Hi, All
This project will be a 1/72 scale model of a C-123K Special Ops aircraft, tail number 55-4543, which was one of four Heavy Hook/Black Bat aircraft that I worked on at Nha Trang AB, Vietnam in 1971. The planes were from the Republic of China's legendary 34th Black Bat Squadron and were on special duty with First Flight Detatchment. We supported both the C-123K Black Bat aircraft and the MC-130E Rivet Clamp aircraft.
The model I'm building is Roden's C-123B, kit #056. I'll be adding the two GE J-85-17 jet engines to make it a "K" model.
Roden has done a terrific job producing this model. It's very well constructed and detailed right out of the box. However, I'll be making some corrections and additions just to see how far I can take things.
Since I plan to detail both the cockpit and the cargo compartment, I've cut a removable section out of the top of the model, as shown below, similar to what I did with my Rivet Clamp model
Understandably, Roden left off the loadmaster's station inside the cargo bay, which is complex and would be hard to see anyway. But since I'll be able to remove the top, I'm going to take a stab at scratch building it. Also, the Black Bat aircraft had a defensive operator's console on the right side of the forward cargo deck and I'll add that as well, although my memory of how it looked is pretty dim.
The first correction I made was to reshape the ram air scoop molded on top of the fuselage. Its shape is basically correct except that the intake is too close to the fuselage and the top of the scoop is too flat. I cut the scoop off flush with the fuselage and added a strip of 1 mm-thick plastic to the bottom and top, then trimmed and sanded it to shape. The modified scoop is shown below.
I'm itching to get at the cockpit next, but because of the way the model is assembled, I'll first have to construct and detail the nose wheel well and cheek compartments.
Cheers and thanks for looking!