1:72 Douglas DC-3/C-47 Československé Aerolinie 1946-1959

Dakotas in postwar airline colors

Civil aviation in Czechoslovakia was rebuilt practically from nothing after 1945, and the backbone of the resumed service became the twin-engine Douglas that had spent the war in uniform. The aircraft came from Allied military surplus, were converted to airline standard and then for many years flew both domestic routes and connections to European cities. It is exactly these machines that this sheet covers.

An aircraft that outlived its era

The mid-1930s design proved exceptionally tough. Its undemanding landing gear legs coped with grass fields without a paved runway, the engines could be repaired in the field, and the payload was enough for both cargo and passengers. With the Czechoslovak carrier the type stayed in service until newer Soviet-built equipment gradually pushed it out, roughly by the end of the 1950s.

Working with the sheet

Prepare a gloss surface under the decals so that no air is trapped under the film and the edges do not silver. Cut each marking out as close as you can, soak it for a few seconds and let it slide off the paper; do not pull it with tweezers. Settle the lettering along the fuselage with a decal softener so that it beds into the panel lines. Finally seal everything with varnish.

What you need to have

Neither the aircraft model nor the paints are included; the decals go onto a finished and varnished surface. The metal surfaces of the fuselage deserve attention already at the spraying stage: airliners of that period had a polished duralumin skin on which individual panels differed slightly in shade, and it is exactly that irregularity that makes the result look alive.