Airfix BAC 1-11 - AIR CALIFORNIA -

[TheChronicOne]

That RAAF bird is glorious!! Sorry, I missed that earlier when I swiftly stopped by to say "thanks." Honored to be in good company with yous that flew and worked on one! Wow! And thanks for taking interest in my build.


As far as the tail fin chord... that's going to have to be the one thing I don't fix. I would, I swear, but it's beyond my skills I do believe! This thing is kicking my ass as it is and I initially started it wanted a swift, simple build. I was thinking, "it's not big, won't be no thing!" HA!!!

But anyway!!! I can report now that I am finally back on track and have all the wing problems fixed and she's primed once again and ready for paint:



The one last thing that caught my eye, though, is the windscreens. I glued in the glass piece per the kit instructions then just smoothed it over. This is how the kit is designed and how it would be OOB. BUT, were the windscreens on the real thing actuall recessed like that or should I fill all that in and smooth it over? I'm using aftermarket windscreen decals, of course.

Once I get this last little thing figured out I will be using a cheap-ass can of rattle paint (white) and then mask for the black bottom... then it'll be brush painting and decals from there on! This is so fun.... won't be long now before I'm finished!


EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot, I also have a couple of new wing fences that I will glue on first then hit with a quick shot of primer.

[RayS]

Nice progress Brad, I would be filling the windscreen to be flush with the fuselage skin. The same thing happened on my current Airfix 737 build and I had to add putty to bring it up to skin level.

[TheChronicOne]

Ok, will do. Damn, here I was thinking I could paint. I'm just glad I noticed it before I got carried away. I'll get started on that here in a couple days. It'll be a bit tedious to do it and still maintain the flat surfaces where needed. Should work out alright, though. No better time to practice than on the current build and this is definitely a thing I need to get better at! The first airliner I did I used the glass and masked it and all that crap but I much prefer using transfers......

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Thanks gents.

I'll be back to work on this'n tomorrow. Should be dry enough to properly sand on by then.

I hadn't thought about the fin chord!! Is the tail fin too wide or something? Yikes!

The tail fin is too narrow, by about 5mm or so, IIRC. Also the nose gear is dead centre on the model, whereas they were offset on the real thing.

Ahhh, I think you are confusing the nose gear offset with the Trident. As I recall the nose gear was on the centre line of the BAC 1-11 Damo.

My mistake...it is indeed the Trident I was working on..

[Ansett A330]

My mistake...it is indeed the Trident I was working on..

You can see the "HS" heritage if you get one half of an Airfix Trident fuselage and the other fuselage half of a Revell 146 and put them together. Almost spot on!

[TheChronicOne]

Finally enough work done on this worth talking about. I'm caught back up to where I was now. The front of this is now smooth and level. Nose is correct length and shape and the windows are no longer sunken in.



I did the best I could to maintain the facets so the windows actually look flat like they're supposed to. I hope it works. It looks alright but I'll know for sure when I put the transfer on. So here it is now:



Now I've masked the wings off and can spray it white then I'll let it alone for a few days, then I'll need to mask so I can paint the black lower portion of the fuselage and rear part of the fin.

After that, I'll gloss it. Then, I'll take the masking off the wings and mask the fuselage and glue the fences on, prime the wings one last time, then that will be the end of masking aside from silver strips on the wing leading edges and the engines, which I will do dead last because I will spray them with my magical silver paint. It can't be touched or glossed over so it needs to be put on last.

It's good to be making forward progress on this one again! I should be done by September. I could be done in a few days if I really hauled ass but I ain't in the ass hauling business. I don't want to rush things and mess it up. This is only second actual passenger airliner I've done so no hurry... I'd rather take my time and make something that looks nice instead of a sky-turd.

[Graeme H]

Really looks a lot better now, bring in the painters

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!!

I've had my paint warming up on top of the Hi-Fi for a couple hours (works great, makes the can just shy of hot but nothing approaching where I need to worry about it exploding). This drastically reduces orange peel. (I also shake the everloving crap out of the can, too, that helps) Anyway, on that note, I'm going to try to do this entire thing with rattle cans. I had been brush painting damn near everything for the last year and a half but I've been learning ways to coax a good finish out of rattle cans and I think I've gotten to the point where it works pretty well.

So, anyway... the white goes on any minute then she sits in my Helping Hands clamp for a few days. Good thing the humidity has gone down recently, I shouldn't have to wait too long before I can put tape on it so I can paint the black.

Also, it just struck me that I don't have a picture of the actual subject in here?? How'd I manage that? Anyway, here it is:

[TheChronicOne]

Quick update, the second coat of white is on. Picture quality is lousy but it gets the point across! I'll now let it sit for a few days then I'll put the black on.

[hrtpaul]

Keep up the great work mate