Minicraft 1/144 Iron Maiden 757

[LSP_Kevin]

On 2/12/2024 at 10:29 AM, Out2gtcha said:

 

Question for you Kev,

Do you have to fill and smooth over all the cockpit and cabin windows to use those?

 

You certainly would if there were moulded window holes. With this kit there are not, so that makes using them easy - and a no brainer! I'm not familiar with the Zvezda kit, however. I guess if it has moulded-in window holes with the traditional strip of clear window inserts, you could always apply the decals over the top of those. Usually, though, the outlines of the physical windows are pretty evident.

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

19 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

You certainly would if there were moulded wind holes. With this kit there are not, so that makes using them easy - and a no brainer! I'm not familiar with the Zvezda kit, however. I guess if it has moulded-in window holes with the traditional strip of clear window inserts, you could always apply the decals over the top of those. Usually, though, the outlines of the physical windows are pretty evident.

 

 

I've got a 1/144th Revell 777-300 ER ar home to do, and noticed that AAD has a set of cockpit ans cabin decals for the kit.

 

It's been a LONG time since I've dug the kit out, so can't remember what itooks like.

I've got to assume it probably does have molded in windows that would need filling.

[LSP_Kevin]

7 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

I've got a 1/144th Revell 777-300 ER ar home to do, and noticed that AAD has a set of cockpit ans cabin decals for the kit.

 

It's been a LONG time since I've dug the kit out, so can't remember what itooks like.

I've got to assume it probably does have molded in windows that would need filling.

 

Most Revell airliner kits do. Some prefer it, some (like me) prefer window decals in this scale. The "3D" decals really do lift the end result in my opinion, more so than over-thick, poorly-fitting clear styrene.

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

1 hour ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

Most Revell airliner kits do. Some prefer it, some (like me) prefer window decals in this scale. The "3D" decals really do lift the end result in my opinion, more so than over-thick, poorly-fitting clear styrene.

 

That was kind of my thinking, but not having built an airliner kit (or any kit in 1/144th for that matter) I wasn't sure if leaving the window in, or smoothing them over was the right choice.

 

I think I might pick a set of those up, along with a set of the AM triple 7 engines I've seen.

 

My next quandary will be how to apply the massive airliner decals I have! Think I might make some stencils of of them.....

 

Thanks for the info!

[LSP_Kevin]

I somehow managed to make quite a bit of progress on this one today - partly triggered by an epiphany I had with solving the wing fit issues. But first, here's a quick demonstration of the differences in each wing root. First, a couple of photos showing how ropey the cut-outs are:

 

 

 

Next, measuring from the marked panel line to the top of the front part of the cut-out. Port side:

 

 

And starboard side:

 

 

So there's nearly a full millimetre's difference in height, assuming that the panel line is in the same place on each side.

 

During my various test fitting experiments, I noticed that if you slide and clamp the wing prongs together outside of the fuselage, they actually lock together rather nicely, and provide what looks like correct and symmetrical dihedral. It's only when you try to do this inside the fuselage that it all gets messed up, exacerbated by the different positions of the wing roots.

 

 

Rather than fiddle with the cut-outs on each side trying to even them up somehow, I figured if I could just take this version of the wing assembly and slide it up into place, I could adjust the position on each side to ensure they were even, with the dihedral and asymmetry issues already taken care of. So I decided to remove that section of the fuselage that prevents this from being possible:

 

 

The wings are now glued up, taking care to ensure that the correct width exists between them front and back to allow them to slip into place without any undue gaps.

 

I think I've now read almost every review and build of this kit ever published on the Internet, and one of those mentioned in passing that the tailplanes were also asymmetrical, but mine seemed to be OK as far as position was concerned. However, they were each doing their own thing when it came to their own dihedral:

 

 

After removing some material from the connecting tab, I was able to get it close to even:

 

 

Not perfect, but certainly good enough.

 

The tailplanes themselves were also plagued by some sink marks and a generally uneven surface, to I marked the worst of it with a permanent marker, ready for sanding:

 

 

Those wings will still be a challenge to get right, but at least I have a plan now, which gives me some hope!

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Great solution Kev!

[chrish]

Great problem solving!

kinda reminds me of a vac kit with these iffy fit issues.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

8 minutes ago, chrish said:

Great problem solving!

kinda reminds me of a vac kit with these iffy fit issues.

 

 

Ironically I have the Welsh vac 757 kit, too! Probably better than this one, actually.

 

Kev

[Derek B]

15 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

Ironically I have the Welsh vac 757 kit, too! Probably better than this one, actually.

 

Kev

 

Indeed Kev...it is believed that some recent early short run injection airliner model kits may have been copies, or modified copies, of some vacform kits, which may have been used as a start basis to work from. Although vacform kits do, due to the nature of their media, have certain limitations compared to injection moulded kits, they can still be very accurate in shape and scale fidelity (and, being thinner plastic, much lighter as well).

 

Derek

[LSP_Kevin]

A little more progress. I've got the wings fixed in place, and sadly there's still a small lean to starboard, as evidenced by the vertical fin:

 

 

This is making the port wing tip sit too high.

 

 

Not sure if this is better (or even different) than I would have achieved without the mods, but it's done now. I might be able to modify the landing gear to compensate, but I won't lose any sleep over it. Once I get the tailplanes on, I'll set about turning this thing into a putty monster!

 

Kev

[chrish]

Putty can hide a multitude of transgressions. There’s a saying I use when fabricating and welding steel stuff, “grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain’t” …..a saying I’ve carried over to my modelling with putty and paint 

[LSP_Kevin]

A bit of a longer update, this one - the end of which leaves the viability of the project hanging in the balance!

 

My next move after the last update was to fix the awful leading edges of the tailplanes at their roots:

 

 

They're bulbous, blocky, and don't blend into the fuselage at all.

 

Here's my best attempt to fix them, and comparison of the two:

 

 

 

Still not perfect, but a bit of filler should take care of the rest.

 

I then moved to tackling the fuselage seams. I started by filling the cut-outs I made with stretched sprue, before laying down a bead of black rubberised CA along all the joins:

 

 

I also did two of the three cabin doors on each side, as they're situated too low:

 

 

Here's a close-up of the kit's abysmal wing root fairing:

 

 

And the real thing:

 

 

Ugh.

 

Now comes the coup de gras. Since the point of tackling this awful kit was so I could put some cool Iron Maiden stickers on it, I thought I'd better check that they fit. They're home-produced decals, and I was assured by the vendor that they were designed for this Minicraft kit. But hey, if only life were that simple:

 

 

And if you're thinking, well at least it seems OK at the front, think again:

 

 

Doesn't look like a "designed to fit" scenario to me. Now, I know that the Minicraft tail is inaccurate in shape, and perhaps the tail decals are scale accurate in that regard. But that just means that I was initially misled when purchasing these decals, and also can't use them on this build. Thank heavens I stopped to check!

 

So, where to now? As I see it, these are my options:

1. Revert to the kit livery and finish the model;
2. Bin the whole thing as a bad idea;
3. Modify the tail decals to fit the kit tail, potentially distorting the iconic design;
4. Modify the kit tail to match the decals, potentially creating worse accuracy issues.

 

I don't have the Zvezda kit, but I do have the Welsh Models 757, so I'm going to drag it out and check the decals against it. If they fit better, than I'll probably pass them onto that build and do something else here. That would be the neatest solution, even if I'm not particularly interested in the Northwest livery that comes with the kit. And anyone who knows me will realise that #2 is just not an option. I'm not keen on #3, and #4 seems like a lot of work for a kit that really isn't worth it. So it's probably going to be Option #1, and I'll just have to see if I can use the Iron Maiden decals elsewhere.

 

There is one more option that I just thought of: I also have decals from another manufacturer for the later "Final Frontier" tour livery, so perhaps I should see if they fit better.

 

I'll be back later with the results of those fit tests. Stay tuned!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

OK, so the tail decals don't fit the Welsh kit at all - probably even less so than here. I broke out my V1 Decals for the later livery - also allegedly designed for the Minicraft kit - and had much better luck:

 

 

A little short at the bottom, but I can live with that, so I'll be switching to this livery. That leaves me with set of "Somewhere in Time" decals that I can't currently use, which is frustrating. I'm thinking I might take my hi-res scan of those decals, adjust it to fit the Welsh tail, and reprint them (just the tails) on decal paper. Worth a try, anyway.

 

Kev

[LSP_Ray]

Why are decals always a battle in one way or another??

[Out2gtcha]

If it's not one thing it's the next thing........

 

Never much cared for decals after finding a cutter, but in some cases like this, the cutting masks is simply not possible.

 

With the way the decals fit I personally might have cut some of the decal off at at base of the fin at an angle (wedge shape) with more off of the front and tried to lie up the trailing edge.....and then maybe just added to/fudged the leading edge of the fin to fit the decal.

I'm probably not as concerned with accuracy as some in this type of situation.