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.....
Ok, I have a work-around to my problem with uploading photos, so on with the show :-) Back in the '70s I read a piece in Model Airplane News about a small, wind-up flying model manufactured by Peck Polymers called the Pietenpol Air Camper. I couldn't find the kit locally, and it was too expensive for me to buy back then. It turns out it's still in production, and as an extra bonus many of the parts are now laser cut! Naturally, I bought one. I'm taking a little break from streetcar modelling and am building the Air Camper. It's taking me considerably longer than I thought, and I'm realizing I don't have as many skills as I thought :-) I found the fuselage rather tricky to build up and keep square. I'm at the sanding all components stage, and I'm getting ready to cover the parts. I need to pickup the pace or the snow will be flying before this is.
No, I haven't disappeared, I'm just having some problems with Blogger now that the 'new-and-improved' Blogger has been released. Hopefully I'll have them resolved soon.
The caboose on the left is located just off the Havelock yard's visitor parking area. The caboose on the right was dug out of my HO caboose stash. Yes, a stash of cabooses (cabeese?) :-) At one time I was collecting cheapo cabooses at swap meets, and bought this old Cox product at one. It's more toy than model, and not too accurate, but I was happy to find it stashed away.
I drove by the Havelock yard rather early this morning to see what I could see. Way off in the back, near the trees, I saw what looked like a group of maintenance vehicles very similar to the ones I saw in 2009. The station was closed, so I couldn't have a look inside. Maybe next time. Luckily there's a lot of summer left.
