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lengthening/shortening 1/144 airliner fuselages?

Dear all, I would like to know if there are any sites which may provide info on modifying airliner models. The Draw Decal website has some helpful plans and measurements on how to make a 737-6-7 & -9 from Revell's -8 kit. I'm especially looking for similar details on how to cut a 737-3 down to a -5. (It's not just the overall length of the aircraft which I can get from Airliners.net: you need to know the lengths and locations of the fore and aft fuselage "plugs" to be removed). Similarly, details on theDC9-MD80 family would be helpful. Can you back convert the Minicraft MD80 into a DC9 30-40? How about an Airbus A318 from a 320? Any pointers towards helpful info would be very much appreciated. Thanks very much in advance, Tosh Power

Reply to
TPower2001
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Come on over to groups.yahoo.com and join the Airliner modelling digest group. All of your questions are answered in the "conversions" section, with detailed instructions of where to cut and how much.

Your 737 and A-319 conversions will be quite easy, but backdating an MD-80 to a DC-9 is almost impossible given the various differences between the two. All is not lost however, because many members have disposal lists, and the Airfix kit is still generally current :)

Reply to
Jeff C

A 737-300 fuselage is 105 ft 7 inches long, tip of nose to end of tailcone. A 737-500 is 97 feet 9 inches.

The other key dimension is where the wing is relative to the body. The main landing gear is in the same position relative to the wing on both airplanes, so you can figure out where the wing is, if you know the distance between the nose gear and main gear. On both the 737-300 and

-500, the nose gear is located 13 ft 2 in back from the tip of the nose. On the 737-300, the main gear is located 40 ft 10 in aft of the nose gear; on the 737-500 the main gear is located 36 ft 4 in aft of the nose gear.

From this, we see that the -500 fuselage is 4 ft 6 in shorter forward of the wing, and 3 ft 4 in shorter aft of the wing.

The above dimensions are from the respective airplane maintenance manuals.

Steve H.

TPower2001 wrote:

Reply to
snh9728

Oh, and for the 737-400, the fuselage length is 115 ft 7 in, and the distance between the nose and main gear is 46 ft 10 in.

Steve H

TPower2001 wrote:

Reply to
snh9728

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