DONE @p.5 +++ 1:144 Boeing 727-301, Aéromexicana, late Seventies

[Dizzyfugu]

I hope so. The NMF is causing some premature headaches, though, since a clean 1:144 airliner is something different than a 1:72 military item. I guess that I will simply use an overall shower with an aluminum tone from the rattle can. Simple, but I want to avoid a shaggy look. But I am loking forward to this one - it should look spectacular in these bright markings!

[jcf]

The various 727-300 concepts/projects (stretched fuselage; re-fanned engines; twin engined; twin engines on new wing etc.) eventually morphed into the 757.

[TheChronicOne]

I'm still waiting on some pics!! 

Of course, I love this project and thank you for taking it on!

[Dizzyfugu]

Finally, after posting the interim T-34/105Ö, things started moving yesterday.

The Minicraft 727 is basically a very simple affair, but I expect resistance. Work started with the assembly of the wings and cleaning the resin engines - I used pouring residues to create pegs that will (hopefully) fit into the slits for the 727's OOB engines, adding stability. Lots of lead was added to the nose, and I started with the work on the fin. It sounds so easy to make the air intake disappear, but the fin is, due to the duct inside, quite wide, so that I had to cut away a considerable section, almost reaching the rudder.


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


In oder to fill the gap under the intake I glued a piece of 0.5mm styrene under the fin root from the inside, and then a vertical prothesis from 1.5mm sheet into the gap in the fin, simulating the new profile.


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Once the fuselage halves were closed (there's no interior at all), I started scultpting the fin with the styrene prothesis as "bone" inside of a 2C putty cover. Challenging.


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[Dizzyfugu]

Pics added to the last post!

[TheChronicOne]

There we go!!!!   Taking notes here.

[PR19_Kit]

Some SERIOUS fin engineering (fingeneering?) there Thomas. Looks pretty impressive. 

[kerick]

I suppose it's too late to suggest five engines?

[Dizzyfugu]

Four engines should suffice. 

At the moment I am deep into PSR work. Not only the fin needs major attention, but the whole fuselage, too. I guess that's a typical airliner issue? The Minicraft kit's windscreen solution is also odd - it consists of a complete fuselage segment with some flesh around the windows. While the idea is basically not bad (from my experience, airliner windscreens typically NEVER fit well into their respective openings), you now get steps and misalignments around the cockpit. Not certain if this is really better? Then they could have molded the complete nose section in clear material, I guess that this might be the most convenient solution?

Also did some body sculpting on the tail cone, since the central exhaust has to go, too. And I found that my bold plan to use pouring residues on the engine nacelles as attachment supports won't work, because I will have to trim the pylons down. Their shape (for the VC-10) does not fit the 727 at all (the latter is much "edgier"), and, compared with the 727's original nacelles, they stand away too much from the fuselage. But that's no major problem, I just hope that I can attach the engines good enough, so that they do not come off too easily.

[PR19_Kit]

As you say, most airliner kits have rubbish windscreens and other clear parts. Minicraft's system would have worked nicely had they bothered to make the clear insert the same shape as the upper fuselage, but they didn't! 

That's why so many airliner modellers go the decal windows route, in 1/144 it's very difficult to tell the difference.

[Dizzyfugu]

I also decided to go the "blind windows" route. The passenger cabin windows are all decals, and I rather concentrate on smoothly integrating the clear part into the fuselage than think about potential stains on the windscreen. After all, there's nothing inside and there are decals for the cockpit windows. At 1:144 scale this is IMHO not loss, and it makes PSR work easier. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Some current impressions from the fuselage and the engines; the left one has already been adapted to the 727, the right one is original:


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Modified tail cone sans engine:


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr


PSR, PSR, PSR...


1:144 Boeing 727-301 - WiP by dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

Looking good already Thomas! 

Those'll be the Standard VC10 engine pods, are they? Supers have a slightly different pylon shape.

[Dizzyfugu]

Oh, that's beyond my knowlegde. I know that Bra.Z Models offers at least two different VC-10 engine sets, but I am not certain which one I have. I checked the original ev!lbay seller post, and they claim that these were Super VC-10 nacelles. Could it be that the Super VC-10 had longer pylons? 

Standard VC-10:



Super VC-10:

[PR19_Kit]

Standards have straight trailing edges to the pylons, as in the top one of your latest pics.

Supers have a kinked trailing edge, a bit like the RH one of the pair in your lower pic, but it's really a much sharper kink. The LH one in your lower pic doesn't have a kink at all though! 

There's a difference in the thrust reversers too, IIRC one has reversers on both engines and one has them only on the outboards, but you can do that with decals.