Revell's 1/144 scale
B747-400 Thai Airways

by George Ting

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This is the current offering by Revell (Germany) of their airliner series B747-400 in 1/144 scale.

The kit comes with a sharp printed Lufthansa decal set and detail markings. It’s really nice. There are lots of small decal stencil markings that are included and described in the box as ‘super decals’.

I opted to choose another airline livery decal. I made the decision to create Thai Airways. It’s simple but elegant livery. So I ordered a set from F-Decals, an Airliner decal specialist in 1/144 scale.

I began construction of the kit by filling up the windows on each halves of the fuselage with putty. Then a suitable lead weight was placed forward in the nose to counter balance the effect of tail sitting once the model was done.

The main wings was cut and repositioned to a correct angle since the kit has a totally wrong angle of incidence on the main wings.

The fuselage main wing box was further strengthened with cross beams made from scrape plastic rods. I discovered the main and horizontal wings are way too thick and I sanded them down to a thinner profile.

Extra missing detail like scuff plates on the horizontal tail wing was added using plastic card cut in shape and glue in position.

With the main assembly of fuselage/wing was completed, more sanding & puttying followed. The Revell B747-400 has an incorrect nose profile and it took me more time to correct it. Plastic rods was place in the nose as drilled for representing tiny pitot tubes sensors.

After months and months of preparation the model was then ready to paint.

Primer coat was then airbrushed and the model inspected for faults and blemishes.

Once everything is satisfactory, I shot the base coat of flat white and sanded them smooth for decaling.
The application of many tiny decals is very tedious and time consuming. I had to take a few breaks to complete the model with decals.

For me, it was a test of patience and careful application that makes a good decaling job.


 

Once the decals are allowed to dry for couple of days, I seal them with a coat of clear gloss lacquer and also the other parts like the four GE engines.

Light sanding was done again to bring the model to semi gloss sheen, then small detail parts like aerials, gear doors etc were aded to the model.

Light weathering was applied using paste and pencil. A final light mist coat of clear seals everything intact.

I did the landing gears and detailed them during some point then it was glued firmly to the model.

It took me a year to get this model finished, but I’m happy with the result other than the faults and inaccuracies that this kit is known for.

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Model, Images & Text Copyright © 2007 by George Ting
Page Created 26 March, 2007
Last Updated 24 December, 2007

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