Douglas DC-7C, Pan Am "Clipper Blue Jacket"

Douglas DC-7C, N733PA, Pan Am “Clipper Blue Jacket”, c. 1959
(Roden Pan American World Airways DC-7C in 1/144 scale, kit #0301 © 2010

Build represents Pan Am “Clipper Blue Jacket” as she looked in 1959 after repairs.

Clipper Blue Jacket was inbound to Schiphol, Amsterdam from London and cleared for the ILS 19 approach. The First Officer was flying. At approximately 200ft he called for a go-around, gear up and takeoff power. The Captain overrode the F/O, took control, and began to lower the gear as he flared for landing. The aircraft settled on the runway with the gear in transit, which collapsed and caused the aircraft to skid down the runway on its belly.

There was no fire, and the only injuries were to the Pilots’ egos. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service in the new-fangled Pan Am Meatball livery, as depicted.

The Roden kit was disappointing, considering it is only a few years old, released well into the 21st Century. Fit is very poor, panel lines (on the wings especially) are large, exaggerated trenches, and the engines and props are unnecessarily complex assemblies with poorly molded two-part spinners/hubs and individual blades, each of which had to be cleaned up and reshaped.

The decals were abandoned as they were stiff and brittle, and laughed at whatever setting solution I tried. Even the warm thumb was impotent against these stalwart, inflexible films. In the end, I adapted the meatball decals from the Minicraft DC-6B kit with clipper title, registration number, etc. printed at home. I was successful, however, in using a high-quality scan of these as the basis for the decals for my DC-6B.

Paints were rattlecan grey primer and gloss white with Tamiya metallics. Kit decals were useless.