1/72 Airfix Concorde - Air France

[Phil Ciborowski]

I havent posted much of my latest builds on here, but i felt that i should share this one... I have a thing for these Airfix Concorde kits... this is the 3rd one i have built so far. And yes there are shortcomings in accuracy, and yes there are things i wish were different about seam placement, its still a great kit to work on...

This one is done up in the Air France scheme from the Heller kit.. I was lucky enough to be able to swap decals with another ARC member, TrojanThunder (Ray) for them... so without his help this would not have been possible. Thanks!

As with the other one i built... it was done in the Left and right half method, not as the directions say fore, middle, and aft method.

From there everything went smoothly... and yes the nose STILL ( ) works!

Its painted in Duplicolor Bright white, then decaled, and a final coat of semigloss clear is over the top.

I still have a plan to build one or 2 more of these but i need more space before that happens.

The registration is for the Concorde that is in the Air and Space museum in DC, and ive visited this bird on 2 trips down there... just like the British Airways Concorde i built a while back, its one i have seen up close and in person.

[HOLMES]

Sharp clean lines.

Love the colors....

Nice build.

[Ant Phillips]

As with the other one i built... it was done in the Left and right half method, not as the directions say fore, middle, and aft method.

Nice build, I had 1 off each of the Airfix BA and Heller AF kits, but after attempting to build the first one as per the kit instructions, I gave up and binned it after using almost a whole tube of filler on the rear fuselage joint.

I definitely think the build both halves and then join is a much better approach, as it was I was so put off, I ended up selling the second kit with both decal sheets.

[Phil Ciborowski]

Nice build, I had 1 off each of the Airfix BA and Heller AF kits, but after attempting to build the first one as per the kit instructions, I gave up and binned it after using almost a whole tube of filler on the rear fuselage joint.

I definitely think the build both halves and then join is a much better approach, as it was I was so put off, I ended up selling the second kit with both decal sheets.

I followed the kit directions for the first build, and did the same thing... but i found the build article someplace online, and did the right and left side subs and it worked like a charm... the seams are esaier to manage, and in some cases dissappear if done correctly.. the wing seam is still there are the root joint, and the tail needs a bit of a filler (tho with stock sheet plastic) to thicken up a bit to match, but its definately easier than the kits directions, which imho bite the big one... its definately a kit worth building if you can get past the directions and fit issues.

[Phil Ciborowski]

I should also mention before i forget - that the tail logo is a strange beast to get fitted correctly... if you use the edges of the tail as a guide the bottom edge dosent line up to the actuators (on either side)

and if using the trailing edge of the tail, the red/blue lines wont match up completely... which is slightly annoying... so some tamyia acrylic blue and red have been used to touch up the areas i wasnt happy with.

[Trojan Thunder]

Looks great Phil! :thumbsup:

I think I need to look for this build article you are talking about. My build starts soon and I have strict deadline to adhear to!

[Phil Ciborowski]

i cant seem to find the exact one right now, which is annoying, but i know that after reading, and finding out first hand, how bad the fore, middle and aft section build went together, it was suggested, that you build the right side as a unit, and the left side as a unit, leaving the nose off as its own piece... the issue will be that the small piece of vertical tail thats left on the main fuselage section will be much thinner than that of the rest of the vertical tail. to correct this on both my AF and BA Concordes, i used small triangles of .020 styrene (the real thin stuff) and Tenax'ed it in place. once dry i cut to shape and blended it to the rest of the tail on both sides, before joining the fuse together.. once the right and left sides were in one piece, i massaged it to its final shape... it was a suprisingly small amount of filler that was needed to ge the seam to dissapear.

Other things i did differently than the directions are as follows:

* I trimmed up the instrument panel in the corners and front edge to fit the windscreen properly. As it was, the panel looked to push the window back out on the side for some reason.

* I had to add a back to the side panel, because you can see it through the window... this was a tip from one of the ARC gallery pages from someone else.

* The engines i treated as their own models, leaving them off to the last minute- even after using white glue to create the windows. This made decaling them and decaling the rest of the plane easier (to me at least)

* The clear parts are tenaxed together in the nose, CAREFULLY, and then a small bit of vasoline is used as lubricant for the pivot points... one of my locator pins broke so i replaced it with stock styrene rod that fit the hole. It still works and im not messing with it anymore to test my luck (my last workable nose met with a doorjam after i had it working as well..)

Oh and if you had not seen, this is my other 1/72 Concorde.. about 3 years older than this one..

http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....amp;hl=Concorde

[Trojan Thunder]

Thanks Phil, I recall you earlier build. ;)

[GCA333]

Great job on a difficult kit!

I have one in the stash, and have been cautious about building it. I'll be sure to do the Left/Right method.

[oldHooker]

You've done a great job on the difficult kit, I love it, thanks!

[Jay Chladek]

Very nice build. I have a couple of these that I want to build as well. As for my paintjob, I am thinking about doing it as the red livery painted one in the wretched film "The Concorde, Airport 79". Why? Because it looks good in that livery and by a cruel twist of irony, the jet used was the same one that crashed. I want to build it as it looked in its better days. Inspiration like Phil's jets helps me to work up the courage to do one.

[ventura_kelley]

That is gorgeous.

I seriously want one now!

[Phil Ciborowski]

Very nice build. I have a couple of these that I want to build as well. As for my paintjob, I am thinking about doing it as the red livery painted one in the wretched film "The Concorde, Airport 79". Why? Because it looks good in that livery and by a cruel twist of irony, the jet used was the same one that crashed. I want to build it as it looked in its better days. Inspiration like Phil's jets helps me to work up the courage to do one.

I was going to do that same S/N but in the blue and silver Air France scheme... but i could not find any decals for it... soooo im thinking for my next two, the orig. schemes from BA and AF, in the red tail, large BRITISH and that blue silver scheme for AF

Thanks for all the kind words! They are greatly appreciated

[homerojr]

Nice build! I wish there was a plastic one in 1/200...

[ZOOMER]

Nicely done! I am very impressed. I was toying with the idea of building one for a fellow ARCer and Concorde fan but I was really afraid of all I've read about the Airfix kit. I may have to rethink it now.

Well done mate!

Now back to the P-51.....

Cheers

Zoomer

[GreyGhost]

Beautiful Concorde(s) ...

Such elegant lines ...

Gregg