Roden 1/144 Boeing 720 "Starship One"

[Cap'n Wannabe]

G'day all..

Here's another project I've been slowly working on - Roden's 1/144 Boeing 720 "Starship One".  This will be in the gold/burgundy scheme, and more than likely will wear Deep Purple on the sides.  I could have gone with Led Zeppelin, but I have another kit for that.

 

The fuselage assembled, after I'd removed and repositioned the cockpit glass..

 

 

And the aforementioned cockpit glass..

 

 

On the advice of a mate (thanks TOR!) I filled in the windows along the sides, going with decals instead.  I had heard - but not verified - that the kit has too many windows, so opted for decals.  Which brings it's own issues, but more on that later.

 

Here she is after a second round of filler.  A few of the windows didn't fill properly initially..

 

 

 

All primed now.  I cut a piece of sheet plastic to allow me to hold the fuselage when painting - didn't want the wings on at the moment.  Initially I glued it in with white glue, but I've found it has a nice friction fit, so I can put it in and out at will..

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Cap'n Wannabe

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Here's where I stuffed up.  The lower section of the aircraft is white, and the top section is gold.  It has burgundy cheat lines, tailfin and nose.  So initially I was going to paint the white, then do the burgundy, then the gold.  However, the lower cheatline proved too difficult to mask properly, so a different approach was required.

 

 

 

The other issue is the doorframes.  They have alternating burgundy/gold (gold over the cheatline, burgundy over the gold), BUT the decal sheet only has the burgundy sections.  So I would have to do some very fiddly painting to get the gold part.....unless, of course, one's been a draftsman for 25 years and has one's own CAD software...

Initial drawing of the door surrounds, which will be made into decals..

 

 

 

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Oh yeah, the stuff up..

 

I tried masking the cheatlines with Tamiya tape, using cutouts from a photocopy of the decal sheet as a guide.  However, I had positioned the cutout too high, so the tape ended up in the wrong place.  The position of the lower cheatline doesn't allow for making a decent tape mask over the wing root, so I had to come up with a different idea.

The next two pics are masking attempt #1..

 

 

 

And masking attempt #2.  On this attempt, I laid tape along the fuselage with the idea that I'd trace along the bottom of the cheatline with a #11 blade.  Kinda didn't really work...

 

 

 

 

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Once again, I spoke with my mate TOR and talked about how best to tackle the cheatline issue.  In the end, I decided to paint the airframe burgundy (actually, SMS Wine Red), then mask the cheatlines and paint the other colours.  But I needed to make masks...enter AutoCAD again 

With a little measuring and tweaking, and plenty of printouts onto paper I came up with masks that are *almost* the right size.  I say "almost" because I need to extend the curved area by about 0.75mm.  Which I've now done...just need to cut them on my Cameo cutter..(I've been through almost a metre of Oramask today, playing around and getting things just right!

 

 

These are the first "useful" masks cut on the Cameo..

 

 

Here's a set applied to the model.  I applied Tamiya tape along the masks to hold everything together while I transferred them to the model.  Once it was in position, the Tamiya tape came off, as did the middle section of the mask.

 

 

 

And that's where I'm at so far...

 

Edit:  Almost forgot, a huge thanks to you, LSP_Kev, for your advice regarding the Cameo!

Edited July 27, 2022 by Cap'n Wannabe

[LSP_Kevin]

Looking good, Damo! I managed to score a surplus set of decals from this kit, but I'll be using them on a Welsh Models vac, as I don't actually have the Roden kit. Can't wait to see this one after paint!

 

Kev

[Kagemusha]

Looks great, didn't see many 720's, didn't see that many 707's either.

[LSP_K2]

Is that a newer version of AutoCAD? Looks familiar, but different. I'm only running 2005.

[Cap'n Wannabe]

57 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

Is that a newer version of AutoCAD? Looks familiar, but different. I'm only running 2005.

It's ACAD 2019.  I had it installed when I was working from home for an engineering company.  My personal licence is 2013, which I still use occasionally..

[Cap'n Wannabe]

8 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Looking good, Damo! I managed to score a surplus set of decals from this kit, but I'll be using them on a Welsh Models vac, as I don't actually have the Roden kit. Can't wait to see this one after paint!

 

Kev

 

Count the windows on the decal sheet...I hear the Roden kit has too many!

[LSP_K2]

14 minutes ago, Cap'n Wannabe said:

It's ACAD 2019.  I had it installed when I was working from home for an engineering company.  My personal licence is 2013, which I still use occasionally..

 

I'd upgrade if I could, but it's just too darn expensive.

[Cap'n Wannabe]

13 hours ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

I'd upgrade if I could, but it's just too darn expensive.

That's why my personal licence is still 2013.  I only got it because a company I was contracting to at the time bought it then gave it to me for half price!

Edited July 28, 2022 by Cap'n Wannabe

[LSP_K2]

10 hours ago, Cap'n Wannabe said:

That's why my personal licence is still 2013.  I only got it because a company I was contracting to at the time bought it then gave it to me for half price!

 

I did the same thing, worked for different head hunters for quite a few years. I loved it.

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Last Friday I received some unwelcome news.  Seems the owner(s) of my house want to move back in, and I've been given until October 5th to find a new place.  So no more updates for a while as I pack everything away..