Mcdonall Douglas KC-11 et all

Gondor · May 16, 2012, 11:29:22 AM

Inspired by this......... by ysi_maniac

I thought that the engine in the tail was a little excessive so decided to reduce the number of engines to four. So, a four engined DC-10 may get a few heads scratching but add a refuelling boom and a coat of grey and suddenly you have an aircraft that looks a bit like a KC-135R...

I have the main component, one fairly rare Revell DC-10, I just say yesterday one of Revell's KC-10 kits on eBay with a starting price of £50

Thank you but NO WAY!

I am going to scratch build the refuelling boom and its drivers position, the fin will have the engine removed from it and then extended at the bottom with the rudder being enlarged as well. Four engines from the Airfix DC-10 will then be slung under the wings before a coat of Grey is applied to the whole thing with Draw Decals for a KC-10 applied to finish the whole thing off.

With a bit of luck there will be several very confused punters when it's put on display

Gondor

kerick · May 17, 2012, 05:20:14 AM

I like it ! Do you have a loose AWACS dome handy? That would really drive 'em nuts.

Go4fun · May 17, 2012, 07:11:36 AM

I played with the drawing a little to get an idea of what you were talking about. Seeing as I have a refueling group flying over my house regularly I just 'wing'ed it.

What do you think Gondor? And why are the winglets on the main wings not shown?

Gondor · May 17, 2012, 10:44:55 AM

Quote from: kerick on May 17, 2012, 05:20:14 AM
I like it ! Do you have a loose AWACS dome handy? That would really drive 'em nuts.

I like the idea kerick. If you want to build it go ahead, if I build it there may be a year or two passing before it gets done.

Thanks for the drawing Go4fun. I should have said that the drawing belonged to ysi_maniac and that his drawing didn't have winglets on it. It looks as if you have the refuelling boom and the refuellers station swapped around and the pod? on top of the fin is too bulbous if it is supposed to look like the top of the KC-135 fin.

Work will start once I tidy up the work bench for my new A3 sized cutting mat which is replacing my old A4 cutting mat.

Gondor

Go4fun · May 17, 2012, 11:45:19 AM

Gondor I just had to add some extra sensors to see who was sneeking in at 6 O'clock or overhead, thus the top of the tail. And the switch on the boom/opperator was something I thought might be more ergonomic than the 'boomer' laying on his belly with all the JP-? flowing overhead.
The spelling is obviously to throw the company bloodsucke.... ehhh... patent lawyers off the scent.

PR19_Kit · May 17, 2012, 01:36:26 PM

AFAIK in the KC-10 the 'boomer' operates the boom from a sitting position, not lying flat like the KC-135's operator does. I guess a KC-11 operator would do likewise.

Gondor · May 17, 2012, 01:47:54 PM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on May 17, 2012, 01:36:26 PM
AFAIK in the KC-10 the 'boomer' operates the boom from a sitting position, not lying flat like the KC-135's operator does. I guess a KC-11 operator would do likewise.

I agree PR19_Kit that in the KC-10 the operator is sitting which he can do due to the depth of the fuselage. In fact the operator has a set of stairs to go down to get to his position

I "intend" to make a similar position for the KC-11.

Adding to the AWACS idea by kerick, I suppose a JSTARS version is also possible. I think I see a lot of DC-10 purchases in my future due to all these good ideas

Maybe I need someone to drop a pair of Airfix DC-10 under wing engines into some resin for me!

Gondor

Gondor · May 17, 2012, 02:15:48 PM

Taken the step of opening the plastic bag fully and removing all the parts, even separated the larger items from the sprue.

I have decided to stretch the fuselage to balance the fact the aircraft will have four engines rather than two under the wings. Looking at the fuselage behind the wings it looks as if the top of the fuselage slopes downwards slightly. This means I will have to make a staggered cut at the rear to lengthen the fuselage there and I am not exactly looking forward to doing that especially with all the windows in the fuselage. Talking of windows. I intend to fill in almost all of the fuselage windows while leaving a few of the most forward windows open, or at least using decals to show a few windows in the forward part of the aircraft as a crew area. Maybe half or a third of the windows or even fewer, not decided yet and plenty of time to do so.

Gondor

Go4fun · May 17, 2012, 03:07:14 PM

Just for anyone with warm feeling towards UFO/Aircraft encounters * cough kerick, cough *

An AWACS version.

kerick · May 17, 2012, 07:29:31 PM

Looks good to me!!

Go4fun · May 17, 2012, 10:53:20 PM

It's shortend for extended range/loiter time. I figure the lowwer deck would carry electronics and upper deck CIC.Do you really want to see my thoughts on a sub hunter varient?

McColm · May 18, 2012, 12:29:13 AM

Unless you stretch the fuselage adding a weapons bay wont work. I know I've tried that on a Revell 1/72 C-135RF. I've almost finished a shortened BAe Nimrod AWACS with E-3A spin top, that means I can go for a super-stretch Nimrod tanker; boom and hose & drogue pods (four, two on each wing and two on the main fuselage.)

Gondor · May 18, 2012, 02:54:40 PM

So far......

The Kit

The Contents

The Decals...... on their way to PR19_Kit as I will not be using them

And Finally... for now at least

The black lines are where the fuselage is going to be stretched. The front by an inch and the rear by 3/4 of an inch or something like that. The stepping of the parts is to help reduce any rotation of fuselage parts and to help keep everything in place.

Hopefully I will start cutting over the weekend.

Gondor

Army of One · May 18, 2012, 08:58:30 PM

Looking good.......didn't realise those kits were that exy.....

Gondor · May 18, 2012, 10:38:21 PM

Quote from: Army of One on May 18, 2012, 08:58:30 PM
Looking good.......didn't realise those kits were that exy.....

exy ?

Gondor