Helo, I am sure with the forklift that it is a case of "close enough will do" I don't know when they changed though, but the pallets used by the Air Forcer for air cargo are usually of a solid aluminum construction, not slatted like the ones used in most of the civilian world. I presume this is to work with the roller systems on the floor of the cargo aircraft.

And here is another classic Korean War era color photo that I just stumbled upon and thought I would share here.

John and Draken: Nice looking builds guys! Love those forklifts John and yeah I'd think since they do come in different sizes the 1/87 shouldn't be off that much.

Gene & SP: Great stories guys, I have to admire anyone with the guts to jump out of an airplane. Only plane I ever jumped out of was sitting on the tarmac

Good on ya for sticking with the Sabre , Ghostrider . I know it's not fun when you have to mask and repaint things several times .

I just glued the wings to the fuselage ;

I did my best to eyeball the fuselage and tailbooms to make sure things looked right , I needed a full jar of hobby paint to act as a little counter weight to keep the fuselage sitting correctly . I just hope I got everything lined up correctly .

caribou johnny .

I haven't given up on my sabre, yet.  I've had to sand and repaint the stripes twice because I was having trouble getting the lines right.  I think I've got it now, I'm just waiting for some decent painting weather to retouch some of the alcad around the stripes.

Thank you kindly Stik , that's just what I needed .

I came across this pic a while back in the USAF in Korea book of a C-119 being loaded ;

So I started looking around ebay for 1/72 scale forklifts to add the aircraft dio . There's not a lot in 1/72 but plenty in 1/87 (HO scale) and I picked up these two forklifts ;

The one at the front is a GHQ models white metal forklift which require's assembly ,

It's a nice little forklift , I'm hoping it won't look to small against my 1/72 scale cargo aircraft .

The other Forklift is supposed to be close to 1/72 scale ;

I glued some plastic strips together to make a pallet with some '44 gal drums sitting in place with a Hasegawa loading crew figure .

I guess forklifts can come in different sizes in real life , it will be interesting to see how they look with the finished aircraft .

Heres a three view of the C-119. Hopefully it will answer your questions.

Nice work so far on the neptune Andy

It must be quite frustrating that your cat didn't give up the missing engine cowl

I've made a little more progress on my C-119 , there's been three sessions of puttying and sanding a lot of the joins and I think most of the hard work is behind me now ;

The upper wing fits nicely in place over the fuselage

Is there a slight dihedral to the wings or a they horizontal to the ground ?

Dry fitting them , they appear to want to angle up just a little but I'm not sure .

I'm going to have to better on the second C-119 build especially the fuselage join , I have spent way too long sanding on the first build , so I'm thinking of adding some little tabs along the bottom and top on the inside of the fuselage seam .

More progress pic's tomorrow .

caribou johnny .

Whelp, I'm to the point of putting decals on the Neptune.  Might do that later tonight, maybe not.  I'll still have to wait for two parts from the states with my wife's next mailing.  I have no idea when that will happen.  Here's what I've got for pictures, sorry about the exposure.  The camera is only giving me two options:  Over exposed, under exposed.

One free internet to whomever can tell me what's wrong with the nose (Helo_34 isn't allowed to play, he already knows.  )!

Here's a closeup of the wing search light.  I just used the kit part instead of building a new one.  Okay, I also had no detail pics of it, and was feeling lazy.

And there you have it... I know in my jump school class we had one guy who got knocked out when he collided beneath the C-130 with the jumper from the opposite door, and another pair who entangled, but  followed their training properly and came down ok. But never me

stikpusher

The C-119 had one door on each side of the clamshell. Due to their placement the jumpmaster had to stagger the jumpers out each door otherwise the possibility of collision and entanglements could result from a jumper exiting the left and right doors at the same time. With the aerodynamics of the placement of the doors on the tapering of the tail, I heard from guys who jumped those it happened more than a few times 

Yep I can verify that! My third jump in Airborne training at Ft. Benning we used a C-119 (Texas ANG). I went out the left door, and a friend went out the right door, and we cross behind the aircraft as the chutes were opening. We were very lucky in that they didn't actually tangle, but it had us both climbing the risers in a hurry! And no, the jumpmaster wasn't staggering us.

The C-119 had one door on each side of the clamshell. Due to their placement the jumpmaster had to stagger the jumpers out each door otherwise the possibility of collision and entanglements could result from a jumper exiting the left and right doors at the same time. With the aerodynamics of the placement of the doors on the tapering of the tail, I heard from guys who jumped those it happened more than a few times.

But the rear clamshell doors also could be removed for heavy drops or "ramp" jumps.

RE:  Caribou pricing

That's _WAY_ too much for that kit!  I'd definitely do some searching around on the internet.  It wasn't even that high of a price when it first came out!  I picked up mine for $12 as a swap meet, but I do see it on eBay for around $15-20 when it's available.  Weird but true!  There was an incident during the Vietnam War where a US Army C-7 was climbing out of a fire support base and was hit by and outgoing 105mm shell!  THIS WAS CAUGHT ON FILM!  If you search around you should find the images.  Wild as freaking all get out!  I don't recall that anyone survived the crash.

RE:  C-119 assy.

WAY TO GO!  Love that lime green colour.  The book that comes with the kit shows the floor as being a tiled dark green, doesn't it?  anyway, love that kit, I'm thinking it may be my next one, or else I'll do the Sunderland.  I've REALLY got to get some of these big kits our of the way before I go home!  And yes, the troops had TWO doors, one on either side, that they could jump out of.  Kind of like the C-130/141's.  What's really cool is the beaver tail version that was used to catch satellites/film cannisters as they parachuted down from space.  There's a video about it on Youtube.  I found it helping one of my friends do research for a Vod-cast he's making in review of an old '50's film.  This would be an awesome version to scratchbuild...

Helo: Oh cool John, the avatar is small enough I wasn't able to tell what sort of aircraft it is. Those are some nice looking schemes.

Stik- on the C-119 wasn't there a jump door on the back right hand side? So you didn't have to run out the open clam shell? I've seen from pics of the Paras at Dien Bien Phu sort of stepping out sideways.

Helo, I served 24 years between active and guard/reserve in the Army, of which 17 years was in airborne units. I have a fondness for transport aircraft as well. We actually had a couple of C-7s assigned to support us when I was with 19th SFG. I think they were some of the last in the inventory and were replaced by C-21 Sherpas before I left that unit in 1992. I cant believe that a 1/72 Hobbycraft C-7 is going for that much on the Ebay.  I hope for your sake that they re issue the kit soon. I have never seen one built up. Would love to see some in Army OD and USAF SEA Camo. Those Aussie schemes look pretty cool too The C-119 is looking great too... maybe someday we will see one in 1/48, the one true aircrft scale

Gamera

Great work guys!!!

Great photos SP!

And spiffy new avatar Helo!

Ahh , so Cliff you noticed the new avatar pic .....

Along with military helicopters , I have a great interest in military cargo planes and of late have taken to the DHC-4 Caribou . As usual my timing isn't the best as some of the on-line hobby stores in my neck of the woods tell me that wholesaler is no longer distributing Hobbycraft kits in Australia and the Caribou seems to be out of stock just about everwhere . This lead me to buying from ebay and I had to bid between $50-$60 for each kit to win the auction ....''ouch''

Anyway I was planning on building a fleet of Caribou's some for the U.S.Army/USAF and the Australian Army/RAAF .  Aussie decals has a nice sheet out for the RAAF ;

Wolfpak Decals has a sheet which covers a USAF bird 72-026 ;

Hobbycraft's kit has Australian markings which match the avatar pic , so I'm thinking about three Aussie Caribou's and four for the U.S . I don't suppose anyone has a Caribou kit they wnt to trade ?

Back to the C-119 , I puttied the seams yesterday and I'll sand this morning . The fuselage join wasn't the best , I'm hoping I won't loose to much raised detail while sanding .

caribou johnny.

Great work guys!!!

Great photos SP!

And spiffy new avatar Helo!

Nice progress on the H-13 build and awesome reference pic's you posted Stik .

Am I to understand that you also served in the Army Airborne Corps .

I have the fuselage halves glued together alomg with the wings and tail booms .

I have a another C-119 going as well as an USAF Thunderbirds support aircraft ; I'm running into some minor fit issue's with the first build as I discovered while trying to get the fuselage halves glued together that the cockpit instrument panel seemed to be too wide and the join along the nose kept opening up . In the end I pulled the instrument panel out and have filed down the sides to fit it back in later .

The table that fits behind the pilots is also positioned too high it should be flush the cockpit window sill .

I started searching around the internet for build reviews on the C-119 , which is something I should of done before starting ; A modeller on another web site filed down the raised detail on the cockpit rear wall so the table can be positioned lower , I've followed the same approach on the second C-119 build .

I'll sand the seams next and then putty and sand again .

More updates shortly

John .

I do look forward to seeing that C-119 completed. A very impressive bird to see up close! I heard that they were a doozy to jump from.

 They have one on display at Ft Benning at Airborne Walk along with a C-47. A nice way to keep in touch with the paratooper history/heritage while going thru jump school there.

Me in front of the C-47 many moons ago... I should gotten one in front of the C-119 too,,,

anyways back to our regularly scheduled build... I begain to paint the H-13 today- Polly Scale interior Green in the ccockpit and Tamiya Metallic Gray on the Engine.

Greg , Awesome work on the camouflage finish of your Mig-15

I started some preliminary interior painting on the Korean War C-119C Flying Boxcar

I'm hoping it will look something similar to this pic ;

John

Greg, your MiG looks good to me. I did a 1/48 one like that a few years back. Certainly one of the sharpest paint jobs that those ever wore. In 1/72 the silly putty camo masking makes sense for that scheme. In 1/48 free hand works but in Braille Scale... Yes, I had entered my Graf Spee in the Battle of the Atlantic/Shiver me Timbers GBs. Had I not had to move last summer and had it sidelined since then, it would have been finished much sooner. I basically put 2 days work into the finish... go figure...

Greg:

Love the cwazy camo! I assume that's Silly Putty? Tried it for the first time about a year ago and wish I'd tried it earlier.

I fell behind a few pages, and WOW!!!!!  Some more really great stuff going on (as always).  Steve, I am really liking the Invader and T-Jet.  Draken, awesome as always!  Stik, was the battleship for the BofA Gb?  Don't feel bad, I still have my Ju-290 about 90% from that GB.  Oh yea, and I like the chopper too.

I can't seem to make much progress on my Corsair.  It seems everytime I look at it, I have to re-do a seam or something.  If I do another Italeri -5 in the future, I will take a different approach to correcting the length!  I decided to do something quick and easy, so I could feel like I actually build models.  I am building the Airfix Mig15 in night fighter guise.  It has gone quickly, so quick that I didn't even think to take any pictures until the other day.

Here, it has worms!

And, here is how it sits now.  I have to let it dry a few days (used enamels) and then I can shoot the black for the bottom. 

Cheers,

Greg

Great info Andy , on the Neptune build .

Especially about the amount of weight reguired and the exhaust locations .

I picked up the Warpaint series Lockheed Neptune book and sadly I'm quite disappointed .

Most of the reference pictures are of the later 7 series with only a few on the prototype and early series neptune's . There is vertually nothing on the Korean War based Neptune and quite little in general on the 5 version .

The only thing of any great use is the giant fold out 1/72 scale plans ;

There is only one cockpit pic , which is really just the instrument panel , no pic's of the fuselage interior , no close-ups of the nose or tail guns or their mounts ....very , very , disappointed .

I'm not sure what other books are out there regarding the P2V-5 Neptune but I would really like to find something  better .

On a brighter note , the milicast  M119 GMC  arrived yesterday and I ordered the Centaur dozer at the same time but they were currently out of stock but will be shipped ASAP once they arrive in store .

Great Pic's of the Commando Andy and the Howitzer's ; My Ace M-101 and M-102 arrived yesterday as well , so I look forward to getting those built .

John .

Landing gear assembled and on!  Gotta paint the anti glare for the cockpit ant the interior of the canopy then it goes on.  Last few steps will be the rear guns and glass followed by gear bay doors and one prop installed, the other assembled and waiting.

Some things to watch out for, Helo:

1)  LOTS AND LOTS OF WEIGHT!  I'd added far more than anticipated and then when the gear were on had to add a ton and a half more!  This is a serious tail sitter here.  Thank goodness that there's plenty of room in the nose.

2)  PAY ATTENTION TO THE EXHAUST LOCATIONS!  I didn't find any A, B, C markings on my sprue sheets.  It makes a freaking difference!  They not only will not fit correctly, the cowl flaps won't either.

3)  Make sure which parts and which direction their pointing for the landing gear.  I have one minor f-up, I'm not saying what...

4)  I couldn't find any easy to locate pictures of the search light in the starboard wing tip, I just used the kit part.  It looks quite small for the location...

5)  DO NOT discard any other parts until you're sure that they're no longer to be needed.  I was glad because I'd used the stabilizing fins from the -7 wing tip fuel tanks to go onto the -5.  The -5 has TWO per tank, the -7 only has one, and only one is provided.  Looks a lot nicer now.  :)

Hope that this helps!  Pictures when I take them and upload them.

Well guys, the Neptune is at a standstill.  The cat srsly did send my engine cowling into another dimension.  I've got two more of these birds back in the states, I can rob at least one for a cowling.  But thne I have to wait for it to get here in the mail with other stuff.  So, until  that happens, I'm going to finish up what I can and hold off on decals and final finish until I can get that cowl!

The fuselage is assembled, painted, wings and ailerons attached, the Wing tanks assembled and attached, the landing gear mostly assembled, and all but one engine cowl of the engines is assembled.  I still need to put together the props...

I tell ya.  Leave the cat alone for a week and stuff just DISAPPEARS! 

Great builds happening here.

P2V-5 has the wings on, tail fins on, wing tip fuel tanks on, and everything painted.  Also working on the front turret.  Decided to use:

A) base units of the .30 cals guns fro the Italeri H-31.  B) seat from the driver of the M-30 by Nitto/Fujimi.   C) barrels from the wing pods of the Heller F-94B. 

It's looking a beaut!

Pics when I can upload them

Wow! Some really nice work here! I'm almost done with the decals on the F-84 and will post some new pics soon.

Steve

I have a 1/350 Arizona in my stash and will tackle it one day. Once I have gotten better with PE, because that kit certainly needs the upgrades. I want to do her proper justice in the build. MM Acryls I find to be hit and miss in quality. Some are good, some bad. But the the Testors Acryl Marine Colors are just uniformly difficult. Unfortunately no LHS stock the White Ensign paint line and I am not a fan of mail order for paints. So I went with what was available at the LHS. Between Polly Scale (a far superior acrylic line IMO), Testors Acryl Marine colors, and Tamiya, pretty much all of my ship paint color needs (not very big) are met.