1/72 C-130 "Fat Albert" Trashed

Looking forward to this WIP!

Your friend, Toshi

I almost bought this kit at the IPMS show in Orlando. It will be nice to see how this one builds up. TY for posting.

Fat Albert is one of the neatest looking C-130s flying. I also look forward to this build. The C130 began its production in the early 1950s (1953 IIRC) and many are still flying today. She joins the B-52, The C-47 (many are stil on active duty), the A-4, T-33s and very few others. The F-14, F-4, and many others are out of service. 

The Blue Angles will be the main attraction at the Thunder Over Michigan air show this year and Fat Albert will do her part in the show. 

Good luck with your build. The kit is a good one.

I have the same kit and it too been in the stash longer than I can remember.

I spent a lot time up in the wheel wells of Marine KC-130's. It was something I never thought to photograph. There was a black radome anti-icing duct that ran along the upper right side then across the nose section panel. On Air Force C-130's, the LOX tank also sits on the R/H side.

I wouldn't bother detailing the nose wheel well, with the kit sitting on it's gear, nothing would be visible anyways. Same with the MLG WW's unless you were to raise the upper gear doors, which were pinned up for maintenance access.  

Have been looking forward to your build on this one.  Your gloss paint skills will get a workout with it.

Thanks Toshi!

Jay Jay, if it builds up like all the other Italeri C-130 kits, then it should build up pretty nice.  Only thing I am worried about is the decals, they seem to have yellowed a bit, and I'm concerend about the paint matching.  Time will tell. 

rangerj, Herc's are my favorite plane of all time, I love every single one of them, lol.  Sadly I've never seen an F-14 or F-4 flying person, and it sucks I never will.  We are having Thunder of Niagara here this year, but we have the Thunderbirds, the Canadian Snowbirds, and the F-22 Raptor demo team.  I don't think the Blue Angels have been here since roughly 2007.  Thank you!

Archangel Shooter, I like taking the time to detail stuff, that way it takes me a little longer to get through a kit.  Sometimes I have a problem completeing them in record speed, lol. 

goldhammer, yes I'm sure they will!  Im going to be spending a lot of time sanding things, get them as smooth as possible.  I was even thinking about re-scribing panel lines, since I got the tool for it now.  I'm not sure if I want to use this build as a guinea pig though.

Spent the afternoon working on the cockpit area.  It's not highly detailed or weathered, you won't really see it anyway. 

Before I close things up.

Where I've left of for now.  Need a break, can't sit at my bench for that long, lol.

Keyda,

Great looking start, and glad to see you back doing WiP's. I'll be along for the ride.

A couple of weeks of sunshine will fix the decals 

K, there is an F-4D in private hands that is doing the air show circuit. It is painted in the markings of Col. Robin Olds' Viet Nam F-4. The original aircraft is at the USAF Museum.

An F-4 with both J-79s in full afterburner is an impressive sight! I have spent a lot of time in a C-130 and jumped out of them on numerous occassions. She is a great old bird.

Thanks Hunter!  I'm in the for the long haul now, hell has frozen over, lol.  Seriously though we have -20 to -30 degree windchills for the next few days.

GMorrison, I was thinking about doing that, but my luck it will fade the blue.  I may even just paint the yellow stripe on and just not use those decals.  See what happens when I cross that bridge.

rangerj, Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll come to the Thunder of Niagara this year, I'll keep my fingers crossed!  I've been aboard a Herc, but only while it was sitting in the hanger.  I've had them fly over my head several dozen times while they were still stationed here, but never in one while it was flying. 

Keyda81

Thanks Hunter!  I'm in the for the long haul now, hell has frozen over, lol.  Seriously though we have -20 to -30 degree windchills for the next few days.

Dang!! I am in 16 inches of snow at it's no where near that cold here. I hope you have a lot of fire wood. I bet you have "cabin fever" by the time spring rolls around.

OK, K. I'm in no position to be giving you advice, but I will anyhow. Whether or not you use the decals or paint, paint the stripe white and then mask it to go with the blue.

Then decal, or mask back the other way.

I don't think the blue will fade. The yellow os the acid in the paper attacking the glue; it will go away.

Here's some motivation, Keyda, from the 2008 California Capital Airshow.

Of course these guys were there trying to steal the show. "Fat" chance, eh?

Keyda, One morning at Bike Week in Daytona Beach I had breakfast with a gentleman who had recently retired from the Air Force. His job after pilot training? Flying C-130s. His job for thirty years in the USAF? Flying C-130s. Needless to say, he enjoyed the airplane and everything it could do.

Many years ago, when the city of Kissimmee still had their annual airshow, the Blue Angels were the highlight act of the show. Fat Albert always performed a few fly-bys for us. This is back when the Blues were flying A-4 Skyhawks. Always quite a show!

Hunter, cabin fever usually sets in around February for me.  I hate winter.  I wish I could sleep through it like the bears do!

GMorrison, I appreciate the advice.  I'm still learning as I go.  Trial and error thing with me, lol.  So any advice is always welcome!

jeaton, thanks for the pics!  I noticed that is a newer Herc than what my kit represents.  They also painted it wrong, if you look at the box the middle section of the fuselage between the wings is blue, and it should be white, lol. 

fotofrank, What's not to love about the C-130!  I just feel like I grew up with them in a way.  They were stationed at the local air base from 1971-2017.  Hopefully one of these days the Blue Angels will come to Thunder of Niagara again.  Fingers crossed!

Got the wings and stabilizers glued on.

Decided to just throw a coat of primer on after masking everything off to see how much work was going to need to be done.  Quite a bit, lol.

Doesn't look bad in the first pic, but get a bit closer....

I'll be doing a lot of sanding tomorrow.  Question for those of you that re scribe panel lines, how exactly do you go about that?  One side at a time so you have reference after sanding them off?  Or just small sections at a time?  I'm still considering re-scribing the panel lines on this.  I know I'm going to sand them right off when I work on the seams.

You haven't missed much by not being airborne in the cargo hold of one.  Rode one in '75 from Shaw AFB, SC to Birmingham with a load of ECM pods and gear for an exercise involving the Guard Phantoms there.  Like being inside a washing machine full of boots.

  Once we got the pods loaded, the time was ours, so we spent it teaching the guys how to fix equipment, order parts, schedule, etc., and tried to get as many of their bird's ECM systems back up and running.  Have to say, a bunch of eager guys, they all came in on their evenings (own time) to learn.

Think we got the same tail number on the way back as well........

Funny story about when we came home with two pods less than we left with, classified material you know.  Bird broke and was at Keesler, MS.  Had to send one of Shaw's birds down to bring them back, and they had no equipment to transfer them except for the ECM classes, using raw manpower.  We got one of them, had a real good laugh when we showed him how to actually load pods.  He thought it was all done by hand.

Looking nice so far, waiting on paint, and know you are going to knock it out of sight.

My friend Airman Jim flew in C-124's during Vietnam.  "Old Shaky".

Keyda, if you don't want to rescribe the whole model,it's not too difficult to restore the raised panel lines using Mr. Surfacer 1000 or some other thick paint. Simply apply a strip of tape on each side of the raised panel line forming a very thin/small gap ,the width of the original panel line ,and fill it in with the paint. Remove the tape after about 20 minutes and the raised surface will magically appear.

Thanks for the story goldhammer!  I have heard that weren't the most comfortable planes to fly in, lol.  If I manage I'm going to try and scrounge up the money to take a ride in "Whiskey 7" this summer.  It's a C-47 Skytain owned by the National Warplane musuem in Geneseo. 

GMorrison, From what I hear none of the cargo planes are all that much fun to fly in, lol.

Jay Jay, After looking at more photos of Fat Albert I might just sand off the panel lines all together, and not bother rescribing.  The panel lines are not very visible on Fat Albert, so I think re-scribing isn't the greatest idea.  I think I will just sand them down so they aren't so visible, and try to get a nice smooth surface for the gloss paint.  I'm probably going to be sanding for days!

To me the worst AF cargo plane to fly in was the C-119.  The noise was awesome/awful.

I feel that panel lines are not a thing in 1/72.

GMorrison

I feel that panel lines are not a thing in 1/72.

 

Yea, I'm not going to worry about them too much.  I've started the sanding process along the main seam....I'm going to be there a while, lol. 

Oh how I wanted this kit back in the 80’s when I was a kid!  I was so fascinated by that Blue Angel paint.  I may just have to hunt one down for the stash some day.

Mopar Madness

Oh how I wanted this kit back in the 80’s when I was a kid!  I was so fascinated by that Blue Angel paint.  I may just have to hunt one down for the stash some day.

 

I found mine on eBay.  I'm sure there are a few still floating around on there.  If you can't find one at a reasonable price you could pick up a different kit, and just get the Caracal decals. 

Good luck on the sanding, everything looks fantastic.  I’m looking forward to the actual paint job.

Your friend, Toshi

Now you've made me think twice about redoing/removeing my C-119"s raised panel lines but...NAAW it's already done with the complicated 1950's four color USAF paint job. I bet it would look a lot better without them though. If I ever build another, I will definately remove all those unsightly over raised panel lines.

Back when the Blue Angels switched from A-4 Skyhawk to the F-18 Hornet, I got a chance to see their Fat Albert do a RATO take off.  It was startling to see such a lumbering beast leap into the air.  Even more surprising was that the sound of the RATO packs was where the Vipers from the old Battlestar Galactica TV show got their "turbo" sound effect!  The F-18s put on a great display, especially the low speed, low altitude, high AOA flyby.  But the Herk's RATO takeoff was what I thought was most memorable.

I only got to see the Blue Angels' F-4 Phantoms once, in 1970.  To a little kid, they were impressive as heck, with their thundering J-79 engines spewing smoke.

The C-130 is a subject that really deserves a new 21st century tool. The Italeri kit (and the Airfix and ESCI ones too) have soldiered on well past their "sell by" date.  With so many variants and operators, it is surprising no manufacturer has stepped up to the plate.

I believe there are aftermarket decals for Fat Albert (Caracal?). You could fill those seam lines and restore raised panel lines with stretched sprue.  I have been using sprue more than putty lately, as it lays down a lot more neatly, and if you carefully scrape most of the excess off with a knife before switching to sandpaper, you loose a lot less detail.

Good luck on your build!

Thanks Toshi!

Jay Jay, Sanding them completely gone is a bit more work than I thought it would be.  I'm still in the process of sanding things.  I'll see what I can live with, and what I can't.  This will be the longest part of this build for sure.  What C-119 kit was it?  I plan on building one of those for the planes of Niagara idea I have, but haven't settled on a kit yet.

Real G, I have yet to see Fat Albert in person.  I've seen the Blue Angels fly right over my house about 10 yrs ago.  But I couldn't attend the show back then, and they haven't been here since.  I am surprised that there really aren't any other kits out there for the Herc's.  I agree it's time for a new kit!  Thanks for the tip with the stretched sprue.  I may just do that.  Sanding every thing smooth is a bit more time consuming than I thought. 

After the first round of sanding and adding putty.

Got the props painted.

Second coat of primer.

Better, but still needs more work.

Nice job on seam clean up Keyda. I’ve seen Fat Albert many times at the ElToro air shows from the mid 70’s until that base closed in the late 90’s. Certainly the prettiest Herky Bird I ever saw. 

Like some of the other folks here I have plenty of one way trips on them as well. And after several hours of flying nap of the earth in them, you always got to a point of not minding getting out of them without landing first... lol!