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1/72 Eastern Airlines 737-800


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5 hours ago, Dutch said:

Fred, Very nice progress!  And excellent build observations and tips. Cannot wait to see the finished product in new Eastern colors! K/r, Dutch

 

Thanks Dutch! It's coming along nicely. At some point I need to tackle the landing gear, which is pretty intricate and will be quite time consuming to clean up, but I'm all in now 😂 Take care, Fred.

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2 hours ago, lockheed2004 said:

Following along with interest.  I’ve got the BPK 737-200 Olympic kit on the way.

 

Heh heh.... I just ordered two of that same kit today, plus a 737-100! I've got a stack of those 737-200 kits to build. I've always like that early 737 for whatever reason. Good choice! Fred.

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Hi everyone,

      I managed to get the window inserts in the other night. I filed them from the back to make them stand a little less proud from the fuselage, then used ample amounts of gap filling super glue to fill the gaps. Yesterday I got my coarsest sanding stick out, and spent well over an hour sanding those inserts and glue back into something manageable! A coat of Tamiya primer followed. Later today I will sand that out and see how it looks. I also have painted up the cockpit in preparation for decals. With any luck I'll have the fuselage halves glued together over the holiday, and commence with more filling and sanding. 

     I did notice that the vertical stabilizer had a bunch of pin size divots in it, so it got hit with Tamiya primer as well. Thus far the two tail halves are the only parts that I've noticed with this issue. I also filled in the cabin doors as suggested by the decal manufacturer. This way if there is an alignment problem between the kit doors and the decal doors, the decals will represent the doors. All for now. Fred.

 

20221221_173436.jpg

Edited by f5guy
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9 hours ago, Da SWO said:

Really nice. 

I didn't know eastern flew 737's. 

 

It was actually the resurrected Eastern Airlines that flew them. A different company bought the rights to the Eastern Airlines name, so it really wasn't even the same company. They used the classic EA "Hockey Stick" paint scheme on their handful of 737-800's. They only flew for around three years before being absorbed into Swift Air and disappearing again. Still good looking jets though 😉 Fred K.

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Hi everyone,

       I made some more progress on this one in between working on a few other projects. I got the cockpit in, and the fuselage halves together. I did run into a self made problem that you should be aware of if you tackle this kit. Definitely check the fit of the cockpit when you put it in! The mounting tabs on either side of it are too big, and need to be filed down a bit. I did it, but not quite enough, and it pushed the forward end of the fuselage halves out enough to leave a little step between the fuselage halves and the nose cone that will have to be filled and sanded out. This will wreck the lightening strips (I'm assuming here) on the nose cone, which will have to be sanded completely off, and replaced with Evergreen strip. Thankfully, despite all of this, the nose cone fits to the canopy beautifully.

     Another problem I encountered, and didn't catch until it was too late is that the nose gear well needs to be test fitted carefully. On mine the well sat on top of one of the "bumps" on the lower fuselage halves that is suppose to help align it. The fit looks good, so I didn't worry about it. Once the halves were together though, I noticed that it made the whole cockpit sit a little high, so I had to file the rear bulkhead down a bit to get the canopy to fit. Also, the instrument panel coming wouldn't fit now without a lot of sanding. Virtually none of it was going to be visible after the canopy was on anyway, so I just replaced it with a wedge of Evergreen sheet and painted it black. I then had to shim the canopy with a couple of Evergreen strips to to level it out with the top of the fuselage. Okay, mental note to self..... REALLY check the fit good the next time I build one of these 🤣 None of this is anything major, but just some more things to do on a kit with a lot of things to do already. 

     Tonight I will get the canopy masked and on, and then start the process of sanding all of the long fuselage seams out. Pic 3 is a size comparison between the -800 and the Heller 707/AWACS on a standard sized US cutting board. More later! Fred.

20221231_132147.jpg

20221231_132221.jpg

20221231_132314.jpg

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Dimensions

707-120B 707-320B
Length (m) 44.0 46.6
Wingspan (m) 39.9 44.4
Height (m) 12.7 12.7
Wing area (m2) 226.0 268.7
 

737-700

737-800
Length 33.6 m (110 ft 4 in) 39.5 m (129 ft 6 in)
Wingspan 35.8 m (117 ft 5 in) 35.8 m (117 ft 5 in)
Height 12.5 m (41 ft 3 in) 12.5 m (41 ft 3 in)


 

 

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On 12/31/2022 at 10:48 PM, AV O said:

 

Dimensions

707-120B 707-320B
Length (m) 44.0 46.6
Wingspan (m) 39.9 44.4
Height (m) 12.7 12.7
Wing area (m2) 226.0 268.7
 

737-700

737-800
Length 33.6 m (110 ft 4 in) 39.5 m (129 ft 6 in)
Wingspan 35.8 m (117 ft 5 in) 35.8 m (117 ft 5 in)
Height 12.5 m (41 ft 3 in) 12.5 m (41 ft 3 in)


 

 

 

Yup! Pretty darn close! Thanks, Fred.

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  • 5 months later...

Well folks, I've finally got this guy back on the bench after finishing off several 48th scale TA-4J and F-5F adversaries. The wings are together, and in the process of having the lost panel lines rescribed. Tonight I'm hoping to have time to sand the fuselage down more and get the wings on. I did spray some black paint on the seams to highlight any imperfections, found many that needed attention. I had a real bad problem with "ghost seams" along the windows, but have hopefully addressed that problem. The next one of these that I build I will definitely use super glue only on those troublesome window strips. That should solve any "ghosting" problems. I'm trying to get this one finished off for the local clubs show in Sept., so there's my motivation! More later, Fred.

20230605_093506.jpg

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  • 5 months later...

Hello everyone,

      Well after kicking out 6 72nd scale Hasegawa F-16s, 1 SH-60F, and 2 Fujimi Phantoms, my mojo for this kit is flowing again! 

       I tried something different this time around, and the results were disasterous. I decided to spray some Krylon Fusion white paint & primer straight out of the can on the fuselage thinking that it might help with painting at a later point having the fuselage already white. I did a couple of test sprays on some spare parts, and it worked fine. However, when I sprayed the fuselage, it literally ruined it!  AARRGHHH! Back to the shelf the kit went!  I debated stripping the paint, or sanding it all off. In the end I used both methods. I used paint stripper to remove the paint from the tail as I wanted to preserve as much of the panel lines as possible, and then sanded the fuselage. I worked on this, and rescribing panel lines on and off for months.

     After some test fitting, I decided that the fit of the wings to the fuselage was not nearly good enough to allow the wings to be joined after painting. So the wings went on without too many issues, but like most of this kit, a lot of superglue, sanding, primer, more sanding, was involved. The wing root light piece was added and caused its own problem when one of them fell inside the wing and then into the fuselage during test fitting. It took me a full 30 minutes to get the damn thing out again 🤣 Fit on these parts was not too good and required the usual amount of super glue and sanding to get them acceptable.

     Next on were the engine pylons, and flap track sponsons. All of which fit reasonably well, requiring only a little Mr Surfacer to fill in the gaps. Speaking of Mr Surfacer..... I recently tried something that I've read about for years, but have been very reluctant to try.... spraying thinned Mr Surfacer through my airbrush. I am currently working on Titan Models 72nd 757-200 kit as well (you can see it in the back ground of the attached pics). The kit is a vacu-form with 3D printed parts. All of which will need to be primed. After assembling and sanding the 757s horizontal stabilizer, I decided to give the sprayed Mr Surfacer a go. It worked like a champ! Okay, I'm an idiot for not trying this sooner! So my question to all of you is this: Should I use the Tamiya white primer that I have to prime the kit, or not take any chances and just order some Mr Surfacer primer white? I've not had the best experience with the Tamiya primer in the past. Perhaps I'll slap a junk kit together and give it a test drive on that. If the Tamiya white works, that would save me a lot of painting later on. 

     So enough babbling....   here's where things are at now. Thanks for checking in, Fred.

 

 

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1464901517_737bottom.jpg

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4 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said:

This is just me but, I'd get some Mr. Surfacer White.

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

      I'll probably end up doing that, but I've decided that I am going to give the Tamiya white a test drive on a paint dummy and just see. I am getting excited to get this project done though. Mojo can be a fickle thing 😂 Thanks, Fred.

 

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Hi everyone,

     Yesterday I decided to tackle the wingtips lights. The kits instructions make no mention of them at all, but they are there. References were hard to come by, and to make things worse, apparently there is a difference between closely related versions of the 737. As an example, the lights are different between the -700 and -800, which are externally largely the same jet with the biggest difference being that the -700 is shorter. To further muddy the water, there are several light variations on the -800 too. The -800 light configuration is different between the factory built jets with winglets (pictured), and the earlier jets retrofitted with the winglets (not pictured). Thankfully, another modeler over at Airlinercafe.com knew which light version the Eastern 737s used, and sent me a pic of a similarly equipped airframe.

     So with one pic for reference, I got to work. It was totally "eyeballed", so hopefully I got close! I used a trick that I had pick up many years ago for making these type of lights that works very well. The first step is to notch out where you want the light (pic 2). I did so using a file. Then you take a chunk of plastic (pic 3) from a kit sprue (for clear lights), or a piece from an appropriately colored toothbrush handle. The chunk is then superglued into the notch. Once dry you can take a larger file, and file off most of the unwanted plastic until you get close. Then sand the rest down with progressively finer grades of sandpaper until it looks like a light (pic 4). For this build I'm going to spray the primer right over the lights, and then polish them out later. They look much brighter after polishing than in the attached pic. This technique works exceptionally well.

     So now I'm just about to the point of spraying the primer coat. Hopefully not too many surprises await me, as I'm excited to get this build done! All for now, Fred.

 

800px-Winglet_B737-800.jpg

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1023503018_wingletfinal.jpg

Edited by f5guy
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Fred, slow and steady wins the race! You are making wonderful progress.  I too had a Krylon White paint krazing  disaster, funny enough, on a Airfix 737-200 cut down to a -100. It's still in the box. Debating whether to just get a EE 737-100 and start over. Carry on, sir! K/r, Dutch 

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2 hours ago, Dutch said:

Fred, slow and steady wins the race! You are making wonderful progress.  I too had a Krylon White paint krazing  disaster, funny enough, on a Airfix 737-200 cut down to a -100. It's still in the box. Debating whether to just get a EE 737-100 and start over. Carry on, sir! K/r, Dutch 

 

Hi Dutch,

       So it's not just me with the Krylon problems huh?? I still may give it another shot and just shoot it heavily thinned down through my airbrush on a paint dummy and see. Interestingly enough, their black from the rattle can is awesome! I use it all of the time, which is why I was hoping that their white would be the same way. Not so much thus far though.

     As for the -800..... I'm in the process of adding some final details. I'm hoping to get some primer down in the coming week as time allows.

     

On another note....  Last night I was checking out that ERTL 72nd EC-135 kit that I got from you with the Combat Sent conversion. I don't want to do the Combat Sent version right away as I'd like to build that kit, and figure out all of it's issues, once, before tackling a big conversion like the RC-135U. So I ended up swapping out the fuselage halves of the EC-135 with those from a KC-135R kit that I have. I want to build the Combat Sent with the later engines anyway, so once the EC-135s big old nose is chopped off it will work great for the RC-135U. As a bonus, the fuselage swap now allows me to build a KC-135E, which the local Utah ANG flew, and Caracal did decals for. So I'm thinking the KC-135E project may be next as sort of a test drive for the Combat Sent. Seeing all of Jost's killer snooper 135 builds in the "In Progress" section has got me inspired! Take care, Fred.

 

 

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19 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said:

Nice work on the lights Fred. I'll use this technique at times also problem is finding red, green, blue or, clear toothbrushes anymore. Looking forward to more progress.

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

     Huh.... I didn't know that finding tooth brushes with that type of handle was a problem these days, but it doesn't surprise me. It seems like a lot of things that we modelers use are becoming tough to find. I needed a certain size MV Light for my 72nd 757-200 build recently. I had one lens, but needed one more. No problem, right? Problem! MV Lights apparently went out of business some 10 years ago, and their lens are very difficult to find these days. I found one on ebay, but the guy wanted $10 shipped for ONE lens! No thanks! So I went to the local craft store hoping to find a substitute in the jewelry section. No good there either, as all of the lens were faceted, instead of being curved. In the end I ended up just going to a slightly smaller sized MV lens that I did have in my stash. It's always something!

      Oh, and I did order some of the white 1500 Mr Surfacer as you suggested. It's on its way. I did try the Tamiya white on a paint dummy though, and it came out quite well. The problem is that I don't have enough of it left to cover the entire 737 kit, so I'll just wait for the Mr Surfacer to get here. Thanks for the advice 😉

, Fred

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MV lenses, that's another product I miss. I have some in my stash but, that's dwindling. Apparently AK Interactive sells lenses like the MV ones, might be worth a try.

Looking forward to seeing more of your progress.

Steve

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20 hours ago, A-10 LOADER said:

MV lenses, that's another product I miss. I have some in my stash but, that's dwindling. Apparently AK Interactive sells lenses like the MV ones, might be worth a try.

Looking forward to seeing more of your progress.

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

     Thanks, I saw those AK lens, and might order some. They are a bit pricey for what you get though, but since when has modeling been cheap? 🤣🤣

 

     I had a minor disaster while painting one of the engines last night that I will detail in a later post. I'm racking my brain now trying to come up with an easy fix, but I don't think there is one. However, the blue paint on the engines came out beautiful! Stay tuned... Fred.

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Hi Steve,

     Thanks, I saw those AK lens, and might order some. They are a bit pricey for what you get though, but since when has modeling been cheap? 🤣🤣

 

The problem is they're the only game in town so, they can charge what they want.

Steve

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