Airbus A320 Neo - Zvezda 1/144 “Old livery”

Started by Csaba · 49 · 1 year ago · A320, SAS75
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    Csaba said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    I have just placed an order at Erik for a Neo, together with the LN decals old livery sheet. I bought the Xtracolor SAS colors for my abandoned A340 project a few years ago. I gave the half-finished mode to the son of one my friends, but kept the paint. Hopefully they are still in usable condition.
    My plan is to build the Neo with the initial gray-orange-blue livery. I have seen good reviews of the Zvezda kit, hopefully it will be an easy build.

    I have at least two project to finish before I can get started on this, so don’t expect too many updates in this year. I will post a photo of the kit once arrives.
    I have to dig into the references and decide which plane to build. There are plenty of spotter photos available, and I expect an easy decision.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    That's a great choice, my friend @pikofix.
    Looking forward to it!

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    Csaba said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    LN-RGL is the winner. It was the first NEO delivered to SAS, and it seems to be operating from Copenhagen currently . Zvezda did not provide the satellite antenna ( that large bump before the vertical stabilizer ), and the early NEOs at SAS did not have that either. Based on the photos, the antenna was installed a few years after delivery on RGL and other early NEOs.
    I have to wait until tomorrow to see the kit in real life. The post sent a delivery note today morning, but today afternoon the app changed the status to "delayed". You can´t say that Postnord has no sense of humor, the app shows this quite accurate representation of me. 🙂

    On the positive (?) side - Kastrup airport has some kind of maintenance work ongoing, and the heavily limited 12/30 runway is in use. As far as I know, operations are limited to 30 days a year, RWY30 (centerline is basically over the southern part of Copenhagen) is limited to landings, take-offs are only allowed in extreme wind conditions. RWY12 can be used for take-offs more often, since it points towards the Baltic sea.
    Our apartment is just a few hundred meters from the glideslope centerline, and it has a great view of the landing planes. Luckily the runway usage is limited, otherwise I could see this from our window more often (Swiss A320, probably on visual approach, directly above our bedroom). It was loud, even in landing configuration.

    The other planes followed the ILS, so they were a few hundred meters away. Unfortunately even my longest tele lens is too short for that distance, so my pictures are far from the usual quality you see on plane spotting websites. Anyway, I consider this as a sign to build a nice looking passenger plane. 🙂

    10 additional images. Click to enlarge.

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    Csaba said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    And look who is going to land in 30 mins. 🙂 It’s a shame that it is too dark now for taking photos…

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Great that you settled on LN-RGL, my friend @pikofix! Now onto the "waiting game"...
    You are so lucky to live near the airport!
    By the way: isn't the undersides view of airliners, with everything open and deployed, amazing?
    I am (or, at least, I was) no 1/144 airliner modeler whatsoever... I can see a such virus attacking me!
    Looking forward to your progress.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    An impressive place to live, Csaba
    Can imagine that you always take your camera as soon as you hear one closing in.

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    Csaba said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    @fiveten @johnb yes, it is great when you travel, I can be there basically in no time, very convenient both by car and public transport. The terminal and the spotter places are within a range of a nice bicycle ride.

    However, I am happy that the 12/30 runway usage is limited. That Swiss plane really rumbled yesterday. I expected the planes, because I already seen them from the car on the way home, but I am sure many of my neighbors (not aviation nerds) got scared. It was also a surprise for me to see the plane so much off the glideslope. I don’t mind watching them during the daytime, but the late evening rush hour was actually very annoying.

    In the past 5 years we had only a handful of days with traffic on this runway, mainly on the autumn/winter stormy days, where the winds got crazy.

    But of course it kind of cool for an aviation nerd to watch an A350 landing from my bed, right after I woke up. 🙂

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    Csaba said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    @fiveten Yes, they are really cool! One of the reasons why I went for the Zvezda kit is the possibility of getting the slats and flaps opened. Looks really nice on the assembled models.

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    Erik Gjørup said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Hope the mailman will be in soon! I have had the pleasure of being on a jump-seat (before they locked the doors), landing on RWY12 - nice view of the city from there, but I imagine it may be just a little annoying back in the old days with departures of 727's and such. The winglets on the airbuses look HUGE from the angle you have in the pictures. . .

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    Csaba said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    I got the kit today, thanks Erik @airbum!

    It is a great little kit! So far the best 1:144 scale commercial jet model I have ever seen. I made a few shots of the sprues, so you can see the details.

    Flaps and slats can be extended, the front door can be opened, transparent windscreen and passenger windows. I also bought the LN decals SAS release with the old livery. Surprisingly it was designed by Ferenc Szegedi from HAD decals, a Hungarian decal supplier. He has been in the decal business for ages, and I like his commitment to quality. The print is done by BOA agency - I used their own decals before, it is better to be careful this time. As I remember it was very easy to break the decals.

    The transparent windows can give a challenge. The new SAS livery does not have a silver edge around the windows, but the old one has. LN decals provided filled in window decals, but it would be great to make the model with the transparent windows. I should find window edge decals, if there is any such set on market.

    (UPDATE : yes there is such sheet available at https://www.authentic-airliner-decals.de/epages/17895661.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/17895661/Products/D144-A4-1-NEO )

    In worst case I go with the new livery - let´s see. I have plenty of time to find out what to do.

    6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

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    Csaba said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Yep, those sharklets are indeed huge Erik, somewhere between 2.4 and 2.5 meters tall, depends on the source.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    The kit looks great, my friend @pikofix, as well as the decals!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    Nice detailed sprues and decals, Csaba @pikofix
    Looking forward to this build

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    Erik Gjørup said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    I have to admit that when I first heard of the Authentic decals for windows I found then strange, but having seen pictores of some finished builds they actually look great! Looking forward to find out what you decide when the time comes @pikofix.

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    Csaba said 2 years, 8 months ago:

    While working on my current project (the 1:48 Po-2) I realized that I need clear goals for each build. I am busy with work, family, I have very limited time, so the best way to maximize the usage of my time is to set clear goals from the beginning.
    With this build, I want to improve my airbrushing and weathering skills. Sometimes I still rush airbrushing, and of course the result is not what I expect from myself. I need to slow down, spend a little bit more time on experimenting and testing before "go live" on a model. Small scale airliners are a challenge, especially because of the satin/gloss finishes.
    I also want to get better in weathering. To be honest I don´t really like the usual, very clean airliner models. They look toy-like for me. Airliners are also getting dirty, just take a look on the plane before boarding or during flight if you have a window seat. Of course the degree of weathering varies by age, operator, geographical area, season, but all planes get dirty after a while. Even the new SAS 320 NEOs are showing sign of usage, I went through nearly 200 photos on spotter websites.

    I want to show you the typical A320 "weathering hotspots" - Part 1. I will continue with the other parts when I get time in the coming days.

    The belly

    The flaps and wings

    The landing gear

    A320 belly photo - Bene Riobó, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Flaps photo - Dr. Joachim Opitz, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Landing gear screenshot - https://youtu.be/_dydUEaFjfo?t=267