Author Topic: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner  (Read 45587 times)

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #100 on: May 11, 2019, 05:28:06 AM »
Cheers Brian ---

Offline finsrin

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #101 on: May 11, 2019, 05:35:54 AM »
Gee, really is coming together.  So I aint only one subject to redo tasks !
Decal copy and tape is smart move. :smiley:   We can all learn from that.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #102 on: May 11, 2019, 05:40:49 AM »
Thanks Bill ---

So I aint only one subject to redo tasks !

 ;D

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #103 on: May 12, 2019, 01:03:01 AM »
That looks really good! :smiley:
"This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our engine sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and, ah, explode."

Offline Kerick

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #104 on: May 12, 2019, 03:18:46 AM »
This is a great bash! Gives me ideas.... like I need more ideas! I can’t build them as fast as I think of them!

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #105 on: May 12, 2019, 06:02:18 AM »
Thanks Guy, Kerick ---

Although the A310 is only 5 feet longer than the A400, the fuselage has more of a constant cross section going further to the rear. This makes ground clearance a bit problematic with the undercarriage the height it has. So I've decided to lengthen the nose leg and then what I have to do to mount the sponsons will have a slightly different orientation.

Top pic here shows the difference between the standard nose gear and my modified gear. I've added 4mm to the leg above the scissor link.

Bottom pic is of the main gear set up. The plan here was to sand the inside profile to match the A310 fuselage, well as I've said a couple of posts ago, it doesn't work so good. I'm working out a bunch of ribs to go between the sponson and fuselage and I'll be able to allow for the extra nose leg length as I do it.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #106 on: May 12, 2019, 06:17:56 AM »
Back at the beginning of this thread, I said that I got the idea for this project after being sent way up north to a diamond mine. I had a long lay-over from the time I got to Yellowknife to the time I went to the mine. So the time was spent watching the other freight airlines loading up their aircraft with just about everything and anything they could get through the side doors. If anyone has watched Ice Pilots you'd know what I'm talking about.

Well the A310/A400 is a very large aircraft compared to what I was seeing being loaded up, mostly 737's and smaller aircraft, when it occurred to me that this project of mine could very well be a passenger/freight aircraft. Working on the sponsons I see that the main u/c is completely contained in the sponsons, so no u/c intruding into the fuselage area, this opens up the opportunity to have the cargo area under the cabin floor, to be continuous from the rear to front with no obstruction. So I'm going to make a decal depicting some swing down door outlines for it which would be like the rear doors of a C-5. This way cargo of very long lengths (like pipes, lumber etc) could very easily be loaded. Thinking about it, I think I'll include a side cargo door outline for the cabin too ----
« Last Edit: May 12, 2019, 06:26:33 AM by kitnut617 »

Offline apophenia

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #107 on: May 12, 2019, 06:36:49 AM »
That is looking seriously great! From your descriptions of details, probably looking deceptively close to finish  :smiley:
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #108 on: May 12, 2019, 08:13:42 AM »
Thanks Steven ---

Once I've got the small fuselage mounting ribs made for the sponsons, it will just be a case of gluing them on, then the wing. Then it's off to the paint shop.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #109 on: May 17, 2019, 09:57:50 PM »
In Reply #106 I said that there was only 5 feet difference between the two aircraft, well I'm not sure that's right now (I got that from wiki though). Measuring the two kit fuselages I find there's a difference of 21 feet  ??? Fortunately, what extra is in front of the wing, is very close to what extra is behind it.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #110 on: May 17, 2019, 10:16:56 PM »
I realized I had to be a bit more technical with the sponsons. What I thought I could do didn't work, so I drew up a cross-section of the fuselage and sponson (top pic). I decided to make the u/c track the same as what it is on the A400 but it meant that the sponson had to be moved further away from the fuselage. In the photo, you can see where I cut out a bit of the development, I then transferred that to a bit of styrene card. This will be the master for all of the ribs I need to glue to the sponson. I'm making them all the same even though some stick out top and bottom at the front and back of the sponson. The idea is I can align them better this way and what is sticking up or down will be trimmed later. Bottom three pics show the ribs in place before they get trimmed. Another reason I did it this way because where it will attach to the fuselage, the fuselage has a constant cross-section so it's all the same fit.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #111 on: May 17, 2019, 10:20:13 PM »
In this photo I've now trimmed the ribs which are sticking out the top at each end, and added a strip of styrene to fill the gap between the sponson top edge and fuselage.  Bottom pic is another view of how I'm working the very ends of the sponson. I'm going to leave adding in a strip to the bottom edge until after the sponsons are glued on though.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #112 on: May 18, 2019, 03:10:54 AM »
Mighty fine work on those sponsons.

The ribs look spot on!

Brian da Basher


Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #113 on: May 18, 2019, 03:19:30 AM »
Thanks Brian, the third pic down in Reply #111 gives you a good idea of the difference between the A400 cross section and the A310s. The A310 is completely circular, the A400 is circular from about where the hour hand on a clock would be starting at 7.30, up to 12.00, then back down to 4.30. Then from 4.30 over to 7.30 the bottom of the fuselage is flatter, although still has a radius. The two 'corners' at 4.30 and 7.30 have quite a small radius. It's why my original idea for sanding the sponson wouldn't work, the tips of the ribs at the bottom back to the bottom edge of the sponson should tell you how much I would've had to sand out of the top edge. Not a good idea as the wheels retract into this space, apart from making the wheel track much narrower.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2019, 03:22:26 AM by kitnut617 »

Offline apophenia

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #114 on: May 18, 2019, 03:59:40 AM »
Nice save on the sponsons  :smiley: It's actually rather a shame that all your tidy rib work will be hidden  :(

On the sanding-down-the-sponsons option. Certainly that'd been less work. But, as you say, it would narrow the wheel track. It would probably also mean that the bays for retracted wheels would be pushed into the interior space (as on the Il-76 but nicer if you can avoid it).
Froglord: "... amphibious doom descends ... approach the alter and swear your allegiance to the swamp."

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #115 on: May 18, 2019, 04:03:25 AM »
Thanks Steven.  Yeah, I really wanted to keep the wheel track width if I could, I just hadn't realized during the planning stage I would lose so much of it. When offering up parts it didn't look like it would --- that is until you start bashing the kit ---

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #116 on: May 24, 2019, 10:09:48 PM »
Got some more done but it's slowed down at the moment. Lots of yard work to catch up on now that spring is here.

Anyway, an important thing I had to do was re-orientate the nose wheel bay. I had to rotate the bay around to the port side by about 1.5mm (top pic). The wider black line you see is actually the gap which I've now got to fill in, should have that done today. Now I've got the u/c leg to hang vertically inline with everything else, like the fin and windshield center (bottom pic).

Progress also on the second sponson with most of the new ribs shaped, but not glued on yet. I have to give this some thought on how I'm going to align the sponsons correctly to the fuselage, I don't want to cock it up as it will be harder to rectify than the job I did on the nose bay.

Another thing I've had to change my mind on was when to glue the wing on, and now I've got the nose wheel bay moved, I think the wing goes on next instead of how I was going to do it, sponsons then wing. This is because of the way I've come up with to clamp the wing down to the fuselage using some string, it doesn't do it so good with the sponsons in the way. I'll probably get the wing on today I think.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2019, 10:17:27 PM by kitnut617 »

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #117 on: May 25, 2019, 01:10:02 AM »
That's looking good and I'm sure your plan is better than any armchair quarter-backing I could offer.

Always a treat to see an update on this one!

Brian da Basher

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #118 on: May 25, 2019, 02:17:18 AM »
Thanks Brian --

I've also been experimenting with the colour mix for the blue rear end. While at the LMS last week to pick up some styrene stock, I finally found a tin of Humbrol H52. This is like a chrome blue as opposed to a traditional metallic blue. Still not the right shade though so I mixed it 50/50 with some Humbrol H14, a gloss French Blue. The result is almost right on --- being able to get real close to actual Canadian North aircraft help me to determine what the blue they use is like which has a chrome look to it. I'm going to try something else before I settle on what the mix is, going to add a couple of drops of Humbrol H201 Chrome Black to see what effect it has.

For what it's worth, Big Plane Kits do a 1/72 737-200 with gravel kit in Canadian North scheme, but they list the blue as Humbrol Medium Blue. But that's the wrong shade completely.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #119 on: May 25, 2019, 08:57:15 PM »
Sometimes mixing up custom paint is as much fun as building the model. Few things are more satisfying to me than finally matching the ever changing and elusive blue in the center of old French roundel decals. I've been known to pour some of the good stuff to celebrate on those rare occasions when I get it even close.  :icon_beer:

The gravel kit mention is reminding me of an in-progress 737 build over on A/CAM but I think that one's in a different scale.

Watching with interest,
 8)
Brian da Basher

« Last Edit: May 25, 2019, 09:01:00 PM by Brian da Basher »

Offline Robomog

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #120 on: May 26, 2019, 10:54:34 AM »
That's looking wicked with the multi bladed props, looking forward to seeing the finished aircraft.

Mog
>^-.-^<
Mostly Harmless...............

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #121 on: May 26, 2019, 09:57:47 PM »
Thanks Mog ---

For what it's worth, the wing was glued on yesterday. So another milestone ---

Offline ysi_maniac

  • I will die understanding not this world
Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #122 on: May 28, 2019, 06:31:49 AM »
A masterpiece, I am sure it will be.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #123 on: May 28, 2019, 07:42:31 AM »
Thanks Carlos  :smiley:

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Airbus A310/A400 Un-prepared Airfield Airliner
« Reply #124 on: May 30, 2019, 10:44:39 PM »
The 'Plan' is coming together ----   :icon_ninja:

Top pic shows the second set of ribs and you can see here the difference in the two profiles I've had to deal with.
Second and third pics show them glued to the sponson, last pic shows how it fits to the fuselage.