Background

During the late 70's when Australia's two airline policy was in full swing, Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) and Ansett were expanding there fleets with the introduction of the first wide-bodied aircraft into the domestic market.  TAA went down the Airbus path with an order for 4 A300B4 aircraft while Ansett chose the Boeing 767.  Unfortunately for TAA the aircraft arrived as the domestic market was in downturn in the early 80's and their early service life was a financial drain on the government owned airline.  These aircraft soldiered on through the airline's name change to Australian Airlines and finally were absorbed into the QANTAS fleet when Australian Airlines was amalgamated into QANTAS.

The Kit
The Airfix kit has been around along time.  All detail is raised including the flap and aileron sections on the wings.  The tail bumper is molded too far aft, I noticed this too late (when I started decaling) and had to leave it where it was.    Some filler was used on the wing roots but the kit went together quite well.  I added some sheet plastic antennae and used a small blob of superglue for the fuselage anti-collision beacons.

Finishing
The model was painted with Tamiya, Humbrol and Testors metaliser paints. The decals came from Hawkeye Models Australia.  These decals are translucent and need a white background to portray the correct colour.  I had a little problem with the blue and yellow line around the nose.  The strip has to be trimmed to shape around the nose contour and as such some overlap occurred making some sections of the nose stripes darker than others.  This was my first use of Hawkeye decals and I was happy with the end result.

Ray

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