Replicas by JC 1:72 MDD MD-80

I found this kit on EBay for a very nice price, so I thought I'd give it a go.
I always liked the shiny American Airlines MD-80's very attractive, and since 'the maddog' is almost everywhere out of service I couldn't miss this kit in my 1:72 airliner range. 

Only the 'Allegiant' version was available, but I received an 'Austral' version..

Doesn't matter, as I want to make the AA version. 

I opened the box; at first glance nice and safe wrapped in foamy plastic 

But the kit smelled very strange.. Yes, smelled. A really chemical odour came from the box, like cheap detergent mixed with a strong resin smell or something.
 

Fuselage halves seem nice, but upon inspection it's a very strange brittle kind of resin. Not the normal resin I'm used to work with. 

A greasy feeling shiny kind of resin... 

...not very detailed... 

...and with little pieces broken off. Very brittle hard resin. strange. 

A simple manual, drawed by someone and copied.
Some parts are difficult to find in this manual. 

An extra copy with some photo's with explanation how to fix the very deformed and thin vacformed transparent cockpit window part..  

...only 1 piece available, very hard to handle. And very thin! This will be a challenge. 

A blob of resin, the flightdeck, with 2 other deformed little blobs of resin. Pilots. 

Masks for the cockpit windows; nice, but it's a guess where to place them exactly on the transparent part.  

The Austral decal sheet.
Very detailed, so I can use the MD-80 data decals for the AA version. 

 

And maybe the windows decals. 

I ordered the 1:72 MD-80 American Airlines decalset from DrawDecal.  

Looks like a little puzzle for later, I don't know exactly how many windows the AA MD-80's have. But I have spare 1:72 window decals from other airliners I've built, so no problem. 

The wings.
Again that greasy brittle resin stuff, and almost no detail engraved.
A lot of flash, so a lot of sanding needed. 

 

The stabilos and the tail.
 

Engines. 

 

 

Al these little parts were scattered loose through the box... So after research I found out not every part is present.  

Like the flap-hinges. I count 5 pieces... 

And some pieces.
I think VHF antennae and... some pieces. 

A side note:

A few years ago I built this Aircraft In Miniature 1:72 US Navy MD-80.
AIM produced vacform kits, no details engraved but well formed 1:72 airliners.
I sold this model because I thought it was not good enough... 

...and I now regret that a little... 

Overall it looked good, but the length was not correct.
 

For the first time I made only a few photo's from this build, as I encountered a lot of frustation.

-Nothing fits even a little bit
-working with this smelly strange resin made me sick literally
-parts kept breaking during sanding
-bonding parts needed al lot of superglue, as the greasy feeling resin seems too reject superglue..??
-and just a lot of frustation.
 

Trying to glue the tailparts for the third time, as parts keep breaking loose  

 

Engine parts.  

 

No comment.

 

Try to solve this with filler and sanding.  

The nose nightmare.

The DC-9 and MD-80 have a very distinctive shaped nose, but thanks to the rough shaped alien resin and the thin transparent ...'piece'.. it was a nightmare to get even close to a DC-9 look-a-like nose.
 

Amounts of filler were used.. and hours of sanding. 

I decided not to show any transparency from cockpit windows; this model will be a desktop-model.
Smooth and no detail. 

Here the wings are fitted onto the fuselage, for the second time. Yes, they break suddenly. 

First coat of primer, as I wanted to see how the MD-80 lines and shape look.. 

Well, I've had it with this thing.
I just can't get the nose section smooth. 

And the underside? Well... 

This looks terrible. 

From a distance one thinks: Wait, is that a Maddog? Yes, but don't come close.
This project is on hold and I don't know if I will ever finish it..

My apologies for this bad review; I can handle challenges and some scratchbuilding (see my C-5A and An-225 projects) but this thing crossed the line.

To anyone who managed to finish this kit succesfully: My deepest respect!
I will wait for a better 1:72 MD-80 kit in the future...