"Heavy Lifters" Cargo Plane GB 2008

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

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

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

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

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 !

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Howdy folks,

Due to an unplanned stopping point on my Emily, I'm going to start cleaning up the flash and freeing those fragile interior pieces on my Gigant.  Since Wirraway did the powered version, I believe I'll do the glider.  I've decided to do a white-washed Eastern front bird during 1942.

I don't have a working camera, or a working airbrush thanks to my klepto cats, but I'm going to get started on basic assembly.  It'll be all closed up, as I will eventually build a white-washed He 111Z to tow it (or three Bf 110Cs...).  

Cheers,
Alex

Wirraway--

Aweome work on that Gigant!

Also, I'm changing my Heavy Lifter build to the Minicraft 1/144 Blue Angels Constellation.

I had the Me 323 at the beginning of the GB, but I scored a 321 for $10 about a month ago.  The fuselage is slightly different, and the Me 321 kit doesn't have all the bogeys...instead it has a skid and a little cart.  I'm taking a break, so I'm avoiding engines, wheels, and interiors and building the Me 321 closed up.

Cheers,
Alex

After putting off this build for months, I've already got the fuselage closed on the Connie. Tomorrow night bondo goes on.

cdclukey wrote:

After putting off this build for months, I've already got the fuselage closed on the Connie. Tomorrow night bondo goes on.

The An-12 will rise to the skies, gents. Soon as the rains start and I put the garden to sleep for the winter. Shots this weekend.

Well, Wirraway, that reminds me of a joke I heard just the other day.

Jim and Bill, two Canadian men who are best friends, decide that they're sick and tired of the winters on the western plains. So they go to see a travel agent and find out they can get a really good deal on a trip to Australia, where summer is just beginning. Excitedly, they take it, and a few days later they head to the airport in their parkas and get on a plane to head Down Under.

When they land they decide to have a celebratory drink, and they head for a lounge in the airport, sit down at the bar and order beer. Jim and Bill are still a little shellshocked from the winters and they came to Australia to be hot after all, so they still haven't taken their parkas off. At one of the tables in the bar, a group of Aussies is perplexed by this scene, and one of them gets up, walks over to the Canadians and says, "G'Day! Can I ask where exactly you guys are from?"

"Saskatoon, Saskatchewan," Bill replies.

"Come again?"

This time Jim speaks up. "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan."

The Aussie returns to his table. One of his drinking buddies asks, "So, where are they from?"

"I've got no idea. Those guys don't even speak English."

As soon as I finish the IJA/IJN GB the AN-12 is next. The last issue of SAM had a good article on interiors for an IL-76, which I'm going to use as a guide.

See you in December.