Best Of Detailing the Micro-Trains BNSF Fuselage Set

[tehachapifan]

Amazing result! Looks great!

[Nick Lorusso]

Mark, you my friend are nuts. I'm watching and really interested on the TSC.

[Mark W]

Mark, you my friend are nuts. I'm watching and really interested on the TSC.

Wouldn't have it any other way! 

I'm still very slowly and apprehensively converting to TSCs.  I'm interested in seeing how it works out too.

[peteski]

I'm in the process of designing artwork for a set of decals for the fuselages. But that is for the Wolfbone 3D printed fuselage, not for MTL.  Those will include the windows and all the other non-green bits on the fuselage.  But as usual, I have a whole backlog of other projects ahead of this one.
I might try getting my hands on one of the MTL fuselages to see what I can do with it.  The Wolfbone one has some errors in it - I wonder if the MTL one is more accurate.   One of the problems is that the fuselage is not supposed to be a perfectly round tube.  I'm curious of MTL got it right.

The MTL fuselage appears to be made of left and right half glued together (like most standard plastic airliner kits out there). Is that correct?

The trick of fading the green coating is very clever I might try try on the fuselages used on my project.

[Mark W]

Well fck. 

http://i.imgur.com/fVqtS8l.jpg

Good timing talking decals Pete. I find myself in need of a new one. 
So yeah, the side windows are all one very long very delicate decal.

http://i.imgur.com/OxteQpf.jpg

I think what happened is I applied MicroSol to the plane, and didn't let the decal sit in water long enough to fully release.  The combination of not yet fully released from the sheet, and MicroSol going to work once the decal touched the plane body just put me at a disadvantage. 

The worst part is this was after I successfully applied the other side windows, pilot windows, nose, and wing port decals!  I guess I just got too cocky.   

But mistakes by me means lessons for you!  If you're applying these decals, make sure the decal is fully released from the paper before proceeding!  I'd also damp the plane body with just water to give you some extra time in positioning.  The successful side took me well over 1 minute to position.  Once everything is in position, then lightly brush over top with a coat of MicroSol/Set.

When you get everything right, it looks like this:

http://i.imgur.com/AZJ6xu5.jpg

You can see the decal sheet also includes a lot of marking lines which I have not yet applied.
The main issue I have right now is the tolerance difference between the two halves of the plane gives me quite an offset on the nose, resulting in an ugly vertical line.  Additionally, the nose decal is a bit small, barely filling the nose itself, let alone wrapping around to the side.  I will address that when I decal the other fuselage by sanding/filing the nose flat, and apply putty as necessary, then paint the nose  area white and use yellow decal strips.   


For now.. off to contact MT about a replacement decal sheet. 

[Edit: Image URLs]

[peteski]

I have printed and applied decals to  my 1:200 version few years back, and I have built many airliner kits as a teenager so I'm quite familiar wit applying long decals.  But thanks for the warning nevertheless.

One glaring problem I see is that the cockpit has all-white covers. Except for 2 panes, those should be black plugs. Also the passenger windows are usually not white but a bit  more beige.  Only the 2 cockpit panes, wing root area, the nose cover, and emergency exit covers should be white.

[Mark W]

Wasn't directing the decal warning to anyone specifically.     Yeah, there's about as many variations of the prototype as there are examples.  I've seen the windows done many different ways (my two photos in post 2 show even more plugs in all the passenger windows!).  The biggest difference I've noticed is the single wing exit door; I have yet to find a photo that's not double doors. 

In any case, from the kit we're stuck with all white/yellow as a cost saving point I'm sure.  I'm still brainstorming what to do about the cockpit window plugs and other markings that I don't have decals for. 

[peteski]

I've done quite a bit of research into this.  SIngle emergency exit is on the shortest 737 - the -200C version.  Here are few examples:







As far as all white cockpit covers go, I have never seen an example of those. The older (silver) fuselages, as the above photo shows) had all dark covers while the newer green fuselages always seem to have dark plugs for all but to windows.

If you have access to a laser printer you could design and and print your own decals for the black plugs and the serial numbers.  It would also be nice to show the door details (as they are quite pronounced on the fuselage).

[Sokramiketes]

Are the widows also up too high?  Looks like they could be separated from the side door cover and lowered a bit in relation.  That would also keep the decals smaller.

[JoeD]

Well fck. 


Good timing talking decals Pete. I find myself in need of a new one. 
So yeah, the side windows are all one very long very delicate decal.


I think what happened is I applied MicroSol to the plane, and didn't let the decal sit in water long enough to fully release.  The combination of not yet fully released from the sheet, and MicroSol going to work once the decal touched the plane body just put me at a disadvantage. 

The worst part is this was after I successfully applied the other side windows, pilot windows, nose, and wing port decals!  I guess I just got too cocky.   

But mistakes by me means lessons for you!  If you're applying these decals, make sure the decal is fully released from the paper before proceeding!  I'd also damp the plane body with just water to give you some extra time in positioning.  The successful side took me well over 1 minute to position.  Once everything is in position, then lightly brush over top with a coat of MicroSol/Set.

When you get everything right, it looks like this:


You can see the decal sheet also includes a lot of marking lines which I have not yet applied.
The main issue I have right now is the tolerance difference between the two halves of the plane gives me quite an offset on the nose, resulting in an ugly vertical line.  Additionally, the nose decal is a bit small, barely filling the nose itself, let alone wrapping around to the side.  I will address that when I decal the other fuselage by sanding/filing the nose flat, and apply putty as necessary, then paint the nose  area white and use yellow decal strips.   


For now.. off to contact MT about a replacement decal sheet. 

email me your contact info and I'll get some off to you.

Joe

[heyrob]

Nice work detailing this model, just a note to correct a common error among railfans, the structure in front of the fuselage is not an icebreaker, Think about the icebreakers found on locomotives and plows, they are no where near as heavy duty at this structure. The official name of this as seen on Boeing drawings (I'm an employee and have looked them over personally) is a "Brush Guard" when the fuselages were first being shipped by rail many arrived in Renton with damage caused by line side brush and tree limbs, customers didn't like the delays this caused, and the company didn't like the cost of rework. This beefy contraption was the engineers answer to the problem. I can't share proprietary info. but I did discover a photo some years back that shows some early clearance testing details and the nomenclature of the brush guard.

[peteski]

Heyrob,
Welcome to the Railwire. It is nice to hear from someone who is or was working at Boeing and is actually familiar with the subject.

In a typical off-topic Railwire fashion I have a question:  I have photos of larger-diameter fuselage nose and a center section being transported in a fashion similar to the 737 fuselages. What type of aircraft were those for? A 757 maybe?  Are those still being transported by rail today?

Another question: do you know what type of material is the white stuff used to cover the emergency exit doors, nose, area at the wing root, and front landing gear well?

[jnevis]

...What type of aircraft were those for? A 757 maybe?...

Another question: do you know what type of material is the white stuff used to cover the emergency exit doors, nose, area at the wing root, and front landing gear well?

I can't remember where I saw them but I did see pictures of the same thing and IIRC the caption stated that they had 767 cockpits and fuse sections.  The 767 is a couple feet wider and around 20ft longer.  The 757 would be similar as well.  I had a 767 model I was going to chop up to build one of these but never got to it.

May not know exactly what Boeing is using, but it looks like it should be a vinyl covering, similar to Tyvex. 
We used a mylar barrier paper to cover all the glass, gaps, and vents whenever we went into port to keep out dust and debris.  Spent the better part of a day covering and uncovering each plane.  When we had a window or canopy crack or delaminate, the replacement plexi had either a vinyl or paper covering, like the screen protection plastic on a new cell phone.

[jereising]

Pretty sure from what I've read the 727, 737, and 757 all had the same cabin diameter as the 707...

[Mark W]

Attachment " Hi-def camera on brushguard"

Well there's an interesting detail to know about!  Hmm, one could conceal a mini camera inside this thing, with the lens pointing out the nose.  That would make an interesting camera car. 
Cool info about the icebreaker brushguard.