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After years of waiting for an injection-moulded 1/72 Trident, and searching without result for a copy of the out-of-production Transport Wings vacuform kit, I finally decided to scratch-build my own. The following build thread describes how I did the job.
I had little success tracking down good reliable drawings, so I had to resort to a mix and match of whatever drawings, photos, profiles, decal instructions, and even 1/144 kit sprue shots that I did find, scaling them up to 1/72 scale, and doing the best I could using my Mk 1 eyeball. I have zero artistic skill, so carving or sculpting weren’t going to work for me. The technique I used started by cutting some Evergreen plastic sheets to match the fuselage top and side views.
Then I cut them lengthwise along their longitudinal centrelines, and glued them together. Next, I cut some circular fuselage frames out of Evergreen sheet, and glued them into the fuselage. I thickened up the outer edges of the frames to help them better bear against the skin.
Then, I pre-curved Evergreen sheets using gentle heat and applied them as skin panels. I used Milliput to form the nose and tail cones.
I could foresee that if I shaped the cockpit area using only Milliput, it was going to be difficult for artistically challenged me to keep things symmetric, especially working only by eye. My solution was to use the spare canopy part from a BPK 737. I glued it on and faired it in with milliput. You need to tweek the windshield shape a bit since the Trident has a flat window at front centre, and its slope is a bit steeper than a 737.
For the wings, stabs, and fin, it was going to be difficult to make nicely cambered airfoil sections, so I took a 1/72 Mach 2 727 from my stash of unbuilt kits, and used it as a donor.
For the wings, I simply overlaid the Mach 2 wings onto my drawings, and cut or added as required to get the necessary plan view shapes. To attach the wings, I glued thick Evergreen strips into the wings, that stuck out the inboard ends to act as attachment tabs. I cut matching holes in the side of the fuselage. It was necessary to temporarily remove a section of fuselage belly to provide access so the wings could be solidly anchored. Once the wings were anchored, I replaced the belly and made the wing-body fairings out of Milliput.
Next, the fin was traced out onto a sheet of Evergreen.
To make the #2 engine intake, I cut bits of Evergreen plastic tube lengthwise, re-glued them together in the correct cross sectional shape, and faired things smooth with putty.
Next, I cut the 1/72 Mach 2 727 fin to fit over my 2-d fin shape. I added a few Evergreen frames in the region between the intake and the Mach 2 fin, and blended them in with a combination of Evergreen sheet skins, Milliput, and putty.
I traced out the 2-d shapes of the fin-mounted booster engine, glued them together along their longitudinal centreline, filled in with Milliput, and I glued the engine into position on the fin.
The stabilizer from the 1/72 Mach 2 727 was overlaid on the drawing and cut to fit. For the fin bullet fairing I copied the top and side view drawings onto Evergreen sheets, and filled in with Milliput. I left a couple of gaps through which I could pass Evergreen strips to attach the stabilizers.
So, here’s an interim progress photo.
I modified the engines from my 1/72 Mach 2 727 donor kit. The 727 engines are much too large, so I reduced their diameter by removing longitudinal slices. There is also a large bulge on the bottom of the 727 nacelle that has to be sanded away. Make sure to line that region of the nacelle interior with a nice thick coating of Milliput, to avoid sanding clear through.
Now, it’s time to finish things off. These days, I find myself drawn back to aircraft subjects of my youth, so I settled on the BEA speedjack scheme. While growing up in the 1960’s, the prevailing attitude was that modern was good and old was bad, and the “new” speedjack scheme was really modern compared to the old BEA square. That scheme has always retained its “wow” factor for me. I had to mix my own colours since I don’t have access to XtraColour BEA paint here. Most decals were home-made using my laser printer. A shout-out is in order to V1 Decals who, for a very reasonable price and in quick order, custom printed the bits where I needed white ink on clear decal paper.
The total cost of the entire build was considerably less than what you pay these days for a 1/72 scale airliner kit, and although it was a long and tiresome job, the reward of finally having my 1/72 Trident made it all worthwhile.
And so, Voilà! I present the Evergreen/Milliput 1/72 Trident Three. Now that I’ve done the job the hard way, I fully expect one of the kit manufacturers to finally come out with one.
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Posts: 43Location: Salt Lake CityOccupation: Retired. Twice: Civilian HR manager and US Army officerGoodness, that is some heroic scratch building there, lad. Amazing work.
The next time some wing root filling vexes me, I’ll just think about your scratch built Trident.
Robert V. Leonard
You started your article with
”I have zero artistic skills”
I really doubt that!
Incredible job! What a piece of art!
Regards,
WalterVery impressive, scratch build. You definitely do have an artistic eye. ????????
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Damn!!! That’s a great scratch-build. Well done with all the Milliput sculpting.
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No other words for that but “incredible work.” Wow.
Jodie Peeler
"In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake." - Sayre's Law
Awesome effort and a fantastic result! Congratulations!!
Discovering Clint Groves and his ATP/Airliners America catalog in the late '70s made me realize I wasn't the only hobbyist with an interest in building airliner models. Beginning with Aurora kits and now enjoying the latest offerings from Revell Germany and Zvezda in 1/144 scale, it's been a fun ride.
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