This was such a simple little kit to build. Only took a few days, and it most of the time was spent waiting for paint to dry. It’s 1/144 scale of the Boeing B377 Stratocruiser, in BOAC livery.
There’s no interior parts to assemble. All you have to remember to add is some weights in the nose area, to stop it sitting on its tail. The kit suggests 1/2 oz weights, but 1 oz is more like it.
The BOAC liveried kit was the hard one to find on eBay.
As expected, the decals were old, and the long strips down the side broke up in places, but I managed to assemble them so you can’t see where that happened.
I’ve always like the name “Stratocruiser” and the slightly aggressive look of the plane’s nose, and as this is the first BOAC liveried plane I have here in my study, I’m happy with the addition.
The cockpits of those things are huge. There’s a KC-97(military version of the 377) down in Colorado Springs that’s been turned into a restaurant. you can sit in the plane and eat, and the cockpit is accessible for you to check out or for your kids to play in. I could almost fit my bedroom in that cockpit if it was stripped to the deck.
I am building the same kit, but the Northwest Airlines version. Unfortunately, the decals shattered when I tried to apply them. Fortunately I had scanned the decals first, as is my habit these days. But some of the decals need to be on white decal film and I am out, so I have to order more, and that has caused me to take it off the bench for awhile.
I scanned the BOAC decals for the same reason, Don. My big tip with this build is to add plenty of weight inside the nose area, to avoid the finished model sitting on its tail. The kit recommends 1/2 oz up front extra weight, but that isn’t enough. I added almost 1oz and it’s still a bit tail happy if it gets bumped.
That is one problem with many Minicraft kits. They seem to splurge on the plastic for rear fuselage and tail pieces, so the kits need a ton of weight. Fortunately I decided to build the 377 as an in-flight model to show off my method of making “turning” propellers. That eliminates the problem.
You are so right Don. I am working on 3 Minicraft kits right now and besides being tail heavy they shorted the plastic in the main gear. The gear legs are so thin I don’t think they will support even the plane without any weight in the nose.
I built their Cessna 172, and barely have enough weight in it- it will rock back on its tail with the slightest draft or vibration of a table. Yet the main gear splays outward when you set it down, and I worry about it breaking!
