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Eastern Express / Mikro-Mir McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 KLM 1/144


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Most of the airliner modellers were thrilled when Mikro-Mir in co-operation with Eastern Express anounced the first injection moulded MD-11 kit in 1/144.

First pictures of the sprues looked very promising with great attention to detail and accuracy.

I was also looking forward to this release and initially ordered 3 kits with the General electric Engines and placed another order for 3 kits with the Pratt & Whitney engines at my local hobby shop.

 

When I received the call from the hobby-shop that the first batch arrived I was excited...till I saw the price tag:hypnotised:

 

Well,I bought them anyway,because the MD-11 is one of my favourite airliners and I started with the first one immediately.

I planned to build the first one OOB and also using the kits decals to see how they work,so I could give some feed-back at the model shop for other builders who might be interested in this kit.

 

All the parts looked good at first glance,but I realized that the parts had no locator pins at all.Which is not a big deal but I was surprised.

Soon after construction commenced I had to realize that this would not be going to be an easy build as,as good as the parts may look,the fit is not the best and on almost every part filler was needed or some correction work had to be done.

The most serious fitting issue is at the wing to fuselage join,were at the top side a quite large gap appears between the wing and fuselage...

The construction of this section is actually quite smart by the manufacturer,as they provide a inspar panel (I guess its called that way...?) that will provide a good sit and places the wings at the right angle.But mounting the wings isn't as easy as I thought.

I filled the gap with Krystal Klear and painted this section in the respective colours,as I built and painted the parts individually.

 

Another "trap" is the front gear which needs to be installed before glueing the fuselage halves together.That way,as careful as one may be,snipping off the gear leg while handling the model is almost inevitable.

I chose to cut off the lower part and put it back on after main assembly was done.

I drilled a small hole at both sections and reinforced the leg with a thin wire,then glued the parts back on.

 

After all construction and paintwork was done,it was time for the decals.

The decal set looks really impressive and immensely improved compared to earlier Eastern Express sets.

It has lots of details and even includes coroguard panels for the wings.

The quality of the decals is really superb,but...and thats a real pain...the decals tend to settle almost immediately on the model after sliding them off the backing paper.Decal solutions are not much help,only lots of water can help you placing the decal in the right position.

Once the water has been soaked off the decal sticks on the surface.

Another issue are the dark blue stripes on the KLM set.They are printed with the front ends looking up.If applied as they are, the stripe will go up to the cockpit window instead of running in a straight line around the nose.

I was lucky to have 2 sets, so I cut off the bent part (approx.3cm) and used a straight part to put it around the nose and then cut off the missing stripe from my other set to extend it again to the tail cone.

 

The fit of the decals is otherwise fine and the details and the silver parts are great.

For the front edge of the tail fin and the edges of the winglets,I used thin silver decal stripes instead of painting them.

 

The build of this kit is really time,and nerve,consuming but in the end a very nice MD-11 will appear in front of you.

But for being a CAD manufactured and very new kit together with the way too high price tag ,its a bit of a disappointment.

Bad fit of the parts,and also the arrangement of the parts on the sprues is not very logic.Together with  inept construction sheets,one needs to be very careful while building.A few times I used the wrong parts and had to correct the error later by either replacing the whole part with spares form my sparepart box or leave it as is.

 

Those things wont happen on my other 2 kits,thats for sure.

 

I chose to build the MD-11 of KLM who did the final passenger flights and the farewell flights in 2014; PH-KCD "Florence Nightingale.

Painted entirely with Revell and Testors enamels using my airbrush.

 

 

As mentioned before,this kit unfortunately isn't up to the standard in the likes of Zvezda or Revell airliner kits and its also over priced.

For this money you may be better off with Kurts (Authentic Airliners) resin kit.

 

Anyway,here she finally is...the Mikro-Mir/Eastern Express MD-11

 

Cheers,

 

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Well done Alex - that's another beauty! :clap2:

 

As you know I've recently started the kit myself (I'm planning the KLM delivery scheme) and my experience mirrors your almost exactly.  I'm really unimpressed with the fit of the major parts - anyone who charges Tamiya prices should deliver Tamiya quality and Mikro-Mir certainly don't do that. However seeing how well yours has turned out gives me the incentive to keep working at it and hope my result is half as good as yours.  

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Dave G

 

(Still no cats?)

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3 minutes ago, Skodadriver said:

Well done Alex - that's another beauty! :clap2:

 

As you know I've recently started the kit myself (I'm planning the KLM delivery scheme) and my experience mirrors your almost exactly.  I'm really unimpressed with the fit of the major parts - anyone who charges Tamiya prices should deliver Tamiya quality and Mikro-Mir certainly don't do that.  However seeing how well yours has turned out gives me the incentive to keep working at it and hope my result is half as good as yours.  

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Dave G

 

(Still no cats?)

Thank you Dave.

 

Sorry no cats again...they seem to disappear from sight when I show up with another model and a camera in hand...:shrug:

 

Something I forgot to mention above...

 

Forget about the locator pins for the engines and the stabilizers that are provided in the kit and use wire instead.

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In spite of the issues that you had with the kit Alex, you still managed to smash it out of the park ! KLM too !

 

:thumbsup2::thumbsup2:

 

I've got one in the stash but it's having to take a back seat for the time being, as I'm going through a bit of a 737 phase at present.

 

Best Regards

 

mike

 

P.S. Any chance of a family photo with your KLM DC-9 ?

 

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30 minutes ago, mitchem said:

In spite of the issues that you had with the kit Alex, you still managed to smash it out of the park ! KLM too !

 

:thumbsup2::thumbsup2:

 

I've got one in the stash but it's having to take a back seat for the time being, as I'm going through a bit of a 737 phase at present.

 

Best Regards

 

mike

 

P.S. Any chance of a family photo with your KLM DC-9 ?

 

Thank you Mike.

 

Thats interesting...I am in a 727 phase at the time being.Seems to be Boeing time now...:winkgrin:

 

As to your request,here some group shots of my KLM Douglas family...I even succeeded to include kitty again !:yahoo::guitar:

 

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Another beautiful model alex, stunning finish as usual, & one of my all time favourite airlines & airliners too - so I really enjoyed seeing it ! I have to say kitty looks to be about to pounce on something off scene - I do hope those three lovely KLM jets didn't get jumped on...!!

 

With regard to decals that stick as soon as they touch the model, years ago i had the same problem with a range of rally car decals I used a lot - I found that if you add a few drops of dish washing liquid to your decal water that it really helps move the decals around (well it did with the ones I was using!) 

 

Keith

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That looks fabulous Alex, there is no sign of a struggle there. What a shame that there turned out to be problems with fit, it is such a good looking kit 'in the box'. Especially as assembly of their previous Tristar was almost faultless, and near perfect where the rear section with the tailfin joined the main fuselage. Thanks for all the tips on what to look out for.

But it looks like it was well worth the effort, it captures the look of the MD-11 very well indeed.

 

Cheers

 

John

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8 hours ago, Viking said:

That looks fabulous Alex, there is no sign of a struggle there. What a shame that there turned out to be problems with fit, it is such a good looking kit 'in the box'. Especially as assembly of their previous Tristar was almost faultless, and near perfect where the rear section with the tailfin joined the main fuselage. Thanks for all the tips on what to look out for.

But it looks like it was well worth the effort, it captures the look of the MD-11 very well indeed.

 

Cheers

 

John

Thank you very much John

Thats good to hear about their TriStar.I have a few of them in my stash and I was already fearing,they could be of the same "quality".

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Superb Alex! Another gorgeous roll out! Gotta love an MD11 and they looked so good in the KLM liveries.

I too have an EE MD11 in the stash and was looking forward to building it but am in two minds now. It really does look so good in the box though :(

 

Are you planning any more for your KLM family?

Cheers,

Ian

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22 minutes ago, Turbofan said:

Superb Alex! Another gorgeous roll out! Gotta love an MD11 and they looked so good in the KLM liveries.

I too have an EE MD11 in the stash and was looking forward to building it but am in two minds now. It really does look so good in the box though :(

 

Are you planning any more for your KLM family?

Cheers,

Ian

Thank you Ian.

Yes,there will be a Boeing 747-200 and a Fokker 100 coming in KLM colours.

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Despite the problems you've outlined Alex, the finished product is excellent :clap2:

 

I've got this one in the stash and was also intending to do it as "Florence" - that was the last MD-11 I flew in and really enjoyed the flight (especially as we used the last of our KLM air miles to sit in the pointy end).

 

What do you think of the colour of the dark blue - on my decal sheet it looks far too dark?

 

Regards

 

Mike

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1 hour ago, FortyEighter said:

Despite the problems you've outlined Alex, the finished product is excellent :clap2:

 

I've got this one in the stash and was also intending to do it as "Florence" - that was the last MD-11 I flew in and really enjoyed the flight (especially as we used the last of our KLM air miles to sit in the pointy end).

 

What do you think of the colour of the dark blue - on my decal sheet it looks far too dark?

 

Regards

 

Mike

Thank you very much Mike.

There you have been lucky to fly on her.Sadly I missed the occasion as I was not aware that KLM did these farewell flights until I read about it...

 

I think the blue lines look good on the model in contrast to the other colors.

I thought they were too dark too in the first place but after checking references and having a small bit applied I thought they look good on the model.

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1 hour ago, Alex1978 said:

Thank you very much Mike.

There you have been lucky to fly on her.Sadly I missed the occasion as I was not aware that KLM did these farewell flights until I read about it...

 

I think the blue lines look good on the model in contrast to the other colors.

I thought they were too dark too in the first place but after checking references and having a small bit applied I thought they look good on the model.

Unfortunately it was 2010 when we flew on this aircraft - not the "Farewell Flight"

 

Interesting that you too originally thought the blue stripe was too dark BUT that it looks OK compared to the lighter blue.  It will be some time before my kit gets built so will worry about the colour then.

 

Mike

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On ‎15‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 8:34 PM, Alex1978 said:

include kitty

 

The MD-11 and the rest of your KLM fleet really very good but that cat is ace, love the Ginger Camo effect, nicely airbrushed . I have one in the stash, 2002 boxing in Tabby  with after market attitude.

 

Well done ,thanks for showing them .

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3 hours ago, bzn20 said:

 

The MD-11 and the rest of your KLM fleet really very good but that cat is ace, love the Ginger Camo effect, nicely airbrushed . I have one in the stash, 2002 boxing in Tabby  with after market attitude.

 

Well done ,thanks for showing them .

:lol:...it was a lot of work getting that effect airbrushed...:winkgrin:

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