Andrew's Airfix Ford Trimotor **DNF**

[AndrewR]

How are you going to mask that red bit at the front ?

With great difficulty

I'm considering that at the moment.

[AndrewR]

The red painted area is clearly marked out by the corrugated part of the fuselage.



Masking on top of corrugations is probably doomed to failure, so I will paint the red first, mask it and then spray the metallic.

Cheers

Andrew

[AndrewR]

A bit of spare milliput added to the very skinny figures.



A rather low key start

[AndrewR]

Canada Day turned out to have bad weather in the afternoon here: thunderstorm and torrential rain for an hour or so. Taking advantage of this, here are a few sprue shots:



Nicely moulded, although there is a little flash. The fuselage is designed as a box (as was the original!). The bits seem to fit together quite well.



There's a proper interior too. Passenger seats, looking a little chunky perhaps, but certainly better than nothing.



The engines have nice detail on the cylinders. The cockpit comes with crew, seats, steering wheel type control columns and an instrument panel. That's much better than many old Airfix kits.

[AndrewR]

The mail compartments in the wings are "working features" and I will cement them shut, saving construction of the interiors.



The pilot figures are quite good in a Troy Tempest sort of way, although I will be leaving them out. I want to build the aircraft with the passengers embarking, some already seated and some just getting on.

The doors in the cabin compartment come as two bulkheads with moulded - in doors.For embarkation, the rear door needs to be open. So I built a replacement door and bulkhead

[TimJ]

Off to a good start.

[AndrewR]

Off to a good start.

Mostly deciding what NOT to include!

Also some tough decisions on the colours of the seat upholstery will need to be made

[VickersVandal]

The red painted area is clearly marked out by the corrugated part of the fuselage.

Masking on top of corrugations is probably doomed to failure, so I will paint the red first, mask it and then spray the metallic.

Cheers

Andrew

I have the same issue with the Junkers. I'll be interested to see how it goes for you as you will almost certainly get to that stage before me.

[MarkyM607]

They're not chunky they're bucket seats!!.

[PaulBradley]

As I recall, the originals were wicker. Only later were leather-backed seats retro-fitted. Just google 'trimotor seats' for examples.

What I remember most from my flights in N414H was just how noisy the darned thing was! I think I was part-deaf for a week......

[AndrewR]

As I recall, the originals were wicker. Only later were leather-backed seats retro-fitted. Just google 'trimotor seats' for examples.

What I remember most from my flights in N414H was just how noisy the darned thing was! I think I was part-deaf for a week......

The originals do seem to be wicker, and I am not scratchbuilding 12 wickerwork chairs :

I do wonder if they would have used wicker in Alaska though! I'm going to finish them as light grey and dark grey

[Purplethistle]

Alaskan markings eh? Excellent! Great choice for the GB

Star Airlines from Alaska, I should have said!

Looking through the figures spares for sitting passengers, I found a few possibles. These are all very cheap and nasty railway figures from China. Completely varying in size too! From the skinny proportions of some of the standing figures, I suspect they are very bad Preiser knock-offs

The four figures on the left look to be usable with just a clean up. Two seated women passengers, a steward and stewardess standing.



The two sitting figures appear to have sci-fi monkey heads, but are convertible. I found one figure that I had already given a wide brimmed hat. This is the "already started" part of the GB!



I will probably try to resculpt or modify the other figures to represent sitting male passengers. I have lots of these figures, so a few failures will not pose a problem!

I don't know if you're familiar with the work of Dudley D. Watkins, but the figure on the right looks like Hen Broon!

[carlos]

I built one of these a few years back, from the Airfix civil collection (it came packaged with a DH Heron, and DHC Beaver.

IIRC, the engine struts/nacelles/undercarriage legs put up a heck of a fight - just wouldn't align - mightn't be such a struggle now, after a few years of experience, but at the time, for a recent starter, they were a nightmare.....

[AndrewR]

Yes, I have heard bad things about the alignment too

Flight deck assembled except the instrument panel.



The mould was already showing signs of damage, scratching and rust in this old boxing. Seats have visible pits and scratches. So do the hubcaps


The doors to the mail compartments need bracing so that they fit level. The outer wing fits together fairly well.



Internal additions, an open rear internal door into the galley. I intend to pose a figure standing in the doorway.

[AndrewR]

Close to the point of painting the interior. The instructions say Airfix Matt Green M3

http://www.vintage-airfix.com/airfix-to ... t-a-2.html;

This is actually rather dark. I'm not sure I want the interior looking like that,so I think I'll use Three Shades of Grey

Plotline: two people meet across the aisle on a Ford Trimotor, realize they hate each other, and never see each other again.