flieger

This is a very old Tipp&Co (TCO) Super Constellation "The Flying Dutchman". As far as I know, this was the first one made by TCO with friction and electric lights. Later ones did not have the lights anymore and the last was with electric engine and retractable gear.

Anthony, can you help!?

I found this aircraft in a more than poor condition on a Munich flewmarket. It was not that expensive, but there was considerable reason for the low price: It was entirely (and if I say "entirely", I mean "entirely") coated with clear coat. Of course also some bent tin parts...

The plane was completely seperated into parts. The operational parts and the rubber tyres were freed from the clear coat by alcohol. Most of the original paint of these parts I was able to safe.
The lower wing and the lower body section as well as the horizontal stabiliser have been newly painted, since it was not possible to remove just the clear coat without destroying the original paint.
The upper wing section, the upper body and the vertical stabs were kept, since an application of solvent would have been too risky due to the litographic printings. So I just sanded the clear coat down to reduce the thickness and negative appearance. Later on polishing, of course.
During the re-assembling I was able to make light and friction again operational. I was surprised to get a suitable set of springs and lights in my local toy shop, since they normally only carry plastic toys from China anymore.....

I love this plane, even though the newly painted parts hardly stand everyday play (There was a good reason to print these toys and not to paint them, the paint is simply too weak for young and older boys....).

Ah, and one thing: A tin balance weight was added into the nose to keep it standing upright.

.....

Chris

ANTHONY F DUVA JR

That looks nice. Lots of variants of Tipp Co Lufti and KLM Constellation on record!

Re: Clear coat:

I bought a plane like this three summers ago.



Part of the wing seems to have been sprayed with a sort of lacquer that does not affect the condition or appearance to any extent at all, but is only noticeable if your eyes are close up to the wing.

You are lucky to have found one with the electric lights. That feature is unusual.

Another version had less realistic, higher stabilizers and punched-out (rather than lithographed) windows. I have never seen retractable landing gear on a plane like this.

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flieger

Anthony,

thanks for the support. Your TCO Connie looks great.
So far I thought, that all KLM Connies from TCO had this electric light. I am surprised, that this is such a rare feature.
It requires a strange 3 Volt battery, which was only used for older toys. It took a while to find one.

I would not have so much concerns on the remaining clear coat, if it wouldn't have faded over the years. As you can see on the pic, the model turned out to be very yellowish, that's the coat, and it looks kinda strange.

Sorry for the "retractable". What I mean is "turnable", that should be the latest TCO Connie with the external battery box operating as remote control unit. This one also has the higher stabiliser put on top of the fuselage.

Chris

ANTHONY F DUVA JR

I LOVE the die cast nose gear strut on the remote control Connie, with its "steerable" wheels. It's as realistic as one is to find on a mere toy.

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