Area 88 1/144: The Upside Down Bomb (DC-10-30 + Kfir)

[PR19_Kit]

Yes indeed! It's pedigree is not lost on me, so I'm hoping to make you proud.

You already did, I'm glad to be associated with such a project, albeit at a thumping great distance! 

[TheChronicOne]

Magnificent!!! The Douglas Commercial lives!

[strobez]

Ok... so it's about time I gave this thread an update. The DC-10 was rolling right along...

After finally getting the wiring in place I was able to close her up again. The last few panel lines were rescribed, and the major sanding done, so it was time to attach the windscreen and the engines/underwing fins.



Which, of course, meant more putty... more sanding...



Then I decided to get clever and add some colour to the wing tip lighting.... which was its own just reward. I had some clear red plastic sprue, but for the green I broke the clip off a highlighter pen.



Just needed an itty little bit...



And then... disaster! I had to use CA glue of affix the green plastic, but in the process ended up yanking out one of the tiny LED leads.



Luckily I was able to chop out a symmetrical (and hopefully easy-to-fix) chunk of the wing tip to retriever the broken wires.  Now waiting for proper red/green lights to arrive via eBay... stay tuned.

[strobez]

So, instead of just sitting on my hands while I awaited the eBay package, I got to work on the other half of this build project - the upside down Kfirs!

Had this box just waiting to get called up for a while now...



The sprues look quite clean and well detailed.



Let?s start at the bottom. Main pieces cut, wheel doors in place and the engine LED is wired.



A bit of ?aircraft grey? for the cockpit and ?dark iron? for the tail.



Luckily the electronics still fit. Feels strange drilling into the top of a plane...



Major pieces assembled, and lights work... winning!



Got the small (C2) canards on, but the holes were much too big for the slots, so a shim was required. Then I pulled them off and used the C7 as they looks more like what's depicted in the manga.



Welcome Shin and Mickey...



The cockpit is a bit snug, but luckily I have an extreme weight loss program... who needs legs?



The canopies both cracked during application, so I'll try to sand them smooth again.  I'm glad this is an upside down build...



After a bit of putty and sanding, the underside is painted "Israeli eggshell blue" - it's a home-brew mix, so hopefully close enough.



Masking almost everything...



And the first layer of camouflage is on.  FS34227... or something close enough.



Second layer of camouflage is on... starting to look like a proper Kfir now, innit?



Taping up some masks for the recognition triangles.



And... we have black and yellow recognition triangles. Man that?s yellow!



They look fairly different with a panel wash.



Since the bottom is up this time, I took more care to get the panel wash done well... I think it works.



Dry fit the chase to get the placement right... and to take a moment to remember what we're here for...

[TheChronicOne]

Damn!! Tense... the whole way. So close.. then..........  SNAFU.   

[strobez]

Yes indeed... I said a few bad words... but after sleeping on it, I figured it was probably for the best.  In the final stretch I'll be glad I re-did it I think.

[PR19_Kit]

That big 'ole Ten is looking pretty good there Greg, and the Kfirs are AMAZING! 

[NARSES2]

and the Kfirs are AMAZING! 

Very much so 

[strobez]

Ok... so my replacement SMD LEDs finally arrived from Hong Kong via eBay. So we're bringing this baby back on line before those Kfirs start to get cold.

I decided to order one size smaller than I did the first time... man... they are SMALL!



But they WORK! I was even smart enough to order the actual colours of lights (RED/GREEN/WHITE) that I require, instead of trying to jury-rig up some solution.



After a bit of tense soldering of some awkwardly placed wires to some very very tiny wires... We're back in action!



Of course, now I wasn't happy with the oversized blinking red fuselage lights... so after a bit of drilling, cutting, fishing, more fishing, swearing, soldering, glueing, puttying and sanding... and the fuselage lights are on par with the wing tips.



Some clear plastic fro a sprue will work as a cover for the LEDs.  Needs a bit of filing to shape, but I've seen this done before, so what could go wrong~?

[strobez]

Oh, I also wanted to ask some questions/opinions... so I thought I'd post up the story pages to help you all make an informed suggestion.

First question is - does everyone agree with me that the Lufthansa flight that's at the gate in the airport is likely a B-707?  The manga is circa 1980, so it's the only logical choice with four engines that I can find.  Given that the 1/144 Airfix B-707-436 has already found it's way into my stash... can we just say it's that and call it a day?  If so (or even if not and I decide to ignore common sense and charge ahead anyway), does anyone know the location of the lights on this baby?  My plan is to include red/green wing tip lights, and wing base white headlights and a white logo light on the tail.  I'm assuming that there are red warning lights on the top and bottom of the fuselage, but I'm not sure exactly where they go.  Also, does the B-707 have white, rear-facing wing tip lights like the DC-10?  Is that standard on all airliners? even those from back in the day? I know my ignorance is showing, but I'm fine with that.











The second question is about this giant M logo.  Since the manga is obviously B&W... it's black.  But I think I can get a little more creative.  I don't THINK this is any actual airliner's logo... but does anyone have any suggestions on what colour I should make it?  I'm currently thinking blue... but does anyone want to try and talk me into another better colour?

[PR19_Kit]

You don't like doing things the way way, do you Greg? 

The Ten looks superb with the new lights. 

As for the Lufthansa 707, you do have a problem by starting with the Airfix kit as it's a -436 which has RR Conway engines, and the Lufthansa versions had Pratt & Witneys. You could get some from a Revell 707, or KC-135, but then you might as well not even start the Airfix kit.

On the other hand someone who lives not far from the River Severn in the UK may have a set of P&Ws that he might find while looking for Airbus A-300s and Lockheed Tri-Stars............ 

As for the big letter M, it's got to be red, no contest. 

[Doug K]

The "M" looks like Monarch perhaps?

[strobez]

You don't like doing things the way way, do you Greg? 

The Ten looks superb with the new lights. 

As for the Lufthansa 707, you do have a problem by starting with the Airfix kit as it's a -436 which has RR Conway engines, and the Lufthansa versions had Pratt & Witneys. You could get some from a Revell 707, or KC-135, but then you might as well not even start the Airfix kit.

On the other hand someone who lives not far from the River Severn in the UK may have a set of P&Ws that he might find while looking for Airbus A-300s and Lockheed Tri-Stars............ 

As for the big letter M, it's got to be red, no contest. 

LMAO, no, I certainly don't seem to do things the easy way, do I?  In this case, the fact that I had a) already committed to fixing the lights in the wingtips, b) accidentally put the the top fuselage light off-center by mistake, and c) done a better-than-average job (for me) on the pair of Kfirs... I figured that if I didn't fix the fuselage lights while I had the chance, it would bug me forever.  I did nearly give up after trying to to micro-surgery and fish out the light which I had, oh-so-cleverly wadded down in white glue and tinfoil.  I eventually bent it to my will, but it was a near thing indeed.  Still, I think it was the right thing to do and I'm much happier with it now for sure.

Anyway, so for the B-707, my amateur research into the subject indicated that Lufthansa had indeed bought the -436 models, so that was enough to push me over the edge for the Airfix kit that was sitting on the shelf in front of me.  The Revell kit seems to be a 1/139 scale (not that I would ever notice, I'm sure), but also hard to find and the Minicraft KC-135's seemed a bit pricey ($75 vs. $25 here in Seoul) for what is basically a plane that appears in one panel in the background-ish. Given my slightly meandering river approach to the DC-10 project,  I was hoping to have another, smaller, airliner to practice on before I get my hands on any Airbus A-300 or Tri-Star kits for what will be much more prominent projects.  Still, if a set of P&W found their way to my doorstep, I'd be sure to invite them in for a warm meal rather than turning them away in the cold...

I think the visual cue may have convinced me that red is the way to go.  It is rather noticeable.  Given that there are bombs on the underside, I have a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Shintani decided NOT to attach them to any known airliner, lest he face some kind of legal reprisal.  It's not stated, but I think it's supposed to be for Maxwell International in the manga... but it's open for interpretation.

[Scotaidh]

I searched Google Images for Maxwell International.  Long shot, I know, but I found every colour except bright red, so you're safe with that - no-one's gonna say you stole/infringed their logo.  Dark red, lime green, black, blues of every hue - but this is the closest I found to the proposed colour.

[strobez]

This one is starting to feel like it's getting the better of me...

First off, I finally added up the actual "upside down bombs"... which are right-side up, it's the planes that are upside down... well, whatever. I had to paint them carefully with a few coats of Tamiya metallic grey to keep the light from shining through the plastic.



More or less works. The wing tips are sanded smooth and the metallic grey seems to black out the lights.



First coat of primer on... a few touch-ups necessary.  Man it took a lot of primer...



Primer all done, now for some masking.



Hmmm... it's grey. I probably should've done the white coat of paint first though... I just got excited to put something other than pure white on this one.



Well, moving right along... let's paint the wings Tamiya XF-16 Aluminum.



Added some Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey to the wings/tail...



Painted the nose cone black, and added some silver to the engine intakes.  I also changed my mind on the grey underside and painted the whole thing XF-16.



This one is starting to become a bit of a slide downhill. After I changed my mind and repainted the underside from grey to aluminum, then the front, left-side panel of windows fell in and is now rattling around inside the fuselage... then I somehow managed to get a couple of black paint smudges on the white part of the fuselage after I painted the nose... which I also seemed to have managed to make a masking error.

I dunno... I guess I'll try a couple of spot touch ups with some white paint and then go over the whole thing with a coat of future before attempting the red M logo/cheat line. This one is my focus project at the moment, but it feels like the battle is starting to get the best of me.