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Robert Royes
248 articles

Convair 990 Coronado, Atlantis 1/135

July 8, 2022 · in Aviation · · 20 · 1.5K

Convairs 990 and earlier 880 were their answer to the 707 and the DC-8. The 990 was considered the fastest nonsupersonic aircraft of its time. Powered by four CJ80523Bs,a civilian version of the J-79. without afterburner, and the addition of an aft-fan assembly. Carrying less passengers than the competition, speed was to be it's selling point. The airliner were not very successful, only 37 990's were built.65 for the earlier 880. Though they were faster, that factor wasn't enough to compete with Boeing and Douglas.

The kit by is the old kit, a very basic kit I had heard that Atlantis had to clean up the molds a fair amount to make them usable. The only decal selection is three of NASA's 99os that were used as Landing Systems Research aircraft to duplicate landing speeds of the space shuttle.

Reader reactions:
13  Awesome

11 additional images. Click to enlarge.


20 responses

  1. Well done, Robert. Something a bit different...I like it !

  2. Looks great, Robert (@roofrat). I have built several Atlantis kits and really like them. I know what you mean about a basic kit. I built their DC-9 which had only about 20 parts. The NASA marking are cool.

  3. Very impressive result from an old kit.

  4. Nice work, Robert! I recently picked one of those up too.

  5. Looks very nice. Too bad they didn’t offer airline decals for it. I think American & TWA operated them.

  6. Sweet build of a subject one doesn’t see often. Bravo!

  7. Love it too, Robert! Could not have imagined a better result out of this oldie!

  8. Very nice result, Robert @roofrat

  9. Nicely done Robert, looks good, fits my NASA theme but not scale.

  10. Robert: You did a great job on this Atlantis re-release...I am so glad that Atlantis is bringing back som of the old classics. To help with these old kits, Vintage Flyer Decals produces decals in several liveries, made to fit the odd scale (1/135). I have used Vintage Flyer decals and they are excellent.

    Good job, and thanks for posting those great pix.

  11. Looks great in this livery, very neat work. Perhaps Richard Branson could have bought one for his space trips.

  12. Very good work. I like the NASA scheme.

  13. Cool plane and a great build Robert. The paint work is exquisite.

  14. Absolutely beautiful!

  15. Great job and interesting subject. Atlantis is to be commended for bringing back these classic kits. I like the photos of the aircraft flying overhead with the model in the foreground. Nice touch.

  16. Great job on your build! I love these old airline kits, back in the 60’s my father used to bring the kits home for us to build them. He also used to take me to JFK to park near the end of the runway to watch the planes take off or land depending on the winds. We would talk about the kits we built and compare them to the real ones.

  17. I am about to build this kit. Filling the recessed window opening to facilitate using the decals seems problematic. How can it be done without sanding off adjacent detail such as rivets? Or should all the rivets be removed since they’re probably out of scale?

    Any advice would be most welcomed.

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