Modeling during COVID

[chuck]

OK, I've been working on other things but work did progress on the 727 to its near final assembly. The hold back was "The Stand". Atlantis omitted the stand from the original kit and it wouldn't be a tremendous loss as it was a pretty mediocre stand. The semi-official recommendation was to use the Polar Lights "Universal Stand" used on all of their Star Trek models. I decided to try to make a stand out of material available at Hobby Lobby, Ace Hardware and tubing/sheet styrene from LHS.

Main components. The kidney bean shaped piece of metal on the left is a rare earth magnet from a disk drive. This allows me to used the stand with the other airline kits without having to build additional stands. The plastic "box" to hold the magnet it to the right. There is a piece of styrene with a piece of gray velour fabric F77 SprayMounted to it to protect the belly of the plane. A dowel will provide the main support and lighting fixture hardware attaches it to the base.



Rear "panel" has been cut and will be glued in place shortly. I wanted to document the assembly.



The fabric piece is placed on the box and I did do a test fit with the plane sans the wings and control surfaces. I tried to keep the model size as small as possible to avoid damage while I worked on the stand. Magnet will keep the plane in place and it takes a bit of effort to slide it off.



I will finish assembly and paint the "box" and then finish the plane. I did work on a different kind of "kit" in between. I bought an IKEA display cabinet to hold some of the models.



I may get a second one later this year but I have always acknowledged that we would need a lot more room to display everything so a lot of the models are wrapped in tissue paper and stored in boxes in Rubber Maid Tubs in the basement. These will eventually be rotated with models on display.

[healey36]

That's a nice looking display case; how tall is it? Would love to see a few shots of your 1/700-scale ships on the lower shelf.

[chuck]

15"x39"x40". 2 glass shelves. It's called "Milsbo" in the IKEA catalog. $199.00 here. Also "out of stock" here. Top is great for the submarines (all 1/144) and the occasional rocket/missile that won't fit inside.

I'll try to get some shots of the warships. Mix of WW2 and modern, four still in the pipeline. Nelson, Gneisenau, Hood, and Wisconsin with cruise missiles. The Long Beach, Bismarck, Nimitz are still in their boxes, Bismarck started. Combination of 1/700 and 1/720. These were on display in my wife's China closet. She whole heartedly supported my decision to get my own display case!

[healey36]

Thanks...I’ll have to get down to IKEA and take a look. My one display case is currently loaded with 1/43-scale, some out-of-the-box diecast and some built resin kits. All of the 1/72 is in storage. I sold off the 1/700, built and unbuilt, a couple decades ago, but I kept one IJN DD kit for posterity. Always loved the 1/700 stuff, going all the way back to the early 1970s. The new kits, with the optional wooden decks and all of the photo-etch, are just brilliant. Never quite mastered the deck railing PE bit, though.

Maybe you shouldn’t post those pics, lol.

[chuck]

The Long Beach is still in the box because of the photo etch. She's borderline size for that scale. Works better for battleships and carriers. Almost worthless for submarines. Reminds me of the cereal box toys from when I was a little kit. I actually bought some 1/1200 scale Heller ship kits to try and super detail a Star Destroyer. I did steal the 5" guns from a 1/720 scale Massachusetts for the main batteries

[chuck]

Here is the finished 727. The "box" holding the magnet is basically a prototype. I will continue to use this stand for the other commercial plane kits I have, a 727 and a Constellation. I will also use the technology for some future builds like the Orion space shuttle from 2001. I will use commercially available super magnets from Lowes/Home Depot instead of the disk drive magnet inside the "box" as I can make that assembly much thinner/less intrusive. I will also try using smaller magnets to hold the shuttle rear and front parts together to allow me to change the batteries for the cabin lights. I experimented with making the carrier elevators positional on the 1/720 scale Enterprise but found that magnets I could hide could also not handle the cantilevered weight of the elevators.

[sleepmac]

Chuck, very nice!

Dan Weinhold

[healey36]

Really nice job. Spittin’ image of the Eastern 727s I used to fly out of BWI to San Juan when I worked for Pfizer. Always loved the 727...take-offs were a blast, literally.

[chuck]

Thanks, to both of you.

I both enjoyed and was terrified by takeoffs from Laguardia, especially when it runway 31 heading due north west. The plane is heading for Washington Heights, the highest point on Manhattan and there were some 50 story apartment buildings perched on the east side. If you dropped anything during takeoff it was bouncing back to the rear of the plane, period.

I have a 737 in 1/72 scale that's next for the stand (as soon as I find the right and left fuselage halves) and a Connie 749 that I will do up in TWA markings. When they are not on the stand they will probably be in storage. The Connie is a Heller kit with wheel wells so the gear will be down and it could stand on its gear. The 737 has holes in the body and a facsimile of gear doors so it will be gear up like the 727. Keeping my eye's peeled for a Heller 707. Mach 2 has done a DC-8 but it's typical Mach 2. It's so bad it almost makes the RB-57 look decent.

[sleepmac]

Chuck, when you say, "Connie 749", is that a Lockheed Super Constellation? I always thought the triple rudder tail was cool. I know nothing else about the Super Connie!

Dan Weinhold

[chuck]

All the Connies have triple tails. This was done to reduce the overall height of the vertical stabilizer. 749 was the immediate predecessor of the Supper Constellation. It was capable of non-stop Atlantic flights due to increased fuel capacity. They lengthened the fuselage, wings, added wing tip fuel tanks, more powerful engines, etc, etc on the Super Constellation. Much larger bird.

box art



I'm using the TWA livery.

Super G kit has been released mainly in the military radar picket/hurricane hunter version. Here is the passenger version box art from about 20 years ago



Can't find an instruction sheet for the civillian model. Military version has a lot fewer ROUND windows. The radomes are add ons. It's possible they relied on the decal sheet to simulate the windows. The 749 has a crap load of clear circular inserts!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nice modeling - keep it up and post more!

[sleepmac]

Chuck, thanks.

Dan

[chuck]

Here are the 1/700 and 1/720 scale ships (so far). Hood's masts have already taken some serious damage which is what I would expect in a china closet where table wear and glassware have to be moved in/out. Cest le Vie









Nelson's missing her crane on the forward port side, Wisconsin also has some radio/radar mast damage. I think I know where the crane is?

[healey36]

Very nice, Chuck. Scharnhorst in the second shot? Hood was a lovely ship, one of if not the last of Fisher’s battlecruisers. The trade-off of armor for speed proved a poor one. The scale of loss from a magazine explosion in a capital ship is almost too much to comprehend. Only three survivors from Hood’s sinking.

Now, where did I put that destroyer?