Thanks you sirs (and helmeted rodent) ;-) The next update photos will be ugly when the paintwork around the seams is sanded away... then CA to fill any gaps, etc....

All the test fitting that I did showed that little bits here and there would be visible, so thats why I kept adding stuff. It looks properly busy inside, as I intended, now that its all assembled.

Yes, very cool SP!

Pretty cool stuff but there just has to be a way to fit more guns on it.

bitbite

Pretty cool stuff but there just has to be a way to fit more guns on it.

Sorry this is a B-25 but it's sorta close...

I need to own that!  

bitbite

Pretty cool stuff but there just has to be a way to fit more guns on it.

there is... I still have yet to add the package guns on the fuselage sides. Not quite as much of a meat chopper as that B-25 ( I have one of those to build one day in the stash too) but still pretty mean for anything less well armored than a medium tank on the receiving end...

Okay, this is where my build now stands.  She's been waiting for tail code letters that arrived in the mail today.   All my efforts to create them failed, so I managed to find a sheet (for B-17s) that I can use to create what I need.

It still needs some more weathering, work on the antenna (I broke the forward one off), and general clean-up.  Then I can mask the windows and matte coat her.  Should have her finished this weekend.

I have come to realize that 1:72nd scale is not my cup of tea.  Especially with one eye being out of shape.

Gary

Looks great Gary. Let me fire up the jug and i'll fly escort for you.

That looks really nice Gary, I really like the look on the control surfaces contrasting with the surrounding areas.

Very appealing, Gary.  Good work!

Thanks, guys!

Ken> Good work on that P-47!  She's a great companion to that P-38.  And you should be warming the engine up if you're flying escort!

Stik> You know, with the amount of detail work you put into that B-26 it's a shame to close her up!  That's a beauty.

CMK02>  Thanks! How's the B-24 coming? 

And here's one last shot of my C-47 before I spray her down with matte finish (just to make sure I have "some" record of it if things go horribly wrong).

  Tail codes are on, weathering done, antenna fixed (and fixed again... and again).  Stack number "36" chalked on side and nose.  Windows masked.  It's late tonight, but tomorrow I'll give her a coating and she'll be ready.  D+16.

Gary

Sweet, dude.

I forgot mention, I still need to make nose art for the jug. I have a sheet of clear decal paper. Now the trick is finding it LOL

Ken

gary, very nice indeed.

Ken, now that's not good, better get them found. I can change the pic on the front page.

Oh that C-47 just keeps looking better. Actually the aircraft numbers on the fuselage sides are called "chalks" (after how they are written on, using chalk) for the "stick" of jumpers.  A "stickpusher " is the last man out , pushing out the rest ahead of him... something I know a little bit about... The photo below is "chalk 19" of the 101st Airborne, 502nd PIR Pathfinders.

Well the past couple of days have been busy for me, so not too much bench time to get at this puppy... but I have made some progress anyways

I got the upper fuselage seam sanded and filled and rescribed the lost panel detail. I am starting to get things masked for the touch up painting of the OD

one bomb rack completed removing the solid portions that should not be there. Some of the work ended up thinning the kit part too much and they broke so I had to replace those cross members with some strip styrene. With the un modified rack for comparison.

I added the Quick Boost barrel to the ball mount nose gun- apologies for the poor focus. hopefully tomorrow I can get a better photo before work

and now I know that I have gone insane- I have decided to wire up the engines after detail painting...

Thats all for now...

stikpusher

Oh that C-47 just keeps looking better. Actually the aircraft numbers on the fuselage sides are called "chalks" (after how they are written on, using chalk) for the "stick" of jumpers.  A "stickpusher " is the last man out , pushing out the rest ahead of him... something I know a little bit about... The photo below is "chalk 19" of the 101st Airborne, 502nd PIR Pathfinders.

In the words of Gunny Highway, "Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft is not a natural act."

Okay, Stik... that's enough!  You keep going like this and you'll be cutting the back fringe off the engines and building cylinders, carburetors, and crankshafts!  You are a sick man!   

That is some impressive work!

Yes, those are "Chalk Numbers".   However, this particular aircraft doesn't have a "stick" of parachutists.  It's set up to tow something (and you'll have to see the 1944 GB to find out what).    My use of stack may have been incorrect, but I was referring to how the aircraft were "stacked" up for take-off.  Mea culpa!

Thanks!

Gary

Bish

gary, very nice indeed.

Ken, now that's not good, better get them found. I can change the pic on the front page.

Okay I'll find it today Bish Sorry

pyrman64

stikpusher

Oh that C-47 just keeps looking better. Actually the aircraft numbers on the fuselage sides are called "chalks" (after how they are written on, using chalk) for the "stick" of jumpers.  A "stickpusher " is the last man out , pushing out the rest ahead of him... something I know a little bit about... The photo below is "chalk 19" of the 101st Airborne, 502nd PIR Pathfinders.

In the words of Gunny Highway, "Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft is not a natural act."

No it is not...

GAF

Okay, Stik... that's enough!  You keep going like this and you'll be cutting the back fringe off the engines and building cylinders, carburetors, and crankshafts!  You are a sick man!   

That is some impressive work!

Yes, those are "Chalk Numbers".   However, this particular aircraft doesn't have a "stick" of parachutists.  It's set up to tow something (and you'll have to see the 1944 GB to find out what).    My use of stack may have been incorrect, but I was referring to how the aircraft were "stacked" up for take-off.  Mea culpa!

Thanks!

Gary

My guess would be a CG-4A.... Gliders had "chalks" of troops as well. I am not overly familiar with Glider troops procedures, but an educated guess says that the glider would be assigned a tug with the same chalk number.

Gary: She looks great, looking forward to the completed photos!

SP: Wow, you are on a rampage-awesome work so far.

At this point, once I get the other engine wired up, the only bit of extra detailing that I plan to do is at the tail guns. Otherwise I intend to wrap this all up in the near future... Enough I say!!!

Thank you folks for the kind words.

 
Okay, stick a fork in her... she's done in all her mistaken finery.

This C-47 represents an aircraft of the 301st Troop Carrier Squadron, 441st TCG.  Although having dropped paratroopers the previous day (June 6), this time she was designated to tow a CG-4A Waco glider in Mission "Hackensack", the last glider assault mission of Operation Neptune.  Except for crew, the glider carried no infantry, but contained supplies for the 82nd Airborne, 325th Glider Infantrymen Regiment.  Based at Merryfield, this squadron started taking off at 7:17am, June 7th in a light rain.  Dropping her glider,  she returned safely to Merryfield.
This aircraft, 42-101031, went on to serve through the rest of the war and afterwards until May 19, 1948 when she was involved in an accident at Rhein Main AB, Germany.  She was repaired and then sold as surplus to Turkey (Number 6021) in August of that year.  Her final fate is unknown.

This is an Italeri 1:72nd scale C-47 model.  The model went together fairly easily, although the windows are a problem to get in without fogging them completely up, and I didn't do such a great job.  Trailing edges on wings and stabilizers are not great, and you should file or sand them down with some filling.  I finally managed to get everything pretty well adjusted.  Detail is fairly well done, though recessed panel lines seem a bit deep.  Fill 'em with paint and it will be fine.

Some things to note about this build:  Added a tail cone for the tow line hook up point at the rear for a future diorama.  The decals were the biggest pain.  The "Z4" code was done using strips of white decal paper.  I just could not get yellow and light gray letters printed to my satisfaction, and  I might have finished her on time if not for this problem.  Antenna aerials are 1mm rubber bead string line, and is probably too thick, but it works okay.

Note:  The 4 in the squadron code is a bit different.  It appears from all pictures I've found that all the aircraft in the squadron had this 4 with the high middle bar.  I replicated it as such.

The nose art is my own invention, and I named her "Bless 'em All" in honor of all the D-Day veterans.

And another 2 videos to close this out.   Thanks to Bish for running such a great and very successful GB!

Thanks for reading!

Gary

stikpusher

pyrman64

stikpusher

Oh that C-47 just keeps looking better. Actually the aircraft numbers on the fuselage sides are called "chalks" (after how they are written on, using chalk) for the "stick" of jumpers.  A "stickpusher " is the last man out , pushing out the rest ahead of him... something I know a little bit about... The photo below is "chalk 19" of the 101st Airborne, 502nd PIR Pathfinders.

In the words of Gunny Highway, "Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft is not a natural act."

No it is not...

It is too.  Given the amount of fire coming up at those planes, I think my first instinct would be to jump the hell out of it.

Exquisite detail on the B-26, stik.  It's art in 3-D.

First-rate results with the C-47, Gary.  Until you mentioned it, I thought it was 1/48.  You've done exceptionally well matching it up to the real thing.  Nice work, nicely done.

The B-24 is still inching along--a part here, a part there.

It's not very exciting but I painted the nacelles and ball turret pieces in their neutral gray.

masked the astrodome ( actually installed it but haven't got any photos yet)

started to paint the tires with some lightened up black paint, brushed on

I'll need to do the other side, then a second coat.

Hopefully, maybe, I can get painting on the fuselage this week.

Gary: That's a beautiful job! Love the different colour fabric on the control surfaces, the invasion stripes, just a great job on the whole durn thing!

Gary - great job!

This really is a fine rendition of the C-47.  The added backdrop from history completes the picture, really appreciate the extra time put in there.

regards,

Jack

Thought the GB was over. Clausewitz claimed that uncertainty was at the center of war. Ike bet Monty $5 (in 1944 money) that the war would be over by Christmas 44. Monty won. So extending the story has good pedigree. Very good stuff coming in over the wire and congrats to a fine build.

Gary: now that you're done maybe you can give some advice.  I've got the Italeri 1/72 C-47 and it's pretty high on the construction list, although mine will be flying out of Dobodura in New Guinea about 1943 where air transport was relatively more important than any theater in the war. Airfix has just come out with a genuinely "new tool" 1/72 C-47 (has 160 parts - about four times what their old 1/72 has). With a couple of exceptions I'm going to build all multi-engined planes in 1/72 so I'm not interested in Trumpies or Revell's 1/48. Question is what did you think of the quality of the kit? Lot of fillers? Scratch build needed? I'm not a detail fanatic, but have learned that a good kit, even with more parts, is better than an old one that's simple. (The very humble  Piper L-4 had 40 parts I made and took nearly a month - I'd bet that the more elaborate Minicraft would have taken less time if things fit.) So, given the chance, would you advise that a new kit would be worth it? Money doesn't matter really although I have the Italeri kit now.

Best

Eric

Great job Gary!  As others have said, I love the difference on the control panels.