Concorde from Currell.net

sjsquirrel

Member
A few months ago some people I know asked if I would make a model as a birthday gift for a friend of theirs. After a brief discussion we decided on a British Airways Concorde (their friend lives in England). Naturally I chose the excellent Concorde kit by Ralph Currell and Erik Te Groen. As this was a gift for his 60th birthday I modified the call numbers on the pattern pieces to be the mans initials and year of birth.

The kit includes formers for all main pieces. Assembly starts with the fuselage.

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The overall assembly process is to make the main fuselage starting with the center section, add the tail section, then the wings and engines followed by the vertical stabilizer, and finally the surface details.

The fuselage sections are designed with joining strips to hold the section together, and formers to set the shape. After closing the section with the joining strips you insert the former to define the cross-sectional shape.

I found it difficult to join the fuselage segments after inserting the formers and had to restart the fuselage three times. Eventually I started from the rear, making the two rearmost segments, joined them together, then inserted the former, and continued working my way forward. For the front I started with the front then worked back toward the center.

More in the next post...
 

sjsquirrel

Member
On to the wings

With the fuselage three quarters complete you move on to the wings. The formers are brilliantly designed. Simple but very effective.

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Once the wing is ready the engine is assembled then glued in place.

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And with the engine installed a few surface details complete the wing.

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At this point I deviated from the instructions and added the stabilizer, then the completed wings.

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More to come...
 

sjsquirrel

Member
Cockpit and Final details

With the bulk of the fuselage, the wings and stabilizer done all that's left for the gear up version of this kit is the cockpit and a few surface details.

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I didn't take a lot of pictures of the other details, and the few I did take were slightly out of focus.

So that wraps up the aircraft. It turned out pretty good I think.

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But, we're not quite done. One more post...
 

sjsquirrel

Member
And a Stand

Since I can't have the recipient holding the plane all the time, I whipped up a custom stand.

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And finally, I had to see what she would look like in the air, so a quick bit of fiddling with Gimp and...

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Off she goes.

After assembly here in Canada the finished plane has now flown across the Atlantic and resides in England.


Happy Birthday Chris.
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
That is BEAUTIFUL!!!
You did a FANTASTIC job.
I hope your friend enjoys the model. That is a GREAT gift.

I remember when the Concord came to Seattle. I was able to see it land at Boeing Air Field and added to the Boeing Museum fo Flight.
 

paper hollywood

Active Member
Super build. Currell's Concordes are so beautiful. I saw a Concorde take off once-- the one and only time it was ever allowed to come Texas. It was for the grand opening of DFW Airport back in the '70s. It was a sight and sound I will never forget.
 

sjsquirrel

Member
Thanks

Thanks guys. The Concorde is such a beautiful plane even a bad model of it would look good, and this kit is an excellent one.

I got to see the Concorde once as well, back in the eighties I think. I was still living in Windsor, Ont. at the time and one came in on a special charter of some sort. Many people came out to see it land and take off. After it took off with the nose down, the pilot turned around and made a high speed pass with the nose up and engines roaring. A great mini airshow, and I'm really grateful for it as it turned out to be the only time in my life I ever saw one flying.

Thanks again,

Steve
 

RocketmanTan

Well-Known Member
Wow, excellent build. Over ten years ago, before 9/11, the first aircraft cockpit I've ever been in was the Concorde... Despite having no pictures of my trip to the airport, I can still remember what it looked like.
 

chunder

New Member
Great job:thumb:

That model was one of the first models I ever made, but I made mine "special", not only did the nose point down, it pointed sideways aswell :cry:

I watched the old girl take off from Sydney when they flew it to Australia to try to sell them to us back in the '70's.
 

MacSongLi

New Member
Excellent photos of the build. When ever I get time, I'm going to do a Concorde, I hope you don't mind if I use your photos for reference material?
 

sjsquirrel

Member
Excellent photos of the build. When ever I get time, I'm going to do a Concorde, I hope you don't mind if I use your photos for reference material?

sign1 That's what they're for friend! There's another build of this model over at papermodelers.com you could check out for reference also. The kit can also be done in a gear down version. I would kind of like to do that one as well someday.

Enjoy

Steve
 

sjsquirrel

Member
Beautiful build of a beautiful aircraft:thumb:

Thanks

Very nice & clean. How did you pack it to cross the pond?

It was being taken over by the people who commissioned the build and they planned on carrying it on the plane with them. We got a box big enough for it and just packed it with lightly bunched up plastic grocery bags. It worked perfectly.

If it was being shipped I would have done it quite differently.

Steve
 
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