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Buddy-Build Summer 2016 Minicraft Boeing 757


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Yee Haw! Get to make Lemon-Aide from Lemons again!

Duty Cat and I are both building this kit, but with different liveries. I will be doing the Astro Jet from American Airlines.

The 1st fix is the intakes. They are incomplete in the kit and do not go all the way back to the N1 fan. So, everything at the N1 glue point and forward comes off. After sanding flat due to uneven cuts, I lost about 1/16" of material. It worked out though, because it allowed me to push the fan back a little in the nacelle.

Intake halves glued together, sanded flat and 1/16" sheet styrene added.

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The trench left by the unfinished intake surface is filled back to the styrene wall with Apoxie Sculpt, then Acrylic filler, then Red Bondo to fill any micro scratches.

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The styrene wall is then cut away and an opening is shaped to fit the N1 fan nice-n-snug.

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The 1/16" sheet styrene brings the nacelle back to its original length...

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The fuselage halves go together fairly decently, but filling is required to take care of the sloppy joint. I use an over-gluing technique that takes care of most of it, but the kit's so bad, ample filler is still needed.

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The cockpit cowl is a halfway decent fit, but there is a lot of filler needed to get a smooth transition between the two parts. I need it as flawless as possible due to the bare-metal finish of the Astro Jet.

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The fit of the wing to the wing box is awful! The cambers don't match. The wing is not as thick as the butting surface on the wing box. Some grinding away of some material on the fuselage will be needed to match the shape of the wing. I thought about doing that before gluing on the wings, but I though having the wings attached will aide more quickly as I remove material.

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Tracy

Ah the MInicraft kit, I have built a few of them now. Plenty to fix on it. Apparently the wings are also offset in the vertical and the vertical stab fin cap is the wrong shape and needs correcting.

:popcorn:

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Thanx for the heads up. I checked the shape of the virt stab and notice its sweeps upward from fore to aft. I clipped it parallel to the fuselage and added a new styrene cap.

Here are a couple of images getting the wing box fairings to match up with the wing roots. I used a trusty Dremel wire brush wheel to slowly work the plastic into shape around the wings. Putty, sanding and polishing to go...

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Tracy

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DutyCat and I made profound discoveries in regards to the engine pylons. I found that they do not allow the engine to hang straight down off the wing, while D.C. discovered that they make the engine pods pitch a bit nose up. Working on ways to fix both SNAFU's.

Tracy

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A LOT of work in the mis-shapened engine pylons.

Pylons pitch the engines up too much.

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They also do not hang perpendicular to the ground.

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Cuts made to change the angle of incidence of the engine pods.

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To fix the shape and fit of the pylon to the wing, Apoxie Sculpt is applied to the pylons, then pressed into the wing to create a form-fit to the wing.

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The pylons are sanded down into shape. Here you can see the styrene wedges showing that correct the pylon angle.

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Front-sides. Little clean up still needed.

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Front Top showing the new shapes of the pylons to conform to the wing's airfoil.

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And here showing the new "angle in the dangle".

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Tracy

Edited by Vidar_710
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Tracy is doing a fine job with his 757. I was over at his house last Thursday and he helped straighten out the wingtip "sharklets." I find it interesting how modelers will take different approaches to solving problems, or even basic assembly techniques.

The Trump 757 is currently featured on the Dutycat Arts build blog. Rather than re-post and comment on everything here, just click on the link! -G.G.

Dutycat Arts Build Blog

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Starting Paint!

Here's some shots of primer that has been polished. This checks for flaws, and also preps the surface for the smoothest finish since metallic finishes reveals EVERYTHING!

Top

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Bottom

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Engines, and Stabs: The engine's leading edges are Polished Aluminum while the exhaust panel was a dark metal with a strip of Aluminum right at the opening. The rest of the assembly is Boeing Gray.

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Here, Natural Aluminum is shot to give a good base for the High Polished finish the AA 757 Astro-Jet had. This will be buffed out to prep for a more Polished Aluminum/Chrome-like finish.

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Tracy

Edited by Vidar_710
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Masking removed.

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I have a Love / Hate relationship when it comes to Extra Color paints. They lay down like glass, but take days if not weeks to fully cure. This project is on the shelf for a little while so I can do other things as it cures.

Back to the DC-8. The White fuselage should be cured by now.

NOTE: The technique for painting the bare metal effect was derived from painting the Starship Voyage model. I use a series of different sized hair combs as spray templates randomly over the hull.

Tracy

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Working on the Landing Gear while the Extra Color Boeing Gray fully cures.

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Here are the aftermarket American Airlines AstroJet livery decals...

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Tracy

Edited by Vidar_710
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  • 2 weeks later...

Wrapped up the engines...

With a little help from some extras on a details aftermarket DC-8 decal sheet. Founds some vents and trimmed them to shape to represent the vents on the 75's pylons.

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Finished up the landing gear. When fully cures, I'll install them before decaling.

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Tracy

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  • 1 year later...

Well craaaap!  I was cleaning up the hobby room a bit and the 757 took a tumble to the floor. The rear bottom of the fuselage developed a seam shadow from the fall.

 

This will have to be fixed before I move forward. Just lucky the paint didn't get marred anywhere else.

 

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Tracy

Edited by Vidar_710
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/30/2017 at 1:39 PM, Don said:

That's a nice looking 757 :thumbsup:! I have one in the stash and I am taking notes.

 

Regards,

Don

I’ll second Don’s comments.   What a really nice build.  Love the stressed skin look on the fuselage.   

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  • 3 weeks later...

19

Body work done.

 

20

Primer.

 

21

Gloss white.

 

22

Masking for black.

 

23

Black applied

 

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Masking for leading edges.

 

25

Decaling.

 

28

Tracy (Vidar 710) made these decals for me.  They do not exist on the real plane.  A little artistic license.

Edited by DutyCat
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys here are my last 2 757. They have been waiting for while, but finally I finished them. I used some resin engines, but I will use your pictures for the next ones as i don't have any more resin updates ;-)...

 

So the first one is Yakutia Livery, and the second in Air Astana. This remind me my previous years when I was based in Russia, during long winter,

 

Cheers, 

 

Boz

 

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