Deagostini Douglas DC3 User guide

Brand: Deagostini

Model: Douglas DC3

Type: User guide

Deagostini Douglas DC3, a 1/32 scale replica of the iconic aircraft, offers an immersive and fulfilling modeling experience. Detailed and accurate, it features landing gear, a removable cargo door, and a cockpit with an instrument panel and pilot figures. The assembly guide and comprehensive tools empower modelers to create a museum-quality display piece, paying homage to the aircraft's pivotal role in aviation history.

™

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Douglas DC -3

Build

The post-war era: The rebirth and

development of civil aviation

The decommissioning of a substantial

number of surplus military aircraft at

the end of the Second World War,

and the wide availability of spare

parts, encouraged the birth of new

airline companies and the further

‘democratisation’ of air transport in

both the USA and Europe.

ASSEMBLY GUIDE

Left wing:

First part and landing gear

Assembly of the ﬁrst part of the left

wing with the landing gear.

183

175

Pack

Douglas DC -3

Build

™

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Paints and

modelling tools

A comprehensive selection of modelling tools

and paints (in all the colours you will need to

complete your Douglas DC-3) is available from

the Model Space website.

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Produced under license. PAN AM logos are trademarks of

Pan American World Airways, Inc.

Produced under license. Boeing, Douglas, Boeing Airplane Company, DC-3,

247, Douglas World Cruiser, and the distinctive Boeing logos, product markings

and trade dress are trademarks of The Boeing Company.

Published in the UK by De Agostini UK Ltd,

Battersea Studios 2, 82 Silverthorne Road,

London SW8 3HE

Published in the USA by De Agostini Publishing USA, Inc.,

915 Broadway, Suite 609,

New York, NY 10010.

Packaged by Continuo Creative, 39-41 North Road,

London N7 9DP

p175-182 images from the Giorgio Apostolo Collection

Items may vary from those shown.

Not suitable for children under the age of 14.

This product is not a toy and is not designed or intended for use in play.

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The post-war era

The end of the Second World War

closed an important chapter in the

history of Douglas™ and the DC-3™.

The aircraft had played a central part

in the success of the Allies and, at the

same time, the company making it had

grown, accumulating profits far beyond

expectations. The war had imposed a

heavy burden: for example, the Hump –

the route over the Himalayas over which

supplies for Chinese troops were flown

from 1942 to 1945 – had caused the loss

C-47 number 2000 of

the USAAF produced by

the Douglas factories,

photographed during

the Second World War.

The 2000th aircraft off the

production line, built by an

almost exclusively female

workforce, it has been

signed by its proud makers.

In spite of the heavy toll

paid by the C-47 in the

war years, the high level of

production meant that when

peace was declared, a large

number of surplus aircraft

were available. This surplus,

together with plentiful spare

parts and a large number of

trained personnel, stimulated

the recovery of the air

transport sector.

of 594 aircraft and more than 1,300 men,

with a further 81 aircraft and 345 men

recorded as missing. But in spite of heavy

losses, when hostilities ended, at a stroke

all the main armed forces found themselves

with too many aircraft. This excessive

The post-war era

The rebirth and development of

civil aviation

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3175

stock quickly found a commercial outlet

through the government surplus market,

so that for several years the DC-3 again

occupied a position in the top rank of the

air transport sector. At the same time, new

competitors were coming on the scene,

bringing about a drastic revision of the

‘rules of the game’.

The surplus market and the

birth of the Large Irregulars

The great airline companies were eager

to buy up the aircraft decommissioned

from the United States armed forces,

undoubtedly encouraged in this by

the favourable prices at which the old

C-47s were sold, and by the fact that

the production of the civilian DC-3 had

ceased since 1942. In this way, through

the sales of the War Assets Administration,

American Airlines managed to acquire

124 aircraft, PanAm 116, United Airlines

78, TWA 76 and Eastern Airlines 63. The

fact that ample quantities of spare parts

A French DC-3 used for

carrying mail. France was

just one of the countries

which beneﬁted from the

decommissioning of the

C-47 in the post-war period.

Even more than passenger

services, freight and mail

transport were essential for

the recovery of Europe at the

end of the 1940s and in the

early 1950s.

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176

The post-war era

In Europe, too, the ﬁgure of the air hostess

quickly became a symbol of air travel itself. In this

photograph, two hostesses of British European

Airways (BEA) pose in front of a DC-3. Founded in

1946, BEA merged with BOAC (British Overseas

Airways Corporation) in 1974 to form the current

British Airways.

were available, both through Douglas and

its chain of suppliers, also helped make

the investment a good one, since buyers

were assured that the aircraft would have

an operational life which was more than

sufficient. Even though by the end of the

1940s the new four-engined aircraft were

accelerating the process of the DC-3

becoming obsolete, it continued flying for

another decade, albeit more often as a

charter aircraft or cargo carrier.

But it was not only the ‘traditional’

companies which benefited from the

decommissioning of the wartime stock of

C-37s. As well as a vast number of aircraft,

BOAC DC-3s lined up on

the airport runway. Their

derivation from the C-47 is

given away by the presence

of the transparent dome

(the astrodome) above the

navigator/radio operator’s

seat. Towards the rear of

the ﬁrst two aircraft, the two

hatch doors of the Dakota

can just be seen. The cargo

capacity of the C-47, although

it soon proved to be limited

for the particular requirements

of wartime, made it a very

desirable for freight transport,

for which many aircraft were

used until the end of their

operational life.

the war had also created a surplus of

people trained to fly and maintain them;

people who, in many cases, successfully

entered a market which, having been at a

standstill during the years of the war, was

rapidly recovering.

Between 1945 and 1947, no fewer

than 64 new carriers (the so-called ‘Large

Irregular Carriers’) started up, using

aircraft acquired through the WAA. The

business of these operators was based

on an aggressive pricing strategy. In

1946, for instance, the North American

Airlines Agency of Stanley Weiss offered

passengers tickets on the Los Angeles-

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New York route for $99. The level of

service was not equal to that of the major

companies, but it was another step in the

‘democratisation’ of air transport.

Significantly, the competition of the Large

Irregulars (also known as ‘non-skeds’) in

those years made the major companies

look again at their operating principles,

among other things reorganising their

timetables so as to ensure a higher

proportion of aircraft occupancy which, in

the years before the war, had usually been

about 55%. The greater efficiency which

this brought about was accompanied

by an increasing role being played by

the control authorities, primarily the Civil

Aeronautic Board (CAB).

The proliferation of ‘non-skeds’ brought

about an exponential growth in air traffic,

particularly on the route between New

York and Florida, and along the New York-

Chicago axis. These developments were

reported in an investigation by

Business

Week

in November 1946, according to

which, between July 1945 and August

1946, the load volume carried by the top

five ‘non-sked’ airlines in the United States

grew from 211,000 ton/miles to 2,331,000.

Mohawk Airlines was just one of many small air

transport companies in the United States in the

turbulent period after the Second World War.

Founded in 1945 as Robinson Airlines, it started its

activities with the Fairchild F-24 tri-motor, before

converting its whole ﬂeet to DC-3s. Originally based

at Ithaca Municipal Airport in New York State, the

company transferred its headquarters to Oneida

County Airport of Utica, also in New York State, in

1958. It continued operating from there until it was

acquired by Allegheny Airlines in 1972.

A load of pianos being loaded

into a U.S. Airlines DC-3.

In this kind of activity, the

post-war DC-3 had all the

versatility of the C-34 without

needing to be converted

(at a cost) to enter the

passenger market. In the

years immediately after the

war, operators such as United

and Delta Airlines decided

to acquire surplus C-47s

for their ﬂeets to strengthen

their position in the goods

transport sector.

Between recovery and

rebirth: the European air

transport market

The dynamics of the United States air

transport market in the post-war years also

applied, in some respects, to the European

one. From 1945, the RAF in particular

decommissioned no fewer than 310

178

The post-war era

In Italy, too, the DC-3’s entry

into service was associated

entirely with the post-war

recovery. Between 1946

and 1964, the DC-3 saw

service with LAI (Linee Aeree

Italiane), Alitalia (Aerolinee

Internazionali Italiane)

and SAM (Società Aerea

Mediterranea). LAI (merged

with Alitalia in 1957 to

form Alitalia – Linee Aeree

Italiane) was founded in

1947 as the joint company

TWA-IRI with a small

contribution of private Italian

capital, working with a ﬂeet

of 18 (23 from 1953, after

the acquisition of ALI – Avio

Linee Italiane) DC-3s and

C-47s between Rome Urbe

Airport and the main Italian

destinations, as well as to

Athens, Istanbul and Tunis.

C-47s, almost all of which were purchased

by British airlines. British Oversea Airways

Corporation (BOAC), for example, acquired

at least 85 and British European Airways

(BEA) 71. In the same period, C-47s

renewed the civil and military air fleets

of, among others, West Germany (87),

Greece (104), France (148), Canada (246),

India (132), Cambodia (95), Denmark (16),

South Africa (90) and Japan (18). As a

result of this, the pre-war aeronautical

situation was significantly simplified,

with the decommissioning of the old tri-

motors and the emergence of the DC-3

as the ‘de facto’ standard, both for the

companies of the West and those of the

future Soviet bloc.

The DC-3 was widely distributed among

the countries of central and eastern

Europe, both in the Douglas version and

in the Lisunov one (production of which

– unlike that of the DC-3/C-47 – would

continue until the early 1950s). The DC-

3s and C-47s which reached the Soviet

Union and its satellite countries during the

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3179

In the years after the Second World War, the wide availability of the

ex-military C-47 on the surplus market not only stimulated the

proliferation of airline companies, it also supplied a profitable sector

which converted aircraft for private use. Major United States companies

used these aircraft to create a private network used by their own

executives to travel to the various parts of the country. Between early

1941 and December 1946, Douglas supplied at least six DC-3s with

‘executive’ configurations to companies including Texaco, Cities Service

Company, Randolph Hearst and Gulf. Douglas was also active in the

post-war conversion of C-47s for civilian use. This conversion involved

modifications to the wings and undercarriage, the removal of structural

reinforcement and the installation of the various internal fittings, which

could be carried out by the company’s staff in about 20 days.

the Rajlovac Air Base near Sarajevo. Thus

the post-war years in Europe saw not only

the rebirth but also the modernisation

of the air transport sector. Through a

process similar to that which had occurred

in the United States, the period saw the

consolidation of ‘historic’ carriers such as

Swissair and KLM (which, in the period

before the war, had been among the first

users of the DC-3); it also saw the birth of

new operators whose actions contributed

to a progressive reduction in fares. This

Second World War and for a few years

after, came on the one hand from ‘lend-

lease’ arrangements and on the other

from post-war decommissioning. A typical

example is the story of C-47 SN 19539

(USAAF number 43-15073), which, having

served in the European theatre during the

war, was sold to a Czechoslovakian airline,

converted for passenger transport, then

sold on to the French Air Force in 1960

and from there sold again to Yugoslavia in

1973, for use as a static training aircraft in

The DC-3 Executive

C-34s being unloaded at

Tempelhof airport during the

blockade of Berlin. Although

the blockade of the city

ended on 12 May 1949,

supplies continued to ﬂow

until September, so as to

accumulate sufﬁcient reserves

to face a possible future

emergency with safety. As

well as the RAF and US air

forces, an important part was

played by the Royal Australian

Air Force (RAAF), which, in

over 2,000 sorties to the city,

brought almost 8,000 tons of

goods and moved nearly 4,000

passengers during the months

of the blockade.

The DC-3 (whether in its Douglas or Lisunov

versions) was widespread among the airlines

of the satellite countries of the Soviet Union.

Among these, the Polish airline LOT, Polski

Linie Lotnicze, enjoyed a particular status,

being one of the few to operate regular ﬂights

behind the Iron Curtain in the early years of the

Cold War. During this period, aircraft of several

companies were forced to land in western

airports by hijackers seeking political asylum.

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180

The post-war era

Cathay Paciﬁc is one of the companies founded at the end of the Second World War through the

initiative of former military pilots, in this case Roy Farrell and Sydney de Kantzow. Their ﬁrst aircraft

were government surplus C-47s. Active at ﬁrst between Hong Kong, Sydney, Manila, Singapore,

Shanghai and Canton, with scheduled ﬂights between Manila, Singapore and Bangkok, the

company assumed its current name in 1948, following the ﬁrst of a long series of mergers and

acquisitions which made it one of the largest international carriers.

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During the early years of the Cold War, the C-47 continued to be a reliable workhorse for the air

forces of the Western bloc. In this role, it was recalled to action both for the Berlin Airlift and,

later, for the Korean War. In particular, in the early days of the blockade of the German capital, the

two USAAF squadrons of C-47s still stationed in Europe and the 150 Dakotas of the RAF, together

with some 40 British Avro Yorks, formed the greater part of the efforts to supply the city with

necessities before being joined by faster aircraft of greater capacity, such as the C-54 Skymaster,

the R5D of the US Navy and the DC-4. Between 26 June 1948 and 30 September 1949, the ‘air

bridge’ supplied Berlin with more than 2,326,000 tons of goods (two-thirds of which consisted

of coal, transported during the winter months). This involved 278,228 flights with a frequency, at

its maximum, of one landing every 30 seconds or so. The Berlin Airlift drew on the experience of

the Hump (see page 175). It was no coincidence that the US Army Chief of Plans and Operations,

General Albert C. Wedemayer, whose approval was needed to launch the operation, had been

commander of the China-India-Burma Theatre in 1944-45, thus acquiring a comprehensive

knowledge of the Hump. Nonetheless, the experience of the Berlin Airlift also demonstrated the

operational limits already apparent in C-47s in far-flung operations. Less than a year later, the

C-47 and Curtiss aircraft of the 1st Troop Carrier Group (46th, 47th and 48th Troop Carrier

Squadrons) at the Tachikawa Air Base in Japan were recalled to action in Korea where, between

August 1950 and February 1951, they moved

28,000 passengers and 12,000 tons of cargo,

as well as evacuating 7,000 people from

the bay of Pusan. But in this case, too, other

aircraft (in particular, the Fairchild C-119

Flying Boxcar and the C-124 Globemaster)

soon appeared on the scene, finally ending the

large-scale military use of the C-47, the plane

that was nicknamed the ‘Gooney Bird’.

Berlin and Korea:

the C-47 in the early years of the Cold War

helped make air transport more popular

on the European side of the Atlantic, albeit

not to the same extent as in the United

States. There is a significant historic parallel

between the post-1945 European recovery

and the economic growth of the following

years, when the DC-3 entered into service

on a large scale, just as had happened 10

years earlier in the United States during the

‘Second New Deal’.

Two C-47s of the Royal

Canadian Air Force. In the last

months of the war, the RCAF

was the fourth-largest allied air

force, with 48 squadrons taking

part in overseas operations in

Great Britain, north-west Europe,

North Africa and South-East

Asia. After the war, its personnel

was drastically reduced, and by

the end of 1947 there were only

eight squadrons and 12,000

men, but the coming of the

Cold War and the country’s

entry into the Atlantic Alliance

in 1949 reversed this trend.

After the end of the Second World War, the C-47 continued to be used by all the main air forces,

even though, as a cargo aircraft, it was swiftly superseded by aircraft with greater capacity.

The ﬁrst phase of the Korean War saw the last large-scale use of the C-47 by the 1st Transport

Group USAF. Nevertheless, for some time the Dakota continued effectively carrying out its task

of transporting paratroopers.

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See the back cover for a checklist of your parts for this pack.

Take the tail, made in Pack 7, to continue the assembly. Mask the upper leading edge as illustrated.

Apply a light coat of primer. When it is dry, paint the leading edge dark grey. Carefully remove the masking. Prepare to apply the Chrome ﬁnish to the assembled parts of

the fuselage. Start by accurately masking the area.

1 3

Assembly Guide

Left wing: First part and landing gear

N.B. Some elements supplied with each issue, in particular the sheets

of laser-cut plywood parts, may not look exactly identical to those in

the step-by-step photographs. But, of course, the individual assembly

pieces included within the laser-cut plywood parts will have exactly the

same shapes, sizes and descriptions as those shown here.

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3183

Assembly Guide

Cut off the rod ﬂush with the top of the rudder, as shown.

Put the tail assembly in a safe place to be completed later.

Take the laser-cut sheet of the central part of the left wing,

supplied with this issue. Separate the pieces with a craft knife

and sand them carefully to obtain a smooth, even proﬁle.

Without gluing it, ﬁt the rudder to the tail module, as shown.

As a pivot, insert a length of the 0.8mm thick brass rod,

supplied with the previous issue.

Start assembling the central part of the left wing. Insert

and glue pieces A9, A10, A11 and A12 in piece A3, as

shown in the photograph. Make sure that the joints are

exactly at right angles.

876

Apply a light coat of primer and let it dry. Paint the parts with a coat of gloss black and, when it is dry, apply the Chrome with an

airbrush, using light coats at low pressure. Remember to handle the painted area as little as possible. Let it dry thoroughly.

A10

A11

90°

Wide

Narrow A12

Build Douglas DC

184

Assembly Guide

Left wing and landing gear

Complete the assembly by ﬁtting and gluing pieces A4, A5,

A6, A7 and A8 as shown in the photograph. Keep piece

A13, included in the pre-cut sheet, to be used later.

Prepare cladding piece A7aL, following the same procedure

used for cladding the rest of the aircraft. Do not glue the

piece in place yet.

Fit stringers in all the notches of the assembly. If necessary, ﬁle

the notches so that the outer side of the stringer is ﬂush with

the ribs. Apply wood ﬁller and paint the whole green.

Paint the pieces prepared in Step 11 and the part of the

underside of piece A7aL indicated in the photograph green,

preferably with an airbrush.

Take pieces C69G and C70G. Use sandpaper to remove any

irregularities and burrs that may have been caused by the

stamping process, then apply primer.

Insert and glue piece C69G as shown in the photograph.

109 11

1312 14

A7aL

C70G

C69G

C69G C69G

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Assembly Guide

1615 17

2018

Insert and glue piece C70G into position.

Prepare the covering piece A7bL, which corresponds

to the lower part of the assembly. Mark and cut out the

rectangle shown, to provide access to the opening made

in the previous step.

Here is the side view of pieces C69G and C70G ﬁtted in their

correct positions.

Complete the preparation of piece A7bL by making the lines

of rivets with the toothed wheel.

On the inside of the module, use a craft knife to remove part of

the stringer in the area indicated so as to make an opening in

the structure.

Prepare, ﬁt and glue the upper covering piece A7aL in place.

C70G

C69G

11mm

19mm

44mm

15mm

A7bL

A7aL

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186

Assembly Guide

Left wing and landing gear

21 23

26 24

At the same time, ﬁt and glue the lower covering piece A7bL.

Match the opening made in the covering with that in the

module and, if necessary, adapt the covering so that it is

ﬂush with the opening.

Take the pre-cut piece A55 and check that it ﬁts between the

two die-cast parts of the engine cover, as illustrated. Modify it

if necessary. Do not glue any of these pieces yet.

Complete the covering of the module with pieces A7cL and

A7dL. Use a ﬁle or abrasive paper carefully to smooth any

excess of the cladding round the module.

Take the two parts SD85 of the landing gear. Smooth them

with a ﬁle and abrasive paper. Fit and glue the pieces together

as shown in the photograph.

Take the two die-cast pieces which form the engine cover,

C23 and C25. Smooth them precisely with a ﬁle and

abrasive paper so that they join together perfectly.

Do not glue them yet.

Side view of the assembly put together in the previous step.

A7bL

A55

SD85

A7cL A7dL A7dL

C23

C25

A7cL

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3187

Assembly Guide

Take all the other pieces of the landing gear and smooth them carefully with a ﬁle and abrasive paper. Hold them with tweezers if necessary. You will ﬁnd it very helpful to put them on a stand like

the one shown in the photograph. Apply primer and, when it has dried, paint them Aluminium, preferably with an airbrush.

SD38

SD40

C34 C33

C39

C40

C35

C36

SD85

C38

C37

C31

C32

SD49

SD79

SD78

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Assembly Guide

Left wing and landing gear

Fit and glue pieces C33 and C34 into the corresponding seatings in the centre of the module,

as shown in the photograph. If necessary, use a drill bit to modify the holes for the screws made

in these, and in the other components of the landing gear in the following steps.

Apply the primer to the inside of pieces C23, C25, and piece A55. When they are dry, paint the

three pieces green – the internal sides of C23 and C25, and both sides of A55. Leave to dry.

Place piece SD38 between pieces C33 and C34, as illustrated, and carefully screw in one of the

screws TR, using it as a pivot.

3130

C23

C25

A55

C34

SD38

C33

Take piece A55, painted in the previous step, and the metal engine support C30. After smoothing

the latter with a ﬁle and abrasive paper, ﬁt and glue the pieces together, as shown.

A55

C30

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3189

Assembly Guide

Take pieces SD85, C31 and C32. Fit them together, as shown

in the photograph. Do not glue them yet.

Then, carefully ﬁt together the assembly made in the previous

step in the central module of the wing, as shown above.

Place the assembly in its ﬁnal position and ﬁt pieces C31

and C32 in the respective housings in piece A12. Apply glue

to ﬁx these joins.

Fit pieces C35 and C36 to pieces C37 and C38, without

gluing them.

3332 34

Take pieces C37 and C38, and ﬁt them both, as shown in the photograph on the left, using two brass pins as pivots. Remove the

exposed ends of the brass pins with a pair of side cutters, then secure the end of the pins with a drop of cyanoacrylate glue. Both

pieces C37 and C38 must be free to rotate, so make sure that the glue does not ﬁx them in place as well.

C31 C32

SD85

C31

C38

C37

A12

C32

C35

C38

C36

C37

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190

Assembly Guide

Left wing and landing gear

Pieces SD78 and SD79 ﬁt in the upper part of piece A12,

around the internal pegs of piece C25. Arrange the pieces in

place, but do not attach them yet.

Fit the cladding element C23 without gluing it, to check

that it ﬁts correctly. Check that piece SD38 can turn freely

outwards, through piece C23.

Very carefully, ﬁt the cover C25 onto the previous assembly as

shown in this photograph. Do not apply any glue.

After checking the assembly, take covering C23 and apply

cyanoacrylate glue to ﬁx pieces C25, SD78 and SD79 to each

other, and to the central section of the wing. Tighten the nuts

of the screws TR and remove the exposed ends of the screw

with wire cutters.

414039

Carefully make the assembly shown, assembling pieces SD78 and SD79, then adding two screws TR with their corresponding

nuts. Do not tighten them too much for the moment.

SD78 SD79

C25

SD78 SD79

C25 C23

SD38

SD78 SD79

C25

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Assembly Guide

Place one of the springs ML, supplied with this issue, inside each arm of piece SD40.Insert piece SD43 inside the tyre SD50, then ﬁt and glue pieces SD49 onto both sides.

4544

SD43

SD50

SD49

SD40

Cut two more screws TR with wire cutters to make them 4mm long (inset).

Ensure that the bolt ends are cut cleanly, as shown in the photo, otherwise

they will be very difﬁcult to screw into the assembly. Fit piece SD40 onto

piece SD85, and insert the screws on both sides.

TR x 2

4mm

SD40