Anigrand C-17 - 1/72

Hey Rob,

Here is a picture of the kit before I started it, I taped it up to see how big it would be. These were taken next to a 1/72 C-130 and 1/72 Hornet (sorry about the quality of the picture). I didn't think to put a ruler inthe picture when I took it but he Hornet is about 8-9 inches long. From the Anigrand website is states a length of 736mm (29 inches) and span of 722mm (28 1/2 inches).

I am not sure what they used for refs when they created this kit, though it looked a lot like the Combat Models Vacform when I had both kits. The kit is now OOP and I don't think they would entertain correcting it now. Their 1/144 C-17 has a much better shape and does not need correcting as a far as I know.

And since it is the kit in town other than the Combat kit that is all I have to work with.

Dragging this one out of the dust.

I have finally pulled my C-17 out and done a little more work to it

Along with tinkering in the back end...

...I decided to see how to tackle the engines and pylons.

After an afternoon in the garage I have had some success. I glued one nacelle together and attacked the sides with files and sand paper to flatten them.

Picture is not that good but shows a slight shape change from the unaltered nacelle. I found after flattening the sides not as much work will be required with the  lower lip.

i51.photobucket.com/.../72_C-17_003_zpsfc7f51c3.jpg

I have added some putty to the inner intake lips to thicken them up after removing about 2mm of resin from each side.

I then turned to the engine pylons.

Anigrand supplies different shaped pylons for inboard and outboard. After looking at the Revell 1/144 kit it seems the inboard and outboard pylons should be identical.

The top pylon is an unmodified Inboard pylon, the hatched areas are to be removed to correct the shape.

The middle pylon is the unmodified outboard item and finally the lower is the modified lower pylon. As you can see I added material to the top as it is fairly flat on the actual aircraft and not sloped as Anigrand portrays it. I also extended it aft as it was too short.

So the engine intake needs cleaning up and some more shaping and the other 3 pylons need modification.

While I am at that I will tinker  with other areas I will figure out how the cockpit windscreen and roof will be rectified.

That is all for now

Well back to the nose section, I have used an upsized scan of some decals for the Revell 1/144 kit as a template for the windscreen panels. I transferred them to tape and then to a CD case.

The outlines were then scored with a hobby knife and removed from the surrounding plastic

Then test fitting and slight reworking of the cockpit area to get the bits to fit.

Finally I took part of the kit cockpit roof to fit back over the panel parts. All test fitting at this time.

Finally a comparison of the modified cockpit/forward fuselage shape compared to what the unmodified kit clear parts are like.

So it looks like I have overcome the dodgy windscreen shape of the kit.

Windscreen pillars are in. Time for some adjusting

Panels are in loose and I may make up another set that will be a snug fit...

Man, that's a lot of work.  My hats off to ya, Ray. I had no idea their C-17 needed that much work.  I've got the 72nd C-5 kit, and it has its problem areas as well, but not as bad as the C-17 apparently.

Just, Wow, what a ton'o'work....great on 'ya Ray for the patience and skill!!

Took a few more shots with the fuselage taped up. Also a size comparison with a 1/72 P-3

Eyebrow window openings added....

Still refining the shape of the nose

.. and some more work on the main wheel wells

Nice work Ray!  I had thought I wanted to get my hands on this kit; that is until I saw exactly how much re-work of the kit there is.  You are definitely doing a bang-up job on her!!  Looking forward to watching this one.