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Back to the Bench ..work on the DC-7C Conversion.


wallyinoz

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I have been in the modelling doldrums in the past few years with a couple of projects dragging me down however in the last few weeks I dragged down my 1/72 DC-6 to DC-7C conversion from shelf of doom and resurrected it using AIM conversion set parts, finally finished the 4 "power egg" assemblies.
 The next thing to do is determine the correct fore / aft position of the over wing nacelle / saddle tank pieces on the wing and glue. Then fit and fair the power eggs on to the wings. If and when I achieve that successfully,the next hard bit is to fit the resin centre section, then fit wings at correct dihedral to the centre-section, then build up the gap in the upper wing half,  fair and scribe. If I have managed to do that I think I will have slain the beast
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The other shelf of doomer is my 1/72 DC-4 to Argonaut conversion again using AIM conversion set. I cant say I am a fan of the Revell DC-4 I found it overly complicated, not particularly well fitting with very confusing and wrongly part numbered instructions. Getting RR Merlin engine pods straight and aligned on the wing was quite hard, I had to pull a few off and redo them (hence the reason why it languished on the shelf for so long) still, this one is now rolling along nicely enough.
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One new start is a Revell 1/72 Eurofighter Typhoon this is the old tooling and the fit is blah! taken far longer to build than I thought. This build was inspired by many hours of Typhoon operations watching and photographing at RAF Coningsby and Waddington a few months ago. This too is now well on the way, it is going to be mounted clean flying on a stand, I have a second one to build (newer tool) to make a pair in echelon formation)
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On 11/15/2019 at 1:22 PM, busnproplinerfan said:

Haven't seen your name on here for awhile. I should watch this, I have these parts waiting for some glue to come along and introduce them to the airframes.

Hi There,

I am having troubles but it is exacerbated by damage i made previously!

 

well, here we go again!, this battered model was stripped of the awful Contrail resin conversion set pieces, epoxy and super glue letting go only after inflicting more damage then put back in a box. I sent out an SOS to some modelling groups after some DC-7C 3 views explaining I wanted to build the engine nacelles / saddle tank fairings required for the conversion. My mate Neil Gaunt of Aircraft in Miniature responded and suggested that he could design and make resin bits for the conversion if I was willing to put down some cash to help pay for the masters that would then be used to market more conversion sets. I agreed and after a few months I got my new bits. I pulled the mess out of the box a few weeks ago and started rebuilding it. I am having a crappy time of it, repairing damage  and regluing cut off bits (which I had kept luckily as the new bits require different cutting points).
I find that even though the new bits are miles better in shape and quality it is not a "plug and play" conversion. A 1/72 3 view is essential and a lot of grinding filling sanding and priming is required, Someone with better skills than me starting with a "clean" brand new DC-6 kit would probably find it much easier than me with my war-weary, hangar-rashed example. If you can look closely at these pics (hopefully without vomiting) you can see that there are steps between the nacelle and wing fairings that need to be built up with filler, and evidence of filler between the wing nacelle / saddle tanks pieces and the wing top surface. I found if I laid the pieces on the wing at "best fit" the engines would not end up being "up right" so I had to grind material off on one side and fill on the other. Then I had to glue the engine assemblies parallel to each other and with about 3 degrees down thrust reference the wing chord// you can see my simple stick reference mark to help me achieve this.. man it is all pretty rough and ready... anyhoos, the engines are on the wing, I might have to redo the no 2. engine. After filling and sanding the wing halves  and all the resin joins I will then have to attach the wing panels to the centre section and rebuild the top skin at the joint, that too should be fun.
This is the first time I was able to roughly put it together.. you know what?... it looks like a DC-7C!
49089295948_a0dd77d059_h.jpg20191118_134121 by wallycacsabre, on Flickr
49089804346_d61a4260c7_h.jpg20191119_093033_001 by wallycacsabre, on Flickr
49090009092_c3153320ef_h.jpg20191119_204057 by wallycacsabre, on Flickr
49089804611_3b5b6c59ee_h.jpg20191119_204104 by wallycacsabre, on Flickr

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Scary stuff. I have the conversion, a KLM decal set and a brand new second hand DC-6 from Heller but they are not going to the top of the build pile just yet.

 

What's the deal with the large gaps between the wing root resin extensions and the top wings by the way?

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1 hour ago, sroubos said:

Scary stuff. I have the conversion, a KLM decal set and a brand new second hand DC-6 from Heller but they are not going to the top of the build pile just yet.

 

What's the deal with the large gaps between the wing root resin extensions and the top wings by the way?

Hello, the gaps are caused because the upper wing surface is rebated to fit into the curved wing fairing moulded on the DC-6 fuselage halves. The conversion set centre section has straight parallel  sides where the wing panels are attached. As there is no  material to fill the redundant rebate you have got "airspace" that needs to be filled

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I didn't know there was a 3 degree downthrust on the engines. wonder if a low time DC-6 would work better? I have three view drawings but they aren't to 1/72 yet. Make sure the putty doesn't shrink up on you, that would suck. There's no spar of any kind is there? I always think of that moving show Shipping Wars on tv where those dumb as..s had to move a DC-7 in Florida and wanted to make it a restaurant. They cut the wings off with a chopsaw and it almost fell on them. Don't know how or if the got it back together.

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There is no down thrust it is just 3 degrees nose down relative to the wing chord line due to its angle of incidence relative to the fuselage  line of flight.. according to the drawings I have anyway. When married to the fuselage with this setting the thrust line looks spot on

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58 minutes ago, wallyinoz said:

There is no down thrust it is just 3 degrees nose down relative to the wing chord line due to its angle of incidence relative to the fuselage  line of flight.. according to the drawings I have anyway. When married to the fuselage with this setting the thrust line looks spot on

Ok, I see what you're saying. From a side view, the engines will look level to the fuselage.

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16 hours ago, wallyinoz said:

Hello, the gaps are caused because the upper wing surface is rebated to fit into the curved wing fairing moulded on the DC-6 fuselage halves. The conversion set centre section has straight parallel  sides where the wing panels are attached. As there is no  material to fill the redundant rebate you have got "airspace" that needs to be filled

Sorry but I'm still missing something here I think, why is this 'airspace' not covered by the resin extensions then?

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