Here's a little something I've been working on. Just FYI...

Looks great J,
How about one for the Cargo version as well?

Walter

and the nose looks great, too!
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(...sorry, couldn't help it!)

Great job, J!
Cheers
Eduardo

Just one little thing: A panel line is too long in your drawing:

You're absolutely right. Not sure how that got back on there. I know I removed that section once already! Good catch

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747-400 :
Just one little thing: A panel line is too long in your drawing:

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I'm not sure what happened to that image. I uploaded it, but it's not on the server, and apparently I deleted it from my HD after I uploaded it. No big deal. It was just a blow up of the nose of the drawing I already posted.

J

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insureart :Now kitbashing 2 Revell B747-400 kits into 747-800 I.

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Egad, WHY?

Why not ??? I started my project before the announcement of the release of the Zveda/Revell kit . I'm now too far along to abandon .

I understand, but where were you planning on getting the totally unique engines? It's not like you can rob another kit for GEnx engines... The *only* place they'd be is in a 747-8 kit.

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DullesFlyer :
Anyone found a place to purchase the Zvezda 747-8 1/144 in the U.S., yet? Russell has not updated his website, but curious if any other locations to purchase. There is some place in the Ukraine, ModelsUA, but I may stay away from it.

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Hi,
If the Ukranian firm is Hobbyterra, I find NO reason to stay away! I have traded with them ten-fold, and they have reasonable prices coupled with excellent service!
-Harry B.

Hi All,

Ok. Got the Zvezda 747-8I 1/144 kit. Has anyone measured the engines to see if they are the correct diameter to scale? Like the 767 from Zvezda, I am afraid the engines may be too short in diameter. They are much much smaller than the 787 engines... I thought they were not that different in size? Jennings, please tell?

Greetings!

I got mine from my LHS for $32.00. Considering what the Tu-154 costs, this kit is a comparative bargain since it has a very strong inner box package and about 3X as much plastic as the Tu-154 does.

Naturally, I wanted to take a close look at the details that I do know about, which are few. I'll defer to Jennings on the bulk of the nitty gritty stuff. Although I spent 10+ years on the -100/-200, this one is quite different, and a few changes were made as the result of flight testing, but I don't know if those changes (gear door buffeting was one problem) resulted in shape changes to the affected parts.

As pointed out before, the -8 windows are not the same as earlier 747 variants, being larger, but the windows in the doors are the old size as Jennings' drawing shows, and it appears that Zvezda got it right.

Another feature I like in the kit is that the horizontal stabs attach with pins to the flattened fuselage area rather than to a stub stabilizer on the fuselage as so many other kits do, and I hate that method as it's near impossible to get the right effect, but with the pin attachments there is a complete stab with a gap at the fuselage just as it should be. The stabs are flatter on top with more curve on the bottom just as they should be.

The leading edges look appropriately thin on the wings and the LED's look right with the outer wing having 1 more piece of LED flap than the -100/-200 do. This is the same as the -400. Some of the late build "Classic" and all of the -400's have a modified wing to body fairing that added a bulge forward of the wing root, and the -8 also has this, but the kit has one that looks like it might be overly thick and too quickly tapered as it angles forward and down, but I'm not sure exactly without doing a dry assembly and/or comparing the kit with photos or drawings of the real -8.

The trailing edge flaps bear little in common with the earlier variants, being double slotted on the inboards and single slotted on the outboards in the -8, so the flap canoes may be shaped differently than earlier variants. These are molded as separate pieces in the kit.

I did not measure the inside diameter of the engine intake rings, which are molded as separate pieces, but they are big. I compared them with the 787 kit intake rings, and the 747-8 kit intake is just ever so slightly smaller. Shapewise, the kit looks good to me at first glance, but of course, the proof is in the build.

Zvezda has consistently made wings that look more "Right" to me than Revell or MC, and this kit continues that. The Zvezda 767 kit wings are far superior to the Revell 767 IMO, and these look very good too. They are molded with a pronounced downward droop at the tips so that it will look sort of like a heavily loaded 747 with the wings filled with fuel as it sits on the ground.

Based on a first look, I like it. Having said that, it is tooled, just as the 787 and the Revell A380 kit were, on a paper design that was not yet past the early flight test phase, so it is quite possible that there might be changes to the real one that are not reflected on the kit. One difference, though, is that while the 787 and A380 kits were based on a brand new design, the -8 kit is based on an evolution of a long in the tooth one, so Zvezda may have assumed that some things would not be changed which were, in fact, changed.

Regards,
Jeff Jarvis

On the topic of 747-8, just want to share with you the LH seat map I just saw released on their website:

http://www.lufthansa.com/mediapool/pdf/46/media_580279046.pdf

Wow. I have never seen such elaborate and accurate seat maps before- even wing planforms as well as location of blocked and unblocked windows. Might be useful for modelling?

Let's hope they will at least get the wing-body fairing right, so it would be very easy to build a "Revezda" hybrid 747, as the rest of the Zvezda kit is fine (except minor details whose correction isn't a big deal). Too bad the Zvezda kit lacks the nice detail of the subtle rivet lines of the APU-section offered with the Revell 744, so much scribing work is necessary.

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Jeff Jarvis :Revell may make a better one, assuming that they really do make their own, but I have my doubts that they will improve on this one in any meaningful way.

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I can state with absolute factual certainty that Revell are doing a 100% totally new, unrelated to Zvezda in any way, kit of their own. Not rumor, fact.

As for "any meaningful way" - that's a completely subjective assessment. For myself, I think Zvezda screwed the pooch on their kit in a lot of very meaningful ways. You mentioned the landing gear - have you looked at Zvezda's landing gear stalks? They look like toothpicks (just like the 787). Clearly whoever designed them didn't look at photos of real 747 gear struts. They're the size of telephone poles (or bigger). Given all the things Zvezda missed, simplified, and just got downright wrong, my *opinion* is that they missed the boat by a good ways. But that's just my opinion. I'm anal retentive. Okay isn't good enough for me. For others it's fine, and that's perfectly cool.

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Jennings :

As for "any meaningful way" - that's a completely subjective assessment. For myself, I think Zvezda screwed the pooch on their kit in a lot of very meaningful ways. You mentioned the landing gear - have you looked at Zvezda's landing gear stalks? They look like toothpicks (just like the 787). Clearly whoever designed them didn't look at photos of real 747 gear struts. They're the size of telephone poles (or bigger). Given all the things Zvezda missed, simplified, and just got downright wrong, my *opinion* is that they missed the boat by a good ways. But that's just my opinion. I'm anal retentive. Okay isn't good enough for me. For others it's fine, and that's perfectly cool.

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Greetings!

I agree with much of what you have observed, and my "any meaningful way" remark was not to imply that the Zvezda kit is anything close to perfect, but rather to hint at my lack of confidence in Revell actually getting it mostly right any more than Zvezda did. However, I would expect them to do a better job on the landing gear! The thing is, no perfect kit exists and we all have to decide whether something is worth the effort to "fix" all that is wrong with it. As 747-400 alluded to, fixing, detailing, etc, whatever kit is available is part of modeling, and one has to decide if the extra effort necessary is worth it to have a model of xyz.......or whatever.

As for your self admission of being "anal retentive" about model kit accuracy, there is nothing wrong with that...... That is why and how you produced some very nice decals over the years. I rather enjoy reading your perspectives on things!

Regards,
Jeff Jarvis