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

[PR19_Kit]

Looks to me a bit like a winged Narwhal.

Wait till I get the red & white stripes on the nose probe. 

I'm wondering if I should put stripes on the AAR probe too, just because I can. 

[PR19_Kit]

I've got thoroughly fed up with the vast number of things that aren't working on this thing, and to make some progress, ANY progress even, I'm doing some of the decaling, even though there's painting still to be done.

It's a mix of the Revell A-400M decals, the Combat Models C-130 W2 decals and my own home printed stuff. Amazingly the seem to work together quite well, but Revell's method of doing tailplane walk areas and door outlines is a right pain.

There's no film in the centre of these bits so you're dealing with just the ultra-thin outline, and getting them in the correct place is very difficult. I'm going to cut the others out and varnish spray them so I've got SOME chance of getting it done without having a mental breakdown.

[PR19_Kit]

Pretty good progress on the decals tonight, I got all of the main decals onto the starboard side, minus the paradrop door outline which just vanished after I'd got it on there! Luckily I still have the port decal and I'll scan, reverse and print another one.

One rather big disaster today was one of the special weather measuring wing tanks has vanished. I was taking a bunch of stuff up into The Loft to spray them LAG, and I knocked the spray table on a roof support and dropped it. Half the bits fell off their Blue-Tack supports and I just can't find the missing tank anywhere. 

I'll keep looking but there's loads of stuff up there it could be hiding behind.



Yes, it has got RAF serials and a civvie registration as well. It's all in the backstory which I'll post when I've finished the darn thing.

[rickshaw]

Shame about the tank, Kit.  She's lookin' damn good despite it.  How is the undercarriage workin' out?   

[Old Wombat]

Looking good, Kit! Ugly as sin, but good!

[PR19_Kit]

Shame about the tank, Kit.  She's lookin' damn good despite it.  How is the undercarriage workin' out?   

Slowly.

So far I've got the bracketry done for one of the 12 main wheels, but there's nearly three weeks to go till Telford yet. Some years I've not even started a Telford model by now. 

[Thorvic]

Pretty good progress on the decals tonight, I got all of the main decals onto the starboard side, minus the paradrop door outline which just vanished after I'd got it on there! Luckily I still have the port decal and I'll scan, reverse and print another one.

One rather big disaster today was one of the special weather measuring wing tanks has vanished. I was taking a bunch of stuff up into The Loft to spray them LAG, and I knocked the spray table on a roof support and dropped it. Half the bits fell off their Blue-Tack supports and I just can't find the missing tank anywhere. 

I'll keep looking but there's loads of stuff up there it could be hiding behind.



Yes, it has got RAF serials and a civvie registration as well. It's all in the backstory which I'll post when I've finished the darn thing.

Looks good in that scheme Kit, can't help wondering if you still make engine noises and fly round the room a bit whilst setting up for the photo ? 

[PR19_Kit]

Looks good in that scheme Kit, can't help wondering if you still make engine noises and fly round the room a bit whilst setting up for the photo ? 

Doesn't everyone? 

Actually it was the only way I could show the side view properly, the wing gets in the way when it's sitting on any flat surface.

[Old Wombat]

Looks good in that scheme Kit, can't help wondering if you still make engine noises and fly round the room a bit whilst setting up for the photo ? 

Doesn't everyone? 

Actually it was the only way I could show the side view properly, the wing gets in the way when it's sitting on any flat surface.

Excuses! Excuses!

Forget the excuses & revel unashamedly in the joy of simple pleasures!

[McColm]

Great job 

[Caveman]

That is awesome

[KiwiZac]

I hope you can overcome any future difficulties because that is the coolest A400M I've ever seen!

[PR19_Kit]

A landmark day for this build. 

I've at last sorted out the landing gear with the aid of some 'Styrene Engineering' and some good superglue. I made two L shaped brackets that rest on the 'roof' of the main gear bulges and butt up against the rear bulkheads as well as locating laterally on what's left of the main gear legs. Then I superglued two of the main gear wheels to the L brackets with short lengths of piano wire (making sure I'd 'handed' them  ) and then glued the whole lot into position.

After they'd set I superglued the nosewheel assembly onto the sawn down nose leg and it all sits there nicely.

RESULT! 

I'll add some reinforcement to the nosewheel leg and add the other main gear legs and wheels in similar fashion, but as of now it's strong enough to hold the considerable weight of the model.

I also did some upper surface decaling, and what a PITA that is. There's over 160 separate decal items in the massive sheet, and some of them have multiple items, like 26 of item no 90! I'm not going to use all of them, just enough to give the right impression. Those grey walkway areas on the upper fuselage aren't on the decal sheet, Revell print them on the instructions with no mention of how you're meant to apply them. I scanned them and printed them out, and they're not too bad I reckon.

[Squizzette]

That is looking excellent. 

[Gondor]

So far so good Kit. It's really starting to come together 

Gondor