So here's where we start, with a pile of kits and decals, My original plan was to make four models, two each of Ansett and TAA and two each of the -100 and -200. As it turned out, over the years I picked up a few other 727 kits and then I looked at the Hawkeye catalog and saw that they offered all the various schemes that Australian 727s flew in, and now I need another kit to enable me to make them all.
The only difference that I can see between the -100 and -200 kits is the fuselage. The obvious difference is that one is longer than the other, another is that there are no open doors in the -200 and also the -200 has that double bubble fuselage.
I started by doing the basic assembly on the -100s. Two of them went okay but on the third one the fuselages were badly warped so it ended up looking like a mummy with all the masking tape holding the two halves together until everything had set.
Later I added the wings and began the process of knocking off all the rough edges and filling all the gaps. Either the kits are less than perfect or my assembly technique is not what it should be because there was a lot of work at this stage to get the models ready for the next stage.
The other of the -100s has been pushed on a little and is ready to enter the paint shop. It will be finished as one of Ansett-ANA's -100s and so I've masked it to do the lower fuselage first before going on with the upper side white and red tail.
Just in case some of you are too young to remember, or are so advanced in age that you can no longer remember, here is what the Ansett-ANA 727 looked like. If you were to ask me, I'd say that this was one of the most attractive schemes that 727s flew in.
Having got to this stage, I have a couple of little problems that you might be able to help me with. The first is, does anyone have some photos of these Ansett-ANA 727s that shows the upper wing surfaces or a suggestion of how they should look. The Hawkeye instructions suggest that the leading edges were polished aluminium followed by a corigard panel and then the rest of the wing white. This seems unlikely and it is likely to be Boeing grey rather than white. Any suggestions?
The other question relates to the decals. i have the Hawkeye set for the Ansett-ANA 727-100 and also the old Microscale set which does not give any of the fuselage striping. If anyone has made this model, I'm wondering if they have any suggestions about which would be best to use. All suggestions welcomed.
