Repairing a 1:100th scale DC-8

1
April 22, 2017
Port side shot of the model. From a distance it didn't look too bad.............but there is no port inner or starboard outer engine! DC-8's had four! And if you get closeup and check it out......
2
April 22, 2017
A close up before repairs were started. The red stripe and lettering is a large decal as is the cockpit window area and the vertical tail stuff too.
3
April 22, 2017
You can see the stain on the white area and a large crack running from the rudder down to the elevator and then forward to the rear door.
4
April 22, 2017
Another view of the damage to the finish and showing the missing engines.
5
April 22, 2017
Close up of the starboard nose.
6
April 22, 2017
Lots of damage to the stripe, the tail and a large ding in the wing near the missing engine pylon.
7
April 22, 2017
The starboard wing tip was missing too.
8
April 22, 2017
Underneath view, missing engines and discoloured silver finish in some spots.
9
April 22, 2017
Closeup of the broken pylon.
10
April 22, 2017
I was lucky to have the broken off port inner engine. The other one was gone completely.
11
April 22, 2017
So...I decided to cast a resin copy of the engine. It's easy, just build a Lego casting well, support the engine with some sprue that will be the pathway for the resin.
12
April 22, 2017
Then pour your mould silicone in to the halfway point. After that cures, pour the top half.
13
April 22, 2017
Once the mould is cured, remove the original part, and cast as many replicas as you want!
14
April 22, 2017
Clean up the flash and sprue, and glue the engine in place on the model. I reinforced the pylon with short bits of piano wire where it attached to the wing.
15
April 22, 2017
A view of the original and the copy.
16
April 22, 2017
I fashioned a piece of resin casting block from some scrap and glued it on the wingtip. Little bit of Tamiya putty and some sanding. Voila!
17
April 22, 2017
I found a display stand online for a 1:100 scale Boeing 727. Made up a nameplate with photo paper and attached it over the incorrect name!
18
April 22, 2017
I carefully matched the red colour by blending Testor's enamels, and blended some off white for the upper sections. I spot airbrushed the white and carefully blended it in.
19
April 22, 2017
The silver is Tamiya Titanium, I resprayed the whole silver area.
20
April 22, 2017
I repainted the cockpit windows by hand. Then the whole model got a few coats of Future Floor Finish by airbrush, and she looks almost as good as new!

Comments

22 April 2017, 15:07

22 April 2017, 19:51

Bill Spargo
Fantastic rebuilding Norman, well done. I am very familiar to the effort needed to rebuild this model. I started a 100 scale kit from NITTO many years ago to convert the DC-8-62 kit into a DC-8-63 to be CP Air (one of my favourite colour schemes). I had left over parts due to the conversion and would have happily sent the parts needed to you. Let me know in the future if you are doing anything similar and I will see if I have parts available for you.

23 April 2017, 02:37

Norm Sheppard
Thanks very much Bill.

23 April 2017, 07:11

Norm Sheppard
This model is not plastic, it is solid cast out of something, quite heavy and when it breaks it has the grainy look of fine cast iron, but it is a late 1950's era resin of some sort. Air Canada must have ordered a pile of them. Most models like this were carved from mahogany back then, but they were very expensive.

23 April 2017, 17:46

Album info

I had to replace a missing engine on this solid desk model and repair the badly damaged paint job for the Airline Captain who flew CF-TJA throughout his career with Air Canada. It was a real mess.

Restoring a 50 year old Air Canada desk model

20 images

1:100

Completed

Scratchbuilt

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