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After a hiatus of a few weeks, I’ve decided to give modelling a go again, this time with a civil airliner. I got this DC-10 on eBay for a bargain £20, not realising the price reflected the fact it has been started. However, it’s not too bad, with just the bulkheads glued in and one engine pod built, so I’m going to plough on. Oh and the windscreen is snapped in two. I actually really like the American Airlines scheme, that all over silver looks pretty cool. How is one supposed to deal with the decal covering all of the passenger windows though!? I can’t apply it before I fit the body together as it’ll be a nightmare to paint without ruining the decal, but if I add it at the end, I won’t be able to poke any window holes through. How do people do this? Or is it better to find some window decals and don’t bother with the transparent parts except to fill the fuselage holes in? Can anyone help?

=== Prelude === ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 04:52hrs Zulu (21:52 local 17.08.19) Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas, USA "I think we'd better call it a day!..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21:00hrs Zulu (13:00 local 17.08.19) Toncontin International Airport, Tegucigalpa Honduras After having spent a thoroughly exhausting, but enjoyable, 2 weeks in Honduras we were on our way back home. Incidentally, in those 2 weeks I had taken my first ever flight and I was looking forward to getting home with 7 flights under my belt. Now came the turn of flight 6, Tegucigalpa to Dallas-Forth Worth. Boarding went smoothly and the weather was remarkably pleasant! The voice from the captain came over the speakers, a storm was approaching... 22:10hrs Zulu (14:10 local 17.08.19 So much for the nice weather... We didn't end up taking off for another hour but my goodness what a flight. Rocked by turbulence, blinded by lightning, we made our way to Texas. 02:30hrs Zulu (19:30 local 17.08.19) Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, We were 2 hours late for our British Airways flight back to Heathrow, and to make it worse border control was jam-packed. Despite running through a seemingly endless terminal to find our gate, it was clear we weren't going to make the flight. Defeated (and breathless), we found the nearest airline desk and managed to get accommodation for the night. Tomorrow we would be taking an American Airlines flight back to Heathrow. to be continued... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Across the pond in a Triple Seven" Hi everyone! I hope you're all well. I thought I'd try something a bit different for this build. Ever since last August, I've quite fancied having a go at a 1:144 Boeing 777 kit. And so, armed with Revell's 1:144 777-300ER kit, a can of paint and a set of aftermarket decals, I thought that the time was probably right to have a crack at it! Although we flew on a 777-223(ER), I will be sticking with the 777-300ER variant of the kit. I don't fancy trimming the fuselage nor wings, and it'll still be a Triple Seven. I also plan to open up the starboard cargo door/s as if it were sitting at DFW ready before flight- as such I won't be modelling dropped flaps/slats for this model. I'll aim to do 7 main installments- matching 7 points in the flight (with photos and a little bit of text) to 7 build updates (landing gear, engines, wings, fuselage/cargo doors, painting, decals, finishing touches). Who knows, I might be able to finish by the 1 year anniversary! But for now, thank you ever so much for dropping by. Best wishes, Sam

This is the Eastern Express 1/144 scale MD-80 finished in the earlier American Airlines livery, as ship #567. N567AM was the last MD-80 delivered brand new to American in 1992 from the factory in Long Beach, California, serving well for 24 years before being retired in 2016. She was stored in ROW before being returned to service in 2017 as a cargo carrier still active and operating south of the border. This model was a first for me in a few areas; my first attempt at an Eastern Express model, use of acrylic paints (I usually use enamels), and first use of Xtreme metal (I usually use Alclad) for the finish. Quite a few challenges for sure, but the model came together well in spite of the issues that the EE kit presents. Painting and finishing challenges were new to me, as I am sure they are old to many, but didn’t prove impossible…just different from what I have done in the past. Good learning experiences and I would most definitely build this kit again. To mix the AA gray I used Tamiya X-1 and X-2 until it “looked about right,” using photos of the actual airplane in sunlight from different angles. Tamiya gray surface primer, then Tamiya TS-14 gloss black as a base coat for the metal finish (I usually use the Alclad base coat, but thought this time I'd try the less expensive Tamiya gloss black...won't do that again!). Xtreme metal airbrushed along with light polishing to achieve the natural metal finish. Flying Colors details; Draw Decals details, cheat lines, and livery markings; Authentic Airliners life like windows; Platz PE parts for the landing gear, antennae, and pitot tubes. Of the pictures below, a few are taken while she was still on the workbench; the rest were taken on a bright sunny day while clouds occasionally passed overhead, giving a shaded look to some of the shots. Hope you enjoy!

Contemplating the harmonious lines of a well-designed classic twin is always a pleasure, and for those privileged to have seen them in person, a sight to remember. In its attractive American Airlines livery the plane seems to invite its ten passengers to ply the skies above serene landscapes, in comfort and relaxation, including a restroom. Not for nothing this era of aviation is called "golden". This endeavor started as a comparative build -of the same airplane type- against a Rareplane vacuformed kit. The building process of both kits can be visited here: The model is based -as explained in the building article- on a revamp by Encore of the original -and frankly poor- PM kit. This new boxing included -to no exceptional advantage to me- some resin bits that were supposed to be an upgrade, and a very bad new transparency, that in my sample only deserved the trash can, with apologies to the trash can. A few of the resin parts are identical to those of the original kit, or worse, and only the cabin door, exhausts, cowls and engines are of use (if you are not too picky, especially regarding the cowls). The kit's alternate civil decals that tempted me to buy the boxing are a total fiasco, since the real scheme was applied to a highly modified plane of later date, that has very little to do with the kit, having, among other changes, squared wing tip additions, and three-blade props. So it's either kit surgery or trashing those nice -but useless- decals. Thus I went a different path, adding interior and exterior detail and commissioning a decal sheet from Arctic Decals for a plane used by American Airlines. I know that there were other Beech 18 kits issued by Hobbycraft, and having such variety of nice civil liveries, I am surprised that a better injected kit doesn't exists, or at least an upgrade set -that makes sense, that is. In any case these old platforms can be turned into fair models with some work (and research, something many manufacturers don't bother with). Many of you have one or other of these incarnations (RarePlane, Encore, PM; Hobbycraft) in the stash. I think they make for a good skill-honing project, without pretending to obtain the ultimate model. Personally, I find the venerable RarePlane vac superior to these much modern alternatives so far in the market; you may have a look here: Knowing the limitations of this kit (which are various) I may venture -some day- into another conversion, since there are things that I could do better after having dealt now with this kit. Even though it took some time and no little work, here is the result obtained with the Encore kit, with which I am fairly pleased, all things considered.

I discovered The Sopranos just a few years ago and got hooked on the box set. One of the iconic features of the series is its opening title sequence, which shows Tony Soprano driving home through the suburbs of New York. At about 40 seconds in, there's a fleeting glimpse of an Amercian Airlines Boeing 727-200 climbing out of Newark Airport. Every time I see this (and it's been dozens of times), I think 'how cool' . So I've decided to make this aircraft the subject of my GB entry - built 'wheels up' of course! I'll be using a 1/200 scale Hasegawa kit. I've got several boxings in my stash, but not their American Airlines version. Separately though, I managed to get a set of AA decals and instructions via eBay. I'm really looking forward to this build, but it unfortunately it will be November before I can make a start. I'll see you then! Cheers Cliff