A most unusual 707 kit

[tor lives]

Hi all,
Having just been looking at Wally's lovely Air Niugini 1:72 707 build, it prompted me to break out and have a look at a rather unusual 1:72 707 that I bought a little while ago. It is the AIRTEC, (a manufacturer that I have not heard of before or since), solid resin and white metal kit and I must say that, while a simplistic build, it has captured the shape of the big, ol 707 just beautifully, (perhaps even more so than the Heller kit in the same scale). Here she is:



TOR

[avgeek07]

Wow, looks like my kind of kit , what an absolute beauty!!!

[Knotty]

Looks like a retirement kit , just glue the wings and engines on and hardly any putty !!! My kind of kit also Very nice Ray , Qantas scheme I assume ?

[Graeme H]

Just noticed this one
That looks a nice piece of resin there Ray, wonder if it preceeded the Heller kit, or came during the period when the Heller kit was hard to get?
Does it look like it has any resembalance to the Heller kit?

[kfutter]

Man, that thing must weight a ton!

Kev

[Adam the Akrodude]

Man, that thing must weight a ton!

Kev

It does beg the question, will the white metal gear handle the weight?

C'mon Ray - build it, I wanna know! This looks like a weekend build in any case!

[SpaceRanger]

I can't read the address on the instructions in the posted photo, but the Airtec I know was a cottage industry in business from 1976 to 1981, associated with Craftec Hobbies, a local hobby shop in East Windsor, Connecticut. I knew the principals when I lived in Connecticut about the same time. Airtec produced some vac-form kits and accessories, They also produced some solid foam kits intended as desk/display models, and your 707 appears to be one of them. The others, all 1/72, were:

Convair 240
Convair 580
Lockheed L-188 Electra
Martin 4-0-4 (one of these unassembled kits recently sold for US $81 on ebay!)

These can be made into some very nice models, but be EXTREMELY careful when sanding any seams. As stated, these are made from a molded resin foam, and it is possible to sand through the outer surface skin to expose the foam structure, which can then be repaired only with great difficulty if at all.