Latest arrival

I’ve been trying to find another 1/72 airliner to complement Concorde and there are some fine examples available. But I’m too tight to spend more than £20-30. So my compromise is this KC-135R. Ideally I would have liked a 707 with the JT3D engines, but they were all out of my price range, but I’ll keep looking. I’m not going to go down the route of converting this into a 707/720.
My plan was to have my Concorde as G-BOAC in the original livery and I would like to have another airliner in a contemporary livery alongside it. I thought the contrast between the technologies of the time would be interesting. Saying that, I’m a sucker for those liveries of the 50s & 60s, like BEA and Scandanavian. So perhaps I should be looking for something from a bit earlier…

My first impression on seeing the KC was how big Concorde is beside it. The KC is still a big kit, but I was expecting it to be larger somehow.
The second thing was the quality of the moulding on the KC – crisp and plenty of detail.
Now, why couldn’t Airfix have done that.

I’ve had a bit of a break from the Concorde build and started the KC-135R. Well, I’ve got a few builds on the go, as I’m sure most people have. I find I need a change of scene from time to time, and when I return to a subject I have new enthusiasm for it. Now that I’ve discovered the way to add new sections to the blog I can keep my projects separate.

The progress on this has been swift, mainly due to the ease at which the interior has come together. I purchased the Airwaves photo-etch set from Hannants to perk-up the cockpit and exterior. I haven’t added all the parts suggested as most of the details will not be visible and will be handy as spares for other aircraft. I was quite pleased with the result, considering this is the first detailed model painting I’ve done in over 20 years. Photo etch is a new experience for me, so these completely flat parts were a gentle introduction. The detail really pops out and I couldn’t achieve the same level of detail any other way.

Even though most of the detail will be hidden, I took the opportunity to practice some techniques and effects. The most effective, I felt, was using a coloured pencil for the writing on the compartment doors. I just held a ruler up to the part and drew a line or two. An ordinary graphite pencil was used to outline various other panels.