I must confess to feeling some nostalgia for the 'old country' as I've gotten older and have found that modelling is one of the avenues available to me that allows me this indulgence. To this end, I decided to recently crack open the 1/144 Minicraft kit of the Douglas DC-6B. As far as I know, Minicraft have released a couple of boxings of this kit. This one is the Pan American Airways (Pan Am)/Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) boxing, apparently tooled in around 1997.
The plan is to build this in the colours of Adria Airways/Adria Aviopromet.
Adria cut its teeth operating in Yugoslavia and Western Europe, operating lots of tourist and charter flights. Adria Airways has continued to operate in one guise or another continuously since 1961. Adria is the Slovenian national airline.
More information follows here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adria_Airways
A few years ago I became aware of the 'Lift Here' line of decals and kits which are produced in Serbia. It is Lift Here which is the source of the decals for the Adria DC-6B. Also included on the same sheet is a old Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (JAT) C-47 scheme which looks appealing.
DC-6B YU-AFF is well known as it is the aircraft on display outside Brnik Airport near Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It sits out in the open, in rail, hail, snow or shine and in some photos I've seen, shows it much the worse for wear. Aircraft do much better when they fly compared to when they are left to deteriorate on the ground. A heavily weathered version of the same aircraft as it can been seen today would make an interesting diorama I've thought to myself.
http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=1105808
What did I find inside the box ? Well, it was actually a bit of a disappointment. For a reasonably 'modern' tooled airliner kit (1997), what the modeller is offered is little better than 'toy-like'. At least that was my assessment of the quality of the major components of the kit. Wide and shallow ill-defined recesses to outline the various control surfaces, access panels and flaps, etc. on the wings and empennage surfaces. Yuk ! Not sure what I will do with these yet, but filling them with cyanoacrylate mixed with talcum powder to allow a re-scribe might be one sensible option.
I've started by removing the large ejector pin marks in the upper surface of each inboard engine nacelle. I tidied up the openings for the main undercarriage bays in the lower inboard engine nacelles with a small file and a blade. I assembled the cockpit, but haven't bothered to detail it at all as I chose to paint the inside of the clear cockpit glazing piece black to simulate the 'dark' interior. Nothing to speak of for the nose wheel well, except an anchor point for the nose landing gear beneath the cockpit floor.
Speaking of undercarriage, the nose and main wheels do look acceptable for the scale, as do the NLG and MLG legs. Photos to follow when I get them sorted out.
