Challenge Build 737-268C - AIR SAUDIA -

[TheChronicOne]

PSR hell? I can't remember the last update..... time is kicking all our asses.

A little bit of REAL progress will help to energize you and breathe fresh air into the build. That is the theory. It rings true most times with me. The other day when I started working on mine again the simple act of doing SOMETHING fired up the enthusiasm again. I needed the rotary tool but that's just part of it... it was nice to be advancing the build again.

It's kind of like anxiety... sometimes thinking about/fretting is worse than actually working. I find that many times if I can just convince myself to get started that if I stick with it awhile the mojo comes back naturally.


More news on mine. I'm in for the win, now.. I went ahead and ordered my replacement decals so they will be arriving soon. In the meantime, I'm needing to paint the nose gear doors I just worked on and continue with the engines. Right now I need to sand them and get the nacelle shape correct. Once that is achieved, I move to creating the "fat" pylons.

No new pictures yet... all this is extremely non-photogenic.

[TheChronicOne]

These are my notes on this build, posted in my normal posting "blog" elsewhere so consider this or other wise it could be confusing. I made one half of this post first then the rest over a week later.

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I'm putting the miliput in and around the old 737 engine pylons. After it all dries I'lldo the best I can to get it shaped correctly. Not sure how this is going to go. I had to choose between this and sheet styrene. It's easier to contour the Miliput to fit the wings, so I went with that.... hopefully it works out in the end, if not, I'll chisel away most of the putty and try the sheet styrene I guess.



Not sure about a lot of this stuff but at least I'm doing SOMETHING so that's a win in my book.

(BREAK.......over a week now passes by, and we reach TODAY):

So, now I'm thinking about working on the 737 and as luck would have it that sheet of decals I ordered a month ago finally arrived today. I ordered these from 1001modelkits.

https://www.1001modelkits.com/boeing-73 ... fleet.html

Here I am happy to finally have my decals when I open the parcel and see this:



Do the math. This can't be good.

SURE ENOUGH:






Faaaaaaantastic.

And there's NO EXCUSE for it. The stuff would have easily fit in the envelope if they were to simply fold it at the TOP and not through the middle of the $%&E%&#%&# sheet of decals. CLEARLY intentional.



So anyway.... this thing came from France but the return address is here in the U.S. A neighboring state, at that. Here's the bummer:

"In the event that the product you receive doesn’t satisfy your needs, you can return it within 30 days and receive a full refund (excluding shipping). Damaged, opened or incomplete products cannot be returned."

Scumbags. So, if they don't pony up to just send me a replacement, I'll be out two instances of shipping which winds up being more than the stupid sheet of decals. And look, DAMAGED things can't be returned?? So you can just destroy something, and send it to someone and ..... tough luck? Dirtbags.


Thoughts of salvaging these are pitiful because while I have wiggle room with the cheatlines and can probably afford to lose 2-3 mm of it the crease is right through the middle of the airline name and that can't be fixed.

I was suspicious before but now I am 100% certain that this IS a cursed build. At this point I might pull my tested trick of just turning it into a what-if and rolling with it. If I do this, I can go ahead and buy the innacurate replace Bra.z engines and claim the innacuracies to be simply new design features. I don't know, though, I REALLY had my hopes set on this being Air Saudia because I love the colors and stuff and the cheatlines are neat.

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I hope that's not too confusing!


So, NOW, I am at the point of contacting 1001maquettes to see if they'll send me a new sheet. If they want me to blow more money on a return, I'll put a stamp directly on the ruined sheet of decals and send it to that Arkansas adress. Working on getting a new set of transfers and failing that I'm just going to turn this into Alaskan Airlines or some bullshit.

[Uros]

I think you can save the decals. It's not as bad as it looks. There is spare colours for the cheatline and you can touch up the titles with thin brush and some black paint. I think its worth a try.

[TheChronicOne]

That's the plan if these con artists don't want to correct the situation. The break in the airline name is through a simpler portion of the Arabic letters so that's good. It won't look right but I'll just have to make it work anyway.

[TheChronicOne]

Decal problem has been sorted. They're sending me a new set. This makes THREE sets of sheets that have gone into this thing.

Anyway.....

This could well be the first forward progress of any merit on the 737 within the last half year. FINALLY on track with the engines. They'll never be as good as the ones I've seen others make but they'll work. As I've mentioned numerous time before and will continue to repeat... all this cutting and extending and scratch building things etc. is still new to me so I'll count my blessings and be happy I've managed this much with these engines and won't push my luck any further by trying to further detail them. (quit while you're ahead.... )



Pretty much done with this one.



I need to add a little more putty to this one.

Won't be long and I'll prime these up to see what needs sanded smooth then I can paint them and I SHOULD be done with ALL the paint on this aside from the vortex poles and maybe one other rinky dink thing.


Soon I'll be applying transfers, as well.

[RayS]

Glad to hear the decals problem has been sorted Brad. Boy you have been fighting this one all the way.

Here's to a trouble free end of the build!

I wish I could get motivated to get back to mine.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, Ray!! I've been struggling a bit myself with the motivation. Every time I do find some and I get working and eager to proceed something bogus happens and hits the reset button. I've never had anything fight me so thoroughly.

I've started and completed a dozen other models in the time since I started this one.

Back to work on it today already, though! Been sanding and I'm about ready to prime.

[TheChronicOne]

I've made some breakthroughs on this one; we're in business!

I'm now done with the engines. They actually don't look half bad.... for me. I've managed to stretch them and blend that in and also put the heavier pylon attachment up front. The rest will have to be as-is as came from the Airfix factory. I'm not going to push my luck.


Also pictured: My messed up Tristar engines. I've almost got them whipped into shape, too, though.

So, after a few rounds of sanding and some putty here and there I've sprayed them and glossed them. They're now ready for transfers then a last coat of clear and can be set aside until I put the vortex poles on. I had to stop and dry fit them to the wings and make adjustments to get them to fit properly.


I've since refined a fair bit of this.

So like I said, I painted them. It was about this point I realized I forgot to put the metal colored de-icer strip on the fin so painted that on with enamel real quick. I didn't bother much keeping the sides too straight because it will be overlapped by the fin decals.




So there we have it! Things are progressing nicely again and I'm feeling pretty positive about getting this finished within the next year. I still need to do a bunch of tedious masking to get the undersides done but I'll tackle that after the cheatlines are on. With this build, I'm experimenting with putting on the cheatlines then securing them under clear so I can turn around and use them as masking guidelines. Otherwise I'd be making templates and the like. Speaking of, I AM doing that, too, on my Tristar. A lot of this is still about learning and trying new things so I'm comparing the two methods.

Until next time!!

[RayS]

Engines and white paint looks good, you are guilting me into getting back to mine.

[TheChronicOne]

No better time than the present, Ray!