Thai AF DC-3

[Gajman]

Hi,

I took some pics of a rather sad looking DC-3 on display at the Thai Air Force museum recently. I have two of the Revell DC-3 kits in my stash and so decided to build one of them to represent this aircraft.

Here are some pics of the real thing.

And here are some of the build so far.

Noy quite like the real thing I admit.

Feel free to critique/comment.

Thanks for looking

Gary

Edited December 1, 2011 by Gajman

[CPNGROATS]

That's looking good, Gary...any poop on the history of the actual a/c..??

Cheers,

ggc

[Gajman]

That's looking good, Gary...any poop on the history of the actual a/c..??

Cheers,

ggc

I'm afraid I don't.

[ReccePhreak]

That's looking good, Gary...any poop on the history of the actual a/c..??

Cheers,

ggc

The rear door looks like the one on Thai RC-47A's, but the tail # does not match any of the three reported RC-47A's that the RTAF flew.

I am building a RTAF RC-47A, using Italeri's C-47 and the JEAB decals.

You didn't happen to notice any racks or other equipment inside, near the side door?

Larry

[Gajman]

The rear door looks like the one on Thai RC-47A's, but the tail # does not match any of the three reported RC-47A's that the RTAF flew.

I am building a RTAF RC-47A, using Italeri's C-47 and the JEAB decals.

You didn't happen to notice any racks or other equipment inside, near the side door?

Larry

Hi,

No, there were no racks. The one photo above shows looking inside towards the cockpit, I'll post a pic tonight of what you can see looking towards the tail but there was nothing there but a wall with a door in it.

Gary

[Gajman]

Hi,

Getting to the finishing stages with this one. Major work item left is the old piping on the engine mounts and the open door. Then it's just smaller items like navigation lights etc.

Feel free to critique/comment.

Thanks for looking

Gary

[woody37]

Excellent, love the weathering / rust on the wheel. Nice unusual model.

[Col.]

Nice idea and well executed Gary. Particularly like the tyre, captures the old and 'Donald-Ducked' look perfectly, how did you do that?

[dahut]

Looks like the old ESCI DC-3, reboxed. I like that you'll do er "as is," wings off and so on. Did you build in the birds nest between the stringers?

[richellis]

Very nice, Ive got a scrap diorama on the bench but it stalled. Ill be watching this to give me the kick to get going!

[tinleeds]

Very nice and good work!

[Gajman]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

Nice idea and well executed Gary. Particularly like the tyre, captures the old and 'Donald-Ducked' look perfectly, how did you do that?

The tyres are moulded in two halves so I first cut the rims out of the center, leaving the tyres seperate. I glued the tyres together amd then using scrap plastic built the rims up so that they were the correct width for the tyres. Then I used a small candle and heated one side of the tyre (and parts of my thumb ... but that's not a requirement for the build) and when soft I pressed it against a flat surface. I did this c couple of times rather than overdoing the heating in one go. It actually worked out quite well because I ended up with a more irregular flat around the edges. Once I had the flat surface I warmed up the side of a tyre and using a brush handle I pushed the side in.

I painted the rims light grey and then glued them into the tyres.

For painting I painted the tyres anthracite, and I applied a coat of dark grey oil paints all over which I wiped off , leaving enough for everything to look dirty. Once dry I put on a coat of clear and then generously dabbed some Tamiya rust powder (Hobbycraft sells it, it's the one that comes in make up style palettes of three colours). And that was it.

Let me be honest though, the results was more 'bottom than class' in that the result is far better than what I had hoped for and it was pure luck that it came out that way

Looks like the old ESCI DC-3, reboxed. I like that you'll do er "as is," wings off and so on. Did you build in the birds nest between the stringers?

I was going to but I don't have a reference book on birds in Thailand and I could just picture it if I were to display my kit at a show. You could bet that someone would say 'mmmm, very innacurate, that's a robins nest, they don't have those in Thailand'

Edited November 22, 2010 by Gajman

[Gajman]

Hi,

One engine mount done. To be honest I'm not really sure I'm happy with it. The macro pics make it look worse than it is but the effect I've achieved is not quite what I was going for.

Feel free to critique/comment.

Thanks for looking

Gary

[dahut]

Hi,

One engine mount done. To be honest I'm not really sure I'm happy with it. The macro pics make it look worse than it is but the effect I've achieved is not quite what I was going for.

Feel free to critique/comment.

Thanks for looking

Gary

Cracking!

[Col.]

It certainly has the appearance of what I would expect to see there. Any particular aspect of it you're not happy with Gary?

[Gajman]

It certainly has the appearance of what I would expect to see there. Any particular aspect of it you're not happy with Gary?

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I think the back plate is too 'clean' in that there's insufficient riveting and other panels, some of the piping appears too large and I just think that the plumbing that I have put on there doesn't look realistic. I'll see if I can do better on the other engine mount.

Here's the real thing:

And for easy comparison, here's the kit:

Gary

Edited November 28, 2010 by Gajman

[shelfspace]

Oh I do love a beat-up plane. Teriffic work so far - watching with much interest!

[Martian]

This is a really interesting and original way of takling this subject.

Martin

[Gajman]

Hi,

Thanks for all the feedback.

I'm slowly coming to an end with this build.

The other engine mount is now complete.

The door is on.

And it's slowly coming together.

The major thing left is the cockpit window. I broke the kit part a while back and am in the process of trying to create a replacement.

Once that's in I'll lightly mist on a few coats of matt varnish in the hopes that that will fade the paint a bit, add the aerials and tail wheel (which has been broken off 4 times so far) and voila! I can move on to my next build (which I'm hoping will be a 1/32 Academy Hornet that fellow Britmodeller atdb27 will soon be sending me ... nothing like a complete change of pace )

As always please do feel free to critique/comment. It's not a perfect kit, theer are errors and if you spot any, or feel that you would have done things differently, then really, do please let me know.

Thanks for looking

Gary

Edited December 6, 2010 by Gajman