Boeing B-17G from the motion picture "The Biggest Bundle of Them All" (F-BGSP) 1/72 Academy

Don't know if this ex-warbird qualifies as a civil aircraft, but it certainly was in civil register during the filming of the 60's crime comedy "The Biggest Bundle of Them All". The plane was owned by French Institut Géographique National at that time and later it was featured also in the motion picture "Memphis Belle". A concise history of the original "Pink Lady" can be read from here:
www.thepinklady.fr


This is how "Pink Lady" looked like in the final sequences of the film, a very dirty and mishandled old bomber. Fortunately it was mostly just painted and weathered to look like that, not really waiting for scrapping.




Building this model was a very funny excercise, as real airliners get never this dirty and mean. All painting and weathering was done by freehand airbrush.



There weren't any really good shots of the underside of the plane, but it looked probably something like this.







This is a fairly accurate model reproduction of the film plane, but it still looks a bit boring. No doubt a B-17 in French geographic institute livery has to be built too!

B.O.A.C. Boeing 377 Stratocruiser G-ALSB 1/144 Minicraft

Let's look at some more Boeings, here's the distinctive Stratocruiser. As a civil airliner based on the B-29 Superfortress bomber it was top of the line but too complicated for cost-effective maintenance. The military version was more succesful as a plane, but the Stratocruiser was usually well liked by its passengers.




This Minicraft kit is quite simple with really basic details, but the overall shape is at least acceptable. It clearly looks like a Stratocruiser, but I wouldn't want to take any closer measurements. The propellers are a joke, but nevermind.





The decals are out-of-the-box B.O.A.C. and very nice, the classic British 50's livery looks really nice on this model too.







Academy has the Stratocruiser in 1/72 scale, I'm tempted to try that one with some other classic airliner livery. Too bad it would take a serious chunk out of my display shelving.

Pan Am Boeing 727-200 Clipper Charmer Minicraft 1/144

The Boeing 727 is a classic airliner of the 700-series and the Minicraft kit is not bad at all. There should be tons of aftermarket decals available in this scale, but I liked the Minicraft stock Pan Am billboard livery.

All-white fuselage should be correct for this plane, although the silver-gray bottom was more common.

Kit quality was good and this was an easy build, I corrected some minor details like #2 engine intake and tail top as they were easy to do. I'm not sure about the nose shape, it's close enough for me but some say Minicraft never got their Boeing nose right.

Decals were really good: thin but not fragile. The Pan Am blue looks a bit dark and slightly odd shade but that's just nitpicking, overall this model is well above average in my Boeing collection. I'd like to try the Airfix version too as it's been re-released recently.

TWA Lockheed 1049 Super Constellation N7101C Heller 1/72

Lockheed Constellation is my favourite airliner and this big model was built over 10 years ago. The final varnish coat has already yellowed as the white paint under it as well, but it just adds the charm.

Old Heller kits tend to be tricky to build, but the results are usually quite accurate considering the time they were released. I don't recall any particular problems with this model, except that I had to keep adding those nose weights up to a ridiculous amount of metal.

The antennas and some wing top details are missing, but I want to keep this just as it is, a happy reminder of the essence of scale modeling.

This Connie was built with very modest skills back then, but I still like the results in a nostalgic way. I don't know if I have room for another 1/72 Connie, but most certainly would like to try it again at least in the 1/144 scale.

Swissair McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 HB-IFY Fly 1/144

A brand new DC-9 kit from Czech manufacturer Fly and no doubt the best one at that so far. This isn't for the beginners, but it isn't a limited run nightmare either.





Box decals were for a NASA plane, but I wanted something different and used F-DCAL silk screen Swissairs instead. They are issued for the old Airfix kit, but fortunately they fit this Fly kit quite well too. Only the nose anti-glare panel was too narrow.


There's no glosscoat on the wings or stabilizers, just on the white top and over the decals. Resin antennas were included, but I didn't want to use them as I intend to keep this model out of a display case.



I'm not sure if I like the cockpit window rivets, but otherwise this nose looks remarkably similar to the real DC-9. Much better than Airfix, or Minicraft.

A classic livery on a classic plane, Revell white enamel and Miranol Koristemaali silver paint compliment the bright decals.


Unless I get really lucky with finishing next time there isn't much room for improvement I think, this is as good as it gets with these skills of mine.



A Finnair DC-9-50 conversion is possible, but it means fiddling with both the kit and the decals. Maybe some day...

Eurowings BAe 145-200 D-AJET 1/144 Revell

This Revell kit was both a disappointment and success, I had to build this gears up as I couldn't figure out how the main landing gear was supposed to fit in the fuselage.

Otherwise details are fine and fittings good, despite the diminutive size. This plane would be nice to build in 1/72 scale.


Decals were fine too, except that the door markings didn't align with the recessed detail lines. Not surprising though, they rarely do.





All painting was done with Revell enamels and Iwata airbrush, no problems there. Final glosscoat is floorwax again.



Finnish company Blue1 has these planes too, but unfortunately there aren't any aftermarket decals for them. However having seen Blue1 Avros often I can confirm this kit looks like the real thing quite well.





Brussels Airways flies these planes to Helsinki too but I don't know if there are any decals available either.







Revell doesn't make this kit any more and likewise BAe/Avro don't deliver new planes, but both the kit and real planes are still quite well around.