Hello to all of my fellow model-builders out there. I was just wondering who on here builds their own models of commercial aircraft, and if that applies to you, what are you currently working on?

I'm currently working on a 1/144 Airfix 737-200 which I plan to complete in Air France colors. The kit is from the 70's and has taken a lot of patience to build as the model initially had a poor fit. But after about a half tube of white putty and several sandings, I think I have all of the kinks worked out. I'm starting on the painting process now and hopefully I'll have a completed product here by the end of the week. My next adventure is going to be a 1/72 E-3 AWACS.

Where do you guys buy your models from? Most of mine come from a limited selection at a local hobby shop or eBay. Are there any other fine retailers out there of commercial models that you have consorted with and are pleased with the transaction? Also, out of the models you have built, which is your favorite? I'm hoping to post some pics of my AF 732 when it is complete  

What will you be using to simulate the layer of soot that resides on the real thing?

Was working on a 767-200 in Delta old colors, but I'm getting bored of all the sanding and puttying (it was the revell -300), so I might be switching to something else for a while..

Never work on just one at a time!!
Right now finishing BA "Waves of the City" 767-300, South African 767, BA "Rendevous", "Bauhaus" and "Waves and Cranes" 737s, Southwest(o/c) 737-300,and Piedmont 737-400. Just finished Allegheny and Aerolineas Argentinas 727s.
"On the table" are BA 747 "Colum", Iberia 767, Western(Indian Head) and Alaska "Seahawk 1" 727s. Plenty more lined up to be worked on...
Do 1/200 except for occasional 1/144 or oddball scale(Glencoe CV880)
Get kits and decals from wherever - local shops, e-bay, but most from Russell at Airline Hobby
In case you're wondering - over 350 completed...can't decide on just one favorite!!

Doug- Conversions are long and tedious. Though, if done right, look great! Stick with it.

Pronto- That's a lot of models. Must have taken you quite a few years to build 350+.

ANA- Haha. That's actually a good question. I've been debating with myself whether I'm going to go weathering/dirt effects. What do you guys think--should I give the area of the aircraft behind the wing a nice little dirt wash that is pretty typical of the 732, or should I keep it clean?

Delta-

I think people would get confused of they saw a white AF plane  

right now a new colors JAL MD87.
After that I have plans to do either Lufthansa 747-400 or Northwest new colors 747-400.
All of my kits are Hasegawa 1/200,except one unbuilt KLM 737-800 from Revell.
I get them mostly from ebay,the local Hobby Town and other various online sources. Hobby Link Japan is one of my favorites,that is where the Northwest came from.

Happy Modelling everyone 
Chris

Right now I have the following three planes assembled and ready for the paint shop:

Hobbycraft DeHavilland Dash-8-100 (1:72) -- going to do the last Air Ontario livery prior to Jazz, with the black tail/red maple leaf and Air Ontario titles in AC typeface.

Minicraft Boeing 757-200 (1:144) -- going to do American Airlines contemporary livery, if I can find an appropriate silver shine; otherwise, Northwest Airlines bowling shoe.

Minicraft MD-80 (1:144) -- going to do Continental Airlines contemporary

The next plastic model kit I intend to buy will be a Minicraft Boeing 777-200 (1:144), not sure which company I'll try to paint but I think Delta's contemporary livery would look good.

[snicker] that Dash-8 looks like an AN-225 next to the 757  

What will you be using to simulate the layer of soot that resides on the real thing?

LMAO, ANA!!

I'm currently working a Revell 1:72 US Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin.

-Q

LOT Ilyushin Il-62 and BOAC Concorde.

Both a pain in the @rse because neither came with the colour schemes in which I'm finishing them.

A bit like Pronto, a few at once as well as my model airport!

I'm currently working on a Thomas Cook 1/200 A320, 1/144 Fokker 100 in Skywest livery (own creation) and a 1/144 A330-300 in my own design.

I too am doing several. just finishing 144 Revell B777 with third party decal set so I can have BA Chatham Dockyard. Just finished my 6th 144 Concorde (I use Airfix and Revell kits to mix and match as both are wrong in certain aspects). My favourite is my 144 Concorde built as GBOAG in the parked forever in Seattle look-flaps down nose up. Why....because it is the Concorde I flew on.

Does anyone have any pics of the models that they have made in which you would like to post for other members to see your handiwork?

None of mine are painted yet, so they'd be pretty boring.

Although I do have a "how NOT to build a model" pic I could show you, when I left a tube of glue in the model kit and then put it in the hot trunk of my car... Got to the campground where I was going to chill for a weekend and build the model, only to find that the tube had ruptured, spilled glue all over the kit, and now I had a fused mass of what had been 757 parts... Ick.

hahah. That and I love the people that use rubber cement as filler in the nose of the aircraft to serve as a counterweight. Then 5 months later they wonder why the aircraft is all deformed.

Air Sean, are you working on the Thomas Cook kit that comes with the Swiss livery as well?? I did that one a few months back in the Swiss livery, it came out fantastic! It's so detailed!!

I'm very disciplined. I never work on more than one model at once, I wait till I finish it before starting working on another one. And I never buy a new model unless I have no more waiting to be built. I wait till I'm finished working on the one I still have to build before I buy a new one, or two at the most but not more than two.
I'm just concerned about finding myself with a bunch of unbuilt models I don't want to work on anymore. I don't buy one unless I'm sure I really want it, and I say to myself "Do I really want it? Once I buy it, I have to work on it seriously until it's nicely finished. Leaving it undone is not an option!".

I'm almost done working on an Air France A320 at 1/125, that one wasn't too difficult. My next one will be an Air France 727 at 1/125 in the old livery, which will require a lot of hard work. I have the decals finally but I will have to paint the cheatline myself before I even glue the windows prior to assembling the fuselage halves! That's the next one I'm planning to buy, either that one or nothing.
I won't think of others I may want to build in the future until I'm done working with the one I'm planning to buy.

Ben Soriano
Brussels Belgium

Whops, forgot caption AND how to edit. sooooo

revell L-1011
ATP decals shattered when they hit the water made a big mess. hand scribbed panel lines. my first experiment with wing weathering, it REALLY made the model looka lot better. becase of the kits large size and sparse detail it kept it from looking like a big blank toy

Airfix DC-9-30
Decals from 1:200 hasegawa DC-10 (didn't fit as well as I though they would in mockup, but still worked out ok). This is probably my favorite Airfix kit. I go back and forth, but on this one I ended up painting the eybrow windows, and was very happy with the results. Being and old NWA Dirt-9 I wanted to make this one look dirty. There's a million ways to weather (cahrcol, pstels, real dirt), but I just used normal acrylic paints on this one (airbrushed and VERY thinned handpainting).

3 big rules for decent weather on airliners

check photos first- look where dirt accumulates and what color it is.

Don't just weather the whole thing with 1 brown or black. use various mixes of black brown orange yellow, etc for diffrent areas. They can very from flat to semi-gloss, but make sure they're all applied over the final coat of clear, so that you get a diffrent finnish.

Mask panel lines (when spraying)- especialy on wings, etc. relative wind and gravity will push dirt and grim back (inflight drips) and down (leaks/rain streaks on ground)

Revell Fokker 100
LU Mexicana decals went on great. I opened the shrinkwrap on this one less than 72 hours before completion. it was a really fun build, and while plently of things didn't go as well as I would have hoped, it still turned out well.

Hasegawa L-1011
Kit decals. One of my first Airliners its still one of my favs (I love the tristar). Good fitting get, nothing really went wrong during the build so it just came together nicely. I actauly won some prizes at a local IPMS show in the youth category.

Minicarft 737
FCM BMA decals, does the pic show up for anyon, cause I can't figure it out.

the base there is made of rextured paint smaples from a local hardware store. sides are colored black w/ sharpie before being glued to wood base. markings were handpainted, and stains are paint thinned with water (almost water tinted w/ paint)

WoW! Doug, I am impressed! Your weathering/dirtying on the NW DC-9 is spectacular. I could only dream of detailing it like that.  

redngold

I wish I had the discipline to only do one kit at a time.
I've been on a streak lately after finishing the JAL MD87. I did an ANA 767-300 and am now working on a JAL A300 in new colors.

If only I had a digital camera so I could post photos, I've got tons of kits to show.

Doug Or..
Nice work on the ANA tristar, I did that kit too, and it came out great.

Happy Modelling
Chris

Doug Or......You did an amazing job on those A/C. I only wish I had half the skill that you have on assembling models....

Thank you both for your kind words.... I have more models, but these are the only ones that I really like, and they aren't as well done as the pics make them look. While the camera hides some detail, it also hides overspray, fingerprints, and trapped dust. At any rate, the most important skill in modeling is paitance. Given the right a tools and a practice kit or two, anyone can make a nice model.

Doug: Excellent work! One question: how are your lines so clean? I've been debating whether to start a NW Diesel 9 in the bowling shoe livery as you have above but I'm kind of put off by the idea of the precise taping and things of that nature that livery would require. Any pointers or hints as how to get nice clean lines like those?

Good tape. I like the tamiya masking tape sold in some hobby stores, but any masking ape will work. I put it on a glass or rubber surface and use an x-acto and straight edge to cut it into strips. I make the actaul demarkation line with a small piece (1-3 mm, depedning on what kind of curves i have to go around). On top (and to the side being masked) of that i put a wider piece (5-15 mm), so that the big tape won't miss a spot. after this i just use big pieces of tape and newspaper. Always make sure that your edges are pressed down firmly. the side of the tape you cut will always be much higher quality then the natural edge, as it has been exposed to dirts, dust, and impact deformation, so it should go on the side of the line not being painted. when you start painting, don't soak the model. make sure you get a couple light coats that dry on or before impact, and that these coats hit the demarkation line. this acts as a sealer. now you can go for the gusto and lay on the paint a little heavier so you get a nice mooth finnish.

btw, the navy is a decal, though i should have painted it as te dc-10 decal really was very well shaped for a 9 (imagine that!). it looks sort of alright in the pic, but up close you can see all the snipping and folding.

forgive me if this makes no sense or is poorly written i can't proofread- chappelle's show is on!

Doug,
Tremendous job on your models. I wish I had the patience to do such high quality work. You models are incredible. I must say, I really love that NW DC9.. Right down to that dirty butt.  

Hi Continental, yes that is the same one actually 1/144 scale i underestimated it's size in my earlier post.

Yes it is very detailed, even get a choice of engine which is cool.

My current airliner project is a Minicraft Boeing 777-200. I am using the Delta kit for the more accurized RR Trent engines and I am going to do it up in Union Tail BA livery as the aircraft I flew to the UK on for the first time during the fall of last year. The decals used are DRAW decal and designed originally by F-DCAL in France.

So far the build is going well. After about five hours of work over this past week, I have gotten the fuselage weighted properly (with lots of sprue bits in the nose) and assembled as well as the wings. The past two nights were spent sanding the trailing edges of the wings to a sharp taper as the kit wings are rather blunt in shape. I think I managed to fix them up well enough considering what I had to start with. The Minicraft plastic seems to be just right for sanding work as it is not too soft or too hard. A few minor tweaks to the wings and I should be ready to glue them to the fuselage this weekend. Then I can work on the engine pods.

If I get tired with this, I do have a Revell Concorde that I am about 40% finished with. I have tentative plans to finish it up in the fictional livery that F-BTSC wore for the film "The Concorde: Airport 79", but I might change those plans. I kind of lost interest in it when Airfix/Heller announced they were working on 1/72 Concorde kits. But I still might bang this one out anyway as a quickie build.

After that, I plan to do a model of all the different types of Boeing aircraft I have flown on, in the livery of the airlines I first flew on them with. It should be an interesting collection when done with a Braniff 727, a Midway (Caledonean leased) 737, a Pan Am 747 and AA and TWA respectively for the 757 and 767 models. The BA 777 will hopefully be the first entry in that collection.

Probably a little ambitious, but I'm really keen to put together a Boeing 7E7. It's going to mean building it from scratch though!