Douglas DC-2

[JohnHaa]

This is my conversion of a Monogram 1/48 Douglas DC-3.  It was a rather complicated excersise, but it can be done.

 

 

 

[Alpha Delta 210]

Beautiful! I would love to see some more images.

[gingerbob]

I would love to hear the conversion story!  Looks good.

[Mark Joyce]

Looks gorgeous, John, and I agree that more photographs and information on the conversion would be great! I recently finished the Special Hobby B-18, which is based on the DC-2.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Turbofan]

Hi John,

Very impressive! What did you use for your natural metal finish?

I too would be interested in more details of the conversion.

Cheers,

Ian!

[GrzeM]

Wow! Great!

[Tbolt]

That;s beautiful, well done.

[JohnHaa]

Hallo all,

Thanks for the kind comments !

 

I made this model for many years, so I have to dig deep in my memory...:-)

 

Step 1 : The fuselage:

First I cut out a square piece of the fuselage side with the cabine windows, because the DC-2 has

flat sides not round ones as with the DC-3.

Then I replaced the panels with a new flat ones. Also the cockpit windows are

different, I replaced them with new ones. Like the new cabine windows, I made them out of a new

CD- box.

 

Step 2:

The most tricky part of the conversion. The tail section of the fuselage is too long,

so I cut the fuselage behind the cabin-door, and removed a section of, I think, 7 or 8 mm.

The result is, that the contoures no longer match, so I had to made some incisions and bent

everything for a better fit. Like the methode you use with paper-models.

 

Step 3: The vertical tail.

I cut the fin and front leading edge to get a smaller tailfin. Then I replaced it with a new smaller leading

edge.

The horizontal tail feathers are modified in the same way.

 

Step 4: The wings.

The rounded wingtips are replaced by new, more square ones. Also the centerpiece of the wing

has no enforcement strips. Just plain sheet metal.

 

 

Step 5: The engines:

I build new engine cowlings because the DC-2 had different engines i.e. Wright Cyclone 9

cylinder single row, with a greater diameter instead the P&W Twin-Wasp of the DC-3

Also the exhaust and carburator inlet and oil coolers have to be modified.

 

Step 6 : The undercarriage:

The upper part of the landing gear strut has 3 thin struts instead of a thick single one.

 

Well these are the main steps, I hope my explanation gives some inspiration.

 

I foundf some other pictures, I hope you enjoy them,

 

 

 

 

 

[JohnHaa]

For Ian,

 

For the metal finish I ffound this methode to work best, 

 

First I spray overall a coat of Polly- S Acryl, dark gray, after that I use the good old Rubb and -Buff Sterling silver.  

 

Greetings,

John

[Turbofan]

3 hours ago, JohnHaa said:

For Ian,

 

For the metal finish I ffound this methode to work best, 

 

First I spray overall a coat of Polly- S Acryl, dark gray, after that I use the good old Rubb and -Buff Sterling silver.  

 

Greetings,

John

Thanks John,

I've never tried Rub'n'buff but I must say it looks good on your excellent conversion, and thanks for the description of the steps you took and the extra pics, I've only ever seen a DC2 in 1/144 before.

Cheers,

Ian

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Beautiful model, pity you did not document in images the steps of the conversion, always useful for other modelers.

Excellent results! and a real Classic.

Cheers

[Challenger350Pilot]

Its just beautiful. Complicated?? You have made it look like a breeze! Beautiful job indeed. 

[JohnHaa]

Thanks for all the kind replays.

 

I agree, that I did not took some photographs  of the actual build. The reason I had no PC....:-) !  

Well that all changed now, nowadays I only build scratch models, so next time I will show an example complete with pictures of the building process.

 

With regards,

John 

[Ad-4N]

Some real, hard-core, He-Man modeling going on here.  Fantastic.  

[jeaton01]

Outstanding effort, great result!

[JWM]

Great work! Despite all similarties differncies beyween DC 2 and DC 3 are really huge.

Congrats

Cheers

J-W

 

[russ c]

Really nice DC-2, great job converting it!

[JohnHaa]

Thank you all for the kind comments ! 

 

After all those years I still enjoy to look at this piece of Dutch Aviation History.  

 

With greetings,

 

JohnHaa

[Kingswear1]

What a super model, well done!

[CarLos]

Great model, John! And thanks for the explanation on the conversion.

 

Carlos