by Markus Nee

This is the airliner that operated the doomed Oceanic Flight 815 from the television series "Lost", as seen in happier days. Although she was the vehicle that transported the heroes of the show, the airplane itself might be considered more of a villain for causing their predicament. The actual aircraft that was used for the show was N783DL, a retired Delta Airlines L-1011 Tristar repainted in the fictional Oceanic Airlines livery.

The model kit is a Modelcraft Canada 1/144 scale Pacific Southwest Airlines Lockheed L-1011, and is a reissue of a Revell kit from the 1970s. It was easy to assemble, but somewhat light on detail. No major body work was necessary, just moderate sanding and filling, and some minor detailing. I scribed new panel lines on the wings and control surfaces and modified the engine exhaust cones slightly to give them a more modern look. To make flush-fitted cabin windows, I filled each one with clear casting resin, sanded them, and masked them for painting. I also made new main landing gear doors from .020" styrene, and filed down the edges of the nosegear doors.

Figuring out the paint scheme involved a lot of freeze-framing with the "Lost" pilot episode DVD to find the exact positioning of the stripes, lettering, and logos. The overall scheme is based loosely on the Delta Airlines livery from the 1970s, in which the set piece aircraft was originally painted. Magenta and royal blue stripes replaced the red and navy blue Delta stripes, and a light blue stripe was added below the window line. Since the outside of the cockpit and nose are never seen on-screen, I modified the paint scheme to have the stripes curve down and wrap around the nose to give it a bit more of a contemporary style.

I painted the model with a base coat of royal blue. Yes, I know this seems wrong to do on a predominantly white paint scheme, but bear with me here. On top of the royal blue, I masked the stripe, painted on the royal blue layer of the "O" logos with rubber cement, and applied dry transfer letters for the "ceanic" lettering. I gradually airbrushed light coats of grey primer over it, and then white paint. Once the paint was dry, I used masking tape to lift off the rubber cement and dry transfer letters to reveal an almost perfect "Oceanic" lettering in the correct royal blue color.

I hand-painted the light blue and magenta layers of the "O" logos, airbrushed the light blue stripe, and used a fine point magenta Sharpie marker for the thin magenta stripe. The lower fuselage, wings, and horizontal stabilizers were painted in aluminum Metalizer and dark ghost grey. I used Bare Metal Foil for the engine intakes, leading edge slats, flaps, ailerons, and cockpit window frames. Fortunately, the model kit came with decals for the silver frames around the main cabin windows, so I didn't have to paint those by hand. The outlines for the main cabin doors were made using a combination of kit decals and fine marker lines.

Once the paint and decals were done, I airbrushed the model with several coats of Future to level the paint and give it a nice high gloss finish. I kept the weathering to a minimum, since I wanted the airplane to look clean and well maintained. I gave it light grimy black streaks on the wings, a bit of soot by the APU exhaust, and a subtle stain around the L1 fuselage door from contact with dirty jetway bridges.

Overall, this was a fun model to build and paint, and I'm happy with the results. This contest, by the way, brought me out of five years of retirement from model building. In a sense, just by building something again I accomplished what I wanted to do, so thanks to the contest for giving me a reason to do that.

Image: Front/left view

Image: Above/right

Image: Right side

Image: Right/rear

Image: Top view