Skodadriver Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 I present my latest creation, a hybrid Minicraft/Roden DC-6B in Caledonian Airways livery. The real G-ASRZ was actually Sabena’s OO-CTN which only carried the Caledonian livery and UK registration between April and November 1964, so the scheme is something of a rarity. The Minicraft DC-6B is a decent kit but it suffers from a lack of detail which is particularly noticeable on the wings. The Roden DC-6 on the other hand has good scribing on the wings but, of course, it represents the early short-fuselage version. When I was building my SAS DC-6 I had thoughts about maybe stretching a -6 to make a -6B and I had gone as far as buying a second kit for that purpose. One day I was in the loft looking for something else when I found an abandoned Minicraft kit, ironically a long-forgotten victim of an unsuccessful attempt to do something about the lack of scribing. A quick check showed that the Minicraft fuselage and Roden wings could be persuaded to fit together with only minimal packing and filling. The hybrid -6B was born. The wings, engines and main undercarriage are Roden and everything else is Minicraft. I had bought a set of HaHen resin engines for the original Minicraft project but unfortunately these were a poor fit on the Roden nacelles so I had to use Roden’s own rather crude parts. White paint is Halfords, natural metal is AK Interactive with some Rub n Buff for contrast. The finish of the wings is “typical” since I couldn’t find any photos giving a clear view. Decals are by TwoSix and I must give a quick mention to Ray’s excellent customer service. When I came to use the decals I noticed that the left cheatline had been printed without the prominent “Super DC-6B” title. I e-mailed Ray who acknowledged the error immediately and sent me a corrected sheet a couple of days later. What a contrast to the saga I’d had with a certain French decal maker a few months earlier and which was never properly resolved! I think the hybrid has produced quite a reasonable result and I will probably do another one at some point. Second-hand Minicraft DC-6Bs are readily available, usually for around £10 which is comparable to a resin or vacform conversion fuselage. If you shop carefully you can often pick up a Roden DC-6 for significantly less than the normal UK price. Thanks for looking and constructive criticism is always welcome. Dave G With the original DC-6. The differences are very obvious 30 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Good looking DC-6b 👍 ... For the Commercial airliners I’ve always liked the 1950’s late Props and early Jets and yours is a top notch classic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Great idea to cross-kit Dave, it's come out looking superb. That's a version of the Caledonian livery I'm not familiar with, but it is really nice. I might well see if I can get a copy of that sheet as I have a bit of a Caledonian/BCal theme going, with a Britannia, 1-11, & DC10 in the stash waiting to join the A320 & Viscount. I love the exhaust staining, for a DC-6 it is almost restrained and understated! Cheers John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stringbag Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Great idea Dave, and very well done too. I'm with John regarding the exhaust staining; looks superb. Chris. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbofan Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Another super six Dave! Almost looks like a DC-7 against the SAS machine, quite a difference. Nice crisp prop painting, are they decals on the tips? I'm going to have to join with John and Chris in admiration of your exhaust staining, it really is exceptional and helps bring it to life along with the curtains in the windows. Could you retro fit some curtains to your SAS DC-6? It looks quite empty in comparison! We also need to request some photo realistic cockpit decals from Martijn! Cheers, Ian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 That is nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meatbox8 Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Beautiful (and the SAS one). I haven't seen this Caledonian scheme before. It's very attractive. Great natural metal finish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael301757 Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Absolutely gorgeous, thats what an airliner should look like, great job. Cheers Michael. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britman Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Superb job there and a lovely Douglas duo. Thank you for sharing with us and keeping the motivation going. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackfordhibby Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Beautiful finish to an all time classic airliner, well done. Peter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skodadriver Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 Thanks for your comments everybody. Much appreciated and makes it all worthwhile On 10/19/2017 at 6:47 PM, Viking said: Great idea to cross-kit Dave, it's come out looking superb. That's a version of the Caledonian livery I'm not familiar with, but it is really nice. I might well see if I can get a copy of that sheet as I have a bit of a Caledonian/BCal theme going, with a Britannia, 1-11, & DC10 in the stash waiting to join the A320 & Viscount. I love the exhaust staining, for a DC-6 it is almost restrained and understated! Cheers John John, the red lion was the original Caledonian scheme and was applied to their leased DC-6Bs and -7Cs. I'm not an aviation historian but I think it was used from the airline's foundation in 1961/2 until the mid 1960s, possibly changing with the arrival of the Britannias in 1965. I wasn't sure if I'd overdone the exhaust staining but I'm glad you approve! I did see one photo of a Caledonian -6B where the wing was covered with oil spatter but I decided against trying to reproduce that. On 10/19/2017 at 10:08 PM, Turbofan said: Another super six Dave! Almost looks like a DC-7 against the SAS machine, quite a difference. Nice crisp prop painting, are they decals on the tips? I'm going to have to join with John and Chris in admiration of your exhaust staining, it really is exceptional and helps bring it to life along with the curtains in the windows. Could you retro fit some curtains to your SAS DC-6? It looks quite empty in comparison! We also need to request some photo realistic cockpit decals from Martijn! Cheers, Ian Ian, the prop tips were done with decal stripe. Ray doesn't provide anything on the sheet. It was rather tedious applying 24 tiny sections of dark blue followed by 24 even tinier sections of white but I got there in the end. I could probably have painted the blue but I had the decal stripe to hand and just went with that. Incidentally the fit of the props to the engines is poor and they need to be fixed in place. I'm embarrassed to see that one is slightly squint in the photos. I've already corrected it on the model and if I can be bothered I may re-take and re-upload the affected pics. Ray printed the curtained windows as part of the cheatline and they really show up the plain grey windows on the DC-6 don't they! I've never been 100% satisfied with the windows on the -6 (the cockpit side windows are too big for starters) but until somebody comes up with photo-real windows for propliners we'll just have to do the best with what the manufacturers give us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinSK Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 (edited) Another beauty from your production. Love the realistic weathering around engines. Thanks for sharing and inspiration. I have to finish some airliner too Edited October 20, 2017 by MartinSK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent K Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Absolutely beautiful! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowbrow Posted October 21, 2017 Share Posted October 21, 2017 Gorgeous! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme H Posted October 21, 2017 Share Posted October 21, 2017 Another stunner there, very realistic exhaust stains, love both of them 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungalow_Bill Posted October 21, 2017 Share Posted October 21, 2017 Very nice! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1978 Posted November 9, 2017 Share Posted November 9, 2017 Wonderful build of a classic Douglas airliner. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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