Area 88 1/144 - On the Tarmac (B707)

[strobez]

I've been trying to rescue started builds from purgatory lately, and this was the largest inmate left in the asylum. I've been banned from using my airbrush the last few nights due to noise complaints from my wife, so I decided to do a little quiet soldering instead tonight.  During the virtual learning at home, my son seems to slowly be going to bed later and later (which affects my "alone at the modelling bench time). Once he's asleep, it's usually not too bad, but if I run the airbrush before he's fully asleep, I get in trouble... of course, after quietly glueing together my Tintin scratchbuilt Moon Tank, I got "what is that SMELL" (because of glue even though I had the window open). So... what else could I play with?

As for this project itself... yeah, it almost feels like cheating to call this an Area 88 project - "Ryoko looking out the window at a Lufthansa B707" isn't exactly central to the story, but I'll grasp at any straw to come up with an "excuse" to build.

The reason this one got shelved initially was really down to the fact that I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the lights. Since the B707 is sitting on the tarmac, (about to be?) loading passengers, I was trying to figure out which lights would be on. The Red blinking contact lights? the red/green position lights? The white wing tip lights?

I haven't really got an answer for that, but I just made an executive decision based on my supplied. I have lots of tiny red/green SMDs (enough to cover 3-4 more Area 88 commercial airliner projects planned... B747, A300, Lockheed Tristar... and maybe a do-over of the DC-10). I also have large "cloudy white" 5mm LEDs that my son and I bought leftover from a project (I added signal lights and what-not to his push scooter) that I'd likely never use anywhere else. So, I just decided to spare some SMDs and go with red/green position lights and fill the cabin with that happy glow of people going on a trip... as a reminder of happier days.

Kit also befuddled me a bit regarding the correct engines for a Lufthansa B707... but I don't really have an answer for that either.

One other thing, this is an old kit with raised panel lines. I've always sanded them down and scribed them before, but a) I'm lazy and b) on a commercial airliner, I find too many panel lines distracting anyway. So we're going old school (and pray the decals sit down!)

[TheChronicOne]

Hell yeah, dude!  Go for the gusto!

[strobez]

Thanks Brad.  I figured an airliner would bring you out of the woodwork.  You got here faster than I could upload my commentary~!

[TheChronicOne]

    No doubt.

[PR19_Kit]

Lufthansa used all sorts of engines on their 707s. Early ones had P&W JT3-As, later ones had JT4-As, but some had RR Conways, which is handy as that's what comes with the Airfix kit.

Here's an LH 707-330 with P&Ws




and here's an LH 707-430 with Conways

[zenrat]

Wouldn't the "correct" ones be whatever it was drawn with in the Manga?

[strobez]

Here's the page from the manga...



The engines are a little hard to see...

Oh, and if anyone wants to tell me now that that's not a B707... let's just remember that ignorance is bliss, and I've already done wiring. 

[zenrat]

Look exactly like the kit ones to me.

[PR19_Kit]

Whatever engines they're meant to be, the pylons are all wrong.

707 pylons never had just straight LEs, they always had that kink which you can see in the pics I posted. Some then have an extension which goes all the way to the intake, with the small turbo-compressor intakes at the front, and some have no intake.

There's every combination possible out there, from all four engines have turbo-compressors to only one of them, take your pick.

[Captain Canada]

Great stuff !

[strobez]

Thanks for all the advice.  Since, as I mentioned, this is a build with a pretty tenuous link to the Area 88 project, I'm happy enough to just go "out of the box" with just a few minor adjustments.

As per the instructions, I added 6g of weight to the nose.  Then I painted the interior of the cabin black.



The glueing together of the fuselage was a negotiation and a half... I mostly won, but the plastic got a few jabs in as well...

[PR19_Kit]

Those moulds were made a few decades ago, I'm amazed they even fitted at all! 

[strobez]

The fit on this kit is indeed quite bad.  Lots of twisting, squeezing, cursing, hoping and puttying to be done.

After I got the first round of putty/sanding done (more or less) I decided I didn't want to get too far ahead before I added the engine pods.  They are as plane as could be, so I scoured the spares box and found some 1/288 scale B-747 leftover from an Academy  "Space Shuttle with 747" kit.  They're a bit small, but deep inside these nacelles they really won't be visible.  A head on peek inside gives the texture of a fan - close enough for me.

I had to cut a surprising amount of plastic away to get the engines mounted into the proper slots, but it's done.  More putty and sanding in store, but she's starting to shape up nicely.

I even had a stroke of good luck. During my glueing frenzy I somehow managed to knock one of the wheels off the bench.  I had them out of the box because I was studying the best way to string the wiring down through the landing gear to hide it.  Anyway, it was nowhere to be found last night, so, while looking for a likely replacement, I found the Lufthansa decals that came with the A300 box that found its way from Kit's loft to my stash not all that long ago.  I can't use all of them, but the circle logo and the text should be close enough to fit within the parameters of this project.  Then, this morning, after looking "one last time" I found the missing wheel had rolled off the bench and nestled itself under the couch.  Win win! 

[PR19_Kit]

That's looking pretty good Greg, considering how old that kit is. Your second shot shows just HOW old, with those massive joint lines on the engine pods! 

From the last pic it looks like you have '2 turbo' setup, with turbos on #2 and #3, which I think was the most common setup with Conway engined 707s.

[TheChronicOne]

Looks really good to me!!