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Airbus A340-300 Finnair 1/144


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Guillem, incredible build, well done!

Regarding the panel, did you consider bare metal foil? I did some tests on an Otaki Super Guppy fuselage front long time ago, it conformed surprisingly well to compound curves (okay, not the tightest).

Impressive putty job!

Cheers, Steven

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Guillem, incredible build, well done!

Regarding the panel, did you consider bare metal foil? I did some tests on an Otaki Super Guppy fuselage front long time ago, it conformed surprisingly well to compound curves (okay, not the tightest).

Impressive putty job!

Cheers, Steven

Hi Steven, yes bare metail foil becomes handy when reproducing those chromed or polished panels of the aircrafts, but since this is going to be white I think that this putty is very useful, it dries very quickly, the sanding process is easy because the putty is quite soft (but strong enough to not to break up) and it has a very smooth surface.

Here are some pictures of the panels, they are actually very thin, I even sanded too much the middle of the right panel so I'll have to add a bit of putty again.

There may be a little bit of dust there so you may can't see correctly the sharpness of the edge.

APU Exhaust installed

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Next steps are for the windshield which will be incorporated to the fuselage, also I'm starting to design the decals.

Guillem

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Thank you very much friends,

There are few pictures of the first steps with the cabin windows.

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It was my first time doing this kind of thing with an airliner cabin so there may be mistakes and also some small areas to putty and to sand. I also know that I'll have to redo some panel lines.

Basically what I did was:

-Cut a piece of transparent thin plastic and glue it to the cabin section. (Be careful if you are using cyanoacrylate as the vapor may cause the transparent plastic to become white, I only used a very small amount).

-Then protect the windshield with masking tape and add putty all over the contour of the windshield to make it "attached" to the fuselage.

-After some sanding, Tamiya basic putty was added to fill some small holes, then more sanding was done.

I decided to use the windshield I scanned from the decals to see how it would look. So as you can see is thick because it's normal paper, no decal yet.

This is what I look forward to do:

Correct the small mistakes of the area with putty.

Cover with masking tape the windshield so then I can go on with the project and other sections before the primer, painting, clear coat etc.

So finally what I'll do will be to attach the decal provided by the kit so as it comes already with white panels (and transparent windows) I don't have to use masking tape and then paint, so I think the original decals are perfectly shaped and will be better than if I try to paint.

But, there is something yet I don't want to explain, is something I want to show you when the moment arrives, I didn't tried yet but I'll do my best I think will give it a good effect. Also I'm planing on making photoetched wipers so I hope the next tests I'm going to do will give me good results, if not then I'll have to make them with thin plastic.

See you.

Guillem

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Well this is one crazy build. Some of the mods i really like, some other i can't picture yet, so i won't judge.

But one question i have, you place a piece of clear plastic in front of the windscreen opening and than blend it in. Doesn't this change the profile of the cockpit area?

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Well this is one crazy build. Some of the mods i really like, some other i can't picture yet, so i won't judge.

But one question i have, you place a piece of clear plastic in front of the windscreen opening and than blend it in. Doesn't this change the profile of the cockpit area?

Thank you.

Actually there are some things in progress on this airplane that the final result is pictured in my mind so hopefully things will go as I have imagined.

As for the cockpit profile, I was carefully checking the pictures while blending the plastic on that section, that plastic was very very thin so I was able to blend it without problems but well, that's a point that won't be clearly seen until the airplane is primed and painted. I have imagined in my mind that the frame windows will seem unified to the fuselage just like the real one. Perhaps the lower area of the windshield is a bit long but I think it also depends the angle from the picture, also the upper section of the Revell's nose looks a bit different compared to the real one, so maybe that's why the windshield doesn't look exact on that area. I hope that the cockpit section will look ok once finished.

Thank you very much.

Guillem

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  • 1 month later...

Any more progress? I was really following this build because i have an A340 is my stash.

Hi, yep the airplane has been progressing well. I have some pictures of the actual stage but I'll wait till I have the fuselage clearcoated.

I started to add the decals on the fuselage now, if everything goes well I will finish the decaling today and will be clearcoated at the beginning of next week.

Although I didn't posted pictures here and on my website, I've been working with the airplane, I also made the big antena over the fuselage(don't know the name)as well as my home made decals.

Hopefully I'll show some pictures in the next days.

Guillem

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Sorry for the delay guys, here are the pictures of the fuselage, almost! finished. I still have to add the pitot tubes, paint some things on the rudder and sure something more that I'm missing.

During the long process of sanding etc etc the nose gear broke, but it was a clean cut so I can glue it again without further problems.

Also this is my first time making "dirt" decals, those are made from real dirt and then printed. I promise a better pictures and closeups once is finished.

The side plates on the horizontal stab are from a real 1/1 A340-300, so what I did was to use a picture of the real bird and then with Corel Photopaint I've created the decals using the shape of the original decal as a guide.

Here are my home made decals, the process was quite complicated because the shape of the holes of the logo had to coincide with the windows of the model.

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Edited by Roca46
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Also notice too the scratch build antenna in the front section of the fuselage, I'm not sure why it is for, perhaps Internet connection?

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Now it's time to start with the wings and engines.

Cheers.

Guillem

Edited by Roca46
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Very nice work. Sorry to hear about the gear snapping.

I just have 2 questions:

- Is the paint some what yellow or is that just a photography problem?

- Why did you decide to paint it without the wings on?

Keep up the good work.

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Very nice work. Sorry to hear about the gear snapping.

I just have 2 questions:

- Is the paint some what yellow or is that just a photography problem?

- Why did you decide to paint it without the wings on?

Keep up the good work.

Thank you for your comment.

- No, it is painted with X2 white from Tamiya, the airplane shines a lot (because I wanted it to be shiny) so perhaps it reflects the semi transparent paper (which seems to be a bit yellow) that I use to take the photos, in order to not to allow the light to shine too strong so that shadows can be smooth.

- I always paint the fuselage separately, I feel better when painting separately as this is a quite big aircraft for its scale, but summarizing, to paint it properly, with the wings attached I couldn't have space to paint freely with the airbrush.

Guillem

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The dome type antenna is more than likely a satellite comms antenna

Thank you for the info.

What are the dimensions you're using for the big satcom antenna?

About 6mm wide and 11,5mm long, it has a small inclination as well a separated part being the base and painted grey.

Cheers.

Guillem

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  • 2 weeks later...

As you can see, the airplane is white.

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36 fan blades are too many blades for me to put separately so I did cuts to the thin plastic sheet used as a base and slightly turned the blades.

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If I did the cut more longer then the blades would fall off with just simply look at them, so I gave a margin from the center.

The center was modified because the original one was pointed so I sanded it in order to make it rounded.

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Guillem

Edited by Roca46
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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hello Guillem, all I can say is WOW!!!! That is some outstanding work my friend. Please tell me what gloss top coat you use because I love the shine on that build!

Thanks Toni

Thank you Toni,

I used the bicomponent clear coat (don't remember the brand but I think it was called MaxiClear), the ones used to barnish the real cars. In my opinion, is the best gloss coat I have ever seen, it doesn't lose the thickness like when you use a typical clear coat spray, what you see when you give a gloss coat is what the final result will be.

As for the project, its stoped, I'm not liking the engines so I'm thinking to re open and make a new fan blades. Not sure when I will continue with it since these hot temperatures aren't helping to do this hobby peacefully.

Cheers.

Guillem

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Thank you Toni,

I used the bicomponent clear coat (don't remember the brand but I think it was called MaxiClear), the ones used to barnish the real cars. In my opinion, is the best gloss coat I have ever seen, it doesn't lose the thickness like when you use a typical clear coat spray, what you see when you give a gloss coat is what the final result will be.

As for the project, its stoped, I'm not liking the engines so I'm thinking to re open and make a new fan blades. Not sure when I will continue with it since these hot temperatures aren't helping to do this hobby peacefully.

Cheers.

Guillem

I hope you continue because the project zo far is looking great (and i have a A340 is my stash so i can learn a few tricks along the way) .

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