McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 Firebird II

[Mike]

McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 Firebird II

1:144 Fly Models

Firebird II is an ex-Spirit and Midway airlines DC-9 that was purchased by the US Navy in 1998, and heavily modified to perform surveillance duties by Ratheon, and based at Mojave Airport. As well as the over-sized radome, there are also a large number of aerials festooned about the airframe, and it sports a fetching white scheme with purple cheatline and Firebird crest on the tail. There's not an awful lot of information on what it does out there, as a lot of it is quite secret by all accounts.

The kit arrives in one of Fly's black end-opening boxes, and has a photo of the real thing on the front, with a chap coming down the air-stairs who probably didn't figure on being famous at the time.

Inside the box is the standard Fly DC-9 kit with all of the parts on one sprue of white styrene, a small bag of resin parts, a decal sheet and an A5 instruction booklet. Moulding is crisp, and flash is limited to small amounts round sprue gates. Purchasers of the ordinary kit will probably have wondered what the large flat part numbered 10 was - that is the base onto which most of the custom antennae fit on the top of the main fuselage.

Construction is pretty straight forward, as no interior parts are supplied, and all windows are supplied as decals. There is a small gear bay part for the nosewheel that will need affixing before closing the fuselage, and you are advised to place a nose weight in to avoid tail sitting. After that, the rear fuselage mounted engines, the wings and T-tail go together in rapid succession. Flap actuators and a small wing fence are supplied as additional parts, and gear doors are included, although there is little detail within the bays themselves. The landing gear legs are styrene, and the main wheels have nicely defined hub detail.

Installing the Firebird II's large radome involves cutting off the standard nosecone at the 2nd panel line and replacing it with the resin part, which has a finely cast fairing flange to ease fitting. The casting plug is on the tip of the cone however, so care will be needed when removing it from the part. Two further blocks are included with a profusion of aerials and blade antennae of various shapes and sizes to fit about the airframe. A helpful diagram in three views allows the modeller to correctly place them in three dimensions, so the job shouldn't be too taxing, just a little delicate.

The decal sheet includes two styles of cockpit decal, with and without silver framing. The cabin windows are separate decals from the cheatline, and have outlines for emergency exit doors. The main doors are also supplied as decals, and various panels, grilles and stencils complete the sheet, not forgetting the large Firebird logo perched atop what looks to be a rising sun. A full painting and decaling diagram is provided on the back of the box in full color.

The decals are well printed, sharp and in-register, with a good rendition (to my eyes) of the unusual purple of the livery.

Conclusion

It's a nice kit of a DC-9 in the most popular civil aircraft scale, and Fly have the only one currently available. This edition is nice because it allows the modeller to produce a unique aircraft in an unusual livery. The build is simple, the parts free of major flash, and the overall quality of the kit is more that of a mainstream manufacturer than a relatively small company.

Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[richellis]

Looks nice. The fly kit is ment to be a nice DC-9 kit. Cant wait to see some more versions!