The Italeri 1/72nd WACO CG-4A Glider (Finished)

That looks incredible.  Have fun with the P-61.  That will be an adventure, too!

CC,

Thanks! It is incredible... that I actually did try to make something like that! 

The P-61 is an interesting story.  I never considered buying it, as I had read that it was a difficult kit, and the canopy didn't fit well.  So about a year and a half ago what does my nephew buy me for Christmas?  The P-61!  He seemed so glad I didn't already have this one in my stash.

So that's why I have a P-61 sitting on my "to do" table.  I think I will build it and give it back to him as a "Christmas" present.    Ah, well... I always seem to end up with the difficult kits.

Gary

Very nicely done.

Toshi

Don't think "difficult", think "interesting"!  Yes, the clear parts are too small.  You can get a pricy replacement from Vector.  I used the outline of the main pieces to file down the fuselage to match; there's a lot of plastic there.  By posing the hatches open it's harder to notice that the hatches are too small as well.  It turns out OK.

Okay, first, Im not really on board as to the "trend" modeling discussions now appear to be heading (lol), but, having said that, you did some fine work on that pit! 

allan

Okay, first, Im not really on board as to the "trend" modeling discussions now appear to be heading (lol), but, having said that, you did some fine work on that pit! 

Thanks, Allan!

Yeah, joke's done.  I'm going to turn it into a regular WIP thread.  Well, about as regular as I can.

Gary

Now what do the Gods of Modeling say? More they say, more toil, more detail. There will never be enough. Toil and detail at the Alter of Sprue!! The Gods demand it.  

Nice work on that under build subject. Looking forward to seeing more.

BK

I almost didn't find the thread.

Time for another update on the WACO glider.

In the last week or so, I've managed to get the fuselage and tail planes together, assemble the wings, the landing gear and attach quite a few small (did I say "small") parts.  Bracing for the cockpit is finished.  The canopy is not glued, just stuck on.  The cargo trailer is ready to be inserted into the fuselage, but I'll do that last before I glue the cockpit on.  The tarp over the trailer is made of aluminum foil.

In the meantime, I've started work on a 1/72nd scale jeep that may make it into the diorama I have planned (if I can find room).  It's rather simple, which I like a lot!

Last night, I assembled the fuselage and wings, along with the bracing.  I also punched out some masking circles for the round windows in the fuselage.  The landing gear will be assembled and attached next.  I wanted to get those round windows masked before the gear went on to make them easier to reach.

Here's a mockup of the WACO.  It's actually beginning to look like some sort of aircraft. Sort of.  Probably needs a bit more seam sanding.

Note I still need to mask the upper fuselage window and canopy.  I'll cover the window and the canopy with aluminum foil (to forego any chance of the tape pulling the paint up).
Then it will be glue on the landing gear and tacky-glue the cockpit to the fuselage, then it's off to primer!

Next time she should be in OD, which is another question I'm asking myself.  What color is a WACO glider?

Thanks for looking!

Gary

PS> And yes, that's a Monogram DH-98 in the background.  I'm looking at it for my next "restoration" project, as it's another one of those models I kept from my "yuth".

Nice! And a jeep too.  Look at how square that fuselage is, sort of like a Stinson on steroids.

Bish,

Thanks!  Not sure about the effort, except for the cockpit.  Everything else is just stock.

Allan,

Yep, square!  Like the Waco

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Canadian-Museum-of/Waco-AQC-6/1985723/L/

Gary

It's been awhile since the last update.  One reason for the delay was the weather.  Another was a disaster.

I had gotten the WACO together and masked for paint, but the weather took a turn for the worse.  It seems like I only have to get something ready to paint and it starts to rain around here.  Go figure.

But after a week, the weather turned nice again and I was able to apply a first coat of primer, just as a color check and to test the seams.  I figured I would have to redo the seams, and after the primer dried I decided to try filling stuff with "Future".It seems to level well and can go on easily, so I thought I would try it. I proceeded to layer it into the seams and across the fuselage.  If didn't work, I could remove it with alcohol and use a different compound.

Unfortunately, while handling the model, disaster struck.  I heard a snap and one of the wheels came off.

Now I knew the landing gear attachments were pretty flimsy, so it didn't surprise me that it had broken off.  It did set me back, and I had to try to figure out how to fix it.  I tried Tenaxing the part back, but it did not hold and broke again.

So now I'm at that point in a build where you go "What do I do about this?"  I'm going to try building a new frame out of wire, tape and contact cement, but I don't know if it will be any stronger than the Tenax.  We'll see.  At the moment, the first part of that reconstruction is drying, and I'll update this post when I see the result.

Thanks for looking!

Gary

Bish,

Thanks!  It wasn't as hard to fix as I thought, but it did take some manipulation.

The first thing I did was remove the lower two struts from the bracing, leaving the long piece that attaches to the upper fuselage.  I cleaned up the attachment points and using a #11 X-Acto blade drilled small holes for the new struts to fit into.  I figured this would give them some extra strength.  I then took a paperclip (the bare metal variety) and cut a piece for the main wheel brace.  With some shears and a pair of needle nose pliers, I adjusted it until it closely matched the angle of the bracing on the opposite side.

I then cut a piece for the next strut.  Before assembly, I found the wheel would not fit the new strut, and was too loose, so I wrapped some tape around the end.  It seemed to work.  Then I punched out a plastic disc from some scrap sheet and drilled a hole for the strut to fit through, matching up the opposite side.

After that, some contact cement on the wheel strut, fitting it into the new fuselage hole and on the remaining vertical brace, then allowed that to dry for an hour. I then attached the second strut to form a "V".  Applied some dabs of more contact cement and set assemblage aside to dry.

After a couple of hours, this is the result:

Seems strong enough for now.  I'm not sure how it will hold up over time, but I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Thanks for looking!

Gary

Excellent job on the Waco and great comeback for the wheel disaster.  Are you going to do a D-Day or Market Garden one?  If so, don't worry about getting your invasion stripes perfect as in this example found on Wiki Commons:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/C-47s-316tcg-37tcs-d-day.png

The stripes are crooked and ragged.

Thanks, richs26!  Yeah, those are from Market Garden (probably) as the invasion stripes are only on the bottom of the aircraft.

This is part of a diorama, and she will be behind this:

With luck no more disasters will occur with the WACO.

Gary

Sorry about the gear, but I am enjoying your build.  Always wanted to get one built.  Why did I build the Me-321 first?

Bish, John:

Thanks for the kind words.  I've been putting another coat of primer on her today, and later on (after that dries), I'll see about masking and putting a coat of OD on her.

First I think I need to do something about bracing wires on the tail section.  I've noticed them in pictures, but nothing on the model.  Well, a bit more scratch-building and she'll be ready.

Gary

Gary,

Love the Waco! The local warbird museum here in Nampa, ID has an old Waco glider that someone took and made a camp trailer out of. The thing has been brought into the museum and they have peeled the "added materials" back to show the frame and some of the original fabric skin of the glider. Its kind of cool that someone had the ability to look at this thing and say, "wow, I'm pretty sure this was an old Waco glider".

jelliott523

Gary,

Love the Waco! The local warbird museum here in Nampa, ID has an old Waco glider that someone took and made a camp trailer out of. The thing has been brought into the museum and they have peeled the "added materials" back to show the frame and some of the original fabric skin of the glider. Its kind of cool that someone had the ability to look at this thing and say, "wow, I'm pretty sure this was an old Waco glider".

I've heard of such things, including people who made houses out of Horsa gliders over in England.  Guess after the war there was not much use for them.

Meanwhile, it's been a while since my last update. I'm pretty slow. It takes a while for me to work up the courage to attempt the next step in the build process, especially since I tend to bend, break or mess up that next step.

But onward and upwards! Downwards too!

After I had fixed the broken wheel, I decided my next task was to figure out what color to paint the WACO, so I did some tests with various shades of OD. While doing this, I noticed that Italeri had left off some very important struts for the horizontal stabilizers. Plus, I needed to add the cabling from the top of the horizontal stabilizers to the vertical stabilizer.

The struts were easy. I used some plasticard about 1/8” thick and cut out some strips. I then sanded and scrapped them into a rough aerodynamic shape. A bit of adjustment and they were on and looking not bad. Unfortunately, while doing this work, I managed to break off the REAR tail wheel!   I knew applying the fiddly bits would be a pain while working, but I did it all the same, just to show 'em!  It sank into the swamp...

Luckily, I had not applied the bracing strut to the rear wheel, so with that part and some Tenax, the rear wheel was reattached and seems to be holding up fairly well.

I then took some piano wire and cut and adjusted the length to make the cabling for the bracing on the top of the stabs. I had tried some wire-looking thread material, but could not get it to stretch or attach well enough without sagging. The piano wire worked just as well, and didn't give me the headaches the thread did.

Afterwards, I gave the model a coating of Model Master Flat OD, leaving some areas a bit lighter. I then took MM Faded OD Acrylic and brushed it on over the base OD. This left some splotching I hadn't expected, but I used some alcohol and gave the areas a good wipe down, generally leaving the areas with a duller, streaked appearance that I thought looked okay.

I decided to tackle the invasion stripes next, leaving some of the paint work till later so I could touch up the stripes also.  I had some questions concerning the positioning of the stripes on a glider with one source saying one thing and Italeri's instructions making no sense to what I was seeing.  I finally decided to go by a photo of the real thing, and tried to match up my masking with that.  The only item I'm sure of is the directive for the wings that the stripes be 6" from the edge of the insignia, so I based my placement on that and the photo.

It's always good to have photographic evidence.

Masking the model was a task with all the bracing and struts, but I finally managed to wrap up the areas in enough aluminum foil and tape to cover everything.

I removed the front cockpit area before continuing, as one of the pilots had escaped his harness and was rattling around inside.  It would be easier to fix that with the cockpit area separate.

I gave the stripe area a coating of flat white, and after removing the masking found the paint had stayed mostly where it was supposed to.

And that is where she is at the moment. Next up is masking for the black stripes and brushing them on, plus touch up work and finishing for the paint.  Not too much longer now.

Thanks for looking!

Gary

Nicely done!

Toshi

Your C-47/glider is such a cool project and despite the problems you've had on it you're doing a marvelous job  with it.  I'm adding  this to my mental stash list for future to-do someday.

Bish, Toshi, Jay Jay,

Thanks for following along.  I must admit, I need to learn how to NOT glue on all the fiddly bits until the major parts are assembled and painted, but sometimes it's hard to determine what is best left off, and what is safe to be attached.  I haven't attached the pitot tube and cable attachment point to the canopy yet as  I need to do some work on the attachment point so I can put a cable there.

I do intend to make a diorama of the C47 / WACO in takeoff position.  I would rather do them in flight, but a tow cable would be ~4.86' long, and that would make for a sizable diorama!  Would be interesting to put them on individual stands, but difficult to display.

At the moment, the black stripes are on and I'm finishing touch up work on the paint.  By next weekend I hope she will be finished (or close to it).

Gary

A quick update on the Waco CG-4A today.  Things are moving along swiftly now as the final steps are engaged.   Barring any further mishaps, she should be ready by next weekend.  I'm jinxing this, I know!

After getting the base white coat of paint on the wings and fuselage for the invasion stripes, I used a piece of plasticard and marked out the stripe intervals on it in pencil.  This short piece of plastic was easier to handle than a ruler, and the marks were already correct without me having to read increments in millimeters.  Using it, I marked out the distances across the white base for the stripes in several places.  Then I could take strips of Tamiya tape and lay them down according to the pencil marks.

I thought I had taken a photo of the masked stripes, but apparently I missed it.  I then brushed the black stripes on with MM flat black paint.   Removing the tape, I found to my surprise 'no runs, no drips, no errors'.  Wow!

I then proceeded, using MM Faded OD, to do some touch up work, spreading it thin with paint thinner.  A bit of spots on the underside grey paint and she was now looking almost ready.  I cut out one of the insignia to see how my placement looked.

Some touch up work on the struts and tires (evident in this photo) remains.

And that's progress so far.  A bit more touch up, securing the cockpit to the fuselage (now that the pilots are once more safely belted into their seats), a spray of gloss-coat so the decals can be applied, and some work on the canopy and she'll be ready to tow!

Meanwhile, a pair of stalwart British types sit idly by waiting for their turn at the paint booth.  But they've been waiting for over 40 years, so they can wait a little longer.  :D

Thanks for looking!

Gary

Man, that thing is looking awesome. I would love to add one to the stash.

BK

Nice, Gary.  Almost there now.