Last year I built a DC-10 in Canadian Airlines colours for a friend and co-worker, and it was so well received that I was asked to build another aircraft for him. He requested a model of his first plane when he joined Canadian Pacific, a Douglas DC-6B. "No problem," I said, before I knew what I was getting into. The decals would have to be custom made and the kit I would have to use was the 1/144 scale Minicraft DC-6B. The whole process could be summed up by "it was like making a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

The Minicraft kit is the only DC-6 in 1/144 scale that is readily available on the market. This is not a kit for beginners (regardless of how inexpensive it might be), nor is it a kit for someone who lacks patience. Every seam needed filling, and I mean EVERY seam. In the end I probably had as much gap filler invested in the kit as I did everything else. The trailing edges of the wings are overly thick and should be thinned down to achieve the proper look. There is also very little detail on the kit, comprising of a few doors (which I filled in anyway), the control surfaces, and the odd panel line on the horizontal stabilizers.

I stayed close to the kit instructions in building this model, though I did depart from the plans when it came to the landing gear. My model was going to be on a stand, so it is at this point that we come to one of my pet peeves about Minicraft airliners. They don't allow for the aircraft to be built with the gear in the up position. Each main wheel well had five tiny doors to close, ten in all, and they were a poor fit at best. Some were too big, some too small, no two were identical, and all needed adjusting in some form. Another area to be careful of is the engine nacelles. Besides the standard gaps to fill, each nacelle was molded in two different halves, one with exhaust stacks and one without. My guess is that each nacelle would have one of each, a plain one and an exhaust one, with the exhaust on the outboard side of the engine. I did not confirm if this was the case on the real aircraft because I did not notice the difference until about two weeks later when the nacelles were already mounted. So now my kit has exhaust for the #1 and #4 engines, and none for the #2 and #3. I do not feel too bad though because the model in the box photos is wrong as well.

The markings for my DC-6B would represent a plane from around 1967, just prior to CP Air adopting its famous orange paint scheme. I did manage to find some decals to do this paint job, but they were full of errors and not of the highest quality. So I went to friends who custom make model decals using an Alps printer for assistance. It helped that her husband is also an airplane buff and had been employed by Canadian Pacific as a mechanic during the period my DC-6 would represent. Between the three of us (mostly them), we came up with some good looking and accurate markings. For the windows I used the Leading Edge window set, including the cockpit windows even though the kit comes with a glass flight deck. Check your references on the number of windows and emergency exits per side as the Leading Edge set provides extra windows if needed. This brings me to my other pet peeve about Minicraft airliners. They provide window decals for their planes because they do not mold them as part of the fuselage. The only trouble is that they make the windows part of the airline paint scheme. Which means that if you wish to build something other than what is represented by the kit, you need to purchase an after market window set, or drill them out yourself, if you're into that kind of torture.

I painted the airplane using 5 coats of Testors white (2 flat as a base and 3 gloss), and 2 coats of Floquil Bright Silver. I cannot say enough about the Floquil paint. It covers anything, will handle being taped (I use Tamiya tape and Parafilm), takes paint over it easily, and has a wonderful shine to it. It is really a paint not a metalizer, so you get the best of both worlds. The stand was robbed from a Revell kit was painted gloss black with a white nameplate. I used Model Master Metalizer Sealer to seal the silver paint before decaling, just in case, and then used it again to seal the whole airplane once the decals were applied. It did take away just the slightest bit of shine from my highly polished fuselage, though not enough to detract from the overall look of the model.

The finished model looks goooood, even if I do say so myself. With some patience and skill you can turn the Minicraft DC-6B into a nice looking airplane. And as for the Canadian Pacific markings, well they improve the look of the model by about twenty-fold. I am sure that this classic piece of aviation, and personal, history will be very welcome in its new home, and proudly displayed beside its younger sibling, the DC-10. The whole exercise for me has been rather enjoyable (especially when the gap filling was over), and now has me thinking about building a DC-8-43 in these colours.