A 'different' Airbus A-400M Atlas - FINISHED!

[sykotik]

Actually, you can see quite a bit - more than you think. I could see instrument panel in mine as well as the center console. The top console is a waste of time though

[zenrat]

...It makes you wonder why Revell bothered with most of it...

Because if they hadn't then there would have been complaints.  New mould modern kits are expected to have that level of detail.  Look at the Airfix Shack - all that stuff inside that will never be seen again once the fuselage is closed up unless you make it a cutaway.

Is it too late to give this one a sunroof Kit?

[PR19_Kit]

Is it too late to give this one a sunroof Kit?

I'm not sure there's a knife strong enough to cut through the umpteen layers of putty, styrene and primer really........

I've been adding the zillions of aerials and things today. What a fiddly job that is! By comparison the rear loading hatch only took me 1/4 hr to glue in place............

[PR19_Kit]

The landing gear on this thing is a complete disaster! 

I've mentioned the madness of the ultra-thin 'axles' it has for the main wheels, all of which I've cut off as they'd never stand the weight of this monster. I wanted to assemble two main gear wheels and both noes wheels so it would sit on the ground and not squash all the belly mounted aerials flat, but the nose wheel has exactly the same size of ultra-thin axle and one broke off about 5 secs after I'd glued it!

The mainwheels are superglued over their brake discs OK, but it looks like I'll have to install a wire axle for the nose wheels.

[PR19_Kit]

We're cooking with gas now, or we were until I took the pics...........

The whole thing's primered now, as well as all the add-on bits apart from the wheels. I've added the big radome above the cockpit and the AAR probe, plus the ventral strakes under the tail. There's a few very small aerials to add once it's painted, but they're too fragile to stand the masking etc.

Having taken the pics I took the props back off, they're not glued on yet, and one blade fell off! Even worse, one of the main gear wheels also broke off, but not at the glued joint, it broke off at the brake disc! 

I've got an idea for a Plan B for those blasted wheels, and I think I'll be having  a few words on the Revell stand at Telford.....



I said I'd got tanks, didn't I? Here they are arrayed in their approx. positions in front of the airframe




The monster radome, displaced from its normal nose position. You can also see some of the lumps and bumps added for the meteorological tasking




The underside showing the lowered tail ramp as well as the zillions of aerials. Note only one main gear wheel.....




The lowered tail ramp and the sealed upper door, and the various sonde ejection devices, as well as the ventral strakes

[Old Wombat]

Looks impressive in the pic's, Kit, must be doubly-so in person.

[McColm]

It's a drone, the worlds first unpiloted Atlas!

[PR19_Kit]

Hm, yes, it does look like that, doesn't it?

The worlds largest drone as well, in bulk terms. 

[PR19_Kit]

This ruddy model is falling apart faster than I can build it! 

It needed a very small amount of PSR under the roof mounted radar pod, and while sanding off the excess putty the end of the AAR probe came off, followed by the radar pod itself! Right after that the one remaining main gear wheel broke off, complete with both disc brakes leaving the leg about 2-3 mm too short! And right after that the end of the 'Towel Rail' aerial under the fuselage snapped off. This was the second time that had happened so it's only 3 sectors long now, from the original five!

At this rate the wings will come off around dinner time tonight....................

All I want to do is mask it up for the white bits too. I'm seriously thinking about not painting the surfaces and the lower fuselage the correct Light Aircraft Grey, and just putting 2-3 coats of Klear over the Halfords Grey Primer, which is what I did on my Lightning PR9, and that looks quite good.

[Later] Oh yes, while I was supergluing the missing prop blade back on, the opposite blade came off too! It's hardly surprising as while the blades are maybe 4 mm deep, they're only attached to the hub by a 1mm dia. peg. Totally ridiculous design.

[Old Wombat]

You sure it's not a re-boxed Mach2 kit, Kit?

[PR19_Kit]

You sure it's not a re-boxed Mach2 kit, Kit?

I'm starting to think that way, yes.

But I've taken a good look around it and can't find any French comments inscribed in the styrene, and I can actually see through the cockpit windows though...........

[loupgarou]

It's because your hands are too big and strong... Are you sure you're not the big bad wolf from Little red riding hood ?

[JayBee]

Can't be. It did not wear a hat like that! 

[PR19_Kit]

Now it looks like this, but after a MASSIVE masking job that didn't work too well because my wide masking tape is rubbish!

As you can see the entire mask came off the port tailplane during the spraying and the mask under the port wing came loose too, which is why the port sponson is a nice shade of Halfords Appliance White.

The main white area's OK, but there's a lot more work to get the Light Aircraft Grey applied yet. Ho hum..........

[TheChronicOne]

Well.....  I sure like the color scheme as far as where it's headed. Shame about the tape.