I used Italeri's 1/72 DC-3 DAKOTA
kit to build this model! I did not have any fit problems at all. The
parts just seemed to fall together. It's almost
"out-of-the-box."
I did not add anything to the
kit's cockpit, but paint. I realized that if I wanted to take a
"look-see" into the cockpit, I had to open both of the side windows.
I thinned down the inside of the kit plastic, aft of where the windows fit
into the opening, then dry fit in the window. The clear plastic
windows seemed to fit ok in the open position, so I glued them in with Future
Floor Wax, after the cockpit was painted. I taped both fuselage halves
together, then shined my "pen light" into one window opening, while
looking into the cockpit through the other window. One can not see very
much!
The cabin's clear plastic side
windows were molded in one long strip. After I cleaned up a little
flashing around the window openings on the fuselage halves, I dry fitted in the
window strips, and super glued them in place. I sanded the inside, and
outside down to 2000 grit sandpaper. They were polished out with Blue
Magic, then I added the floor wax. Presto, no seams, nor gaps, I had good
looking clear windows. There was a cockpit bulkhead, and a floor deck, and
maybe a bulkhead in the rear, but no seats, etc. You can't see inside the
cabin area, however, I painted it flat black.
Just before I joined the fuselage
halves together, I drilled out the round windows in the front and aft access
doors on the left side of the fuselage, including the two landing light in the
nose. I inserted clear round rod, then used the above sanding, polishing,
and wax process.
The pre painted engines were
installed into the pre painted cowlings, and were set aside to be installed on
final assembly, including the two prop blades. I contacted Mike Grant up
in Canada and he sent me some "excellent" Hamilton Standard prop logo
decals. Mike produces these logos in 1/72, 1/48, and in 1/32 scale.
They are the best ever! http://www.mikegrantdecals.com/
The wings went together like a
charm. I replaced the two "leading edge" wing landing lights
with clear plastic stock. I made the two tiny "red and blue" wing tip
lights, using clear round plastic stock. I think they are about .010"
in diameter. I just dipped the ends of the lights into Tamiya's clear blue
and red colors. They were attached on final assembly. The light on
the top of the tail fin was accomplished by using the above methods.
Of course, I had to re-scribe
some panel lines before I painted the model. As you know from other
stories of mine, I had to sand the model down to 2000 grit before I started
applying the "SnJ" Aluminum and Gold colors. See my four part story on
"SnJ" at: www.skywriters.net
.
I made a few antenna post, using
round aluminum bar stock, and just tapered them down on the ends, then drilled
in my .010" diameter holes, which let me slip in my nylon panty hose
antenna wires. I used .005" thick aluminum to make the
"odd" shaped antenna post, which fit into a pre cut opening on the
leading edge of the fin. A .010" diameter hole was drilled in, then
the post was sanded and attached to the fin. I made a very small
insulator, using .006" diameter stainless steel tubing, and it was slipped
onto the nylon thread.
Once the nylon
was tied and super glued to the forward front post, I threaded the nylon
through the other front post, and into the post on the fin. It was
stretched out until it was tight, then tied, and super glued. I
carefully cut off the excess thread at both posts. I positioned the
insulator on the thread, then tacked it in place with a "micro
dot" of super glue. The real DC-3 had two antenna posts on its'
underside, so these were made using the above application. On
final assembly, I installed a clear running light at the very tip of the
tail. |
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"A BIT OF HISTORY ABOUT
POLYNESIAN AIRLINES"
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This first black and white photo
was taken of the aircraft while I was on a "photographic assignment"
in American, Samoa. The mountain in the distance is called
"Rainmaker." Little did I know in 1972, that 30 years later, I
would build a model of this aircraft.
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Then as now, Polynesian Airlines
home port of call is located in what was called Western Samoa, who gained their
independence from New Zealand in 1961. A few years ago, they changed their
island country name to just "SAMOA." Before the Europeans
took over the islands by "hook or crook" from the Polynesian people
back in 1889, all the Samoan island were one nation. Today, Samoa consists
of two large islands, (Upolu & Savaii) and a few very tiny islands.
The other islands, which are south east by about 65 miles were once called
Eastern Samoa until the United States took over on April 17, 1900. The
name was changed to none other than "American, Samoa," which is still
under our domination, 103 years later. Nothing like being a
"dictator" to those who really don't want you in their country.
The main island is called Tutuila. You have all heard of Pago Pago? That's
American Samoa ! About 60 miles east of Pago, as we call it, lies three
small islands, called "The Manu'a Islands." The Samoan
archipelago lies more than half way between Hawaii and New Zealand, about 14
degrees south of the equator. There are still places on Upolu and Savaii
that still look like "True Paradise," which has not been screwed
up by others. In the 1970's "Poly," as they were called,
flew between Western, and American Samoa, and to Fiji with the two DC-3's.
When they bought some bigger aircraft, they flew to Tonga, and to the Cook
Islands. Today, they have a jet or two, and fly to Honolulu, Auckland, and
other Pacific ports of call. I road in those DC-3's many a time over to
Samoa from Pago. The engines make a lot of noise, and the ride is a bit
bumpy, so one has to keep on his seat belt. With only a 45 minute trip, it's a
real venture over the modern jets of today. I met all the pilots, and many
a time, I got to sit in the "jump" seat" up in the cockpit with
Captain Terry Sutherland. They had two beautiful air hostess on each
flight, all dressed up in Polynesian clothing. A single guy could fall in
love with one of then in less time than it took to fly from Pago to Upolu.
( No! I did not fall in love with any of those girls, as I was already married
to one of the most beautiful Polynesians). My first trip from Pago to
Apia, Upolu Samoa was awesome. Pago had a real airport, with a 7,000'
concrete runway, so the Boeing 707's could land on. As we approached
"Feleolo" airport on Upolu, we were coming down in the jungle.
Palm trees all around us! I though we were making an emergency landing.
We touched down on a rather bumpy grass field, then taxied up to the terminal,
which was nothing more than a few small "thatched roof fale's."
What a thrill of a life time. I can shut my eyes today, and still feel
that experience! "Fale" is "house" in the Samoan
language. The color photo was taken on that grass field. If a chance
comes up for you, go for a DC-3 ride. You will never forget it !!!!!!
"HOW I MADE
THE ART WORK FOR THE DECALS"
The most important part of this
model was: I needed decals! I contacted Dave Newman, who made
my decals for my 1/72 F2G Corsair racer #74, which is on this web site.
Dave sent me some pointers of what he needed.
I
scanned in the second photo of the flag area on the tail fin with my
PhotoStyler soft ware. I set the system to scan at 800 d.p.i., and
at about 200%. I then printed this cropped photo onto regular white
paper. The flag printed out to be about 4" x 6" in
size. |
I placed tracing
tissue paper over the flag and just drew on the outline with a
pencil. I scanned in the traced outline, then my computer whiz-kid
grandson Jonathan took over. He works so fast, that I was amazed at
how he does what he did. He added the two colors to the flag, then
darkened up in the area where the flag has a fold in it. He added
the gold for the flag pole, then stopped. He went into some other
program and found Samoa's flag, which showed how many stars were on
it. We noted that the stars were different sizes. I ask Jon,
"Can we make the stars different sizes? No problem he
said! He then went to another software program, and found white
stars, then installed the stars inside the blue field. We
printed it on plain paper, just to see what it looked like. Jon went
back into the p.c. and cleaned up the flag pole and a few other minor
items. We printed out his final rendition. It looked
super. Thank goodness, "I do have a very brilliant 14 year old
grandson." |
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For the "palm tree"
logo, I just looked at my color & black and white prints. Heck, this
was easy. I drew a circles, which was about 6" in diameter. The
second circle was a bit smaller in diameter. I lightly sketched in the
palm tree with my pencil. Next, I filled in the area between the two
circle lines, including inside of the palm tree with black ink, using a regular
ball point pen, which had a fine tip on it. I scanned in the finished palm
tree, and saved it, along with the flag in one of my PolyView file folders.
When I calculated how big each logo had to be, including "POLYNESIAN
AIRLINES," and "5W-FAH", I sent the data, along with these
photo attachments to Dave.
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A few weeks later, Dave sent me a
black and white proof sheet. I cut out the flag, palm tree, call letters,
and name, then clear taped them on the model. Everything seemed to fit
A-OK. Dave's decals are super thin, and lay down on the model very neat.
Take note at the one black and white photo! You will see the
"5W" on the underside of the left wing. The "5W-FAH"
was not on the top of either wing, nor on the bottom of the right wing. I
had Dave print up the "5W-FAH" in blue and black. I was going to
put them on the model in blue, just to add some color. However, I
contacted Captain Terry Sutherland, who now drives a "jumbo jet" for
Singapore Airlines. Terry said they were in black only and verified that
the call letters were on the bottom of the left wing only. He related that
"LOSI" was the name of the DC-3, and it was painted under the cockpit
side windows. So much for accuracy!
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For the name "POLYNESIAN
AIRLINES," I cut around each letter, including the inside of the "P,
A, R, O, etc. The name was printed to close together on the decal sheet,
so after I soaked the decals in water, I removed all the excess clear decal
film. I carefully placed each letter on the model separately. In
fun, a fellow modeler poked at me, and said: "Rodney, your spacing is
wrong?" My reply: "Hey man, come on over to my house, and
I'll give you some of the extra decals, then you can do it right." He
never came over, so I still have the extra decals!
I hope you enjoyed a bit of
history about this DC-3. After Poly purchased two new twin turbo prop
aircraft, I understand that one of the two DC-3's were sent to a museum in
either New Zealand, and/or Australia, and is preserved in it's original
WW-II markings. If any of you guys "down under" know where it
is, let us know.
As a retired
"cinematographer and photojournalist," we have a saying in the media.
If your dialog mentions certain items, best you show a movie scene, and/or a
still photo of it. Well, I just have to do it, so here is a current photo
of Captain Sutherland in his Singapore Airlines uniform, and two "air
hostesses" in casual Polynesian wear! The big question is: If
you were single in the 1970's, flying on "Poly," could you have fallen
in love with one of these ladies?
Happy modeling,
Rodney
-----------------------------
" A POST
SCRIPT FOR MY DC-3 AIRLINER"
Ah!
"The Luck of the Irish.!!!" The proof is in the pudding,
as they say in America. Some may ask? "Did Rodney really
get to sit up in the jump seat?" This photo is worth a 1,000
words. |
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Captain Terry
Sutherland hails from New Zealand, and came to Samoa at a young age to fly the
fabulous DC-3. He left Samoa with his Samoan wife Maxine around 1985.
We lost contact until 1999, and had a great reunion
up in San Francisco, California. Terry was flying this "Airbus"
jumbo
jet for Singapore Air. He now drives a new Boeing 767. A dashing man
that he is, who has never shaved off his handlebar mustache, and still
speaks English, the New Zealand way like: "GIDDAY MATE."
I spoke of marring a beautiful Polynesian lady: Here we are way back
then, and now 40+ years later.
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These ladies worked
as "air hostesses" for Polynesian during the
1970's. OK! you single guys! Would it be love at first sight?
Like
me, they are 30 years older, but young ones abound all over the islands
today.
Western Samoa, (
just SAMOA today) is still very beautiful, even after
I've been gone since 1977. Here's an aerial view of Apia, which is
the
island nations capitol. It's fun in the hot sun, all year long. |
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These vacant beaches
are waiting for you! Don't forget to go fishing in a dug out canoe, or a
bit of snorkeling and scuba diving. As my "Scottish"
friend George Muir would say: "Here's looking up your kilt
mate!"
Rodney
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