"Heavy Lifters" Cargo Plane GB 2008

Working slowwwwww!  Life just finds a way to get in a our way of building.  Anyway,  here is the C-133 just out of the box.  While very pricey ($110 USD), I bought this as a gift.  The included CD has images from a couple of C-133's - both interior and exterior - very nice.  All resin kit, has a fair amount of flash on the leading edge of both wings.  Will post more as I get working on this thing.  The holidays are not too far away.

Here are couple images from the CD.

Man that is an awesome build. Congrats. It looks very impressive in the diorama. It really gives you a sense of how big it is.

Well done;

Neil

My gosh fella, I think it is fantastic! Not to mention absolutely a first!

I think it's a trend, to have cargo as a part of this build. Hooray, and well done.

Well, I'm calling this one done.  Not entirely happy with it, but the rest of the stash is calling me....

Posted a heap more pics in the Aircraft forum.

So here's what I did. I cut the front from the back, starting at the top and sawing down to within a 1/2" or so of the bottom. From there down things were pretty flush. Then I flexed the back end out a little to be flush, and butt joint glued it. I am going to put in some internal reiforcing, but it needs to be above the ceiling in there, as the interior is completely visible and figures to be the fun part of the model.

The nacelle assemblies look to be a chore. They come in about eight parts each, and there is nothing on the wing to guide, hold or show where they go.

I'll have some pictures tonight.

Bill

Here's a problem I could use help with. The AN-12 is a really big sucker, no kidding. The fuse is in four pieces- front/rear/left/right.

I glued front/rear together for each side to make two complete halves, and let them dry centerline side down on a flat surface.

Drat- now I realize that the diameter of the front end and the back end are not the same due to poor molding. So when I hold the halves together there is a neat small seam, but there is a pretty big step front to back on each side.

I can't hide it with putty. I'm going to have to cut it all apart and glue it again with an eye to make the join front/back smooth. This will result in about a .03 gap top and bottom between the two rear sections, including up around and down the fin. I suppose i could taper the filler piece and clamp the tail together. Most of the underside in that area is a big open door.

Yeah, thats what I'll do. Thanks for listening, it's made me feel a whole lot better, really.

Bill, nice to hear from someone else- I was getting a bit despondant there for a while.

PS:  What happened to your avatar ?  Avast, ye scurvy son of a sea crab !

I've bought yellow "naugahide" to simulate the padding inside the AN-12, once I score it on the diagonal with a sharp pencil.

Crikey, we nearly got relegated to page 3 ! (bump- can't have that)

Hows everyone going ?  Cardshark ?  any pics of that Gigant ?

I took a little detour and started on the payload for the Gigant, a Sdkfz 7 towing a Flak 88, a kubelwagen, and a kettenkrad.  some 200 litre fuel drums/wooden crates.  Just got a little Opel Blitz truck to do.  I was disappointed with the old preiser luftwaffe figures I picked up on e-bay- not much detail - they're old (Made in W. Germany !)  I had heard some good things about preiser in 1/72 scale, but as I said, disappointing detail.  The 1/72 Airfix figures I have look better. 

Hope you guys are making progress

Ah, my young friend, not a guess. Back in the late 70's Tamiya really ramped up their US marketing with an extensive line of armor kits, which are all classics now, and sold them via a beautiful catalogue featuring the work of Verlinden. It really had no peer. We wingnuts were still building the same old Monogram and Revell kits and that was about it. I budgeted myself $ 20 a paycheck and bought a new kit every time. And thats dinner for two plus a movie. Friday night sitting down and opening the "Greif" 250 kit, standing Rommel up on the bench and just, inhaling, the quality of a beautifully engineered kit.

12 tons does leave enough capacity for the 14 dudes and the motorcycle, as long as its tank is empty. but I still don't know how Hans and Franz got it in sideways.

That in fact is a really really great display idea. Imagine my Cub (and yes it is a figment of the imagination right now) with 40 spetznaz paras, or a C-119 over Dien Bien Phu with 20 Legion paras, very nice idea. Thanks for the pic.

Bill

I don't know, Bondo...

the Me 323 could lift 10-12 tons of cargo...

According to the armor guys, the targets are:
"The left half track is a Sdkfz 10 Demag 1-ton tractor, followed by a Kfz 15 Horch medium car with a 5cm Pak 38 gun."

(Good guesses, my friend!)

Wikipedia says that the Sdkfz 10 weighs 4900kg, the Kfz 15 weighs 1820kg, and the Pak 38 weighs 830kg.

That's 7550kg (16,645 lb) of goodies, not counting people and an unidentified motorcycle. That leaves 4.6 more tons of cargo capacity...

I'd say its doable...but man, what a load! Real heavy lifter, especially for its time!

Cheers,
Alex

cardshark_14 wrote:

Hey all, looks like some good progress is being made on these big birds.  I've been working on an Emily, so I haven't got much (or anything at all) to show for this GB yet. However, I did come across a rather inspiring picture of the steel structure of an Me 323 I'm gonna venture into treadhead territory and see if they can't identify what all that is.  Then, maybe I'll roll up my sleeves and build a target or two for the interior.

Wirraway, 

I have been busy finishing projects for other Group Builds plus another very important build. Still trying to finish up the seams. This week I am away from home on a business trip.

This last build which was the most important. As a present to my wife for Mother's Day, I built and painted up the figure that is linked below. She loved it, even with my interpertation of the colors. I made sure it was done before I caught my flight.

http://www.coloradominiatures.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2406

Mike T.

My SM 82 is coming along ok. I find the joining up of the fuselage halves a bit of a challenge. They made the plastic thin and the locator pins far apart, This resulted in some slippage from warping of the halves. Just filled in and sanded it even. The inscribed lines are shallow and have to be re-scribed after sanding.

Here's the cockpit area:

I invested in the "Engine and Things" engine and cowl set intended for the original "Aviation Usk" kit. Here are them compared to the kit parts. I like the deeper details on the resin set. The shape of the cowlings in the kit resembles more of the post war Prat and Whitney replacements than the original wartime cowlings for the Alfa Romeo engines.

This is the kit set:

Here is the "Engine and Things" set:

Here is the kit parts temporarily mounted kit set:

The "E&T" temporarily mounted:

I do prefer the "E&T" set and will use them for the final build.

Mike T.

My Caribou is coming along very slowly.  I've been working on the wings making nav lights and dry fitting the engine cowels. Looks like they fit ok. Next I'm going to work on the cockpit and seal up the fueselage halves. I'll post some pics soon too.

Neil

Sounds really awesome, Chief! Looking forward to seeing it.

cdclukey wrote:

Cool! Much appreciated. The last I heard she was with the Guard unit at Niagara Falls, NY, but they just converted from the -135 to the C-130H, so I have no idea where she went from there. On edit: Found a news story about the Guard unit's conversion, and my bird is in the active Air Force again. Here's a photo of her back when she was at Niagara: One more edit: MUCH better photo! http://www.airfighters.com/photo_11604.jpg I never knew she was in the Maine Guard, and might still be because that pic was taken last October...that's really cool, because I'm from Maine and my Dad was a Maine guard guy!

That would be so cool... it's always fun learning the history of your bird!

Haven't had much time to do modeling; work heaped up on me this past week.

Took a good look at the Testors/Italeri kit... and discovered one big problem... the forward cargo bay bulkhead is molded wrong (unless you were a three foot high person), there is a doorway that is way too small and short. So I'm going to scratchbuild a whole new flight deck and most likely cargo compartment as well. It looks to me like they used the Gunship version to mold the flight deck; the way it is laid out is similar to the old C-130A flight decks (there was a major revision to the flight deck after that model).

Will post pictures when I can!

The SM.82 has hit the bench! Italeri has done a good job with it. I'm still trying to decide which markings to use, probably 604-2 that comes with the kit. I have a good picture of another aircraft in the same squadron in that same pattern. The engines and cowlings I am replacing with the Engine and Things set. This set was intended for the old AvUsk kit, but can be adapted easily for this kit. E and T's cowlings has pronounced, and maybe overscale details, but that is one of the points I like about this aircraft is the cowlings and their characteristics.

This is considered the first purpose built and designed military transport. Prior to this everyone modified a civilian aircraft for the chore (DC-3 to C-47, Junkers Ju-52).

I'll try to take pictures this weekend, but I am having camera problems and may have to send it out for repair (macro for one, not working).

Mike T.  

Hmmm..........sometimes my level of stupidity amazes even me......The 12 engine nascelle halves for the gigant, are, in fact, numbered on the inside.  So you attach 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, etc. To eventually end up with the six engine nascelles.

Ie: each nascelle is different, to allow for the different thickness of the wing the farther away you get from the wing root.  Doh!  I got some sanding and filing ahead of me, for sure.  Cardshark, be warned !  (I know you wont make the same mistake as me anyway)

This is the first multi-engine kit I've made where the engine nascelles were not moulded as part of the wings (ie: you construct the engine and then attach it to the wing)

You can see the size of the beastie compared to a 1/48 Superfortress.  Something tells me the Gigant will only ever be a 1/72 kit, a bit like the B-36 or B-52.  Anyway, back to the bench.

Paul. 

Cool! Much appreciated. The last I heard she was with the Guard unit at Niagara Falls, NY, but they just converted from the -135 to the C-130H, so I have no idea where she went from there.

On edit: Found a news story about the Guard unit's conversion, and my bird is in the active Air Force again. Here's a photo of her back when she was at Niagara:

One more edit: MUCH better photo!

http://www.airfighters.com/photo_11604.jpg

I never knew she was in the Maine Guard, and might still be because that pic was taken last October...that's really cool, because I'm from Maine and my Dad was a Maine guard guy!

cdclukey:

I'll look into the database we have (not sure how far back it goes) and see if I can find your bird...

The EC-130H can still carry some cargo with the EW suite. Can't say how much...

Crew Chiefs do rule!!!

Interesting on the KC-135 bit-where I work at is one of the PDM locations for the KC-135R models. There's a chance your bird came through here...

Hey Damon, how much cargo can one of those puppies carry? I seem to remember they still have some cargo capability, but it must be reduced some by the EW suite, right?

Oh...and let's not forget that crew chiefs rule. :-) I crewed KC-135s from '89-94.