on top of the right wing. I realized there's no need to correct this as a silk decal will be placed over it - the escape path decal which comes with the kit. So it will just not show in the end - good thing! I hate such small corrections! Nose gear doors were also painted white. I also took a while to dry brush-paint the tires. Hope you like it! Regards Eduardo Edited May 28, 2009 by carioca Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted June 17, 2009 Author Share Posted June 17, 2009 a few days off at home, and the work at the WJ733 moves on! After a close look at it, I noticed a few spots where the white coat was not completely covering the model as I think it should. So i decided to paint another white coat on top of it before moving on to the decals. Here you'll see pics of the model after the application of the last coat of white, and also a coat of gloss clear to seal it over. Hope y'all like it so far! Next will be correcting a small spot where some paint lifted beneath the wings, close to the fuse, and painting tires. Then it's on to the decals! Regards Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted June 19, 2009 Author Share Posted June 19, 2009 Time for putting last items on the model! - Horizontal stabs - engine exhaust nozzles - Landing gears ---- and here's where the sad part goes... while applying the last touch ups to nose wheels, one of them simply vanished... disappeared... never seen again... gone for good... searched through all work area and nothing. Had no nose gear wheels on 1/144, so i decided to use a pair of B737 main gear wheels 1/200 scale. It worked alright - a good look from not so close is enough to notice those wheels are somehow "overinflated by maintenance" perhaps... well, you just can't have it all! Looking at it right before decals.... from the other side landing gears - aside from the above mentioned issue, build was straight forward decals on the left side of the fuse applied! Regards Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted June 20, 2009 Author Share Posted June 20, 2009 All decals are now applied! Final detailing too - still a few small touch ups to go! Pics: 1- Corogard decals for the wings - custom printed early this afternoon: 2- Corogard decals on! 3- Antennae, drain masts and pitot tubing installed (used plastic sheets for cutting antennae/masts and thin wire for pitot system) 4- Looking from the right side Still have to paint the vertical stabilizer leading edge silver. I'm still checking whether or not to add the rudder pitot tubing on the stab. No weathering will take place here - sorry... never got one single weathering right! Won't try it here! Regards Eduardo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guilherme Kosciuv Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Demais!! O decal das marcações pra a saÃÂÂda de emergencia sobre a asa foi impresso em branco ou você pintou antes? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
carioca Posted June 22, 2009 Author Share Posted June 22, 2009 (edited) AND... WE'RE DONE! Last items: 1- rudder pitot installed 2- vertical stab leading edge painted silver... and... 3- FOUND THE BLOODY NOSE GEAR WHEEL! CAN'T TELL WHERE IT WAS, IT JUST SHOWED UP OUT OF NOWHERE! here are the pics: Guilherme, decals printed on a white decal sheet! Moving these pics to "completed models" thread! Glad I could finish this on time! Thanks everyone for following up! Hope y'all liked it! Regards Eduardo Edited June 22, 2009 by carioca Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheFlyingDutchman Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 It became a very nice model, very well done! I like the colourscheme. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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