From today’s perspective, it is hard to realized just how much aviation had progressed in such a small number of years before the second world war. It has often been reported that by 1939, 90% of the world’s passenger miles were flown in DC-3s. Where did this figure come from? I wouldn’t be surprised to find it was ginned up by Douglass’s publicity department.
No matter, even if the figure itself may be suspect, it has the ring of truth. No other airplane in the world could compare with it. In reading books on the DC-3 it was very often contrasted with another marvel of its time, the Boeing 247. That sleek speedster was in service a full year ahead of the DC-2. It was made in huge numbers for its time, 200 and they served in many places. It was a very advanced design and very speedy, cruising at 150 mph and carrying 10 passengers and a crew of two or three if a steward or stewardess was along.
Boeing at the time was a part of a manufacturing/airline conglomerate and all initial production was promised to member airlines. That is why outsider Jack Fry of TWA went to see Donald Douglas and contracted for what would become the DC-1,2 & 3. They would sweep all before them and the Boeing had but a brief year of leadership.
I started the old Williams 247 as outlined earlier in the thread. Considering what it is, its a pretty good kit. In the end, it looks like a 247 and that is what matters most to me. I painted it with a hardware store pewter that matched the color of the anodized AL that Boeing used pretty well. Sadly, it did not work out very well on this model. It went on patchy and the flakes are slightly visible.
I laid the Pointerdog decals over it and they went on well, no hoo-haw. The decal film was visible but not very much so. I intended to leave the decals on unprotected and pulled the masks off. My masking of the side windows was done with Micro Mask, big mistake! It did not want to come off without a fight and I ended up chisling and scraping some of them off. A few peeled off as I thought the should. Perhaps a thicker coat would have done better?
In any case, while handling the model to install details one of the decals came off. Drat! I put it back on with a dilute solution of warm water & School Glue. That got me thinking that maybe it was better to clear coat the decals after all. I quickly taped up the windows in a block and shot the 247 with Tamiya semi gloss out of a rattlecan. This only made the decal film more visible . . .
I’m not sure what to learn from this but I hope something will occur to me as the DC-2 & 3 are right around the corner and they will both be NM finishes. I hope I can figure this out as I have another 247 on the shelf and Mika at Arctic Decals in Finland offers a decal set for National Park Airlines, an outfit that combined with Western Air Express. That sheet has decals to make NC13337 while still with NPA markings . . .
Here are a few pics of the 247 now finished.
Paul
