Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

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vacant
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Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by vacant »

Image

This one has kept my head down for the last three weeks. Building it meant a lot of cutting and a lot of sanding. I tried to paint most of it before joining the wings to the fuselage which seemed like a good idea at the time. In retrospect, I'm not so sure. Making the join where there is 'silver' paint can be problematic.

The decals were kindly provided by a fellow model maker who had bought the Revell Skymaster but who wanted to convert it to a Carvair. Matching the decals to the Rareplanes kit proved to be difficult, mainly because I did not have the decals until it was built. When I came to apply them, I found that the number of windows did not match - there were too many on the starboard side so I had to fill some in again.

The white paint was a nightmare. I had given it a spray undercoat, then a few coats of acrylic followed by Klear. I needed to do some masking but when I lifted the tape, the white paint lifted off, right back to the bare plastic. This problem of lifting white became a real pain.

At one stage while holding the model to paint it, there was a loud resounding cracking sound. The join between starboard wing and fuselage gave way under the weight of the fuselage which has several lumps of metal inside to hep stop to being a tail sitter. Remedial action was needed. I need not have used metal weights because the C54 was often seen with a supporting 'pole' at the rear.

In the end, I think I managed to resolve the various problems. The next problem is that of where to store it. It is rather large.
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JamesPerrin
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by JamesPerrin »

Well, you weathered the problems and have a great looking model, hey it's got dayglo on it!
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vacant
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by vacant »

It has orange on it, but it isn't dayglow.
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jssel
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by jssel »

Two thumbs up. WOW.
Besting 60 years of mediocre building of average kits in the stand off scale
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DavidWomby
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by DavidWomby »

Now that's impressive, even by your high standards. If you told me it was the Revell kit, I'd have believed you. Well done soldiering through the difficulties. It's a (rather large) gem.

David
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iggie
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by iggie »

I think you've mastered that one :-D
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by ShaunW »

I've seen worse than that, Vacant, excellent work.
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gnomemeansgnome
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by gnomemeansgnome »

Inspite of the issues you had with it, that Skymaster looks terrific.
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Lone Modeller
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by Lone Modeller »

I agree with the others - problems aside you have made a first class model out of that.
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Eric Mc
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by Eric Mc »

Excellent. The larger vacforms are, the more "bendy" they get and the more awkward to build. That is a brilliant result.
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FAAMAN
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by FAAMAN »

Superb :beer: :beer:
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by celt »

Vacform from Vacant,well tidy,well tidy indeed.
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Stupot
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by Stupot »

Really nice model. I love the colour scheme.

Stu :)
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Gregers
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by Gregers »

Simply awesome. Very beautiful work.

All the best.

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skypirate
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Re: Douglas C54 Skymaster; Rareplanes vacform 1/72

Post by skypirate »

Once again you have overcome various challenges to turn out a nice model from somewhat difficult material.
I would have liked to have a seen a couple more pics.
I flew a few trips in DC-4s in my younger days!

Cheers,

David
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