1/72 Eastern Airlines 737-800

[f5guy]

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.

[lockheed2004]

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

[f5guy]

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.

[f5guy]

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.

 

Edited December 22, 2022 by f5guy

[Dutch]

Alright! Major sub-assemblies put together and puttied.  

[Da SWO]

Really nice. 

I didn't know eastern flew 737's. 

[f5guy]

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.

[f5guy]

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.

[Dutch]

Fred, you are right about the 737-800 being as large as a 707-120.  

[AV O]

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)

 

 

[f5guy]

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.

[Thadeus]

Pretty nice build. Cockpit looks especially nice.

[f5guy]

5 hours ago, Thadeus said:

Pretty nice build. Cockpit looks especially nice.

 

Thanks ;0) Fred.