This next build is another fun little build. I will be building Hasegawa’s Space Shuttle Orbiter on the Boeing 747 Egg Plane! I will be building this for a friend who is a fan of the Egg planes. This will sit next to the SR-71 Egg Plane that I previously built for him. It only took a few days from start to finish.
To start with I assembled the shuttle and 747 and then painted both of them a base coat of matte white. The kit has two large screws that screw into the 747 lower fuselage as ballast to keep it sitting on the landing gear. The 747 underside and wings were then painted medium grey along with the nose of the shuttle. The 747 engines were then painted using Vallejo Metal Aluminum for the engine exhaust and intake vanes.
I then applied the decals. The decals were difficult to apply. The blue band around the 747 comes in 4 parts and getting these aligned was very tricky. The rest of the 747 decals went on fine. The shuttle has decals for the leading edge of the wings. These did not fit very well and when attempting to wrap the decal along the edge the decal started to crack. I then ditched these decals and painted them using gunship grey. The shuttle tail decals were the same way. I trimmed them a little short and used semi-gloss black on the edges which worked out well. The shuttle was then top coated with matte clear and the 747 was top coat with clear gloss.
Next were the windshields for both aircraft. The parts fit very well. The kit supplies decals for the framing. The one for the 747 fit very well however the one for the shuttle is off. I lined up the decal with the center brace but the sides were off. I installed the braces that support the shuttle on top of the 747 and mounted the shuttle. This completed the model.
Overall it was a fun kit. The only downside was the decals. With the numerous curved surfaces the decals were too thick to properly adhere to the edges of the wings and tail. The rest were OK. The fit of the parts were good and the ballast included in the kit worked out well. In the end it came out looking good. Happy Modeling!
