Minicraft SIA B777-214ER (and BA 777-236ER)

[RayS]

Its hard to believe almost 18 months ago Canberra got it first truly regular International airline service. And at that time restarted a stalled B777 build





As you can see it was not the best of days

So here was my build at that point, I had bogged up the wing-body fairing



Fixed up the flap track fairings


got some engines assembled


Added some wings and antenna


gear legs attached


and did a test fit of subassemblies


I also managed to squirt some paint on


Since October 2016 not much had happened, I managed to tidy up the wing paintwork


and got some paint on the engines


But I noticed some irregularities so I rub parts of them back and this arvo resprayed. I recall I stopped work on this due to the paintwork on the wheels, I had sprayed the hubs and masked them


But the black did not go on well with a lot of bleeding so I stripped them back, I now need to find them to see there state and get this baby finished!

[DesTROYer]

That’s gonna look good. Keep it up.

[Graeme H]

oooh ahh, loving this one

[Ansett A330]

I also managed to squirt some paint on

That's not the caption I was expecting to this photo!

I'm guessing that's the Zvezda 777-300ER alongside which to me would be a good enough reason not to continue with the Minicraft -200 (and to a larger extent the Doyusha -200!). I honestly thought people would be dumping their Minicraft kits when the Zvezda kit came out but don't think this has occurred.

Interested in what you think of the two of them seeing you are building them both?

[RayS]

I also managed to squirt some paint on

That's not the caption I was expecting to this photo!

I'm guessing that's the Zvezda 777-300ER alongside which to me would be a good enough reason not to continue with the Minicraft -200 (and to a larger extent the Doyusha -200!). I honestly thought people would be dumping their Minicraft kits when the Zvezda kit came out but don't think this has occurred.

Interested in what you think of the two of them seeing you are building them both?

Not Zvezda Rob, the -300 is made up from 2 Minicraft kits before the Zvezda kit came out, I has had a few paint strips and a set of decals which I botched by misaligning them,I have replacement decals now and thought I would get on with it.

I do have the Zvezda kit in the both Zvezda and Revell boxes. It is greatly refined compared to the poor old Minicraft kit and will build up nicely. I picked up a set of Braz engines and clipped wing tips just in case I have the urge to make a Zvezda -300 into a -200.

I don't mind the Minicraft kit, it is not over-engineered parts wise and most of its issues are fixed with a bit of elbow grease (read filing and sanding).

[Ansett A330]

Not Zvezda Rob, the -300 is made up form 2 Minicraft kits before the Zvezda kit came out, ...

Well done. Was there a build thread anywhere? What engines did you use?

I do have the Zvezda kit in the both Zvezda and Revell boxes. It is greatly refined compared tot he poor old Minicraft kit and will build up nicely. I picked up a set of Brax engines and çlipped'wing tips just in case I have the urge to make a Zvezda -30 into a -200.

Yes I suspect there will be a few of these "back" conversions be done to the Zvezda kit especially at some of the prices you can get the Zvezda kit for now compared with the Minicraft kit although Graeme will probably remember the crazy (low) price the Minicraft kit was going for at Telford in 2005. 10 Pound wasn't Graeme? Seemed like everything was 10 Pound on that trip ... . Pity the AUD was so low that year!

[RayS]

Not Zvezda Rob, the -300 is made up form 2 Minicraft kits before the Zvezda kit came out, ...

Well done. Was there a build thread anywhere? What engines did you use?

Here, but the image links are dead. I will sort them out when I have access to the images and can rehost

[RayS]

Dragging this thread from the depths, gee almost 2 years to the day since the thread was last touched.

Not sure why I put off progressing it after seeing how it looks now.

Anyway the masking was started on the engines and tail planes and some SMS silver sprayed on them as well as a couple of engine-ish colours on the exhaust sections


The masking came off and they looked OK


I also masked and painted the wing and vertical stab




I also put some wheels and MLG bogies on to see how it looked


So I suppose it is now finally ready for some decals only 4 years after starting it!

[RayS]

I suppose I should finish this one off, I did manage to get some decals on it but stuffed them up. I have a second set of decals now and need to repaint the fuselage

[RayS]

Work has recommenced on this one.

I got this far with decals before the setting solution I used tarnished the gold section



The dodgy decalling was sanded back and the fuselage was prepped for a repaint.


And primed


I also started another 777 not long after this one to be built aa s British Airways jet, G-YMMM which was the aircraft that landed short at Heathrow some years ago due to fuel starvation issues. So I will include the progress here as well.

Progress so far



The decals


And some work last night to correct the flap track fairings. The inboard one is done and the rest to follow, filing them down from a squarish cross-section more rounder.


All finished after about a half hours work