Two Mikes Resin Accessories

1/144 Boeing 707 Nose Correction For the Minicraft 707, AWACS, J-Stars, C-18 and C-137

Stock Number: 144001

Reviewed By  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $18.00 Website: www.twomikesresin.com NOTE: I reviewed the new Minicraft C-18, which is used in this review, here . Two Mikes Resin has gained a reputation for providing solutions for those problem areas which appear in kits and are solvable, but which would require great skill and effort for a "home-grown" solution. The problem here is the nose area of Minicraft's Boeing 707 series. The model is dimensionally OK, it's easy to build, but the windshield and nose are just not right. The windshield shape and angle is far enough off that even Minicraft's decals don't fit. The new nose assembly is one piece of almost flawlessly cast resin, with no bubbles, runs, pock marks or sags. There are recessed panel lines, and the nose gear well is there.

The solution here is to replace the entire front of the fuselage. There's a panel line right there. I marked it with Blue tape, just in case. It's straight, it's fairly easy, and I almost got it perfect the first try. An application of the fuselage front to a sheet of flat sandpaper on the workbench gave me a pretty good match.

Note that the resin nose has a small cut out at the bottom. This matches up exactly with the pin and hole in the fuselage. I had to trim the resin piece a little, as I had already glued the fuselage halves, and it would have strained the already puttied seams in the Minicraft fuselage. Nice engineering!

Once the fuselage front was installed, it required only a little putty work to make up for my wandering saw blade. Perhaps I'll consider using that small miter box, which I'd forgotten about until now, for the next one. Once the part was installed, I completed the rest of the build on the Minicraft C-18A, including painting. When it came time for the decals, the black decals for the windscreen fit. Right on the money. I did not use the Minicraft anti-glare decal, as the C-18 nose is entirely black, so I can't comment on how well it'll fit. The nose gear also fit the well. I made a mistake and cut the pins off the top of the gear leg where it goes into the well. It made my gear too short by about the length of the pins. Just use the kit part as is, and it'll work just fine. The Minicraft nose gear doors also match the opening exactly. Overall Evaluation. Highly recommended. Two Mikes got it right. The nicely engraved panel lines match right up with Minicraft's nicely engraved panel lines. The new nose does away with that "whale hump" at the back of the canopy. The angle and shape of the windscreen match photos. And, as a lagniappe, the resin part weighs enough that you don't have to worry about putting any weight in there. Thanks to Two Mikes Resins for the review part, to Minicraft for the C-18A kit, and to IPMS for allowing me to review them.