New office with models! Models! Models!

One of the reasons besides laziness I haven't been posting my new models is because I've been working in a temporary office since September of last year. But I'm in my new office now, and because my employers know I like to build model airplanes, they put in a large shelf that extends one whole wall length, and this nice glass display cabinet. I have room for all my models and more as I build them. But space is not infinite, and when I do eventually reach maximum shelf capacity, I'll have to let some go. Contact me if you want any. Here's a picture of the top portion I call the "Lockheed Section" of the glass case. The Boeing B-47 sits on top on the outside. It was hanging in my temporary office, but I got a Trumpeter display stand for it and I like it better this way.

Otaki 1/144 Lockheed L-1011 Demonstrator

Yes, yes, I have been building models continuously since my last blog entry which was several months ago. One of them is this nice Otaki L-1011 Tristar in 1/144 scale. This is the first time I've built one of these. I could not afford it when it came out in the late 70s. Needless to say I could barely afford this one today! This model draws high prices due to its collectability and the fact that for years it was the only decent model kit of the Tristar. Airfix's and Revell's were based on early drawings and both had misshapen noses. Otaki got theirs right and the kit is magnificent. I used Microscale's Lockheed demonstrator decals because that airplane flew over my house in Lancaster almost every day it seemed during the 70s. Microscale originally intended these decals for the Revell Tristar, but they work just fine on the Otaki one. In fact, one could probably use them just fine on the new Eastern Express L-1011 which is a completely new molding and seems to be quite accurate. Anyway, for one to make Lockheed's first L-1011 using the Microscale decals, you have to manually paint the orange panels and red stripes. What a pain! White stripes are included on the decal sheet, which makes it easy to cover up mistakes between the demarcation lines. Other than that, it's a straightforward affair as with any other airliner model. I even won second place in the 1/144 scale category at the last IPMS show in Portland OR.

Hasegawa's Classic Boeing B-47E Stratojet in 1/72 Scale!

Another model airplane kit I used to drool over at Peterson's Hobbies in Lancaster California was the Hasegawa B-47E Stratojet. It's still in production to this day I think, and older ones are still on the market at reasonable prices. The one you see here is vintage early 1970s. Hasegawa doesn't date anything on their boxes and instruction sheets, but I believe this model came out in 1973 based on reviews and advertisements about it in SCALE MODELER magazines from the time. Anyway, I built this one straight from the box with wheels up so I could hang it in my office. I think the Stratojet looks sleeker in flight too - she's really a beautiful airplane. I was originally wanting to revert her to an A model, or even a B model based on an article in an old FSM magazine, but the conversion process looked too complicated, especially in the nose area and the JATO rocket nozzles. So I just did the version she's molded in, the main production E. I used Testors buffing aluminum from a spray can and polished certain areas with a Dremel tool with buffing wheel. The anti-flash white on the undersides was painted using Tamiya white primer. Decals are stock. I left off the wing tanks to make her look more like a B model. Based on some photographs I saw, not all E models flew with the tanks on. I think she looks better this way, uncluttered and sleek.

Revell TWA Lockheed L-1011 Cutaway Display Plane

It's been almost a year since I last posted something - I've been lazy. Not with model building, but with taking pictures and posting. A fellow model builder however wrote to me today after finding this blog and now I've got some motivation to start posting again. So I'll start with a classic from 1973: the Revell "show-off" L-1011 in 1/144 scale. This kit fascinated me as a kid but I never bought it. When I finally did fly on a TWA L-1011 in the summer of 1977, the model had all but disappeared from store shelves. It's an expensive model these days on the market, but I found this affordable one on eBay in a tattered box with no decals. I used a set of TWA decals from the Otaki L-1011. The side "star streak" arrows didn't line up with the windows, but all I had to do was cut them at different locations, line them up, and cover any disparities with generic red striping decal pieces.
The cabin interior of the model was the most work. I hand painted all the seats, floors, galleys, etc. to match the box cover art. On the TWA Tristar I flew in, I don't remember the cabin being all different colors but I wanted to make the model look like the box cover.
I used Tamiya gloss white from a rattle can for the upper fuselage, and Testors canned chrome silver for the underbelly and wings. Mistakes were covered up with strips of Bare Metal Foil which blends with the Testors chrome almost perfectly. I airbrushed the inner wing panels with a mixture of flat gray and light gray.
This is a fun model to have in my office. It represents the early days of the L-1011. The Otaki L-1011 is a much more refined and detailed model, and I am currently working on one which I'll post once I'm finished.