Tintin in Tibet (L-749 Constellation)

Greg Baker
Wow... it's BIG!

Spanjaard
🙂

Matthew A
Your gonna need a bigger coaster

Greg Baker
Already got one picked out. 😉

His is by far the biggest kit I've ever tackled. Had trouble with cement running a bit wild... mainly because I tried to make sure the fuselage halves were even. Still had some uneven edges along the seam, and now I've got a few fingerprint spots to sand down.

gorby
I love the constellation so I'll follow along.

Martin Oostrom
A Connie! I always wanted a 1/72 Connie. Not sure about where to leave it when done. Is it big?

Cuajete
Greg's factory is on fire! I can see there's another diecast car in a box waiting its turn.
Following!

Greg Baker
It's big... especially for someone use to working on 1/144 scale. It's such a great looking plane though and I'm hoping I can do it justice with some Air India livery. I am still trying to figure out where I'm going to put it though. My Tintin shelf is already a bit packed.

Cuajete - there's actually two diecast cars in that box. One is a Zil 115 (a close cousin of the car from Tintin and the Picaros) and the other is the Audi R6 which is the family car from the Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) movie "Spirited Away".😉

Don Edgecomb
Excellent Me 262A-1a and is that also a Messerschmitt too? That is what you were talking about, right???? LOL

Greg Baker
I've got three Tintin related builds on the go... The Messerschmidt Bf109 from King Ottokar's Sceptre, the blue Ford Zephyr Taxi from The Black Island, and the Connie from Tintin in Tibet.

The box on the left side, near the Bf109 has two diecast cars, the Zil 115 and an Audi R6. I've also got my Haunted Tank project stalled for a bit, the Spad XIII rigging at the top of the pic is going slow...

And the Me262 has been misbehaving, so it's sitting there until it decides it wants to cooperate again...😉

Chaz Gordon
Love the connie, beautiful looking aircraft. My wife bought me an art deco style metal ornament that is a connie flying over a domed globe base. Really brings back the golden age of aviation.

Torsten
Follow this 👍

Gary Kitchen
Greg your output is as prolific as it is amazing. You'll need a sub-basement soon as a display space surely? Just another project I guess 🙂

Erik De Smet
I see motors on picture 4 , but no cables afterwards and no nav lights either. No fancy features this tile Greg ?

Daniel Klink
Connie from Canada..... Count me in 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks Gary. That thought has crossed my mind... which is part of the reason most of my builds are 1/144.

Don't worry Erik... I didn't forget about the motors. Since this one will be wheels down, I've got a plan for the wiring that doesn't need to run through the fuselage. I'm having enough trouble handling such a big bird while sanding already - having a bunch of wires sticking out would've been even trickier to work with.

Spanjaard
the old trick of the refuelling hose?

Chaz Gordon
Ground power connection in the nose undercarriage is more realistic for powered aircraft kits, allows you to have all lights on and could even be in place for ground engine runs.

Greg Baker
My plan, such as it is, is to run the electrical wires for each set of wing engines out through the tires and into the base.

Does anyone know if the Connie requires nose weight? I'm guessing yes, but the instructions make no mention of it.

Erik De Smet
I did run the wires of my Sabena Douglas Dakota that way and that works fine. You could even hide an Arduino in the base and program the engines. With the four motors in front you might not need nose weight.

Chaz Gordon
Interesting plan Greg, Doing it that way, you have the opportunity to use uninsulated wire for more metal per mm2. I would expect a connie to have the potential to need a bit of nose weight, or course, you could also run one of the wires through the nose gear and use that to secure it to the base.

Greg Baker
The plan... such as it is... is to secure all three wheels to the base with wire and glue. The wires running the motors will come down the landing gear - hopefully looking like brake lines, and then move through the tires into the base. I wasn't extremely worried about nose weight because it will be secured to the base, but a bit of weight will put less stress on the wire to pull it down towards the base. Erik's comments about the motors sitting in front of the centre of gravity is something I hadn't quite considered, but I'm going to try and do an ad hoc test to see how much that helps.

The arduino is an interesting idea... It's possible and I have a couple of nanos sitting around... but what would I do? Fire the engines in sequence? Hmmm...

I've got 3 more large planes scheduled for inclusion into my Tintin 1/72 projects... The Heller DC-6, the Mach 2 Convair 440 and the Heller B-707 (which I plan to light up like a Christmas tree!).

Chaz Gordon
Well, I guess it depends on what the scene is planned to be. If you are replicating the panel with the passengers disembarking, the engines would never be running. If the engines are running, All nav lights would be on too.

Erik De Smet
If all 4 engines have to work seperately, you will have 4 "brake lines" on each undercarriage. If you put both motors on each side in series, than you can do it with two and use a 5 V powerbank as power source. With a variable resistor in each circuit, you can start the engines "manually" . I guess you have already glued the wing and the fuselage together. Otherwise, you could run a common + line on the nose wheel leg and through the fuselage, and have separate - lines for each motor through the main legs.

Cuajete
Nice progress!

Greg Baker
Decided to scrap the motor idea and rescue this one from the shelf of doom. A bit of overspray will require a bit of touch up.

Alec K
Somehow I missed all this fun back in March. This is a BIG kit!

Rui
Looking good 👍

Greg Baker
The white coat may have been a bit too thick… sigh. Merry Christmas!

Daniel Klink
Merry Christmas Greg.. And oops yeah,,, white is a very tricky coat anyway...
But keep up the effort mate.. Looking great so far despite of the peeling 🙂

Mike Siemers
Love the Connie, always thought it was one of the most beautiful of the piston engined era. Keep up the good work.

A.J. Madison
Oops. Was that low tack tape? I did a Star Trek ship with a custom multi-color paint scheme masked with low tack tape, before the vinyl masking sets came out, and even though I let the white base coat cure for a week, I still had some paint lift.

Ben M
Merry Christmas, Greg. Some paint hassles but definitely salvageable. I have one in my stash, didn't learn my lesson after building a 1/72 DC-9 😀

Greg Baker
Ok. Back in action. After several repaints and a mountain of masking tape… time to worry about the engines!

Spanjaard
Nice recovery!

Cuajete
Looking so good, Greg 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. I had too much invested in this one not to save it. It seems like touch ups after touch ups, but the painting is done, and the electronic motors work… so on to the decals and the finish line!

Robert Podkoński
That's perhaps the biggest item in your Tintin collection, Greg. Looks really cool. And I love these revolving props 🙂

Greg Baker
Thanks Robert! You're right. It is the biggest item in the Tintin project… so far. I've still got a DC-6 and a B-707 which should take the prize… unless I figure out how to make a 1/72 scale Karaboudjan freighter, or maybe the moon rocket. 😉

I hummed and hawed about the props. I've done most of my lights/motors in 1/144 scale… but I'm glad I did it. They do look cool.

Michael Kohl
Sorry to tell you, but you did a mistake. You powered all four engines. But the Connie was known as the best tri-motor plane. 😉
(for the non-insiders: on long distance flights often one engine failed. Hence the nic-name).
Move on Greg and keep us posted on this beauty.

Greg Baker
So that's why only three engine started when I flipped the switch! I thought it was because the prop was pushed a bit too far down the motor shaft and was binding on the engine cover. Now ai know the real reason! 😉

Alec K
😄 😄 😄

Greg Baker
And…. Done! Even a last minute scratchbuild of some passenger stairs, just for fun. All in all, I'm pretty pleased. Stay tuned for some final images.

Alan Kingston
Lovely model of such a distinctive aircraft, I grew up near, what was then, London Airport (Heathrow) and my brother and I used to cycle to there and watch the Constellations, Stratocruisers, Britannias, etc.

Robert Podkoński
Fantastic! And a perfect work on the stairs, Greg!

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. I've been on a bit of a mission to finish this one off. Didn't want to lose the momentum. There are a few other half begun projects that need some love now. 😉

Marius
Greg, very nice effort there on a gorgeous subject! Congrats!

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Ready to start! 👍
Beautiful work, Greg.

Spanjaard
She looks really great, Greg!

Martin Oostrom
It took a while, but the result is great!

Erik De Smet
Hurrah! Impressive Tintin plane and running engines too.

Cuajete
Fantastic result, Greg. Bravo!!

Moreno Baruffini
Mamma mia! Bellissimo!

Really a great result, congrats Greg!!!

Nils Steyaert
amazing work, as always, Greg! 👍

Matthew A
Insert superlatives

Ben M
Emit wonder

Greg Baker
Thanks guys! My last completed build of 2021! Hooray!

Just in case anyone wants to see it in action, I added it to my YouTube channel.
Youtube Video

Alec K
So cool 👍 👍 👍

Clifford Keesler
Awesome.

Alex K
Epic! GREAT job! 👍 👍

Rui
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Dietmar Bogatzki
realy cool 👍

Cuajete
Great!! 👍👍👍

Daniel Klink
Fantastic Greg👍
Most impressive

Villiers de Vos
Your Tintin-Universe is expanding. A very nice model.

bughunter
Unusual big, at least compared to your other projects 😉

Thomas Espe
Very nice!

Chaz Gordon
Beautiful Connie.

Łukasz Gliński
Very neat. And dat props!

Foxbat
Wow Awesome work! Just saw this from your comment on my 1:144 Constellation.

Jean-Louis Durand
Two of my passions in one : Tintin and this wonderful plane ! You really did a great job ! I love this unique style ; the Constellation is so elegant...

Greg Baker
Thanks Jean-Louis! If you're interested in Tintin... there's more where that came from - strobez.ca/wp/index...1-72-scale-projects/

LucLuke B
Such a lovely plane. Is that the best kit you can get for that one?

Greg Baker
I'm pretty sure the Heller kit is the only 1/72 one available... but I have no complaints!

Jean-Louis Durand
@Greg Baker : you made my day !!! That's great !!!!! In my bookmarks...
Thank you 🙂

Greg Baker
Thanks Jean-Louis. Stay tuned for some updates on all those projects... and more to come!

Neuling
Looks very good in every way!

Heinrich R Dick
Absolutely love this! Tintin is great for all ages. I know the Heller kit well, and you have done excellent work there. Tres bien!