DC-8-63 Hawaiian , very old Revell kit

[Alex1978]

This model I received at an aviation fair in 2018.

It had been started by someone with probably no modelling experience.

 

There was glue all over the place,the wing halves had been squeezed together,most of the landing gear was gone...

In short...a complete mess.The guy who gave it to me,told me,that he got it aready in this sorry state.

 

He knew me and my attitude,so he said;"If you can do something with it,good,otherwise bin it"

 

First I ceaned the parts of the glue and smudges as good as possible,then I tried to save the messed up wings.

No chance.

Then I remembered that I had for some reason 2 upper wing halves left in my spares.

I lined out the pieces to be replaced on each wing and carefully cut out the needed parts on the spare wings.

Then these parts were inserted and carefully glued and sanded.

It was a long and painful process,putty...sanding....putty....sanding...

I worked on and off on this DC-8,sometimes I let it be for 1-3 months,then trying again to get on with it.

Finally I managed to get an acceptable result out of the wings,rescribed all panellines that went lost during the whole repair process and started to think in what livery the DC-8 should be finished.

 

I had a complete Hawaiian decal set left from a Minicraft kit,so I thought well,they should fit.But wait...Hawaiian's DC-8s were -62 and -63 versions.

Revell only had the -61 of the longer DC-8s.

 

I had bought a bagged Minicraft DC-8 kit together wit NASA decals from DRAW Decals sometime ago,and these kits have both,the P&W and CFM56 engines.

I closed the slots on the Revell wings with palsticsheet and drilled to small hole in each,and also in the Minicraft engines.Then small pieces of metal wire were glued in and attached to the Revell DC-8

 

Paintjob and decals on...done.

Almost 2 years I spent on and off salvaging this classic Douglas jet,it payed off.

The wings are not perfect,there can still a slight knack be seen but i can live with it.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SAT69]

You've made something truly elegant out of the mess you were given. Gotta love a stretch '8.

[Homer]

Considering the mess you were given, you have produced a fantastic model well done 👏 

[Alex1978]

Thank you very much to all.

As a DC-8 lover,I couldnt just throw this model away.. 

[Team Aer Lingus]

another classic beautifully finished kudos Alex

 

thanks for sharing

 

regards 

 

Eamonn

[swralph]

Great restoration.😀

[JWM]

Very nice! I ve 'found in scalemates that kit scale is called "1/143" (for some reason mot 1/144, however I think that scale of most models are s in +-1% at least) but what surprised me more - that it comes from 1959... , moreover that last issue was in 199x... ( https://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=193930&p=timeline )

Regards

J-W

 

 

[Alex1978]

19 minutes ago, JWM said:

Very nice! I ve 'found in scalemates that kit scale is called "1/143" (for some reason mot 1/144, however I think that scale of most models are s in +-1% at least) but what surprised me more - that it comes from 1959... , moreover that last issue was in 199x... ( https://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=193930&p=timeline )

Regards

J-W

 

 

Thank you very much.

Yes,the first issue of the Revell DC-8 was back in 1959.Back then through the years it was released as the shorter DC-8-10 / 50.

The first "streched" DC-8-61 was released by Revell in 1969.

What is surprising is that the '59 releases had all finely engraved panellines and the engines could be shown open.

The -61 fuselage had all raised panellines.

What they kept though was the boarding stair.

It would be nice if Revell,or Atlantis Models would re-release these kits again.They are simpler compared to Minicrafts offering,but nontheless very nice renditions of this classic jetliner

[bigbadbadge]

Looks gorgeous and considering what you started with too makes it all the more special.

Great job

Chris