1/144 Hawaiian Air DC-9-81

DC-9 kits in 1/144th scale are a bit hard to find today, but this Minicraft release in an older Hawaiian Air livery qualifies as one, since it was listed under the DC-9 Super 80 series name instead of the newer MD-81 marketing name for the same aircraft type.



Kit quality was quite good and it was relatively easy to build. Cockpit clear part needed some fitting and puttying in the fuselage assembly.




Engine detail is above average, the intake ring part design eliminates hard-to-fill seams. Optional tailcones are included, for this model I used the correct older pointy type instead of the more
aerodynamic "beaver tail" part.



All white and gray areas were airbrushed with Revell enamels (04 and 371), while silver details were masked and brushed. Decaling seemed to be a bit frightening task at the first glance, the violet-red decoration pattern, windows, doors and fuselage text were all printed as a single decal on each side, but with patience and care everything went together really well.

The whole model was finally sealed with a thin coat of Johnson floor wax, as these planes were really shiny and gloss in reality too.





I've had problems sometimes with Minicraft's door engravings vs. the decals, but in this case everything was spot-on.





I'm quite pleased with this model and how it turned out, it fits my impressions of the actual DC-9s nicely.

1/144 Aero Oy Douglas DC-2 OH-LDA "Voima"

My collection of Douglas Commercials (DC) in ascending numeral order begins with this DC-2. There was also a DC-1 prototype, but the first true actual airliner was the DC-2 series. The kit is a Czech resin kit in 1/144th scale (Czech Master Resin #1007), my first attempt of a resin kit and also the only one so far.

The original plane was manufactured in United States and assembled in Netherlands by Fokker for Czech Air Lines. During the WWII it was transferred to Lufthansa and lastly bought by the Finnish national carrier Aero Oy (later known as Finnair). 'Voima' means 'power' or 'strength' in English.


The quality of this limited run kit was quite good with fine recessed panel lines and good shapes for a DC-2. The fuselage was moulded in 2 halves while the wings were made as a single part. Landing gear was cast in extra-strength resin.


I used cyanoacrylate for this kit, as the fittings seemed to be okay. Priming the surface for aluminum paint was a bit tricky because the resin was quite hard to handle and I'm not completely satisfied with the results. I painted the model with a flat wide paintbrush using Miranol enamel paint, the model is so small that it wasn't too difficult to get a nice paint coat by brush.

There were many options provided with the European operators decal sheet, besides the Czech, German and Finnish versions it was possible to build a KLM or Swiss Air Lines DC-2. The final decision was between Lufthansa and Aero, but in the end I liked the blue cross tail of our national flag best. If this kit wasn't so expensive, I'd be trying out for a Lufthansa plane right away. Decals were a bit fragile, but they finished the DC-2 look perfectly.

Eastern DC-8-63 N8755

Minicraft released a few DC-8s recently in 1/144th scale, this is the -63 series in Eastern Airlines livery. I was building the Douglas Commercials from DC-2 through DC-10 and this stretched 8-63 was among the last models of the project.



The quality of the kit was quite good, with just a few fitting problems in the nose area. The clear cockpit part was slightly shrinked in every dimension and didn't sit well in the fuselage.




Wing and tail joints were very good with well designed interlocking tabs. One can easily convert a -62 series with this kit as there are
all markings for cutting readily available inside the fuselage halves.




Surface detail is nice with recessed panel lines, almost on par with the best Revell efforts. This model was painted with enamels using an airbrush, there were some problems with white areas in the fuselage so I had to patch up the paint job quite a few times.



The decal sheet was another highlight of the kit, accurately and crisply printed. The decal film was a tad thick or vinyl-like, but then again the decals were easy to apply with no fear of breaking or excessive stretching of the cheatlines.



I left out some of the smaller stencils (hatches etc.) because I thought they didn't make the right impression in 1/144th scale when comparing to the photos of actual planes. A nice building project for a larger airliner and not as difficult as I expected.

Lufthansa Airbus A300B4 "D-AIBC"

Airfix old kit #6179 in 1/144th scale from the 80's represents the Lufthansa livery from 1968 to 1988.

This is a typical Airfix airliner, somewhat simplified in details but looking actually quite good when finished - capturing the essence of the original plane nicely.

Decals were quite fragile, I brushed a thin layer of floor wax on them before applying. The cheatline was ruined beyond salvation, however, so I used a short stripe as a masking reference only.



This model was airbrushed with Revell enamels exclusively, gloss white with satin blue and gray. Final gloss coat is Johnson wax on fuselage and engine nacelles only.




Cockpit windows, tail flag and pylon details are Revell Airbus kit leftovers, all other decals are from the kit sheet.





This model looks better than I expected, A300B may not be the most original design or particulary stylish but the workmanlike livery suits it just fine.

Lufthansa 1049G Super Constellation "D-ALEM"

Here's another "real" 50's Lufthansa livery, this time in /144 scale. This kit is a Revell #04252 Lockheed 1049G Super Connie built straight out-of-the-box. My first Constellation kit was the Heller 1/72 with decals for TWA and I was quite enthused about building one in 1/144 scale too.


The kit looks Connie all right and the decals are quite fine. I'd like to try this kit again with the landing gear down, it might look even better that way. Like, it's a good model now but not necessarily great in this guise.



I think the longer radar nose suits Super Constellation better, unfortunately all Lufthansa planes had the short nose which looks a bit stubby in comparison. Likewise wingtip tanks were fitted on all Lufthansa Constellations.



The curved fuselage was a result of propeller clearing and tricycle landing gear.




Story goes that Howard Hughes insisted on that the Constellation should fit exsisting hangars, so a triple tail was designed.





All painting was done with an airbrush and enamel paints. The final glosscoat over the decals was brushed with Johnson acrylic floor wax.

Lufthansa Airbus A321 "D-AIRX"

Airbus A321 in retro livery celebrating the 50th anniversary of Lufthansa. This model is a Revell kit in 1/144 scale, approved by Lufthansa.

The kit itself is nothing exceptional, builds nicely though but the decal sheet is the main attraction here.

I left the cabin windows open and used the cheatline decals. All door outlines and small details were printed really nice and decals were easy to apply and handle.




This 1/144 model was painted with an airbrush using Revell and Humbrol enamels and acrylics glosscoats. Final topcoats are a tad heavy, but it makes dusting the model easier.




There is, as always, room for improvement in this model too, but I think it gives a nice illusion of the original plane.





This retro airliner resembles a real 50's Lufthansa Boeing 707 despite the missing 2 engines, I'm looking forward building the 707 in Lufthansa livery some day.




Here's a study for a more realistic background. I took the photo outdoors using stained metal table and real sunshine.

Deutsche Luft-Hansa Heinkel He-70 Blitz "D-UMIM, Albatros"

This small plane was used for Lufthansa express and mail routes within Germany in the 1930's. I built this 1/72 scale model from a Matchbox kit some 10 years ago, using "Ernst Heinkel - Pionier der Schnellflugzeuge" book as a reference. I got a 1950's edition as an interlibrary loan from Germany.


At that time I was quite pleased with my building results, today I would do some things a bit differently. It is a nice kit anyway (Revell has reboxed it recently) and despite the errors I made it is an example of my building history and valuable for me in this aspect too.


All streamlined features like retractable landing gear, flowing body lines and elliptical wings are well represented in this kit.





With a length of 12 meters and wingspan of 14.80 meters it was a compact plane for 4 passengers and crew of 2.






This model was hand painted with Revell enamels and decaled with kit decal sheet. Final matt varnish is Revell also. Decals matched original photos quite well.




Landing gear assembly looks more complicated to build than it actually was.