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Revell A310 1:144 (Part 1) TAP Portugal 2005 livery


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Finally, some comments from the guys from ARC's "Airliner modeling" forum. I wonder how hard was it to track this build for the past three months. Maybe I shoulf really move future airliner WIP there.

I'm taking notes for my A310 attempt!

Awesome work, what decal set will you use on this beauty?

From the post no.2:

"As for the decals, I'll use a combination of:

- original decals from Revell kit (those intended for Luftwaffe are very good for doors, engines, etc...)

- new TwoSix and old Carpena for TAP 2005 livery, as a reference mostly

- Skyline engine spinners

- self made (for vertical tail, registration, etc .. because there are some errors and/or some decals are missing on those aftermarket sheets, since I want this particular plane)"

In the post no.11 you can see/read a quick review of those decals.

All I can add is that I'm expecting new, silk-printed decals from TwoSix Decals in this TAP Portugal 2005 livery, after Telford (within next week or two). I cannot comment them yet, but I hope they will be so good as the Qatar B777 sheet :doh:

At this moment I would thank Mr. Ray Charles from TwoSix for including some of mine proposals for new decal sheet, just before he sent them for printing.

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Some pictures from Tuesday ... This is what happens when you try to cut time needed for modeling by applying one thick coat of putty, instead of several thin coats ...

IT CRACKS AND FALLS OFF !!! <_< :monkeydance::monkeydance:

Yes, you need additional time to repair it properly ...

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As I make two steps forward, one step back ... Those pics are past already, but still this could happen anytime again ...

With only one month till deadline I decided to finish this phase with cutting, sanding, filling, ... I could do it endlessly and never finish it ...

So, I glued upper and lower wing halves ...

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Starboard side received first coat of Italeri's putty

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Port side got the one from Mr. White Putty

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I also applied some putty inside main wheelbays and smoothed it with Tamiya extra thin glue, since there's no chance to sand anything inside. I left main wheelbays as is, without any further detail since I don't have any good real pics of it.

Although I tried to make a good seam on the wings with sanding down excess plastic and dry fitting everything several times, when CA came in action, I just got THE SEAM ...

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More to follow ... :thumbsup:

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Some nice sanding session from yesterday ...

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Dry fitting with fuselage: some future seams to resolve ...

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Now with horizontal stabs, too ...

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This is going to be a HELL of a seam (another Panama channel)

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Second putty layer is drying already, so there's no progress today, but tomorrow is another day ... :thumbsup:

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HELP PLEASE !

(There's no smiley who needs help. Why?)

I was dry fitting main legs today... If you check the part no.21, as per Revell's instruction, this link should end somewhere in the root of main gear strut ...

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... but, Revell molded them too short, so they end nowhere ...

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In the reality, they end somewhere in the wheel bay area in the wing. But I have no clue where... Any idea? I would be thankful even for a paper scratch ...

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It's me, myself and I ...

Today, I'll show you how I made clear navigation lights for the first time. You all know the rules: red for port, and green for starboard side. So don't be confused if in following sequence color suddenly changes from red to green and back to red.

First, I saw out the "original" light

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Then I took a piece of clear sprue, flatten it down with a file on one side and drilled a small hole in the middle. Then I took the paint and filled the hole.

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Inner side (on the wing) was painted black (checked the pics), and then I glued that clear piece with Clearfix.

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I formed the light with a light file pressure, roughly. Remember, I glued clear sprue directly on the black paint - it's not a joint which will hold everything.

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To be continued ....

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And then I sanded down with 400, 600 and 1000 grid paper, and polished with 2000, 3000 and 5000 grid.

Finally, I sealed everything with a coat of Future ...

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And here is the starboard side, masked with Tamiya tape

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If you don't include drying time, this is a hour of work per light, but the results are forever :thumbsup:

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I build this kit as a aircraft that flew with the German Airfoce.

It cost a lot of work to make the right "fase" thus the windscreen for this kit

I don't know what's a "fase" ... Shape, stage ?!... But I would like to see more close-up pics of that A310.... Engines, both wheel bays, tail,... From my point of view, you can post them here if you want to. Or just send me a link.

If I'm not wrong, looking at that front wheel bay covers, you did use Extratech PE set, right? And cockpit windscreen .. You masked it by yourself? No decals?! You also removed raised panel lines, without rescribing them, ... Interesting ... :cheers:

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Today I was checking the list of all the things I have to do to finish this beauty... Since there is so much more to do and I hate to finish the kit, just to be finished on time, I decided not to rush till December 5th, but to finish it, whatever time it needs. Some areas to be finished: flap track fairings, tailcone, engines, wheelbays, winglets, fuselage-wing joint, ....

I'm still correcting errors both Revell's and mine .... Filling, sanding, filling, ... and this is modeling area which is more-or-less familiar to me - I made some 30 kits for the part 15 years. Things at which I'm not "at home" are priming, airbrushing, Future, weathering, ... My compressor came a week ago, so all I need now is a selfmade spraybooth, but even if I had model prepared for painting, I don't have trained hand and eye for airbrush. And ... I'm still expecting those decals from TwoSix.I have no idea how they look like, nor if I need to combine them with some other decal set to complete the kit.... So many questions and so little time. At one moment I was thinking about using that PIA sheet from F-DCAL and to finish it in PIA's colors, since I have this sheet and would not need to wait for new TAP decals.

With all those thing to cope, and some private issues on my back, all I can promise is that this A310 will be finished, but I have all the time in the world :worship:

Now, back to the A310 progress....

First thing for today are flap track fairings ... I thinned them down, too and reshaped its trailing edges ...

Original port side and starboard finished ..

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Starboard side ...

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Still starboard side, but taken from other side ...

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Port side: inner two fairings are thinned, outer two not ...

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Next thing are spinners ... These are the new ones, wider and shorter than the first ones, which were too pointy. These are more like a half of sphere. I made them from sprue, glued them with CA on a piece of paper clip, painted with flat black and sealed with Future. After that I placed two spinner decals from Skyline decal sheet and coated with Micro SOL. Decals for A310 spinner are not actually the ones I need for CS-TEI (spiral shape is wrong), but I borrowed one intended for A320. This is the closest combination to the real thing. All in all, I'm satisfied with the results ... Judge for yourself ...

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One more to come for today ...

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Finally, I started with tailplane actuator covers ... I sanded them down, while I was reshaping tailcone and tail stinger, so the quick solution would be just to paint them back or use a decal, if available. But ...

I took Tamiya tape and redraw all the lines over it with pen ... (all these pics are for starboard side!)

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Then I removed the tape and stick it on a piece of yogurt cup and cut it out for both port and starboard side several times ... The master is 2nd from right (it's for starboard side).

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I cut the middle out and then I cut in the lines with hobby knife (not scriber). Upper is starboard side, lower the port side.

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I protected the horizontal stab with Tamiya tape (it won't be glued yet), which was not so bright idea. I cut a narrow strip and glued it next to the horizontal stabilizer.

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Then I glued my styrene actuator cover over this strip, to gain some volume (depth) and sealed with putty. Later I sanded the edge with 600 grid. There is a gap between stabilizer and actuator cover all around, but I'll fill it once I glue the stabs to the fuselage.

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  • 1 month later...

Here is my last update for this year...

At this moment I'm taking a break, as you can see, a month already passed from my last post. It's not only this build, it's modeling in total. I had some private issues due which I was unable to finish this beauty till today. It will pass another 2-3 weeks 'till I'm "back in business"... It's nothing serious, in fact, reasons are very positive, but anyway A310 is frozen as it was a month ago.

Usually, when you attend a modeling cup you'll be asked which modifications have you done on the kit.

So, here is a brief summary of all the goodies that gave me a headache so far (in no particular order) :

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  1. Bulbed nose reshaped and restored
  2. Nose kink restored
  3. Vertical tail's leading edge root shortened
  4. Spar box in the root of vert. tail reshaped
  5. Vertical stab thinned
  6. Trailing edge on vert. tail thinned
  7. APU reshaped and a smaller hole has been made
  8. Taiplane actuator covers made from scratch (starboard side only for now)
  9. Tailcone reshaped (new "shoulders" formed with putty)
  10. Selfmade spinners + PE fan from Extratech

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11. Cockpit windows area reshaped with putty

12. Bearing balls taken as balance weight (not visible)

13. Clear navigation lights made and installed

14. Flap tack fairings thinned and reshaped

15. Wing trailing edge thinned

16. Additional disk made for stability (not visible)

17. Horizontal stabs trailing edge thinned

18. PE added on main wheels; wing main wheelbay inner sides closed with putty; fuselage main wheelbay covers rescribed

19. Rear wing spar thinned

20. (Hmm... what's name for this ???) Air condition intakes flattened

21. PE added on front wheels

+

whole model has been rescribed (tailcone partially)

Don't look for accuracy on the drawings above.. You won't find any... But you can expect further changes on this list ! :unsure:

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If I may ask, what is the diameter of the PE fans?

Hi, thank you on your response.

PE fan diameter is about 14 mm, but it's one or two blades short (I won't count them anymore!) and it fits perfectly inside engine cowling.

Much worse problem with Extratech's set are instructions (complete mess up with numbering wheelbay covers) and one part mentioned in instructions is missing on the PE plate. But that's something I still have to clear up.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Let's continue after the break ...

I made an APU inlet from narrow strips. Interesting thing is, that my Revell's A330 kit, as newer and full of details also lacks an APU inlet.

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Almost finished ...

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Front lip is raised so it forms a boundary layer splitter ...

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If you ask your self how big this thing is ... Well ,the picture says it all ... 4 mm with 2 mm lip

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I tried to smooth it with putty and to form a ramp ...

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Very interesting, informative build. Can't believe the extra effort you are putting in. I wish you well with it, and am looking forward very much to more progress.

What kind of paint are you planning to use? I use lacquers (Krylon), and have found them quite good.

Cheers,

John

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Can't believe the extra effort you are putting in.

Me neither. When I started back in June, I just wanted it to be finished in TAP colors. But when I started to compare the kit with the real close-ups available on the net, questions started raising. Why? How? Should I leave it this way? Can I make it better myself? Do I have time to deal with this or that? Do I need any special tool for it? etc... And one after another I cope with details. It seems like a neverending story but now I'm sure it's just a question of time ...

What kind of paint are you planning to use? I use lacquers (Krylon), and have found them quite good.

Frankly, I have no idea what colors or brands to use on an airliner... Back in the mid 90's I started with Model Master enamels on my projects, 'cause this was only choice I had available if I wanted a broad spectrum of colors. Back then I made military fighters mostly. Later I used Revell enamels, and a 2-3 MM acrylics. So now I have a bunch of OLD enamels for which I don't know in what condition most of them are. And, for this project I bought Tamiya fine surface primers in spray cans (both Light Grey and White). My plan is to use Light Grey as a primer and for belly, and White for fuselage. I read somewhere that this White primer is often used as a white color. For coroguard and metalic areas (engine, APU exhaust, undercarriage,... ) I would use some of old enamels. I'll try to make the best of it.

As for Krypton (sorry Krylon) as far as I can see, they are spray cans sold in Northern America, and I'm in Europe. So, if I wanted them, they would be shipped to me for eternity (no air mail possible). I know that, 'cause a bottle of Future "traveled" to me from Canada with "surface mail" for six weeks.

Now you know my problem, but I would be grateful if some other solution is possible. My local hobby shop has Testors and Revell enamels, and Tamiya, Testors and Lifecolor acrylics. My compressor and airbrush are in stand-by so to speak - I'm just waiting for some warmer weather in spring, more or less. I haven't airbrushed anything for some 15 years and I didn't made any models for past 3 years, so I can't promise anything.

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Hi,

Krylon is just a brand of lacquer paint available cheaply at Walmart and other stores.

I am sure there is a European equivalent. Lacquer sprays suitable for plastic.

I like lacquers because they have perfect coverage after one or two light coats, dry really hard really quickly and don't cost much, whereas the little modelling jars or tins of paint are expensive, have very little paint in them, take forever to dry and require many, many coats, especially the gloss ones.

Another way to do it, is to use automobile paint - those spot-painting spray cans available at automobile supply stores. They are a bit more expensive (but still cheaper than model paint), but you should have a nice variety of whites and other colours to chose from.

I either spray directly or decant into the airbrush cup. To decant the paint, I use a large straw. The paint is usually thin enough to spray directly with the airbrush. However, it can also be thinned with lacquer thinner if you so chose.

Two other tips for lacquers . 1)you MUST use a proper primer - it MUST be suitable for plastic. I use Krylon grey - it is a wonderful primer. But there are automotive primers too, some which can be sanded. See if it is suitable for plastic as I have never tried. 2) It is highly recommended that you use a proper face mask-breathing mask, as lacquers are toxic.

But if you are planning to build more airliners, I would never, ever, ever go back to modelling paints - its lacquers or nothing for me!

Cheers,

John

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One short update for now ... I've filled those gaps between fuselage and wings with thin styrene 0.25 and 0.5 mm ...

Starboard before and after ...

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Port side finished ....

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And one more on the belly ...

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Other stuff fill follow 'till weekend ...

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This should be 3333th view of this topic ... :jaw-dropping:

Let's see what we have for today ...

First, I (finally) rescribed the whole tailcone and then I rescribed wing-body fairing ...

Here is starboard side ...

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Then I made rain chases just above front and rear passenger doors ...

I was experimenting (again), so that port side has styrene strips and starboard has strips cut from Extratech's PE sheet.

Front port side ...

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Front starboard side ...

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Rear port side ... I know, I know, it's not the very best shot, but ...

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I also made lightning diverter strips on the radome ...

It's a 0,25 mm styrene strips cut as narrow as possible ...

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I thinned them down with 1000 and 2000 grid sanding paper ...

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In the next episode(s): engines and wheelbays

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You should move this to the airliners forum. More interest there.

I agree. I talked with madmike (supermod) some 3 months ago about similar subject regarding WIP airliners on ARC... He suggested me to open new topic in airliners subforum with a direct link to this built, but to leave it here. Maybe this isn't so bad idea after all ... :crying2:

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