Piper Cherokee 140 N1872T

What I’m trying to make… 

Not looking forward to doing the stripes. 

Here’s what the cockpit should look like. 

Instrument panel. 

How to mimic velour…? 

The kit is a serious tail-sitter and I don’t want to use the stand, so I’m adding weights wherever they’ll fit. This will be under the cockpit floor.

*Spoiler alert - don’t do this (see photo #35).* 

Lots of weight under the engine cover. I’ll paint it black but not making a big effort to smooth it out. Given the stripes on the engine cover, I’m not sure if I’ll bother leaving it accessible or just glue it shut. 

Another view. 

Also added weight behind the firewall, since it won’t be visible. 

Weight added to the engine compartment. 

The front seat backs will be visible. They should be flat. 

Adding some weight and then putty to fill them out. 

 

 

Back of all the seats. The rear seats aren’t smooth but won’t be visible. 

 

This flash on the right fuselage blocks the instrument panel and needs to be removed. 

It’s in a really awkward place to remove. 

Visible sink marks on the tail landing gear. 

The sprue joins on the tail landing gear are awful. They’re gonna need a lot of sanding once assembled… 

Also, why do these have the same part number? They’re literally mirror images of each other. 

After a lot of putty and sanding, the outsides look much better. 

The insides didn’t need as much work, thankfully. Sorry about the photo quality. 

Another terrible sprue join. Those teeth will be fun to recreate. 

At least the figures look pretty good from the front, aside from some flash. 

The back is a different story. It looks like the molds weren’t lined up properly - a lot of cleanup will be needed. It’s the same story for most of the smaller aircraft parts. At least the wings and fuselage don’t have this problem. 

This shows how off the molds were.  

Another view showing how offset the molds were. There shouldn’t be a seam in her hair. 

And what the hell happened to the mechanic’s head??? 

Why are these curved lines in front of the propeller blades here?? 

I messed up gluing the wings together. I don’t think this will be easy to fix… 

Another view after I tried to clean out the glue and putty. Hopefully it’ll smooth out…. 

Fingers crossed. 

More work needed, but it’s definitely an improvement. 

I finally started gluing the windows in place, using Revell Contacta Clear for the first time. Unfortunately, I sanded the right front window a bit too much. Now trying to use Testors clear cement to fill the gaps without messing up the windows.  

Putting weight here (photo #6) turned out to be a terrible idea. It made the cockpit sit too high and not fit properly, so I couldn’t glue the fuselage together. 

Also, line up the cockpit with the back of the guides (green) rather than the front (red). 

If you line up with the front of the guide, the interior will be wider than the plane’s exterior and the fuselage won’t close. 

The two pen lines show how much of a difference this makes. 

Do not do this! 

Do it this way instead. 

Instrument panel now in place. 

Test fitting to see how things look before gluing the fuselage sides together. The seam line down the middle will be a nightmare to fix. The wall behind the rear seats is the only easily accessible area but it’s basically hidden behind the rear seats. The flat cargo area that runs to the rear of the cabin will be much more visible - and way more difficult to work on. 

The ceiling may be a little easier to work on, but I’m not sure how much you’ll actually be able to see in the end. 

Gluing the two sides together. (Tabs or locator pins would’ve been nice.) Hopefully the exterior seams won’t need too much cleanup… 

The painting guide for the figures isn’t too helpful, but they’re clearly in 1970s clothes so time to have some fun with ugly clothing colors! I’m not painting floral patterns though. 

Once you clean them up, the figures actually have some pretty impressive detail (even if their faces look like Garak from Star Trek: Deep Space 9). Attaching the arms requires a lot of putty though. For the passengers, you’ll want to paint the bodies and arms before gluing them together because their poses and accessories leave very little room for a brush. 

Rear view. There’s actually less space between the female’s arms and her body than the male’s - if you don’t modify the kit’s pose, one arm will be less than 2 mm from her torso.  

The pilot figure probably needs the most filler if you want it to look like he’s holding the yoke. 

The scale also looks wrong. For comparison, the figure on the right is one of the civilian pilot from the Academy/Hasegawa Hughes 500/MH-6 (which scales to about 6 feet tall). 

 

It’s not perfect, but it does look like the pilot’s hands are close to the yoke at least. 

Started painting the male passenger, who will be wearing a powder blue suit. 

My handiwork also makes it look like his brain is coming out the back of his head. Whoops. 

The mechanic prior to his head surgery. He came with a gigantic flash forehead, although I did make it worse by attempting to add the rest of a head behind it. 

 

Mr. Conehead is now Mr. Flat top. He’ll be wearing a baseball cap, so it should be ok. 

His right arm also sits directly in front of his face, which looks weird and will make painting very difficult. More filler needed.