Boeing 737-800 OK-TVT [Bratislava - Boa Vista 18.06.2019]

Let's start the journey 🙂 

Travel Service decals already ordered 

as well as great addition to the kit - Authentic Airliner decals for Boeing 737-800 - really looking forward to seeing this in place 

starting to putt together the wing 

Plane will be displayed in-flight, therefore no undercarriage parts will be used - only covers 

main fuselage glued together. 

wings and fuselage glued together - brilliant fit - no filling necessary. Bloody well done Zvezda! 

Travel service decals finally arrived (few days after the initial start of the project) 

nicely done, everything in register. great stuff! 

wing ends in place. so far everything is going very well 

front glass part (canopy) - nice fit 

starting to put together engines, rear horizontal stabilizers will be painted separately (great fit again with the fuselage ! ) 

airplane will be displayed in this way.  

second set of decals finally arrived ( a week later since the start of the project) 

looking great! 

rear horizontal stabilizers and wheels after a coat of MRP grey primer 

plane also after primer coat 

look's like the canopy is sitting a little bit higher 

also the side windows are sticking too much out in some places 

top joint,  

and bottom joint is looking good. 

canopy sanded down to blend with the rest of the fuselage. 

as well as side windows 

starting to put together the engines - decided that the shape of the conus is too much pointy and sanded it down a little 

since there shold be decal nr. 2 (two small white snakes) 

and after small touch-up painting and decalling 🙂 

main turbines painted and ready for glueing in the outher parts (which will be at the end) 

Outer parts glued together, inner surfaces painted with metallic paint (MRP titanium) 

final completion of the engines will be at the end of the build. It will be easier to place decals, weather, etc. The fit with the wing is perfect! 

rear horizontal stabilizers painted final black primer (MRP) and also front ends of the parts painted with duraluminium 

After sanding and polishing the front top surface of the canopy - overall final black primer coat. 

Top transition is looking good.  

as well as side windows. everything is ok. Now just add small details (antennas, bits and bobs) and the model is ready for final painting 🙂 

First two layers of paint in place. It will get at least one more layer and polishing can start 🙂 

First layer was XF02 sprayed neat and after 10 minutes another layer, this time thinned 50/50 with X-20A. I'm very satisfied with the result. 

second (thinner) coat of Tamiya XF-02 flat white thinned with self levelling thinner done. With a slight buffing with polishing stick, surface is nice and shiny. 

Moving along, both wings sprayed with MRP light grey. Next will be tail and wingtips in Tamiya blue. 

Only leading edges need to be sprayed and then - decaling 

Painting of main body is done! 

And the long decaling is underway 

only a few more decals for engines remaining - and then the windows from additional set 

Ok folks! all decals are in place. 

Now the rest of the small parts and mainly the stand. more info about the stand later 😉 

front engine part sprayed in AK-EM Polished Aluminium glued with PVA glue in place and both engines glued to the wings. 

together with rear horizontal stabilizers its looking great! 

The only parts that are still missing are small antennas and of course the display stand which will sprayed in Tamyia gloss black and after some drying time - both the stand and aircraft will get 2k gloss (MRP brand) 

Model finally sealed with Alclad Aqua GLoss 

It's a good think that this build is coming to an end. I really need to clean my work place 😄 

And it's DONE! Small bits and bobs are glued with white PVA glue.