Uganda Airlines 707-338C 5X-UBC preview

[John Keane - HJG]

Take a look at the "Pearl of Africa".

I have it without shadows on the fuselage right now and trying to judge how it looks in the sim with or without.

I have a little more work on the "uganda airlines" text and some engine logoing work to do. Then onto her other stablemates, which will be a late 80s version with modified fuselage titling and bare metal underside and then a 1970's era ship with the grey underbelly as this one but with entirely different text and the big Uganda flag on the tail.

The fuselage cheat-line stripe is a bluish black on the top from what I can see, but I can modify that darker.

Sadly, this ship was lost in an accident at Rome in 1988, crashing in the fog just short of the runway, killing 33 of 52 people on board.

Questions and comments welcome by all means!!

Regards
John

Side on view:



Rear Left side view showing hand-drawn and scaled tail logo:



Near head on view showing her name "Pearl of Africa" titling up front, I'm going to do her sistership in later colors with the "The Flying Crane" ship titles

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

Looks great so far John !

I didn't realise she had a fuselage cheatline as brightly coloured as that.

Is this the one that "BIG DADDY" (Idi AMIN aka "DADA") used as his personal trtansport or is that the later version to follow ?

I look forward to seeing further previews as these ones progress.

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[John Keane - HJG]

Hey Mark!

Thanks for the comments!

"Big Daddy" could use pretty much anything in Uganda Airlines' inventory he wanted. ;D {I remember a parody of him on Saturday Night Live back in the late 70s that was quite funny..}

He had a Gulfstream on call 24/7 and of course had access to all the airline equipment.

Here's a shot of that Gulfstream and what happened to 5X-UAL {a write off as a result of this and yes I'm going to paint this one too}

www.airliners.net/open.file/1217861/L/

Here she is in earlier times:
www.airliners.net/open.file/0298471/L/

The later scheme had a strange adaptation to the fuselage text on the current one I'm working at the moment along with bare metal and BAC grey along the very bottom of the airplane. The early scheme like 5X-UAL had on it will be a snap to do using this one as the base for it. The later scheme with bare metal and BAC grey will be just a little more challenging but it'll be easy overall. Will make sure to get the belly paint texture right on each of these. Can't wait to get'em all done! ;D

{My sister in law has a copy of "Last King of Scotland" and will be giving it to us to watch..That should be an interesting segue to this project next weekend. I understand it's a great movie detaling Idi Amin's final years in power.}

Regards
John

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

I understand it's a great movie detaling Idi Amin's final years in power

I think he eventually sought refuge somewhere in the Middle East didn't he .... or so according to something I read a little while back about his stuffing himself with oranges in attempt to control his weight ! ;D

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[John Keane - HJG]

He's dead now. Died 4 years ago next Thursday. He fled to Saudi Arabia where he lived in exile.

Here's what Wikipedia has on him. Yeah he had quite a weight control matter with him. He was always onto some kind of diet or another to get on top of it. What a character he was..

{FWIW..Speaking of "Weight control"..I've lost 12 kilos in the past 2 3/4 months and saw it in spades yesterday when I went swimming with my daughter at the YMCA..I've had her enrolled in swimming classes {which is something I encourage all parents to do for their kids. Taiwanese kids are plagued by lack of swimming skills and they have dramatic death rates of drowning in pools, rivers, streams, lakes because they simply do NOT know how to swim because it's never been taught to them..on this island?!?!} Anyway..My swimming trunks that were tight as a drum last year and feared I'd have a "Rip, Snap and Laugh moment" at the local pool is now a past memory..they are now as loose as a sock now. Man..Was worried if I'd lose the thing in the pool while doing my backstroke!! <LOL!> I'm well on my way to losing a planned 70 kg..subtract 12 from that in a short time..am feeling great now..Idi Amin should have followed my diet. {LOL!}

Tonight we had a rather large Taiwan fruit bat {wingspan around 10-11 inches!!} get lost and stuck on our porch on the 6th floor overlooking northern Tainan City..a fat little bat. He was perched on one of my wifes t-shirts drying from the laundry she did today. She walks in as I'm working on this repaint and asks for help, I go out and there he is. This fat little bat. He must have been two inches wide{!!} by 4 inches long in body girth. I've never seen a bat this big since one went up my right sleeve riding home on my motorcycle a year ago! {He didnt bite at all either. Let me fetch him out of my armpit and off he went!} This fat little buggers wingspan was impressive to say the least! He could have used a diet too. Little guy did NOT want to move, I took a broom and working with the screen door as close as I could tried to maneuver him around so he could fly off. He was rather angry and screeching at me many times while working the broom around and I didn't want to kill him but was considering it because he was acting rather nasty and flapping around and flying around with the light on and that means "RABIES!" to me..he managed to land on the overhang of our protective metal window grating we have installed out back so no-one can fall off, that's when I nudged him out through one of the openings and he went flying into the night. Problem solved.

Meanwhile.. 350+ tropical freshwater fish in my 448 liter tank immediately behind are watching me.. kid you not, a flock of around 30 fish were gathered in the corner nearest the porch watching me. I suspected they were waiting for more food..{They know I spoil them} but as I walked back they sort of wandered and meandered around slowly with this look of "what the H*ll is their master doing..?" Hehehehe! Fish are very cool to have around... ;D}

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_Amin

[John Keane - HJG]

Now we're 'talkin!

I think she's done..still wondering on the dark blue-black coloring on the cheat-line though. Might go a bit darker there. What'ya think?
I lightened up the gray on the belly and added the shadow back on. {Was far too much greenish tinge with the earlier version. Re-checked my photo sources and it was much different.}

The most difficult part of this one was the font-typeface for the "uganda airlines"lettering. Had to modify my Helvetica font around, stretching it, cutting it here and there, then working with the airbrush, eraser and softening brushes. Overall it came out okay I think. The later 80's scheme is going to be based on this one with some rather wild looking changes they made to it. The a's. e and s letters took on new shaping. The cockpit outline on this scheme is black or blue-black so it will look "bandit-like" and quite cool. The earliest scheme appears to be the easiest of all. The flag on the tail is quite striking.

Rocketing out of Entebbe over Lake Victoria headed to Nairobi..


Right side shot forward.


Underneath the grey belly paint has been extended onto that area and the forward and main landing gear doors.



Ooh..almost forgot to add this picture of another detail added. The LD3 containers on both the Zambia Airways 707s uploaded and all the Uganda Airlines planes have their own logo'ed LD3s.

Here we go..almost forgot to take a picture of this.



Next up is the earliest livery seen on Uganda Airlines with the block style lettering and the big Uganda flag on the tail. Getting to be a repaint-crankin' machine over here. ;D{ Great day for it too, raining cats and dogs outside, torrential rain with thunder and lightning. Great "repainting weather." }

Enjoy!
John

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

Look forward to them John !

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[John Keane - HJG]

Thanks Mark

I sat back and looked over the stripes and had to make a small change to the top-most one to a much darker tone. Still has the panel lines underneath showing through too. I think this is the one. Now I can get on with the earliest scheme. This repaint work is becoming an obsession.. ;D

Just arrived at Nairobi from Entebbe..

[John Keane - HJG]

Just a few more before bed..this thing can really 'crank with a light fuel load. It's like a 720B when the fuel load is around 33K. WOW!

Rock'N'Roll outta' Nairobi bound for Addis Ababa..

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

this thing can really 'crank with a light fuel load. It's like a 720B when the fuel load is around 33K. WOW!

Ya wanna be real careful doing that John ! ;D

I did that (real light fuel loading) yesterday too .... just for the sake of setting up and obtaining a good screenshot image of your new NWO B720B

After spending several minutes setting up the shots .... and not really paying much attention to anything else .... I landed OK .... then promptly flamed-out on the taxiway

By no means evident of my normal meticulous flight planning and performance

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[Tony Madge - HJG]

very nice pictures John look forward to these beaut's

[John Keane - HJG]

Thanks Tony!

I've made a few small changes to the "G" in the "uganda" livery as well as the flag colors..I think it's done now. I'll post a pic of it tomorrow after I send it to Mark. The early scheme is coming along and then the later one will fall into place rather quickly. Getting adept at modifying existing fonts and making changes within Paintshop Pro. It's a lot of fun really. My daughter loves watching the painting sessions with these planes.

Cheers!
John