Real World diversion, a DC9!

[PR19_Kit]

I'm quite a keen airliner modeller, as some of you'll know from some of my Whiffed airliners, but I like the RW civil scene too. My fave airliner is the DC9 in all it's various lengths, the MD90 being almost TWICE as long as the original 1965 DC9 prototype. I've done around half a dozen DC9s, MD80s and whatever and always wanted to build the prototype in its well OTT red/white blue colour scheme but no-one has ever done a decal sheet for it. But with current technology that's all changed......

Revell moulded the prototype years ago in the ever popular 1/60 scale (approx.) and the original version was done as the prototype, N9DC. I have a couple of these, along with the umpteen other decal sheets you could get for it by collecting special tokens. So I scanned the decal sheet and scaled it down to fit my standard 1/144 airliner scale, and Airfix do a rather neat DC9-30 which has been the basis of most of my DC9 collection so far.

Now the -30 is quite a bit longer than the prototype, which has the same fuselage length as the original dumpy -10s. Airfix's genius in moulding the -30 means you can make a -50 and a -10 from two -30s (or an SAS -20 and a -40 as well, and they're on my list....) so I sawed down a -30 and shortened the wings to suit. Yes, that's right, I SHORTENED the wings.   All the -10s also had teeny wing fences at about 2/3 half span but luckily Douglas rolled out the prototype without the fences as I've run out of the little etched brass -10 fences. The build itself was relatively straightforward, I've done it maybe 6-7 times before already, and so was the painting as the aircraft's base colour was white all over. The hard work came with the decals as I thought I'd do all the red and blue parts with the scaled down decals. Airfix and Revell don't have quite the same ideas about the shape of the DC9 and the colour areas needed lots of re-shaping on my laptop computer before I was ready to print out the A4 decal sheet. Putting the decals on took AGES, especially the mass of red striping that occurs all over the model but eventually I finished that job on Monday. Then all I had to do was add the landing gear and the aerials......

Amazingly that took all the rest of the week! The wheels are so tiny that they're a bitch to paint and the gear legs are a very loose fit in the wing holes so they took three attempts before it was strong enough to stand on it's own three feet. So with the blade aerials, there are only two but I had to make NINE before I got a couple of them to stay in my tweezers and not to get fired into orbit. To cap it all the port wing joint leaked glue out all over my pukka paint job, and that need some touch-up, sad to say.  

Anyway, here it is, the singular prototype DC9 in 1/144 scale. The real thing is at the bottom so you can see that it really WAS that garish.









Having posted the piccies I've just realised I haven't painted the radome black! It'll have to wait till after Bristol now.

[Weaver]

Looks good, problems notwithstanding!  

And you shortened some wings eh? There's hope for you yet: I can spare you an F-104 if you want to progress with this.....

[Librarian]

Such a beautiful plane, and a beautifully rendered model. I really miss these airliners...all the sixties and early seventies designs. I flew in a lot of various DC-9s and always remember they went off the runway like rockets, and at a very steep angle. My Dad had an experience in Jeddah were they started taxying out only to realise the rear stairs were still down . Great model

[Captain Canada]

Garish ? you mean 'gorgeous' !?


Beauty job. Looks like the real thing, only smaller....awesome job on the intricate paintjob. No worries about the black radome, as you've also missed the grey retractable MAD boom on the tail....

[nighthunter]

Hey Kit, the only reason that there is no DC-9 in ONA colors is because no one has drawn one for me to color yet. Anywho, would love to see you do a DC-9 in ONA colors. Just a thought!

[NARSES2]

That's a really nice looking model Kit 

[kitnut617]

Very nicely done Kit,  the AA DC-9's are one of my favorites for traveling down to the southern States (Calgary-Dallas/Fort Worth taxi), lots of leg room in those ---

[PR19_Kit]

Cap'n, that MAD boom, or whatever it is, was only added some months after the roll-out, or so I'm told anyway. Pictures of the actual roll-out, with the #2 aircraft in the hangar right behind #1, doesn't show it. I think it was a housing for an anti-spin parachute fitted for spin tests but haven't been able to confirm that. Later on ship #1 had two long instrument booms on each wing tip too, but I figured to do it 'as new'.

Nighthunter, a DC9 in ONA sounds pretty good to me too, and I have some ONA decals for a DC8 so modifying them for a Nine shouldn't be too much of a problem. What length of Nine would you like, a -15, a -20, a -30, a -40, or a -50? 

[nighthunter]

Nighthunter, a DC9 in ONA sounds pretty good to me too, and I have some ONA decals for a DC8 so modifying them for a Nine shouldn't be too much of a problem. What length of Nine would you like, a -15, a -20, a -30, a -40, or a -50? 

We are talking Olympic Northern Airlines, aka ONA, right? Lol! How about one of each, lol, or pick your favorite.

[PR19_Kit]

Nighthunter, a DC9 in ONA sounds pretty good to me too, and I have some ONA decals for a DC8 so modifying them for a Nine shouldn't be too much of a problem. What length of Nine would you like, a -15, a -20, a -30, a -40, or a -50? 

We are talking Olympic Northern Airlines, aka ONA, right? Lol! How about one of each, lol, or pick your favorite.

Actually I was talking about Overseas National Airways, the ones that bought us the two amazing 'Confederate and Federal' DC8-31s, both of which I have decals for.





But modifying the profile you did for the '50th Anniversary' 737-600 for your Olympic Northern wouldn't be too difficult. What font do you use for the main fuselage titles?

[nighthunter]

Kit, the actual 1960's & 70's markings might be a bit easier, I used Bold Times New Roman for the Lettering. And if you wanted to, you could make it a "Boeing-MDD" 717 Retro using the TNR font. As far as I know, there is no kit of the Boeing-MDD 717, but the original design is a short Douglas DC-9 (they called it the MD-95)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_717

[PR19_Kit]

I haven't got a 717 in The Loft, and as you say I don't think it's been kitted in styrene, but Authentic Airliners have one on their 'to do' list, not that I'd be able to afford if they DID do it though.

A cross between an MD87 and a DC9-30 with some Braz BMW/RR engines would do the job I expect.

[nighthunter]

I haven't got a 717 in The Loft, and as you say I don't think it's been kitted in styrene, but Authentic Airliners have one on their 'to do' list, not that I'd be able to afford if they DID do it though.

A cross between an MD87 and a DC9-30 with some Braz BMW/RR engines would do the job I expect.

Of course! A wonderful Whiff, if I ever heard one!

[Green Dragon]

Beaut DC-9 Kit! Only saw a couple ONA DC-8's at Gatwick way back in the late 70's. Someone does a decal sheet for the ONA DC-9 on ebay from California saw it just last week and thought that would be a good un!  http://www.ebay.com/itm/ONA-DC-9-32-airliner-decals-for-Airfix-1-144-kit-/121125326280

Paul Harrison

[PR19_Kit]

Oooh, I like that ONA decal Paul, thanks for the heads-up. Mind you I'll need some more Airfix DC9 before I could use it.