AREA 88: "Sitting on the Tarmac" (B-707)

Greg Baker
The absolutely most tangential Area 88 build possible... the Lufthansa B707 that Ryoko happens to glance at while sitting on the tarmac. Still, why not?

I've been trying to rescue started builds from purgatory lately, and this was the largest inmate left. I've been banned from using my airbrush the last few nights due to noise complaints from my wife, so I decided to do a little quiet soldering instead tonight.😉

Lode Schildermans
Back to soldering...Always a joy to see how you play with the leds, Greg

Nikolaos Kouzinis
Nice job Greg. (I don't know how our women can stand us. They will throw us on the road at night.)

Alex K
I love it when your "purgatory" projects resurface... and I also like your interest on the "tangential" subjects, of planes not actually flown by the main characters...

Greg Baker
During the virtual learning at home, my son seems to slowly be going to bed later and later (which affects my "alone at the modelling bench time). Once he's asleep, it's usually not too bad, but if I run the airbrush before he's fully asleep, I get in trouble... of course, after quietly glueing together my Tintin scratchbuilt Moon Tank, I got "what is that SMELL" (because of glue even though I had the window open). So... what else could I play with?😉

Greg Baker
As for this project itself... yeah, it almost feels like cheating to call this an Area 88 project - but I'll grasp at any straw to come up with an "excuse" to build. The reason this one got shelved initially was really down to the fact that I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the lights. Since the B707 is sitting on the tarmac, (about to be?) loading passengers, I was trying to figure out which lights would be on. The Red blinking contact lights? the red/green position lights? The white wing tip lights?

I haven't really got an answer for that, but I just made an executive decision based on my supplied. I have lots of tiny red/green SMDs (enough to cover 3-4 more Area 88 commercial airliner projects planned... B747, A300, Lockheed Tristar... and maybe a do-over of the DC-10). I also have large "cloudy white" 5mm LEDs that my son and I bought leftover from a project (I added signal lights and what-not to his push scooter) that I'd likely never use anywhere else. So, I just decided to spare some SMDs and go with red/green position lights and fill the cabin with that happy glow of people going on a trip... as a reminder of happier days. 😄

One other thing, this is an old kit with raised panel lines. I've always sanded them down and scribed them before, but a) I'm lazy and b) on a commercial airliner, I find too many panel lines distracting anyway. So we're going old school (and pray the decals sit down!)

Alex K
Will there be an entire "busy airport tarmac" dio, with lots of support ground vehicles etc and people etc?

Greg Baker
Urm... maybe just the passenger stairs... if I can fit it on the base.😉

Nils Steyaert
following 🙂

John Thomas
Hey Greg, Let the light shine in. Great work

Chaz Gordon
Aviation "expert" on Lights on the Ground:
When the doors are open - Only interior lights will be on. And Cargo bay if the doors are open
When closed up and ready to push back, or when arriving on stand - Navigation lights & Upper and Lower Anti Colision Strobes on, this indicates a live aircraft that could move in any direction and has running engines, do not cross behind or in front
On Arrival Taxi-ing in - Landing gear Secondary light will be on at Night.

General rule - If there are steps or Jetway positioned to the aircraft - Interior only
No equipment Around - All Marker & navigation lights running
Parked and closed aircraft would be chocked with no lights running

Chaz Gordon
I'm planning something like this myself, but I am left with a quandry, I can power the lights via a power cable that is scale-ish,and connects to the aircraft in the correct location for Ground Power Application. However, I'd like to show off the full lighting install, but this would not normally be active when connected to ground power. So, as a compromise, my display will be depicting Ground Lighting tests, these would be conducted away from the terminal.

Greg Baker
Thanks Chaz. This is super helpful. I spent a lot of time searching for this information and found a lot about the different lights and why they're used, but not the configuration on the tarmac with the doors open. I decided to just go with interior cabin lights and the red/green one just 'cause they're pretty.

Chaz Gordon
No Problem, 7 years in Military Aviation, and 10 in Civil have got to be some use to me after that career path is done. The red / green is airline policy dependent whether they are on or off when the doors are open, everything else is generally only on when the APU is running, and Ground Power disconnected.

Nikolaos Kouzinis
aviation.stackexchan..-and-external-lights

Greg Baker
Thanks Nikolaos. I'm pretty sure I've searched that link before. It's very informative, but the one thing it lacks is the info that Chaz shares regarding exactly when those lights are on/off on the ground. That's a ton of lights though...

Greg Baker
First round of putty and sanding done... needs more work, of course. I added the engines, and used the fans off a 1/248 scale B747 to add a bit of detail. Small, but effective I think.

bughunter
Just discovered your next project! A friend of mine is modeling airliners and he uses some acrylic rod with a LED in the end. That is the same material which is used for the daylight front LED on cars. So he is getting a very smooth inside lightning with only one or two (from both ends) LEDs.
[img1]

Greg Baker
That is a very useful tip. Thanks! I can see how that would diffuse the light very nicely. I'll have to try it next time.

In my putting & sanding fervour, I somehow managed to disconnect the red wingtip light. So I had to tear open part of the wing, pull out the wires, solder in a new SMD (after my trusty soldering iron decided to commit suicide in shame, I had to resort to the back up one), and then stuff all the wires back down the wing and glue it all together again. I'm not quite sure how I managed to do it. I thought the SMD was protected by a shell of hardened CA glue, but I guess not quite. I'm sanding very very carefully now around the tip, in an attempt to get back on track.

Lode Schildermans
That kind of repairs are very tricky. Nice to hear you managed it

Erik De Smet
That sounds familiar to me

Chaz Gordon
Cheap optical fibre Is a great solution for this, the leds live in the fuselage, wrapped in tape to prevent light leakage, and larger or smaller fibres can be used to maintain scale, and fit lights in skinny parts of the model. You can then also access a better and cheaper range of let's that are less fiddly to work with. I buy bundles of nylon fibre on fleabay from China for a couple of pounds delivered. Size choice is limited for cheap fibre, but it goes a long way, and you don't really need to faff around with all the connection grommets etc, you can just attach the fibre to an led with a bit of hot glue or similar.

Greg Baker
I bet it sounds familiar, Erik. I've tried a bit of fibre optics before, Chaz, but mainly just scavenged from a dollar store "mood lamp". I was trying to get tentacles to glow in my Nausicaa: Ohm project, and I just couldn't feed enough light through them. Maybe I need better materials.

Anyway, the sanding is quite perfect, but after all that putty, I'm not going to get too wrapped up in it. Good enough is good enough on this project. I got a coat of white paint down, and I'm happy. Move along...😉

Greg Baker
Mask...aluminum... mask... metallic grey...

Nils Steyaert
its really starting to be a real looker, keep it up 👍

Spanjaard
masking all those windows must have been lots of fun... I think I would have maybe painted the blue before assembly, then assembly/putty/sanding, retouching seams and paint the rest....

Spanjaard
looking great by the way

Greg Baker
That's a good point. I probably should've done that. There are little spots on the inner part of the window frame that didn't get paint. Now I'm debating on how best to (or not to) tackle that...

Spanjaard
with a brush?

Greg Baker
It's not the brush I'm worried about, it's the hands of a surgeon I'm lacking...😉

Spanjaard
it will be fine, i know

Greg Baker
Got the final painting done and the decals on. I was a little worried since they came from an old Airfix A300, but the only took a bit of persuasion to let go of the backing paper. They might be a tiny bit too big for a B-707, but I'm declaring the comic book size rule.😉

Basically done, but a few small additions left to do.

Alex K
I was wondering if you had ordered a decal set for the Lufthansa markings or if you were gonna use self-made decals, but I haven't thought you already had the Airbus ones... They look good!

Greg Baker
Well, I was originally just going to go with homemade decals, but I stumbled across the Lufthansa decals that came with the Airfix A300 and thought "heh, close enough!" The Airbus will get decked out in a fictional livery for another Area 88 project, so they were extra anyway.

John Thomas
Just more out standing work

Chaz Gordon
That looks awesome. Nice work.

Daniel Klink
A+++

Ben M
The 707 is such a classy looking airliner

Amrith Punja
Excellent work there Greg...I too have the same Kit and planning to do the Air India Scheme.

Nils Steyaert
wow, nice work 👍

Erik De Smet
Sorry, Roland, they are still "sitting on the tarmac"

Lode Schildermans
It looks sharp and crisp, Greg. Nicely done, as always

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. Almost done. The plane and the base are now finished. I just needed to scratch up some passenger stairs. Luckily I had a spare tanks skirt and some extra wheels sitting around just waiting to be pressed into service.

Bryn Crandell
Another stunning Area 88 build.

Greg Baker
So they say you should learn something new everyday... today's lesson. Don't glue an airplane model onto a base with a decal that hasn't been sealed with Future... sigh.

I managed to bump the plane slightly, which tore it loose from it's white glue moorings. Well, the glue held just fine...what it was attached to didn't. I ended up trying to do a patchwork job with the plane in place, only to give that up and try removing the plane and performing major surgery on the decal. No dice. I had to reprint the decal. Luckily, reapplying the decal to the base is probably the easiest setback it could've been. Better than knocking it off the bench in the final victory lap. 🙂

Chaz Gordon
Hadn't spotted the decal on the base. That's so cool.

Jay Dubya
Greg - did the 707 get the usual 360 degree woosh around the mancave? Love the stairs btw - you always manage to find the right finishing touches to your builds!

Greg Baker
Thanks Chaz. The decal has been re-applied and sealed with Future this time. Hopefully that'll hold. All my Area 88 build projects get a base decorated with the scene from the manga upon which it's based, but this is one of the few that I've built wheels down. That's why it never occurred to me that there'd be a problem. Oh, well... problem solved... after the obligatory whoosh around he man cave, she's been glued down. I just have to (carefully) reconnect the wires... so there's still time for this to go horribly wrong.😉

bughunter
Really pitty that you have to redo the decal. But I assume, that also future cannot hold it. This improves only the connection wheels/decal but not decal/base. I suggest small pieces of wires on wheels and base, this time through the decals.

Greg Baker
Man... I really shouldn't tempt fate like that. I was a little worried that all the manhandling would snap one of the wires, and sure enough, it did. JUST as I was about to solder the final wires to the microUSB plug... no power. Sigh... luckily it was outside the fuselage, where the wires feed down between the wheels into the base, but sure enough, I had to pull it off the glue once more. The Future saved it from massive damage. But the good news is now, after the wire was reconnected, the wheels are now glued directly onto the wood base... not the decal. Live and learn. I'll try the wires on the wheels trick next time bughunter!

ANYway... the final images are up. Everything's done and I'm going to get this one one the shelf and hope I don't trip over my own feet while I'm lifting it.😉

Greg Baker
And just to prove it lights up...
Youtube Video

bughunter
Your magic comic bases gives the models a nice touch 👍 Lovely project again!

Alex K
Spectacular!

Daniel Klink
Boahhh!.. Really like your style and "how to" transfer stories on paper to plastic 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks Alex. I'd hate to let you down! Heh... and Daniel, "how NOT to" maybe...😉

Alex K
You are kidding? The passenger stairs, for one thing, turned out fantastic! (at first I was wondering what kit did you use, and then realized that you scratched the stairs... as if proof of your ingenuity was needed...)

Greg Baker
Heh... I was trying to figure out what to use for those stairs. I could've just cut some styrene strips, but I often go digging through my "small box of shapes" which is basically interesting bits of plastic leftover from previous builds. I'm pretty sure these were the tank skirts leftover from my The Calculus Affair (Bordurian Tank) | Album by strobez (1:72) project (yep! I can see them on the sprue shot). Anyway, that wide end looked just perfect. I probably should've hunted around for the other side, but instead I just cut it in half. Then I had some little tank "helper wheels" leftover from my in-progress Tintin Lunar tank project... so there you go. I even had a couple of Lufthansa decals leftover that just barely fit, but they really tie it all together.

Chaz Gordon
Looks amazing in the final shots. Those stairs look pretty good, better than the actual stairs airfix put in the trident kit

Greg Baker
Thanks for your help Chaz. I quoted you and gave you credit for helping figure out the lights in my blog post. strobez.ca/wp/index...-the-tarmac-area-88/

Spanjaard
excellent Greg, congratulations once more

Nathan Dempsey
Another nice one Greg.

Nils Steyaert
excellent work 👍

Greg Baker
Thanks guys. I just got the Heller 1/72 B-707 for a future Tintin project and it makes this one look like a little baby.

Amrith Punja
Great Work on this Project Greg . I have the Boeing 720B Pan American Roden 1:144 scale for the TinTin Project ( Flight 714 ), may be I'll join you when you strart your project.

Greg Baker
That would be awesome! I'll give you a heads up when I plan to start it. It won't be for a while though. Mine is earmarked for the Tintin and the Piccaros Santaero B-707. I thought about Flight 714, but settled on Piccaros because the San Theodaran airlines livery is pure Tintin. In Flight 714 it's Qantas, right?

Amrith Punja
Thats Right its Qantas. I have the decals too......

Greg Baker
Oh, nice! I can't wait to see it. I might do that one too... eventually.😉