Pacific Northern-Braniff 720 hybrid N7081

[John Keane - HJG]

Early shots of her in the sim right now.

The surprise PNA livery as promised. This was a rarely seen livery as it was employed for a short time right before the PNA-Western merger in 1967. N7081 was an ex-Aer Lingus 720-048 sold to Braniff, then onto PNA. The livery is one of those "Fabled" Braniff Ochre colored 720s {"Ochre" a.k.a. 'baby diaper load green'}. Still, it's a unique eye-catching livery that PNA wore on it.

I've been working on the wings and like what I see so far. I really need to make new engine textures for this along with the pylons and horizontal stabilizer. That will be the next step to getting her right.

Okay, now for the previews.









Enjoy
John

[John Keane - HJG]

Man..one minute after I posted this thing..we get hit with a 6.6 magnitude earthquake over here! Sheesh. Stood up with Bloody Mary in hand..apartment is swinging back and forth. WOW! Struck off of the east coast of Taiwan followed by a 5.7 mag aftershock. I'm not really shaken and stirred, but the pictures on the wall {one big Buddha picture my mother in law has up on the wall near the back of the house was swinging for around 5 minutes}, my 450+ fish in the big tank plus two smaller ones we have here were running around a bit bewildered {one is 448 liters in size {almost 120 gallons US}...and then that Bloody Mary in my hand.. ;D

Got the doors open just in case I had to get everyone up for the "Big Run Down the Stairs" like we did with the dual HUGE 7.2 quakes we had on 12/26 last year. That was the first time we ran down the stairs and onto our motorcycles to get the hades out of here and over to the park close to our house. {Happened on the evening of the 2nd anniversary of that 9.2 earthquake and tsunami disaster that hit Indonesia back in 2005}

Now it's quiet..hope there's no more aftershocks from this one.

earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007gybt.php
www.cwb.gov.tw/V5e/seismic/Data/quake/EE0907015166058.html
www.cwb.gov.tw/V5e/seismic/Data/quake/EE0907015557059.html

John

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

Certainly a ground moving experience there John.

Although I temporarily live in New Zealand .... affectionately referred to as "THE SHAKEY ISLANDS" (because of the proliferance of earthquakes we get here) .... can you believe that in my entire life (almost 50 yeas) I've never .... ever .... felt an earthquake !

Probably just as well !

Anyway .... that rare PACIFIC WESTERN/BRANIFF looks much better than I imagined it might in that particular scheme

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[John Keane - HJG]

Hey Mark

That's WEIRD! You've lived in the "GodZone" called New Zealand for your whole life and haven't ever experienced an earthquake? That's amazing. It does boil down to luck, location and when overall. I thought NZ gets buffeted with these things like mine does? Consider yourself very lucky though. I've been through some HUGE quakes in my life, first big one for me was the Guam Earthquake of August 8, 1993. Then it measured 8.2 on the Richter Scale and we had local tsunamis afterwards on the east and southern coast. A guy fishing on the beach on the east coast lost his Toyota Land Cruiser to a 30 foot tall wave. He survived by climbing and hanging on to a coconut tree nearest him. We were only 30 or so miles from the epicenter of this thing and it was wild running out of my Air Force family housing unit at Andersen AFB South watching my brand new Toyota Tercel jumping -clear- off the pavement! I could see a half-inch of space under the tires as she was bouncing up and down. The street and ground outside was rippling like a gigantic water-bed mattress with someone jumping on it. It was frightening as hell. On top of that we were being struck by a Tropical Storm at the same time. When it rains on Guam, it pours. We shook for around 3 or 4 minutes.

The Second Big one for me was Taiwan's devastating 9/21/1999 7.6 that struck us at 1:47 AM that early morning. We shook for around 5 minutes. Then the aftershocks started up almost instantly. Was total hell. My wife was very pregnant with our daughter Caroline Marie. House shook back and forth. First time I ever saw the much talked about "Earthquake Lights" in the sky. Couldn't explain what they were, sort of like Aurora Borealis but flashing like lightning. I thought it was power transformers shorting out, but it was this phenomenon called "EQ lights". Looked identical to the video I watched a few weeks ago after that HUGE temblor that hit Peru. People there took cellphone video of these things and THAT'S exactly what we had going on here. 2500 people died here that terrible night, another 100000 injured. Many more made homeless. An uncountable number of buildings collapsed and/or damaged. There was a big scandal of luxury high-rise apartments collapsing in the Taichung, Taiwan area. The builders were very unscrupulous in their cost-cutting with the building of these high-priced units they made a fortune off of, to include using empty 10 gallon restaurant oil cans as wall "forms" and pouring cheap concrete around them, giving people the false impression there was steel-reinforced concrete with rebar and several feet of concrete inside, nope, was as hollow as a balloon coated with a thin layer of concrete. Several of these "Fake buildings" came crashing down killing many asleep inside. Some of these developers were caught, prosecuted and convicted, including government "inspection" agencies that were found to have taken bribes getting the permits to build and sell these death-traps. Some are still at large in the PRC to this day.

The third big one we had was last December 26th. That one was a series of twin 7.2 earthquakes spaced less than 10 minutes apart. 2 were killed and a few dozen injured here in Southern Taiwan. It fractured the undersea cable to the Philippines and Hong Kong. Internet service was disrupted. The second shock was the worst, I thought it would bring this building down.

Last nights shake was a bit funny to watch with my fish though, they were all awake when I turned their light on overhead. They were looking at me with this look of "What the &$%# is going on here!?" They were all sitting still and stunned looking as the tank water was rocking them back and forth.

A "What do I do now?" moment:
1.)"Should we all jump out of the tank and commit mass Fish Sekkupu?"
2.) "Should we head for one of those two green and black mountain caves the big master put in here?".
3.) "Do nothing, just sit still and watch the slightly tipsy master drink his Bloody Mary as he babbles at you saying everything is okay. He'll probably feed us something after this is all over with and we'll be happy crapping up the tank afterwards .."

They opted for #3. ;D And I did give them something to snack on..and did notice the tank bottom was a bit "well littered" today compared to yesterday. ;D

It was like a scene out of that Disney "Nemo" movie. All these fish looking up at me, then looking left and right, then up at me..I busted up laughing.. saying "Everything's okay guys.." and this terribly stressed look of "Oh NO it isn't smartiepants!!!" on these little aquatic friends faces. I wished I had my camera ready for this last night. It was quite funny.

Talk more later.
John

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

They opted for #3.

Sounds like the fish had their priorities right .... they're not stupid by any stretch of the imagination

And I did give them something to snack on..and did notice the tank bottom was a bit "well littered" today compared to yesterday.

Sounds like you've become the Janitor .... you do spoil those fish rotten ! ;D

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[John Keane - HJG]

She's FINALLY FINISHED!!!

After many buckets of Braniff "Diaper Load Green" and that white-grey paint on the wings, engines and pylons "Decorating" my hangar here at HJG Air Asia Tainan...we can finally pull the masking tape and let her shine in the sun!

Took a while as a lot of the textures on the wings, engines, pylons, tail and fuselage had to get sorted out and modified several times. We can call this one GOLD and on the ramp right now, she's getting fueled and provisioned for the two crews and maintenance support staff aboard for their run from Tainan-Kaohsiung-Guam-Papeete-Auckland. I think on this one we're going for a two day RON at FAAA, the crews at HJG Air Asia Tainan really earned their paychecks with this one, so a "2-day'er" at Tahiti is planned and my boys are really happy..hee hee.. ;D


Okay..here we are in a quick run from Seattle to San Francisco over the North Bay areas getting ready to arrive at the beautiful City by the Bay..Check out the detail shots showing all the paintwork involved. Braniff's "Jellybean" livery is by NO means an easy one to reproduce. On the surface it looks easy, but this one was the most intensive scheme I had to work with to date.

Enjoy!
John

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

Looks "ABSOLUTELY SPLENDID" John !

the crews at HJG Air Asia Tainan really earned their paychecks with this one, so a "2-day'er" at Tahiti is planned and my boys are really happy..hee hee.

In that case I'll warn local suppliers to stock-up with extra "Hinano" beer and quality French red wine .... and I'll also warn local mothers too keep their Vahine's indoors over that 2 day layover period in Papeete ;D

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[John Keane - HJG]

;D

Last night I had the theme music from the movie "The Bounty" by Vangelis playing as I was flight testing this birdie..hmm..headed for Tahiti eh?

Hope there won't be a "Bounty" replay when the flight to Auckland is supposed to depart. Hehehehe. Nahh..

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

"The Bounty"

I've always enjoyed that movie .... actually made in Tahiti, and Moorea, French Polynersia during the 1980's .... directed by Dino DE LAURENTIS (always usually a trademark name in movie making) as I recall

Starring Anthony HOPKINS as much more believable Lieutenant Wiliam BLIGH .... and Mel GIBSON as a far better Fletcher CHRISTIAN .... along with the "BOUNTY" replica we built "here" in New Zealand

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[John Keane - HJG]

Hey Mark

Go check your mailbox..there's a Three Ship formation of 720s sitting in there right now.. Hee Hee..Finally got the little beasties all done. Now I'm off to mess with an entirely different airline with the 720 and 707-320C...Western Airlines..The "ooooooonly way to fly!!!"....

Regards
John

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

OK John .... guess I better get my "A" into "G-4" and get out onto the virtual HJG apron then and do my thing !

Many thanks for taking these on !

Mark C
AKL/NZ

[John Keane - HJG]

No Sweat Mark!

I've been up all night here..my daughter has a nasty fever at the moment and have been watching her along with painting planes. Caught something at a big kids show at a department store yesterday. The Mrs is taking her to a clinic later this morning..

Talk more later..time for some shuteye..
John

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

Thanks for your much appreciated commitment John .... and I hope you daughter has a complete and speedy recovery too !

Mark C
AKL/NZ