Originally Posted by A2Dskyshark

As a proud owner of the JC Wings prototype MD-11 model and a 40 year veteran of Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, I was concerned that the colors were wrong and truthfully, I couldn't remember what they originally were. I was on the C-17 at the time and things were not going too well for the C-17 and the MD-11. I walked over to look at the prototype MD-11 when it rolled out and I was jealous that they had a complete airplane and the C-17 was still struggling.

Anyway, I have a book on the MD-11 by Arthur A C Steffen published by Aerofax that describes the colors as "gold accentuated Burgundy". There's also a good picture on page 15 of the front 1/2 of the aircraft and it confirms the book description. I would say the model's red needs to be a little more purplish, but all in all, I think the model does a pretty good job of representing the original and I am satisfied with the model. The colors look close enough to the photo and I am sure the colors on the tail were the same as on the fuselage. Later, when they had more time, McDonnell-Douglas painted the second prototype in full house colors of various shades of burgundy, white and some gold trim. I never liked those house colors and they soon went away.

It was a sad day when, on Feb 22, 2001, they delivered the last MD-11 to Lufthansa. It was the last big commercial aircraft Douglas Long Beach would ever deliver. The aircraft took off with everyone outside watching. After takeoff, the aircraft cleaned up and did a big circle around Long Beach airport and came roaring back down the runway at low level and high speed. Most of us have never seen a large airliner flying that low at high speed. The wing tips were curved way up like some of the Hogan plastic models. It was amazing and there were few dry eyes in the house. What a send-off.