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John Healy
151 articles

Eastern Airlines DC-8

September 28, 2013 · in Aviation · · 18 · 3K

This is the -63 built straight from the box. This particular a/c, N8755, was the 503rd out of a total of 556 DC-8s built. It was delivered to Eastern on 14 December 1969. It was later operated as a freighter by Arrow Air and Airborne Express. The Minicraft DC-8s are some of the nicest airliner kits ever made. This one assembled without so much as a dab of filler.

Reader reactions:
5  Awesome

6 additional images. Click to enlarge.


18 responses

  1. Super good, great job.
    Great paint, it must have been lots of fun to get those decals on straight with a fuse that long

  2. Nice-lookin' build...what are the dimensions? I'll bet it's bigger than it looks.

  3. Great job. You were brave enough to include that overhead shot. Hard to get everything symmetrical. Have to say you nailed it.
    Do you use Voodoo gray on your wings?

    • I didn't use Voodoo gray on this one. Voodoo gray is a close approximation for Boeing and Douglas gloss gray. Most DC-8s were delivered with natural metal/coroguard wings. Some airlines later added gray portions. This a/c had no gray on it. The center portions of the wings are coroguard which I cut from an old ATP generic coroguard decals sheet.

  4. Wowza Yowza! That looks very nice.

  5. John,
    This is absolutely beautiful. Having done a few airliners I know. That they are harder to do than military aircraft. They require a lot more finesse. You have completely captured this airliner. I really like what you have done here.

    • Thanks Frank! It's a great kit and I happen to have loved DC-8s since I first flew in a United -20 series many moons ago! It's just a great plane. The economic crash in 2008/09 is what finally killed them. UPS parked its fleet of 40 in '09. If that recession hadn't happened, you'd still see them today.

  6. I know little about airliners, John, but this one looks fantastic, good job.

  7. Beautiful job, Jon.

  8. One of these took me to boot in Dago in 76. Really pretty plane.

  9. Nice build, even if it isn't military.

  10. You left the turrets off.

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