Last year at Mosquitocon I noticed this on 99.9% of the airliner kits, when they were all painted up and finished they all looks like they were made of wood, anyone know why? Its really been bugging me.
Can you post any pix?
Looking at a online gallery from Mosquitocon I did see alot of airliners that were free hand brush painted. Is that what you mean?
My guess is that you are refering to models that use decals for all the windows. They do have a look like those solid display modles.
First of all, thank you Aaron for giving us an “Airliner/Civil” section! [bow]
As Marc suggested, it’s probably due to the use of decaled windows…
I agree with you Smeagol, IMO, it changes it from a plastic model into a solid resin/diecast/pre-built/painted collectable. It is also a verrry touchy point for some airliner modelers, who maintain that “you can’t see inside them anyway”, and I concur; at a distance it doesn’t matter, but up close it stands out like a sore thumb, especially the GRAY window decals like’s on the example above!
The makers of these window decals say it’s because the kit windows are not shaped right or are in the wrong locations, and it is true, some are not, but personally I’d rather have a model airliner that looked like one that’s in service, rather than one that’s on some static display in a museum! I know, I know… soap box time again, and it’s just a personal preference thing, but if I was going for a static display look, I’d just go down to Hobby Lobby and get one of the pre-painted/pre-decaled Skymarks snap together kits and be done with it! Could save all kinds of time and money!
Making airliner windows that actually look like airliner windows is a much quicker alternative than filling/sanding, and with a little attention to the interior fuselage before assembly, a realistic representation can be achieved.
I know I’m setting myself up for a hit by preaching this, but we’re Modelers not toy makers.
[:-^]
Take care,
Frank
Thx for posting this again Frank. Seeing it again has sold me on the idea. Must resist starting yet another kit. I need to finish a couple that have started then Ill give it a try.
I agree with oldhooker. I have not bought any airliner kits because I don’t like the decals for windows thing. I worked for a major airline for many years and would love to build all the aircraft I used to work on. So far, I have bought a few die cast models, but they are somewhat pricey for what you get.
Frank, I see in your diagram that you use tape,decal film in the inside of the aircraft. How do you prevent paint from getting in the window opening? Also do you use decals for the cockpit windows or the clear parts from the kit?
I can throw my 2c in here for the no paint in the windows. Might be tedious but soething like silly putty or clay can just be put into the little hole and used as a mask, it worked great for things like that. I could even see using something like milliput to plug the holes so you could then reuse it again and again to fill windows that size
I never thought of that. You know you could probably make it even easier, you could just print heads and window shades on that inner decal. That gives me some ideas to play with for some of my older 1/72 kits with no interior detail.
All great ideas, but like you say Smeagol, very tedious! I’ve boiled it down to…
(1) masking the area above & below the windows before any building/assembly,
(2) lightly buffing it with steel wool to give the paint something to hold to,
(3) then airbrush/raddle-can (airbrush works best because it doesn’t leave a thick border) the area according to your desired scheme. Allow to dry under a box for at least 24 hours.
(4) Cut an appropriate length of “Frisket” and place it over the painted area.
(5) Do the interior work (remember to brush the interior walls in something dark & flat AND dry-brush the window frame interiors light tan) and seal the fuselage, including putty/sanding the seamline.
(6) Paint the rest of the fuselage according to your desired scheme, allow to dry then remove Frisket… touch up any imperfections and Future overall. If you don’t have window frame decals, you can dry brush the exterior frames before applying clear decal strip… 
(7) Apply clear window decals along with other livery decals and Future again.
I use the supplied clear cockpit windows, unless they are too thick (jelly jar bottoms), in which case I cut new ones from the clear plastic like comes on Christmas card boxes using the kit piece as a guide… easy to bend and glues well using that Testors window cement.
That is a good idea, Aaron, or find a magazine that has pictures of people in that scale, cut them out and glue them in the opening… Hmmm… [;)]
Hope this helps…
Frank
The research for your “Black Bunny” build would have been very interesting work “but honey where else am I going to find photos of playmates to put in the windows”. [:)]
[:-^]
“That’s right, it wouldn’t look right if there weren’t Jet Bunnies in the windows!”
