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Revell 1:139 Boeing 720 Possibilities - 367-80 Prototype?


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I recently purchased one of the re-issued Revell 1:139 Boeing 720 United Mainliner kits.  It is the same Revell 707/707B/720/E-3A basic airframe plastic with indented cabin windows.  Engines are the JT3C / J-57 engines halves with each strut having the long narrow turbo-compressor hood and short trailing edges. However, the turbine bullets have been deleted and replace by a tiny bump in the center of a flat thick disk.  Not sure what I can do about that.  Most probably add larger bullets.  

 

The United decals do not impress me.  I am open to suggestions. So, what are my legitimate options?  AFAIK, United did not operate the 707-120, they bought DC-8s instead.  However, they did purchase the 720 because of the increased speed.  For a true 720, I will still have to make a fuselage cuts fore & aft, as well as add the wing glove and remove the turbo hoods on #1 & #4.  Can I cut it down for a C-135A, or a 707-138? [Same overall fuselage length for both, just different cuts fore & aft.]  I only have a few 720B decals in the stash, mostly for the several AWACS kits in the stash.  I could use the Pakistan Airlines decals from the old Microscale 44-21, just modify the reg.

 

K/r,

Dutch

 

Edited by Dutch
added detail.
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I went through two sets of the United decals but they were brittle and disintegrated after 20 years. I did scan a high resolution copy and uploaded it to Scalemates so I could print new decals on water transfer paper. I fabricated a vestigial dorsal fin to make it look like a 720. Pictures online show the United 720s without the HF antenna since they were used for domestic routes only. Oh, and the horrible cockpit windows I filled and printed a windshield decal for too.  I was building it for nostalgia and it turned out way better than when I was ten.

Edited by Planegeek
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1 hour ago, Planegeek said:

I went through two sets of the United decals but they were brittle and disintegrated after 20 years. I did scan a high resolution copy and uploaded it to Scalemates so I could print new decals on water transfer paper. I fabricated a vestigial dorsal fin to make it look like a 720. Pictures online show the United 720s without the HF antenna since they were used for domestic routes only. Oh, and the horrible cockpit windows I filled and printed a windshield decal for too.  I was building it for nostalgia and it turned out way better than when I was ten.

 

@Planegeek

 

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I forgot the vestigial fin.  I would have to add that for a 707-138 as well. I will have to look in the box to see if the fin tip HF antenna is there or not.  Based on your comments, I suspect that it is not.  Not that hard to scab on, tho. 

 

I was just over at the Hannants.co.uk store site and noticed Lima November decal set LN144-555 for a Conair 720/720B, so I may go that route.  I suspect that it is sized to fit the Roden 720 kit, which is 1:144 scale, while the Revell kit is 1:139 scale.  I will have to see if it will fit after the fuselage cuts are made. 

 

K/r,

Dutch

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On 3/7/2022 at 11:36 PM, Vidar_710 said:

Vintage Flyers

 

Boeing 720 & 720B (vintageflyerdecals.com)

 

Tracy

Thanks Tracy,  Many nice schemes there.  I have been wondering how difficult it would be to model the 367-80 prototype.  I realize that decals do not exist, but I could make the fuselage cuts, putty the windows, scribe both cargo doors and modify the engine intakes with the ring inside the nacelle much like the B-52C/D/E J57 engines and add the APU bumps. The few decals could be custom printed.  

367-80.jpg.a1b4dcd653f82508ce69b7408e494255.jpg

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  • Dutch changed the title to Revell 1:139 Boeing 720 Possibilities - 367-80 Prototype?

Another option would be to build it as one of the three VC-137 A/Bs...

No cutting required. they were short fuselage commercial 707s bought for VIP transportation...and the first U.S. Air Force jet transports. USAF decals in the scale are easy to find. 

Over the years they had several paint schemes...silver/white before going The silver/white/blue AF one-style scheme.

 

The 367-80 and any C-135  require a narrower, shorter  fuselage, and a slight re - profiling of the fuselage (due to the the "double bubble" or figure eight on the 707, the 135 has a more oval sectional profile)...these differences, along with about a foot different wingspan are pretty much moot in this scale.

The C-135 is 12" wider than the 367-80, the 707 is four inches wider than the C-135.

 

Length differences:

367-80:  127'10"

 C-135:    136'3"

 707-100: 144'6"

 

 

Here is an interesting article on the history of the Revell kit and it shows the steps necessary to build a decent 720.

 

https://www.dembrudders.com/atlantis--revell-707-and-kc-135.html

 

Edited by JohnEB
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John, A VC-137A would be much simpler.  Hadn't thought of that and I thank you for the suggestion.  Yes, I am well aware of the fuselage cross-section differences between the 367-80, KC-135 & 707, but as you say, a moot point in this scale.  No need to take the calipers out of the box.  But an early VC-137A with day-glo orange nose, tail and wingtips does pique my interest. K/r, Dutch

VC-137A_58-6972_1960.jpg.a12326181290ab725a52540f135fb9b6.jpg

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Dutch..

I'd like to see it when you're finished with it.

 

Revell has misrepresented those molds for years....calling it a 720, long fuselage 707 and of course the E-3.

And that's not even counting the typo on one box where they called the E-3A the "E-A3".

 

A friend is a consultant for Atlantis, at my urging he suggested the C-137A decals to them for their latest release but they went with a Boeing demo.

They say license fees for some airlines have become prohibitivt, which is why they 707 (and forthcoming large 727) are in Boeing markings and the Convair 990 is in NASA colors.I

 

If it keeps the cost of the basic kit low, I don't have any issues with that.

Serious modelers will use quality aftermarket decals of they want a particular scheme.

And kids (and parents, grandparents, relatives and friends...for birthday parties...) don't care.

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  • 7 months later...

Concerning the subject of doing a 367-80, your best starting point is a Minicraft KC-135A kit. Jodie Peeler had a 1/72 AMT 135 conversion article printed in FSM back circa 1998-99 (USS Tennessee was on the cover) and the drawings were printed in 1/144 scale to fit the pages. The information presented in those pages will work fine for a 1/144 build and in some ways are a bit easier to do.

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  • 1 month later...

Actually, if you can find it, there was an old Comet brand kit of the dash 80.  It came out in about 1956 or so and was a landmark injection-molded kit.  I have two of them with the intention of making the prototype aircraft.  What makes it "special", if that's the right word, is that it has the rounded nose, the oval windows and is approximately 1/144 though the Scalemates website says 1:300 scale.  I scaled it out years ago but lost that information to the winds-of-time.  it's about 10 or 11" long though.  It has some raised detail on the fuselage for the days when we would actually paint the lettering in.  

 

Over the years, it had been re-released and is generally pretty hard to find.  I got mine from eBay and if the record holds, has gone stupid-expensive.  

 

I had planned to build it and pose it inverted as over the Seattle boat races when Tex Johnston did his now infamous roll over the potential client-crowd.  I don't know if I have any pictures.  I shall look.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Neat to see!

 

It is obviously the larger version of the two Comet releases, so what's it's length?

 

Aurora used those molds for years, passing it off as a KC-135.

Are you going to build it or keep it as a collector's item?

 

Many years ago, after reading a kit history article online, I found some Comet kits for not much money online. They are rather neat.

 

Some of the Aurora releases, like the Cessna 310, Aero Commander, Beech 18 and Piper Apache, go for big money.

Edited by JohnEB
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  • 2 months later...
On 12/25/2022 at 8:59 PM, JohnEB said:

Neat to see!

 

It is obviously the larger version of the two Comet releases, so what's it's length?

 

Aurora used those molds for years, passing it off as a KC-135.

Are you going to build it or keep it as a collector's item?

 

Many years ago, after reading a kit history article online, I found some Comet kits for not much money online. They are rather neat.

 

Some of the Aurora releases, like the Cessna 310, Aero Commander, Beech 18 and Piper Apache, go for big money.

Wow, signs that  I'm getting old.  On a side note, I remember when ARC was brand spanking new and I joined at a time when I was living in a third floor apartment, had an adopted Labrador mix and was scraping by working for a horrible, awful airline.  

 

All my things are still in storage, John.  In my previous life with the airline, I ended up selling my home, moving three times and finally settling back to a place I can call home.  But decades have passed and there's much to do before I can get to cutting plastic.  

 

As for the Comet kits, I am torn between building the prototype to a high level or just 3D printing one. I believe he model is about 10" log with a similar wingspan.

 

 

I'm learning CAD now and it's an uphill slog and I'm not one of those guys "you feed under the  door" but I'm not too far off of it, either.  A nice 1/72 "Dash 80" would be pretty cool.   It would have to be pegged at one particular time in its development as it rolled out or when it got a cargo door or when it got a refuelling boom or with the big wing and JT-33's or whatever.  I like the initial rollout, blunt-nose uggo version.   To think that Boeing actually drew up a 377 with swept wings and four jets on it.  Hey...there's a WIF idea, eh?

 

When I go to an air museum, it's really quite an adventure to examine human technological development over time.  The last century saw powered flight and in just a very short time, on the human scale, man was going to the moon.  From 1903 to 1969.  I'm approaching 66 year old and seeing how short a time that is now.  My grandad, born in 1899 saw the transition from sail to steam to diesel to flight and more.   From the old cash register to the digital blue LED things they had in the 80's.  But he could still tell you how many pallets of red bricks you'd need for a new wall, right off the top of his head.   :-)

 

So the Comet kit may stay in its box.  I can probably draw and print a 1/72 one....in spite of the option of modding a 1/72 KC-135 kit which is the closest thing to a "Dash 80" in any scale and with some clever rework, can be narrowed and modded to be the rollout jet of the 1950's.  I originally bought it for an in-flight dio of refuelling a B-47 but later discovered the KC-97L/Q with jet-pods on it.  So....there's that.   

 

In any case, I hope to get back to "la plastica" soon.   

 

Cheers

 

Fang

Edited by VADM Fangschleister
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Fang, 

Thanks for sharing the Comet kit and your future plans for a 367-80 prototype.  BTW, Comet released two boxings of the Dash 80: a 1/125 scale kit which is probably the one you have and a 1/300 version.  Both are listed on SCM and have very similar boxart.

K/r,

Dutch

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  • 1 month later...

Fang...

I would love to see a 1/72 -80 as it first appeared.

A key part in the history of aviation.I

 

I also like your idea of it doing a dry hookup with a bomber, a '47 or '52.

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