Kuwait Airways B777, take 2....

[dhanners]

Originally Posted by croden

Those engine intakes are absolutely amazing! Did you print them from your home printer???

Thanks for the kind words. For the intakes, I did two things. The first is I replaced the kit part for the interior of the inlet with a piece of silver paper. I used the kit part as a template for the new piece, formed it into a circle and then glue the fanblade face to the bottom.

I then assemble the front two pieces of the nacelle -- the "lip" piece, for lack of a better term, and the cylindrical piece that makes up the main body. Once that assembly is dry, I glue the fanblade/inner wall assembly to the partial nacelle from the inside. This allows you to make sure everything is lined up properly.

Once it is lined up, I run a thin bead of wood resin glue around the outside of the nacelle lip. This fills any gap between the two pieces, although on this kit, the pieces fit so well there were no gaps. (I should note that I use a wood resin glue for parts that a) need to be really strong and/or b) parts I'm going to sand. The glues holds up to sanding better than the craft glues we generally use.)

When that glue has dried, I lightly sand the lip of the nacelle to try and give it a bit of a rounded shape. Then I take a silver paint marker -- or a silver Sharpie -- and paint the outside of the lip. The kit marks the intake lip's silver leading edge with a gray color, so you just cover the gray. Work slowly and you won't have any trouble.

[John Bowden]

See........ no mater how well a design is.......... It all comes down to a Great Builder!

David you sir are a craftsman! This simply put is Gorgeous!

[dhanners]

Thanks, John. You're too kind. I need to add that despite all of my tweaks, a modeler could build this kit out-of-the-box (or off-of-the-page...) and have a darn nice model. Julius' original design was good, and your multitude of additions and new parts adds a significant amount of detail and brings the model to a whole new level.

Now to build one with the flaps down....

[Ofanim]

Nice 777 !
You did a lot of improvements, I really like the engines with the silver, it's give a very realistic look.
I also like the way you did the flat part at the rear of the fuselage where the horizontals stabilizers are attached.
Best Regards,
Ronan.

[Texman]

Some nice work there David. I'm glad to see you embrace the option of using multiple paper types to achieve your desired result. I did that with the Mig-21 builds, and it does make a difference. Well done!

[dhanners]

Originally Posted by Texman

Some nice work there David. I'm glad to see you embrace the option of using multiple paper types to achieve your desired result. I did that with the Mig-21 builds, and it does make a difference. Well done!

Thanks, Ray. Just don't expect me to do a B777 cutaway....

[milenio3]

Originally Posted by dhanners

Thanks, Ray. Just don't expect me to do a B777 cutaway....

Oh, bummer!

But seriously, thank you very much for the explanation of your techniques.

I specially liked the method of making the radome. Pretty impressive, and a good idea indeed.