Converting Revell's 1/144 KC 10 into a DC10-30

[ryoga]

Hi everyone

New here so please allow me to intro myself a little bit. I use to be a lurker for a few months before deciding to register and join in. I'm from Malaysia and only recently pick up commercial airlines in my scale modeling hobby (I'm more of a sci fi guy). My interest in planes perked after my recent trip to Bali this year, riding on the airbus A320 there and the Boeing 737-300 back. It was a long time since my last plane trip and I was exhilarated throughout both trips. You could say I was so hooked to planes thaty I planned the trip to Singapore this Sept for my wife as she is having her class reunion there, and I'm only tagging along because we're going by plane .

To cut a long story short, when I got back from Bali, I immediately began collecting commercial airline kits, deciding to stick with 1/144 scale or bigger since I can do more with this scale than a 1/200 scale kit. My wife thought I was obsessed for a while, as within a span of 2 months, I have amassed quite a big stash of commercial airline kits, ranging from the Airbus A300b4, 319, 320, 321, 340 and the massive 380, to Boeing's 727, 737-200, 737-400, 767-800, 777-200, 747-200 and 747-400. I spent quite a bit of my time researching commercial airlines to the extent I now know an Airbus from a Boeing (yeah, it was that bad). Naturally I would like to work on planes belonging to Asian Airlines, in particularly Malaysian Airlines or AirAsia, Singapore Airlines, Thai or Garuda since I relate better to these. Unfortunately very few kits has those liveries packed with their factory sealed contents, so I had to rely on aftermarket liveries, all of which are in transit.

Bear in mind I have never worked on a commercial airline before. Most of my kits has somekind of out of this world power source so to build something real, that was going to be a challenge. I started with an old kit I had acquired a long time ago - Revell's KC10 Extender (and I was going to use this kit for spare parts - phew).

I plan to convert her into a DC10-30 representing Malaysian Airlines 9M-MAS, a very old aircraft that has since been replaced with the newer MD11. If I can finish her in time, I plan to showcase the kit in our modeling society's group build (to represent Malaysia's history) ... that is if I can finish her in time before early Sept. Still waiting for the livery to arrive from twosix decals

My goal is to showcase 9M-MAS in a landing pose with all the flaps, slats and spoilers deployed. I also plan to show the engine reverse thrust enggaged. Since I'm new to airlines, I'm not going to try to get her to be as close to the real thing. Just finishing any build had always been a challenge for me so I'm just going to try to finish this kit asap (subject to my working hours, time spend with my wife and any other ad hoc emergencies).

So to begin, I test fitted Revell's KC10 and found the parts joining together perfectly. Truly a nice kit.

I removed the refuel rod housing and that's a big hole I need to fill up later.

Cutting out the flaps, slats and spoilers took a while. I'm not sure if there are aftermarket parts for a 1/144 scale DC10 (I have seen resin after market parts for the A320 and 737 though) but even if there is, I don't think I want to spend any $$$ on something I can do myself (I hope) so using various scribers, I went to work and managed to cut out the parts based on the existing panel lines on the kit. Here's how they look like, cut out parts alongside their main pieces.

Then I began detailing and reinforcing the wings, glueing all the small parts back together (so I don't loose them later), and making sure all the parts fit in nicely later.

I have still yet to detail the underside of the slats, and I'm probably going to need wires to help hold up the slats to the main wing (same thing for the spolers).

Can't do much now until the glue has cured on the parts, so I'll continue with my WIP when I have more done.

Do let me know if there are areas I need to watch out for. I am currently trying to figure out how to re-create a miniature cockpit for the kit.

Thanks for looking.

[Rabspat]

Looking amazing, nothing like a do it yours self conversion.

[cuprar]

I would of had that of you buddy. Could I have all the refueling bits if you don't mind. I'll sort you out for them.

[ryoga]

Thanks Rabspat and Cuprar. The refueling bits, . .. I am converting the rod into a tow for the A320 later, the rest are in bits of pieces hera and there which I plan to reuse for the cockpit, if possible

[cuprar]

Thanks Rabspat and Cuprar. The refueling bits, . .. I am converting the rod into a tow for the A320 later, the rest are in bits of pieces hera and there which I plan to reuse for the cockpit, if possible

Ok no worries. Keep the pics coming I'm looking forward to seeing this. Great work so far bud

[Kev1n]

you might find that the flaps etc are too thick to use in the dropped positions, the plastic isnt thin enough

so plastic card is a good substitute if you scratch build your own

(dont forget the flap track fairings underneath split in two when the flaps extend)

cockpit - plenty of DC10 cockpit pics on the net so use plastic card again and paint it all

stretched sprue is good for a lot of other things as well

EDIT

this is one of mine, so it might give you some ideas -

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...candinavian+red

Edited June 20, 2011 by kev1n

[ryoga]

Thanks kev1n. Yeah, the original plastic pieces are not only too thick, they're heavy too. I was thinking of using a 0.04 evergreen sheet (near impossible to get plasticard over here) to replace both the spoilers and flaps, and of course if I can get hold of 0.04 brass plate, that would be even better. And thanks for the reminder on the flap track fairings (those ain't going to be easy to cut). I'm also looking for a protector to get that 40 degree angle ... had one eons ago and now I can't find her.

And thanks for highlighting your builds. They're very detailed and well done, very inspiring for others like me. Just hope I can achieve a satisfactory result with this.

[Kev1n]

bit of a coincidence but as it happens I have a rebuild of a DC10 to do, with dropped flaps.....

I'll get some pics done

[ryoga]

Cool. I love seeing your work. Need some ideas on some difficult areas

[Kev1n]

my DC10 is on the bench....along with a load of others so it's not going to be quick....

unless I bump it to the front of the queue

[ryoga]

No worries Kev1n, I'll try to "wing" some of these problem areas to see if I can find a good way to handle them. And just getting the layout shape for the cocpit is tough work .. I still can't get the inner shape to rest right ..

[Kev1n]

inner shape of what?

you only have two parts - the floor and the bulkhead between the cockpit and cabin

eveything else, seats, instrument panel and centre pedestal will fit on floor easily enough - the DC10

cockpit is actually very spacious compared to most airliners (the 747 is tiny!) so once you have the shape and fit

of the floor right, the rest shouldnt be too hard

[ryoga]

Guess maybe I should work on the bulkheads first just to get some grip. I was trying to lay up the cockpit floor to sit upright with the wall once the two fuselage are placed together. But everytime I test fit them, they keep slanting on their sides at an angle (hence the left or right side tend to look higher) ... or I could be doing this all wrong. Sigh .. think I'll leave this section alone for the day. Start again tomorrow when my mind is more fresh.

[Kev1n]

one thing to remember -

the DC10 cockpit floor is slightly higher than the cabin floor ;

when you go into the real one, through the cockpit door, you step up onto the cockpit floor itself.

Immediately on the right is the flight engineer's seat and panel, ahead (obviously) the two pilot's seats

Do the bulhead between the cockpit and cabin first - not the floor

first take one fuse half; I usually start with the left; cut your plastic card to about the right shape for that half, leave the other half uncut for now

make your cut slightly too big, then sand it until it fits right and doesnt have any gaps between the plastic card and fuse side.

when the left half is done, repeat for the right half.

Tape the bulkhead into place and test fit the two fuse halves - if you did it right the bulkhead shound fit neatly and the

fuse halves go together.

That gives you the space for the cockpit floor.

Do that the same way - cut a piece of card out that is slightly too big, then sand it on one side until it fits neatly into the

nose of the half, then repeat for the other half

Get some plasticine, pack it into the lower part of the nose cone with the top where the floor goes and then test fit your floor - it should fit on top of the plasticine and if you have cut and sanded it right, then you have floor anbd bulkhead.

Putting the details in after that should be easy enough.

The plasticine btw will help for nose weight

hth

[Kev1n]

oh yeah - google "DC10 cockpit" and click on images (top left)

loads of info there

[madaboutmodels]

cutting up the wings.....way to confusing for me

[ryoga]

Thanks Kev1n, if everything works out, I'm going to owe you one. Its coming 2am here in Malaysia and guess I'll make another attempt later this evening.

Madaboutmodels ... that's the fun part abt scale modeling - that satisfaction when everything turns out right, even if you don't feel satisfied, there are others out there that really appreciates all those effort and work.

[Kev1n]

posted a couple of pics of my 'ten here -

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72891

I didnt cut the leading edge slats since these slide down off the top and front of the wing when deployed so they are

very thin and the shape of the wing doesnt change much

You dont owe me anything - I'm glad to help

Madaboutmodels - you'll figure it out, one day you might want to build something with dropped flaps, open doors and stuff like that. It's not that hard. Give it a try...plenty of help here if you need it.

[ryoga]

Kev1n, I'm really impressed at how you guys are able to use back an old build up kit, strip and restore her and still make her look good. This forum truly has lots of helpful information.

Anyway, here's my progress so far (not much since I just became an uncle recently, so most of my time was spent with family and the new princess)

I decided to work more on the wing areas first and leave the cockpit alone for now -It was just taking too much time and I wanted to get the wings done first. So I sanded down the reinforced strips on the wing edges so the wing tip would fit better, glued them together and added some minor detailing parts (its not accurate since the real thing looks more like an electrical mess of wires and actuators - no way I can emulate those at that scale, so I'll just settle to making that area look "busy")

Test fitted some styrene sheet pieces to see if the size I am using (0.04) is ok. Look alright and at least they're much slimmer than the ori parts I cut out. I'll need to layer them later to see if I can show the flaps as though they're sliding out. I've also separated the wing fairings as they need to hold the flaps at a 40 degree angle later.

The image is a little fuzzy but you can see the minor detail work I did on the spoiler panels. There's still lots of work to be done for these areas - later.

OT a little but these came in yesterday. I was waiting for my Airfix Airbus A300b4 (wanted to use the old 9M-MAS livery on her so I don't waste that decal) but if that kit takes too long to arrive, I may decided on working on the MAS 737-200 next instead.

Thanks for looking.

[jimbuna]

Looks nice.

[Kev1n]

Kev1n, I'm really impressed at how you guys are able to use back an old build up kit, strip and restore her and still make her look good. This forum truly has lots of helpful information.

it's not that hard - and it is a question of having to re-do old kits....some of early models are pretty crap actually so all I'm doing is using what I've learned from more experienced modellers

what IS impressive is what your doing with the DC10 wings...making it look 'busy' is enough

[ryoga]

Thanks Kev1n for the encouragement. Not much to update today. Spent the whole evening testing out various methods to hold up the spoilers firmly. So far this method seem to work the best.

I still haven't decided yet but if I choose this, it means I'm going to have to rework the entire internal structures in there just to get them aligned .. yikes ... that's going to take some doing

[Kev1n]

it'll be worth it tho...think how satisfied you will be

[ryoga]

Hi guys,

Progress has been somewhat slow because I recently became an uncle, and an official Godfather to my niece (in my culture, a "Godfather" is an official father figure to the child and shares parenting responsibilities). She's the first grand child in my family circle, hence she's getting lots of attention right now. And .... I also got stumped trying to figure out a way to represent the wing flaps angled at 40 degrees.

So ... after 2 days of tinkering about and almost breaking some parts and my patience, I finally got the flaps to sit right - 40 degree angle. But that meant I had to butcher away my original design for the internal greebles I had on the wing flap area.

I'm still a little not satisfied, maybe its probably due to the scale of the kit but 40 degrees doesn't really make the flap sloop low like in the reference photographs. Maybe when the kit is fully assembled .. hmmm.

I used a series of small sized tubes and L strips to recreate the stuff inside the flap area, and managed to get hold of 0.03 styrene sheet to scratchbuild the flaps itself. Its the thinnest I could find (metal photoetch sheets would be ideal but I don't have this material on hand to work on)

The underside of the flaps was a headache. I worked on one side first, glueing the upper flap track fairing on the wings first, then angling the second piece against a divider (not sure if that's what its called - you know that piece with two needle points in your geometry set) to get that 40 degree angle.

To see how the wings look like with the air spoilers in place, I gently placed the spoilers on top (not glued yet as these will be held on with small styrene tubes later). I plan to have two of these deployed while the last two toward the wing tip will be halfway deployed later.

Can't believe it took 2 days just to try to figure out a way to place all those there - longest I've spent just testing things out. And that's just for the left wing. Right wing should be faster since I know what to do now.

Will update more when I can get more done on her. Thanks for looking

[Alf 64]

stunning stuff ryoga, can't wait to see the finished model.