In
late 2002 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was ushered into a new era of
VIP transport with the arrival of 2 Boeing 737-7DT BBJ and 3 Bombardier
Challenger 604 Corporate transport aircraft to be operated by No 34 Squadron.
The BBJs were obtained to fulfill the role of International Special Purpose
Transport, replacing the Falcon 900 and Boeing 707 on overseas and long range
VIP tasks.
With
the issue of the Revell(G) Boeing 737-800 kit, the RAAF BBJ decal sheet from
Hawkeye Models and 737 winglets by both Braz and Hawkeye Models it is now
possible to reproduce the RAAF BBJ in 1/144 scale.
The
Revell kit is packed with detail, finely recess panel lines, detailed wheel
wells, and landing gear struts. Also included are a number of antenna and
drain masts which are mostly not included with other 1/144 kits, these items
usually have to be scratch built from card. The kit has been issued with
KLM, Hapag Loyd and Air
Berlin
decals. The latter kit also includes winglets (which look to be too short
compared to photos and aftermarket offerings).
The
kit represents the -800 version of the Next Generation 737 and needs surgery to
reduce it in length to make it a -700/BBJ. The Hawkeye decal sheet comes
with instructions on how to shorten the fuselage. Another source for the
surgery and how much to remove is the Airliner Modelling Digest at Yahoo Groups.
The Files section contains conversion info on the 737 and many other aircraft.
You can also pose a question to the 1100 strong membership and someone will have
the answer for you.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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Well
this was my first attempt at hacking up a fuselage, though it is not noticeable
in the photos some join areas are evident. I chopped and then assemble
each fuselage half. The danger here is that one half will be longer than the
other. Another method is to glue the fuselage halves together and then cut.
I thought my method worked OK but I will try the other method next time.
Keeping everything straight is the big concern. After some putty, sanding
and rescribing it was done.
The
wings went together without fuss, then came time to add the wings (with fuselage
centre section) to the shortened fuselage. Being in the usual rush I am in I
slapped the assemblies together a resultant step occurred between the fuselage
and wing assembly near the forward wing root. A bit of for thought and
more test fitting may have prevented this. Anyway I had to do some sanding
and puttying to get rid of the step.
The
engines assemble well. The only problem is the shape of the intake, the
nacelle seems to represent those found on earlier models of the 737
(-300/-400/-500) and is too flat at the base for a NG737. Replacement
resin versions are available from InFormation Parts but I just decided to build
up the bottom of the nacelles with putty and took some of the bottom intake lip
down with a file.
The
winglets were the next trial. I used a set from Braz. I already had these
so I didn't require a set with the decal sheet from Hawkeye. I glued them
on with thick superglue. The problem was that every time I handled the
model I would bump the wingtip and off the winglet would come! I can tell
you that this model almost met with a bad accident a few times. I must
have re-glued the winglets (on both wings) about 10 times! Need less to
say after I glued them the last time I left the model for some time to pursue
other projects. As a result of all the gluing and filing the shape of the
wingtip and winglet changed. A friend suggested inserting short lengths of
piano wire into predrilled holes in the wingtip and winglet to give the joint
more strength (thanks Todd). I will try that on the next NG737 I
build.
The
RAAF BBJ is fitted with some extra lumps, bumps and antennae, these were
manufactured from plastic card scraps.
No
dramas with the paint, I used Humbrol Gloss White, Testors FS16440 grey and SNJ
and Testors metalisers to complete the paint work. Decals went on fine, as
usual each of the decals from the Hawkeye sheet had to be individually trimmed.
They settled down well and accept a lot of manipulation to get them in the right
place. White disks are provided as a backing to the roundels.
So
all in all a good build and another Military VIP type for the collection.
I got all my reference photos from Airliners.net, a great source for any civil
or military modelling project.
Ray
Click on
images below to see larger images
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