Aeroclassics DC-10s

[RStretton]

Aeroclassics DC-10 mould is another superb production being much superior to all the other moulds available despite some serious competition. The old Dragon / Jet-X mould is nice but the plane looks a bit fat to me and the simple dragon undercarriage is a turnoff. The Gemini mould also has good points but early versions have an unsightly seam at the rear fuselage and in overall shape its just not as nice as the AC version. Meanwhile the Witty / AV400 moulds undercarriage appears too long. I don't know much about the Phoenix mould but it looks like probably the worst of the lot from what I've seen.

Anyway recently I've been bolstering the DC-10 in my collection and now have 25. Until about a month or two ago I only had 4 Aeroclassics tens but since the recent DC-10-10s I have added 11 others. In fact my non-AC DC-10 fleet has been reduced by the replacement of GJ (Eastern and National) and JX (Continental) versions with AC replacements.

Anyway as I say it is a fine mould and here it is on some of my DC-10s:

Nigeria Airways:




Continental Airlines - Saul Bass Black Contrails




National Airlines - Instant Florida 'Marianne'




National Airlines - Instant Florida White Belly 'Renee'

[RStretton]

Western Airlines - Flying W:






Eastern Air Lines:




Aloha Pacific - only lasted 6 months but what a beauty:

[RStretton]

World Airways:




Pakistan International:




Transaero:




Still to come are Delta, United mainliner and Saul bass DC-10-10s and Northwest bowling shoe and Iberia delivery colours DC-10-30s.

If AK is out there I'd love to see a true Continental Red Meatball (the released one is a hybrid not true red meatball) and obviously lots of new DC-10-10s especially American Airlines

[eugenevh]

Nice photos as usual. The models do indeed look very nice indeed. I was fortunate enough to get the Nigeria and Ghana Aeroclassics at a recent Waffle sale.

Looking forward to the other photos.

[RStretton]

Nice photos as usual. The models do indeed look very nice indeed. I was fortunate enough to get the Nigeria and Ghana Aeroclassics at a recent Waffle sale.

Looking forward to the other photos.

I had my eye on that Ghana DC-10 but I already have a Ghana Britannia and VC-10 so I couldn't justify it.

[eugenevh]

I had my eye on that Ghana DC-10 but I already have a Ghana Britannia and VC-10 so I couldn't justify it.

lol - And I am grateful to you then for that ;-)
In this instance I am so glad that I got it when I did. That is one thing about Waffle's sales, you wait a second and it's GONE.

[RStretton]

Here are four more of my AC DC-10s (the Iberia is as of yet unopened):

Northwest Airlines Bowling Shoe DC-10-30:






Delta Air Lines DC-10-10:






United Airlines 'Mainliner' DC-10-10:






United Airlines 'Saul Bass' DC-10-10:

[Santos]

Add some VARIG to your fantastic collection. I agree with your thoughts but I still consider DW as good as the AC DC-10-30 mould.

[RStretton]

~~I've recently added three more Aeroclassics Dc-10s to the fleet and here are two of them:

Lufthansa DC-10-30 D-ADMO:
The first of Lufthansa's eleven DC-10s arrived in November 1973 with the last ADMO ‘Dortmund’ not arriving until four years later. The DC-10s served throughout the 80s and were finally replaced by A340-300s. This aircraft was converted to a freighter and with several of her sisters went to the new Gemini Air Cargo. She became N600GC and served until Gemini’s ultimate bankruptcy in August 2008. Subsequently she was stored at Roswell.


Lufthansa McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Lufthansa McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Lufthansa McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Lufthansa McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr

Ecuatoriana DC-10-30 HC-BKO:
Ecuatoriana gained its first widebody in 1983 when it purchased an ex-Swissair HB-IHA ‘St Gallen’ which had originally been delivered to Swiss in November 1972. She became HC-BKO / FAE46575 and enabled the airline to operate long-haul non-stop services to destinations in Canada and Spain for the first time. Unfortunately corruption and poor management blighted the airline in the early 1990s and it became increasingly unreliable ceasing operations altogether in 1993. VASP bought over 50% of the carrier in 1996 and restarted operations. This aircraft was reregistered as PP-SFB in May 1996. A downturn in Ecuador’s economy however led to more financial strife in 2000 and Ecuatoriana shutdown after attempts to sell it failed. This aircraft was broken up at Quito in 2004.

I'm not actually certain this frame ever wore this reg with this livery - I certainly couldn't find any photos. Not as nice as the rainbow scheme but still nice enough.


Ecuatoriana McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Ecuatoriana McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Ecuatoriana McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Ecuatoriana McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr

[RStretton]

Add some VARIG to your fantastic collection. I agree with your thoughts but I still consider DW as good as the AC DC-10-30 mould.

I do have a Varig DC-10 but only the Gemini version. I like the DW but it always looks a bit stubby to me with the nose slightly fat and too round

[RStretton]

Here's the latest DC-10 addition - the recent Biman release. Glad for this to be done as I didn't much fancy the GJ version.

Biman began operations as the flag carrier of the new Bangladeshi state in 1972 and started London services with 707s the next year. A decade later 3 ex-Singapore Airlines DC-10s (ACO-Q) were delivered and the international network expanded. ACR ‘New Era’ was the only new DC-10 added to the fleet and was the second to last DC-10 built. Rampant corruption and mismanagement tarnished Biman but the DC-10s continued to be the mainstay of the fleet. In 2007 the airline was finally restructured and taken out of state control, but not before its reputation was severely tarnished. 777s eventually began to arrive in 2011 and in February 2014 it fell to S2-ACR to operate the last ever scheduled passenger flight by a DC-10. The airframe was then donated to a museum in the USA.


Biman Bangladesh McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Biman Bangladesh McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Biman Bangladesh McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Biman Bangladesh McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr


Biman Bangladesh McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr

[fleetlordatvar]

... I'm not actually certain this frame ever wore this reg with this livery - I certainly couldn't find any photos. Not as nice as the rainbow scheme but still nice enough. Ecuatoriana McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 by rstretton, on Flickr ...

If the rainbow is the one in the pic below, then i wholeheartedly disagree, the above livery is much better, no contest...we could make a poll to see what DC-10 livery is best one people like from all the liveries