Search the Community

I have always liked the big propliners that found work as cargo haulers when the new jets started taking all the prestige work with the major airlines in the 1960's and 70's. There are a few kits for the big Douglas airliners and Lockheed Constellation, mainly from Minicraft, and even fewer aftermarket decal sheets to put on them. Having found Draw Decals sheet to Cayman Airways Cargo DC-6, I just had to have one. Both the kit and decal sheet were obtained at this years Telford and work started as soon as I got home. Decal sheet reviewed Here Minicrafts kits can be a bit hit and miss in terms of accuracy but as a general rule those of Douglas aircraft are very good, whilst the Boeing subjects are less so.The Dc-4, DC-6, MD80's and particularly the DC-8 are excellent. The Boeing 737's are also good, but I feel that the 707, 727, 757, and 777 require a fair bit of work to improve them. Lucky for me then that I'm starting a DC-6! The build is fairly straightforward. I started by scraping and sanding the insides of the wing trailing edges to refine them a bit, not strictly necessary but worth the effort. I also put in a strip of plasticard to act as a lip inside the fuselage where the wing trailing edge will meet. The fuselage fits together nicely and even features a rudimentary flight deck. Most work is on the engine cowlings which come in two halves each with a separate engine. Rather than fit all three together at once as suggested in the instructions, I just fixed the cowl halves together and let them dry. It is then easy to sand the inside lips of the cowls with a bit of wet and dry paper wrapped around a paintbrush handle, and fix the engines in from behind by lightly sanding around the rim and push them in with a cocktail stick through the crankcase. I fixed the cowlings on to the nacelles before fitting the wing, as they need a bit of filler all around and it is far easier to sand them without having the fuselage in the way. I will attempt to keep the cockpit windows clear as I like the look better than using black decal, so the clear part was fitted and a white Milliput applied to fair it in. It is then sanded down to smooth the filler and join, and Micromesh cloths used to polish the windows back to full clarity. At this point the wing can go on, and all is set aside to dry before more Milliput is used to blend the wing/fuselage join. Thanks for looking, John