A319

[janvolekcz]

Hi all,

here are some of my first shots of my newest model. I am hoping to do it in the 90's colors Czech Airlines. This build has quickly turned into "let's try several new things" kind of model. The plan is to detail the undercarriage and engines, and to give the plane position lights, tail light, logo illuminating lights and cabin lights...we'll see how that will turn out.

So here are the pictures:

First work on the nose undercarriage, I hollowed out the widening part, although almost all of it will be lost...

And some more work done on the nose strut, I added some wires and tried to reproduce the coils on the front of the leg. I will add some landing lights once the fuselage is closed.

Now the wheel wells. MM enamel color, and then a light wash with raw umber.

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii541/janvolek/ac0ed11c.jpg[/img]

The first step with the fuselage was to fill in the windows with a clear resin. It ended up being too thick, in my view, so next time I'll try to put on less of it, and see how it looks

And then the beginning of the lighting process... Since the wing tip is rather thin, I figured that I won't be able to fit an LED in, so I ordered some fiber optic cables, which will direct the light to the end of the wing. I am using a .5 mm cable on the wings, and 1 mm cable on the end of the fuselage. So here is a shot of the wing. Also, I have cut away the ailerons, which will be repositioned as for a parked airplane.

I will try to put another update later today, to catch up to where I am.

Any comments, ideas, and corrections are welcome.

Jan

[MaRiO FDZ]

This will be good. I shall keep posted on it...

[Air2k757]

I love it x2. 1st Im doing this same kit now, but to be honest mine does not look nearly as good as yours. 2nd i have been trying to build up the guts to do a lighted airliner for sometime now. The use of fiberoptic cable inspired. I know when fiberoptic is used for data the ends need to be polished, do need to do the same for this application?

I read in a model railroading magazine my brother had about grinding down LEDs to make them smaller, maybe a good way to do some of the lights.

good work so far, im excited to see more.

[janvolekcz]

Here is the long promised update.

First, the nose gear is all but finished. These pictures still show a rather heavy wash. I have subsequently tried to wipe more of the brown off, as it looked like an oil disaster. Future pictures will show how it looks.

Then I turned my attention to the tail planes. I want to model the plane as sitting at a gate, so I separated the elevators to eventually reposition them. I am also trying to see if I can get the logo lights to work. To lead the fiber optic cable, I drilled a hole through the stabilizer and then a channel to lead the cable. The cables were then joined together with the tail light cable and glued to a white LED.

While I was gluing the tail lights, I also glued the cables for position lights. Here are two images for the LED ending of the fiber optic cable and also the "light" end.

That's about where I am right now. I have glued the top parts of the wing to the fuselage halfs. I hope to close the fuselage this week, and see if all the lights are working. Then it should be advancing into the paint booth. Hopefully.

Thanks for looking and any comments.

Jan

[le_boz]

Hey Jan,

I am very impressed. I tried a similar project about 15 years ago on a 1/72 P3 Orion. I had a lot of problem to connect the LED to the optic fiber. Any tip on that.

I will follow your project closely.

Take care,

Boz