Viking

Gotta love a Dak! Cheers John

Hey, a little cracker! Cheers John

That's great! Interesting back story as well. Cheers John

Neil, Skodadriver Dave has already given a full answer and I agree with every word he says. I'll just add this post to say I've also ordered many time from Nicks website and found his service to be top notch. Order with confidence! Cheers John

Wow, nearly missed this one! I could easily run out of superlatives here, it is utterly brilliant. From the engines to the decals it oozes real craftsmanship. Probably the best airliner build I've seen in the last year or so! Gobsmacked, and full of admiration, John

As always thanks for the kind comments guys. Ian, the only base I have big enough to pose the MD-11 on is one I made for my 1/32nd Lightning. The bit you can see is the base of a wheel chock that I had glued on, but can't remove! Dave, like the rest of the kit, the wings required fettling to get it all to fit comfortably. I widened and deepened the channels in the wing spar with a file. I've only got a picture of the reverse side, bit it was the channels on the other side of this part, marked by the red lines. Similarly I enlarged the cut out in the fuselage halves. It is hard to be specific, it was just cut/file and check fit until everything lined up ok. From the pictures in my original post where I show the shim, you'll see a thin line of Milliput around the wing to fuselage join. It was needed all around to blend it in. Cheers John

Extraordinary! Absolutely outstanding work. Cheeers John

Nice bit of 'What-iffery' there, it could very well have happened! Cheers John

McDonnell Douglas MD-11, Finnair 'Moomins'. 1:144 MikroMir The MD-11 was a development of the DC-10 with a a 5.6 metre fuselage stretch, redesigned wing & tail, a glass cockpit, and the use of composites in construction, and new fuel efficient engines. The MikroMir kit was developed in partnership with Eastern Express and Reviewed here. in 2017. With so many other projects on the go it has taken me until now to start and complete it. It is a kit that needs 'building' rather than just assembling. It is limited run and requires a little more effort than say a Revell or Zvezda airliner, but is an awful lot simpler than a vac-form. It makes into a large and impressive model, I have built it straight from the box using the supplied decals, which were very impressive and went on beautifully. I rather like the 'Moomin' scheme as my daughter was very keen on them when she was little, and it is very unusual. A few pointers on the construction of the kit. A full cockpit is provided, I enhanced it with some 'N' gauge railway figures painted as aircrew: The engines have a separate intake ring with a moulded ridge on the rear face to locate into a slot on the inner face of the cowling halves, but the fit was excessively tight. I cut the ridge off the intake rings and got a much easier fit. But this left an empty slot inside the cowlings, which I filled with Milliput and sanded down. Much easier to illustrate than to explain! The nose leg is quite a complex and detailed structure that has to be fitted before the fuselage haves are joined. The inevitable happened and knocked mine off. Worse the happened as I tried to drill and pin it. The main leg further broke into 3 pieces, rendering it useless. I decided to make a new leg from brass wire, soldering a simple 'T' piece, and then cyano'ing the plastic detail parts to it. I then fitted a plastic tube inside the nose bay, into which it fitted. The 'belly plate' that goes on the fuselage underside to cover the wing join sat too low. By shimming it at each end with plasticard it sat flush with the rest of the fuselage. The whole plate needed milliput filler all around to blend it in. I also drilled the main gear legs to accept brass wire axles for the wheels, to make a stronger join. Here they are just dry fitted to check. The rear section of the fuselage is separate and MikroMir say to assemble the main and rear parts independently, and then join them. I prefer not to do this, and actually made 2 traditional fuselage halves by joining each side into 1, ensuring that I got as flush a fit as possible on the exterior join. Although I took pictures, I can't find them now! This is what the basic assembly looks like, awiting primer. Vinyl masks are supplied fro the glazing, and worked well, However I later discovered that I needed a silver surround for it, but none is supplied on the decal sheet. I thus had to make new masks, by laying Kabuki tape over the 'holes' in the vinyl sheet where I had removed the original masks, and cut around them. Looking on Airliners.net, the surround is often a weathered pale grey colour, so I sprayed mine in a silver/light grey mix. The blue crescent on the tail has a 'fade' to it that is not represented on the decal sheet, which has it as a solid colour. It is also narrower at the front, and widens out slightly to the rear, while the decal is a constant width. Instead I masked and sprayed mine, and was much happier with the result. Also the silver areas behind the tailplane rubbing plates are not provided. I rubbed a strip of Kabuki tape over them and drew on it following the panel lines. Removal and cutting out gave me a template which I used to cut them out from silver decal sheet. It was not a quick build, but I am very happy with the result as the model has a real 'presence'. It is a large and attractive aircraft, now I just need to build a DC-10 to go alongside it for comparison. Thanks for looking John

Very interesting story and some good background research on a plane I'd never heard of. Fabulous build as well, I thoroughly enjoyed this one! Cheers John

That is another beauty Dave, Thanks for the explanation on how you use the AK paint, it is something I still need to try, It really does have a sort of 'menacing' presence doesnt it! love it. Cheers John

Ben. it is Here Also I did a 737-130 with the original short engines with 727 thrust reversers in last years group build starting here finished model Here, maybe need to scroll down. As for Eastern Express kits, they are limited run and need 'building'. I have not done a 737 as it has had poor reviews, instead I prefer the Airfix and Daco 737's. The main issue with them and others such as the Tristar and F-27's is cost, they are very expensive. However Ray at 26 decals sometimes issues them at very good prices with his own decals. It is always worth checking His website. You have to get them when they are available, as he only does one batch of each subject. HTH John

Thanks for the comments chaps., much appreciated as always. I should have been clearer Ian! My Thai friends are are absolutely football crazy, especially for Liverpool FC. They know more about Liverpool than I do, and always want calendars, scarves, baseball caps etc, anything with LFC on it!, (None of them have anything to do with airlines, that was just me having a bit of fun and placing them in the 737). Cheers John

That is a thing of beauty. Thanks for the heads up on the rigging. I have one of these in the stash, and will approach with caution! Cheers John

What a beauty. The metal finish is absolutely brilliant, one of the best I've ever seen. Cheers John