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Fly DC-9-15 and 26decals Cyprus Airlines


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Hello all,

Here is one of my entrants for the group build. This will be the first time I've ever shown anything I've built.

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I won't be using any of the provided decals, instead I'll be using 26decals recently released sheet for a Cyprus Airways DC-9-15.

This is the kit contents -

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And these are the decals -

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Loads more to follow, I'm just marking out my territory so to speak!!

Jeff

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The Fly DC-9 comes in several forms. Short body -15, longer -40 and longest DC-9 version, the -50 (as distinct from the MD-80).

The base kit is the -30 with the necessary shorter or longer fuselage as a separate sprue.

The kit isn't too bad. There are differing views about accuracy of some areas of the kit, particularly the placement of the engines. As the kit comes, the pylons aren't wide enough so the engines sit too close to the fuselage but I've used a shim of plastic card to correct that. Some also suggest the engines are too far aft. Not sure.

Also the main wheels are too big, being more like the MD-80 size. On a -30 version I'm currently making, I've tried to reduce the overall diameter of the wheel by spinning it in my mini drill and sanding off the excess plastic. I think the kit main wheels is about 8. something millimetres whereas it should be almost exactly 7mm. On those I've already made I didn't try this but the wheel does look a bit too big.

Overall, I like the kit. Authentic Airliners make a resin kit for those who prefer but the additions to the Fly kit are easy and I'll try to document them in this upcoming build.

Jeff

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Great choice Jeff, the Fly kit appears in so many different brand boxings, it's almost impossible to keep up with, first I have seen the Limited Edition Karaya boxing, never knew Cyprus operated DC 9's let alone short body ones.

Those that I know of so far are Fly, AZ, 26, and the Red Roo boxings, now Karaya, any others that anyone knows of?.

I believe that pushing the engines out to a more correct position, moves them forward enough to make a difference, and don't forget the undersize Aircon duct at the base of the fin, this is the first I had heard about the wheels, but wouldn't be surprised.

Ray, the 2 different fuselages only comes with the short -15 kit.

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Thanks, according to research I've done (well, a quick googley look) Cyprus Airways (not Airlines as I called this thread!) only used a couple of DC-9-15 from August 1975 until November 1976 as they tried to restart operations after the war there. There aren't many photos either.

Jeff

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Thanks Chris, some helpful photos.

With both the A319 and IL-62 resting to allow the glue and filler to thoroughly dry, my fingers are restless so I've started this one.

I currently have another Fly DC-9-30 at the "waiting for primer" stage as I haven't yet settled on a colour scheme; it may be AeroCalifornia, Alitalia either old blue stripes or previous solid green stripe, or it may be KLM scheme with the blue upper fuselage or none of the above.

Anyway, with that one waiting, work can start on its shorter brother.

First set of additions - some holes.

The pressure relief valve on the rear left fuselage. This is opened to equalise the pressure just before the aircraft lands. It's marked on the kit and I've highlighted it in the photo. Using a small pilot drill to mark the centre then enlarging it with a drill of the correct diameter before finishing it by cleaning the edges with a ball router, a hole was produced.

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To avoid an open space, I used a piece of sprue bored out to a diameter slightly larger than the hole and stuck to the inside. When the model is painted, I'll flood the inside of this sprue tube with some black paint to add depth.

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On the right side of the fuselage there is the APU exhaust to add. This sits just below the A/C exhaust and above the engine pylon. The A/C exhaust is the rectangular slot on both sides of the fuselage above the pylon. Just like the pressure valve above, the hole was made in a similar way

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After the decal cheat line has been added and dried, I'll make a small exhaust nozzle. If I add it now, it'll only cause a bit of trouble trying to bed the decal down.

Staying at the right rear, a rudder tab servo cover was made from a thin slice of sprue and positioned just below the tab highlighted in black. When it has thoroughly dried, I'll sand it down a little to a more correct shape.

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Next, the nose wheel well will be added and then the two halves can be joined.

Jeff

Edited by pinky coffeeboat
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Nice work on those vents Jeff.

Might just have to pinch the ideas for later.

Chris.

Thank you and pinch away Chris.

Looking good so far!

Bob

Thanks Bob.

The -15 version has the shorter wing and a narrower chord compared to that of the DC-9-30 (The short body DC-9 was the first version and each subsequent version was a development of this, different to the Airbus A320 family where the A319 (and A318) and A321 were shortened or lengthened versions of the original). To accommodate this change Fly have provided a very nice set of resin wingtips.

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With a previous -10 build there was something about the wing tips but I couldn't remember what...

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There is no cutting guide however, but a quick check of pictures and a comparison of the parts indicates where the cut should be made.

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The tip was cut off...

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Then I remembered why I didn't use them on my previous build - the wing and tip are a different thickness. Had I have remembered earlier I would have thinned the wing halves down a bit; actually the Fly wings could benefit from a bit of vacform style thinning prior to gluing anyway.

So the off cuts were reattached and left aside to harden. Some serious sanding to come...

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The fuselage was treated to some sanding of the join line and rudder edge to refine them before the two halves were joined, taped up and set aside (pity I didn't do the same to the wing!)

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The engines were cut off, tidied up and are waiting for their coat of metals for the exhaust and engine front.

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This is now where the aircraft is

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Jeff

Edited by pinky coffeeboat
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Ryan, they are nice models and have some very fine panel detail.

With a little bit of effort they can turn out very nice indeed. There's loads of little things that we can do to enhance the model, like adding vents, exhausts, antennae that sort of thing. The fuselage halves fit well together and with a small amount of adjustment, the wings will fit just as well. The only area I'm not overly excited about is the undercarriage especially the wheels. But, there's ways to overcome that too.

Will you be building any here?

Jeff

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Ryan, they are nice models and have some very fine panel detail.

With a little bit of effort they can turn out very nice indeed. There's loads of little things that we can do to enhance the model, like adding vents, exhausts, antennae that sort of thing. The fuselage halves fit well together and with a small amount of adjustment, the wings will fit just as well. The only area I'm not overly excited about is the undercarriage especially the wheels. But, there's ways to overcome that too.

Will you be building any here?

Jeff

Yes I would like to have a go at one, but wanted to get a little further along on my Soyuz 737 first.

Ryan

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  • 4 weeks later...

The wings have been set aside until I can muster enough enthusiasm to complete them. They have received an initial sanding attempt but there is still a fair amount of reshaping and refining to do.

My TWA DC-9 pictured above only had one wing modified before I realised the resin piece was not going to fit properly. Because of this, both wings are the original kit size and haven't been shortened (incidentally, the short body DC-9 did have the longer wings of of -30 in its -20 version; this was a version for SAS and can be identified by the leading edge slats as seen here http://www.airliners.net/photo/Scandinavian-Airlines-SAS/McDonnell-Douglas-DC-9-21/1495146

compared to the original non slat equipped DC-9 see here http://www.airliners.net/photo/Aero-California/McDonnell-Douglas-DC-9-15/653770

You may also be able to identify the shorter chord of the original non slat wing - if you can, well done but don't look at my model here as it won't be modified!!

In the meantime, the engine pylons have had a shim of plastic card added to them to set the engines further out from the fuselage. The shim I used was almost as wide as the narrowest part of the pylon (if that makes sense).

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Both sides done, and set aside to dry.

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Edited by pinky coffeeboat
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The pylon shims have been sanded and trimmed to shape. The next problem to overcome, is the positioning of the engines. Having covered over the mounting holes with the plastic shim, I now had to place the engines in the correct location on the pylon and mark the position of the two small mounting stubs on the engine.

To do this, I added a drop of black paint to the stubs and, referring to pictures, touched the wet paint against the pylon.

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A couple of ADF fairings have been added from plastic card and smoothed over when dry.

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The wings have been sanded to shape, tidied up a little and some obliterated panel lines re-scribed in. Then, with a handy jig the wings were joined to the fuselage.

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Whilst they were drying, thoughts turned to the undercarriage. I mentioned somewhere previously that the Fly wheels are a bit too large in diameter. I did consider sanding them down whilst they were spinning in my mini-drill but I've not really had much luck doing that sort of thing. Either the plastic melts or the shapes turn out deformed.

I had a look around the spares box and found a set of Roden 720 wheels that were left over after taking the advice a well regarded "expert" and chucked the whole POS kit in the bin...well, actually no.

They were left over from a rather unfortunate accident the kit had, rendering it nothing more than a hangar queen fit only for donating it's bits to keep the others flying.

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I hope the smaller diameter of the Roden wheels are apparent, but even they are a bit too big

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Now, the point I'm trying to make here would have been a lot easier if the battery in my digital verniers hadn't decided there and then to die, but from the pictures above, hopefully you can see the Roden wheels (grey) are a shade over 7mm and the Fly wheels (white) are almost 8mm - the wheels should scale out at exactly 7mm (give or take the odd thousandth of a mil). Well, close enough for me even with their incorrect wheel pattern.

Likewise, the main undercarriage legs had their axles removed, drilled out to accommodate a new axle. The provided one being too small to hold the wheels at the correct distance from the main leg.

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The new axles were made from slowly stretched sprue. They will be trimmed and sanded to fit the new wheels.

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Finally, the flap hinges were added, along with the Vortilon and plastic card inserts to make the small leading edge fence just out board of those. All that needs to be done is a little reshaping of the plastic card insert.

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Possibly, next stop - the paint shed?

Jeff

Edited by pinky coffeeboat
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  • 1 month later...

As I mentioned in my Airbus build, the DC-9 suffered a rather unfortunate painting experience when I thought I would be clever and attempt to paint three models at the same time.

 

Well, it too was set aside to fully cure, allowing me to calm down and not chuck the thing in the bin. Now a couple of weeks later, the paint has been rubbed down and I repainted it a couple of days ago.

Here the tail planes and engines have been attached to lollipop sticks with double sided tape allowing all round access for the paint.

 

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The exhausts aren't as bad as they appear above; that's just the underlying paint I used for these parts of the kit - Tamiya XF-84 dark iron.Perfect for older dirtier jet engines.

 

Below, the model after a good couple of coats of decanted Halfords appliance white, over-sprayed with a light layer of cellulose thinners.

 

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All the parts were put aside to cure. This doesn't take long with appliance white and the cellulose helps to speed the drying time too.

 

The leading edges of the main wings and the tails along with the elevators were masked and painted with AK xtreme metal matt aluminium. After unmasking, I realised I should have painted the fin leading edge too, but that can be done later.

 

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Here it sits and I keep thinking there must be something I haven't done because the next stage is decalling. 

 

Let me think...

The wheels have been painted

I've begun to detail the engines

The undercarriage legs have been modified and cleaned up

The model has been painted 

 

Nope, next stage is decalling!!

 

Jeff 

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