1/72 A400M

[The Madhatter]

Greeting everyone

Well, I figured it was about time I do a real world aircraft seeing as most of my builds of late have been sci-fi. To make things nerve racking for me is the small point that the only place I can do a WIP of a modern aircraft on ARC is here with the "big-boys". This is a double edged sword for me - my work isn't museum quality but I might also get some decent tips too!

I've had this in my very small stash now for about 6 months now and I've been itching to build it. However, due to it's size, I have nowhere to put it once it's finished. But, the wife has rolled over (so to speak) and I am getting some new shelves put in soon which will be big enough to accommodate this monster, so I thought "hell yeah - I'll start!"

This is a new kit, so AM parts are very few and far between. In fact - I bought the only things that are currently available - the Revell/Eduard PE set and the Eduard masks (there are also white metal landing gear available but they just don't appeal to me). To my knowledge, there is no resin anything available...yet. No doubt there will be by the time I finish this.

So, on with the show. First up, the cockpit. As mine will be a well used bird, I opted for a dirty cockpit floor. Mud, oil and other crap has been replicated using Tamiya's weathering sets. This is also the area where the PE set comes in handy. The decals and console Revell will have you use is so far removed from reality it's not funny. It has way to many screens for a start. The joy sticks are a joke but I don't have any other 1/72 fighters to steal the sticks from, so unfortunately they have to remain the ugly stumps they are:

Since taking those cockpit shots, I have done a wash and still need to add some chipping around some of the panels to age it more.

I didn't bother painting the bunk beds because you won't see them once it's all sealed up

I improvised a lot here on the load master's station as Revell provide absolutely NOTHING (and I do mean nothing) in terms of detail here. Not even a crappy decal. See if you can guess where the panels come from!

I don't care that it's not the right panel but to be honest I just needed to see SOMETHING there - not just a blank panel. Besides, once it's sealed up, I don't think you'll see much of it anyways.

I would make a decal for it of the real panel myself except the only picture I found of this panel on the internet has a great big water mark through the middle, so there goes that idea.

I have also painted up the floor. It still needs to be weathered yet, although I am still trying to work out the best way to do that. Again, because this aircraft hasn't even entered service yet, I have no idea on how it will dirty up. I am going to guess and use a C130 floor as reference.

Check out how badly warped it is:

And the ramp:

The stair way to heaven - or at least to the cockpit:

Revell have got the interior very very wrong. I scoured the net for hours looking for interior shots and found a fair few, and they show just how bad Revell got it. OK to be fair to Revell, the A400 hadn't even finished the testing phase when they released this kit and it's still not yet in service, but I am pretty sure Revell would have had some access to photos of the interior to see how to do it. So, this means I'll have to improvise a bit here and try to make it more like the real thing. I emphasize the word try ....

I am also lighting the interior, so it kind of helps to be redoing it. There are 2 of these panels, each with nine 2mm SMD LED's inserted. The vertical lines marry up with the model's own interior panel lines.

I intend to remove some of those seats and replace them with opened ones and some stretchers, but we'll see how optimistic I am about that later. I also am thinking about motorizing the engines as I have some really small little electric motors hanging about, although I'm thinking I may save those for the P3 I have sitting around gathering dust.

So that's it for now. Please feel free to critique - it's how I'll get better. I won't be offended

Thanks for stopping by

MH

[Hajo L.]

No critic, just prasing some awesome work! Very good looking so far, and I can´t emphasize how much I love seeing another "big bird" beeing build!

HAJO

[mario krijan]

nice work. i will follow for shure. have this kit in stash. tempting to start work on it :-):-):-)

[The Madhatter]

Thanks for the kind comments guys!

I spent a fair amount of time last night working out dimensions for the new roof, plus ways of adding supports to the new panels. I need to do some creative cutting I think.

I also think I have finally figured out how I am going to display this beast and how I am going to run the power lines into it. Need to buy the 1/72 ground equipment set from Hasegawa for it though.

If anyone has an opinion on motorising the engines, please feel free to let me know. I am in two minds about it: it would be a challenge to get it right but the after effect could be quite cool but at the same time leave the build a bit 'toy-ish' and gimmicky. I don't know. I'll go with a general consensus.

More pics soon!

Thanks again guys for stopping in

MH

[JesniF-16]

Hello MH! Good to see you back at it again & this time with a real aircraft build :woot.gif:/> You have done a wonderful job on painting the floor and the ramp. Looks very authentic. Can't wait to see more!

/Jesse

[The Madhatter]

hey Jesse! Great to see you here! Thanks for taking the time to post bro - greatly appreciated. Hopefully, I'll have some more pics soon. Still working on the interior panel supports - proving to be a PITA but do-able

MH

[Trojan Thunder]

Looks good Simon, nice to see you tackling this monster. The cockpit and cargo floor looks great (taking notes :D)

Mine will be a RAAF What -if when I build it.

[The Madhatter]

Thanks Ray! This is a 'fill in' while I wait for my replacement A340 to arrive ;)/> Pretty big fill in actually. Have a fair amount of detailing in mind for this...

Well, the panels are in place and are working just fine! Took a lot of fiddling to get them in but worth it I think. Now it's starting to look more like it should. Just need to measure out the roof section and then start on the walls. Might have to make my own stretchers as I don't have any 1/72 ones. Anyone know what the measurements should be? I have no idea on how big the real ones are let alone 1/72.

Here's a couple of pics of the light testing. The 2 halves are held together with masking tape only.

I need to play around with the camera settings but it 00:45 here and I'm tired, so maybe tomorrow I'll try to shoot something better, but these will give you an idea on how they're looking

Thanks for stopping in

MH

[Hajo L.]

I have the Eduard-set for the Chinook with seats and stretchers - the stretcher in this set is 27mm long and has a width of 7mm. The part has an original width of 10mm, but you need 1,5mm on each side to fit around the handlers.

HAJO

[The Madhatter]

that's great - thanks for that. It's roughly what I had in my head to - except was out by 3 mm with the width. I'll see if I can find the Eduard stretcher set as it's own set - it would probably look better than anything I can make :)

MH

[Tomo43]

hello MH - It's been a long time! It's great to see you back doing something else. And real world at that too. I was silently following your Galactica build and I'm sorry to see you have stopped it. I understand why, but it's a shame none the less. It is really shaping up

And the same goes for this new subject as well. It's nice to see something else here other than the F Jets and usual props. I haven't seen anyone else do a build up of this on ARC yet.

I know what you mean about the roof being wrong. I have had the pleasure of going on board this aircraft whilst in Farnborough for work and you are getting the right shape for the roof. Just don't forget the vents ;)

The lighting is also fantastic and using the small SMD's was the right choice - very much in scale. I personally wouldn't bother motorising the blades, but this is your build so you should do what feels right for you

Well, I must be away as I have work to do but I just wanted to drop a line or two to say what a great job your doing so far and good luck with the rest of the build. I look forward to seeing the final result

Best regards

Thomas

[The Madhatter]

Hi Thomas! It's been a while! How have you been? Sorry for the delay in replying to you - only just noticed you'd posted. PM inbound

I have been slowly plugging away at this, but my time on the bench has been hampered by a sick wife and child, so I have had to look after them. But I have done something.

Before I begin, Ii just want to say that for a new kit, the fit with the parts is rubbish! Whinge over, time for photos...

First up, the engines. Major gaps to fill and sand. I still have to fill in the bottom lips yet and repaint those, but that will happen soon enough:

The lower cowling/intake of the engines have had the airframe aluminum sprayed on and are ready for masking:

The main legs have been assembled. Man, these have a lot of work to do to tidy them up:

The back wall has been dirtied up somewhat - just need to touch up some paint here and there:

The front nose gear has had it's plumbing attached. There is some artistic license going on here as photos of this are rare and the ones that are there don't really show much in the range of wiring:

I found that by cutting away the insert of the hinge thing at the back, it sits in there more realistically.

and after playing with the camera, I managed to get a better shot of the interior lighting at work:

Well, that's all for now. Not very exciting I know, but as I said, I haven't had much bench time, but now that they are both on the mend, maybe some time will be freed up. But not this weekend - it's the Melbourne Model Expo!

Thanks for stopping in

MH

[Trojan Thunder]

Progress looks good Simon, I have the SAC undercarriage for mine. Plumbing on the nose gear looks great.

Edited June 7, 2013 by Trojan Thunder

[The Madhatter]

Thanks Ray

Yes, I'm beginning to wonder if I should buy the SAC set as well if I can't get those legs cleaned up well enough. Initially, I thought they wouldn't be worth it, but after seeing how bad the Revell ones are, I'm thinking I may need to change my thoughts about them

[The Madhatter]

Time for a small update.

Work has progressed at my normal glacial pace. I succumbed to the SAC legs as the Revell ones were just to bad for my tastes. I don't care that much that the SAC ones are just recasts of the Revell ones, but at least they don't have the huge trench of a gap right through the middle like the kit ones do. I am now waiting for them to arrive in the mail. Once they show up, I can start adding wiring etc to them

I have got the base coat of Alclad onto the front struts and they look alright, just need to paint the wires and give the strut a wash:

All the tires/wheels have now been painted. I had a real time trying to get the tires to look like tires but I just couldn't get it right - despite a long trawl on the net looking for the right way to do it. They aren't flat black but NATO black. This seemed to be the most commonly accepted color for tires. At one point, I had even masked off the treads but they looked terrible, so I ditched that and just went with all out NATO Black. Alclad AU for the wheels. If you have any ood tips on how to weather tires, I would be very grateful:

SMD's have been installed in the wing tips and require some minor filling around the sides:

The front wheel wells have been painted and assembled:

And finally, just to give you an idea on just how big this aircraft is in real life, check out this size comparison of the blades with a Gnat:

Anyways, that's all for now. Sorry it's not very exciting. I hope to move onto the interior soon and get that finished - including the new roof.

Critique / constructive criticism is always appreciated. I won't get any better without it

Thanks for stopping in

MH

[Trojan Thunder]

Tyres look neat and tidy. Do you have any special technique for painting them? I HATE painting hubs and wheels and almost muck them up every time.

[The Madhatter]

I cheated this time and used the Eduard paint masks as they include wheel masks but normally I'd use blu tac which works well .... well most of the time :)

[The Madhatter]

OK - I need an opinion here. How do these look? Over done? Not done enough? Too random? Not random enough? Just looks **** or OK?

I'm not phishing for compliments here, I really just want some honest feedback. What could be done better? if so, got any tips on how to make it better?

thanks for any input you can offer

MH

[Luno13]

OK - I need an opinion here. How do these look? Over done? Not done enough? Too random? Not random enough? Just looks **** or OK?

I'm not phishing for compliments here, I really just want some honest feedback. What could be done better? if so, got any tips on how to make it better?

thanks for any input you can offer

MH

Hi MH,

Overall, it's looking very nice. I've walked around inside a C-17, and it was fairly clean. That floor of yours looks great, and I think the wheel wells would get dirty like that too, but the bulkhead looks like it might have a bit too much. Regarding the floor, it appeared that sometimes the edges of the grip-tape sections would peel off after time, or get worn down to expose the metal underneath. It would be pretty subtle in this scale, but maybe interesting to attempt.

You're already doing better than anything I've done, so take that with a grain of salt. Furthermore, we all have an artistic license to do as we chose, so don't get down because of naysayers and nit-pickers.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Luno13

[The Madhatter]

thanks for your input Luno - I'm very grateful for it. Don't worry bro - I have pretty thick skin so nothing you said offended me in any way. I'm not too worried about the rivet counters, but I do want to retain some level of 'realism'.

I did wonder about the rear bulkheads. Might dry brush them a bit in the base color to tone it down a bit

Will try some to stipple a bit of XF16 on some of the corners on the nonslip pads.

thanks again Luno

MH

[rom]

Very nice work!!

[The Madhatter]

thanks Rom - although it appears that my original post has vanished due to the server issue.

re-post time

I have made a small amount of progress. Still waiting for the SAC gear to arrive but my decals arrived today! Yay!

Most of the smaller sub assemblies are done and I am now starting to detail the interior. Not sure what to do about the moulded on seats though. I might just leave them and make up some masking tape seat belts etc for them.

The below wiring is based off images I have of the A400, so it isn't artistic license. Still have a long way to go yet and have only half finished one side of the fuselage:

the front wheel bay is done:

the flight deck and floor assembly is also almost done and ready to install - just need to add some "tape" to the arm and head rests plus a bit of chipping on the floor:

The tail assembly:

and the rear wheels are finished too. Hopefully, they look OK.

Anyway, as always, if you have any critique or suggestions on how it can be bettered, I am all ears.

Thanks again for stopping in

MH

[Trojan Thunder]

Nice progress Simon, what decals are you using? I was not aware of any after market available yet?????

[The Madhatter]

:naughty:/> there aren't. Not telling what this will be painted in yet! mwahh hahahahaaaa ....ahhhh

[Shawn M]

killer work so far!