Let's fly

On and off over the last few weeks I've been having a conversation with Martin about vintage kits posted to eBay with outrageous price tags. I mentioned that I have only one that might be in that category: Frog's DC-7C from 1957.

A few years ago I found this model on the local hobby shop's resale table. At 1/96 scale it was close to HO, and it was a commercial airliner, so I thought it might be interesting somewhere in the little world I was building. Price: $8.95 CDN. I bought it and headed home.

A few days later I decided to look it up on the internet and came across this listing. Yeap, you read it right, the asking price is $750 US, or a cool $1,006 CDN at today's rates. Wow, a gold mine! Ok, ok, well, searching a little more around the internet I see prices ranging from $7.95 US to $119 US with an average around $32 US. That $750 listing has been around at least from when I checked all those years ago, so it's likely something of a fishing trip. 

I decided to inventory the kit again, and it's complete except for the display stand for the inflight configuration. I thought the cockpit window was missing, but found it on this go round, so I'm glad I looked again. One problem you can see is that there's a broken prop, but since the blade hasn't been lost repair should be easy.

The instruction sheet is present, but the model is so simple one could get by without it.

The decal sheets are present too, but they're in terrible shape - they're useless.

I looked around the internet for replacement decals, but all I could find were these out-of-production ones in scales other than 1/96. You can see the BOAC scheme in the sets, but I particularly like the Pan Am ones I've shown above (image snipped from the link). The Pan Am scheme seems most appropriate for this airplane given what Bill Gunston has to say about the DC-7C in his book, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Propeller Airliners,

Because the DC-7B could not fly non-stop westbound against average winds, however, the DC-7C was developed to a Pan Am requirement for an aircraft capable of flying services in either transatlantic direction. Aptly named Seven Seas, the DC-7C was the world's first true long-range commercial transport. 

Seven Seas. What a great name.

I've never tried to make sophisticated decals like these, but I'm curious. I'd kind of like to build this kit. I just need to resolve what to do about decals. While I ponder decals at this crazy hour I'll leave you with Frank.....