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Hi all,

I haven't pulled out my Minicraft 777 for a while, but at some point I'd like to do a Virgin Australia -300 using the Contrails additions. My wife and I fly on these when we go back home to Oz for visits. I will most likely use the corrected nose, but I wanted to find out from those of you that have built this kit and used the corrected nose, what is wrong with the kit nose shape. I'm sure as soon as I get the corrected nose I'd see, but interested in the mean time.

I'm about due to do another airliner soon, but I'm trying to prioritise finishing my 1/350 Titanic!!

Cheers,

Jarrod

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I don't have the measurements right in front of me and I'm sure that others will know more, but in a nutshell Minicrap got the shape all wrong. The front of the nose from the cockpit forward on the real 777 is essentially a 767 nose. Boeing used this tried design to save on costs and lessen design and production time. However, this narrower 767 nose doesn't quite match up with the wider 777 fuselage. so, if you look at photos of the 777 from the side you see a pretty clear alteration in the profile where Boeing mated the two. Its actually rather flat surfaced in profile where the 767 nose meets the 777 fuselage. In real life its curved, but from the side it looks more or less flat, as if the aft end of the cockpit and the front of the fuselage barrel were lofted together very simply.

Check out the area just behind the cockpit windows up to the fuselage top. This artist got it right: American Airlines Boeing 777 Nose Detail

And, in the real world: United Airlines (Continental Airlines) Boeing 777-224ER nose N78001  MSN 27577 "Gordon M. Bethune" , Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-2H6ER nose 9M-MRP  MSN 28421 , and Korean Air Boeing 777-3B5 nose HL7533  MSN 27948 .

Minicrap totally got it wrong. They don't really have that flatness in side profile there at all. Here's a nice comparison photo of the 767 and 777. You can clearly see the family nose resemblance and the wider 777 fuselage that it had to fit onto: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/3715899/ . I think that the radomes may be interchangeable between the types. Does anyone know for sure?

Bob

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I am in the process of building minicrafts 777-200. I have the contrails "drop in" nose, and unless I did something wrong, it is not drop in lol. It required alot of filler, but once sanded down and primed, it looks VERY nice. Of course, as was mentioned in the previous post, the 777 has a noticable kink in the upper fuselage that adapts straight down to the cockpit. Minicraft does not represent that. I dont believe doyusha does either. I have an unstarted Welsh 777-300, and it shows it a little bit. I was viewing another thread on ARC, of the eastern express 773, and it appears to have the kink also. Hope this helps.

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Minicrap totally got it wrong

Which is to say Doyusha got it wrong, since the MC kit is a direct copy of the Doyusha model. Save for the differences in the engines and landing gear, it's almost line for line a copy of Doyusha. The original 1/96 scale SLE prototype even had the same hokie pin arrangement for joining the fuselage. I advised Mr. Trendle he'd best nix that or Doyusha would come down on him like a ton of bricks. The ever-helpful Chinese tooling shop made numerous "improvements" in the design of the engine parts compared to the detailed drawings I provided them. I'm *so* not worried about China becoming a superpower. They can't innovate their way out of a wet paper bag...

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Hi guys,

Thank you very much for the great insight. I just dug out one of my 777's and taped it together. I can see from your pictures, Bob, how bad the Minicrap really is. I will definitely spring for a contrails nose and engines. Anyone used the undercarriage and bay detail set?

Thanks again for your efforts to show me the nose shape, and the advise.

Best regards,

Jarrod

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Hi Jarrod

There is an other way to get a decent looking cockpit on the MC 777

Here is pic of a MC kit on the left and right, both have the usual cockpit fitted, the right one has been filed back to get it to the desired shape

glsv.jpg

to achieve this I printed out a side on pic to scale of the front fus, cut out the top profile

and marked where the cockpit is and used it as a template to shape the new profile

uvxg.jpg

them I print out a screen decal to scale and put it into position, it will tell you where and how much more filing

has to be done, you will also have to blend from the bottom of the screen back to the nose to provide a nice new curve,

there is not that much to be removed, when you start filing the whole job will take less than 15 minutes to complete,

then putty up any file marks showing and its done

Mike

7y1q.jpg

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Also, I have the contrails GE-90's. They require alot of work, and are huge. I dont have the experience to say which is right, but the GE's that are with my welsh models 773 are a bit smaller in diameter than the contrails kit. I have no idea which one is correct.

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Also, I have the contrails GE-90's. They require alot of work, and are huge. I dont have the experience to say which is right, but the GE's that are with my welsh models 773 are a bit smaller in diameter than the contrails kit. I have no idea which one is correct.

As far as I am aware, Contrails only do the GE90-115B engine, which is used on the 777-300ER, 777-200LR and 777F.

The 'standard' GE90 is found on the 777-200/ER and 777-300, and has a smaller diameter fan and less power.

Is your Welsh kit a standard -300 or -300ER? If it's just a -300 it will have the smaller fan as it would be powered by the GE90; this comes in the Minicraft kit. However, I used the Contrail GE90-115B to convert a Minicraft 772 into a 773ER and thought the engines were a little large... I'd be interested to see the Welsh models version.

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G'day Mike,

Thanks for the info. This is how we all had to do it a few years ago when there wasn't any aftermarket. Well done on your build and reshaping the nose. Looks great. This is similar to how I shaped the poorly done Revell 747-400, although I wasn't as enterprising as you with the picture cut outs.

Cheers,

Jarrod

Hi Jarrod

There is an other way to get a decent looking cockpit on the MC 777

Here is pic of a MC kit on the left and right, both have the usual cockpit fitted, the right one has been filed back to get it to the desired shape

glsv.jpg

to achieve this I printed out a side on pic to scale of the front fus, cut out the top profile

and marked where the cockpit is and used it as a template to shape the new profile

uvxg.jpg

them I print out a screen decal to scale and put it into position, it will tell you where and how much more filing

has to be done, you will also have to blend from the bottom of the screen back to the nose to provide a nice new curve,

there is not that much to be removed, when you start filing the whole job will take less than 15 minutes to complete,

then putty up any file marks showing and its done

Mike

7y1q.jpg

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Hi kellyF15,

did you use the contrail B777 cockpit on both models or just the cockpit form the kits.

i have about four to build just wanting to make sure before spending the $$$ on extra parts.

Sean

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IMG934_zpsdbaf6b14.jpg

Contrails on the left, Welsh in the middle, and kit RR on the right. The welsh kit is 300ER BTW.

The Minicraft engine (right) is the standard GE90 - and looking at the Welsh GE90-115B engine I'd say that was was your best bet for the -300ER. It looks better proportioned IMO compared to the Contrails engine.

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I read somewhere that the eastern airlines boxing i have was the rr engine. Other than that i have no clue about the kit engine. But i agree that the contrails engine seems awful large. I know the ge-90 115 is big but this seems.like too much

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