Non radar nose for early DC-6

[tpartlow]

I purchased a set of Continental Airlines decals for a DC-6 and it calls for a non-radar nose.

 

Did anyone ever do this aircraft or do a conversion to change the nose.

 

Any help is appreciated.

 

TIA

 

Tony #5477

[ewahl]

Tony,

 

What scale are we looking for? DC-6B airliners come in 1/72, 1/144, and perhaps some odd scales. Here's a suggestion:

 

Get a good profile line drawing of a short-nose DC-6 and copy it to the size of your scale. Overlay the kit's fuselage and determine where to cut. Remove the long nose and fabricate a short nose to match your drawing. I did this process in reverse on the Revell DC-7C in 1/139 scale, adding a long nose to a short-nose fuselage. The line drawing you need may be on the decal instructions, so you won't have to search too far. Good luck.

 

Ed

[Ralph Nardone]

If you are working in 1/144 scale, the fix is easy: Copy the nose of Minicraft's DC-4 and graft it onto the Minicraft DC-6. If you are working in 1/72, follow Ed's advice--get some good profile drawings of either a non-RADAR DC-6 or a DC-4, fill the nose of the Heller kit with super glue or epoxy putty, and sand away all that doesn't look like a DC-4 nose.

 

Be aware, though, that a lot of the non-RADAR DC-6's were just that-- DC-6's. The kits (Minicraft in 1/144 and Heller in 1/72) represent DC-6A/B and C-118A/B airframes--the fuselage is longer them than it is on the straight 6. If you are working in 1/144, at one time Minicraft's kit was marked with "cut lines" to do "Independence", Harry Truman's aircraft--it was a VC-118. I can't recall whether it has the short nose or not, though...

 

By the time I worked on these beasts, they all had RADAR noses. I don't know whether I enjoyed chasing sparks on the DC-4, DC-6, or CV-340/440 most--they were all fun.

 

R