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stevee671

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stevee671 last won the day on April 18 2016

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About stevee671

  • Birthday June 17

Profile Information

  • FirstName
    Steve
  • LastName
    Eggers
  • IPMS Number
    46895
  • Local Chapter
    Tulsa Modelers Forum
  • City
    Broken Arrow
  • State
    OK
  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    OK
  • Interests
    Scale Modeling, 450 size RC Helicopters, Playing guitar
  1. Been a long while since a real update. Ghost Rider is all together. Props are painted. Lots of filling, sanding, primer in that order, over and over and over. The chaff/flare fairings, the EW sensors just aft of the nose, the TACAN antennas as well as the VOR antenna on the tail are on!
  2. A little more progress...still fighting me a little bit. I discovered Mr. Surfacer 500! Cockpit painted, Pilot Painted, aft area of cockpit painted. Mr. Surfacer here and there. I'm pretty proud of that pilot!
  3. This kit, among others has been on the shelf of doom. I decided that it's time to finish it while I'm working on other projects at the same time. This kit is fighting me at every turn! It's almost like it doesn't want to be built. It's built out of the box. The only extras are a decent pilot figure out of the Monogram F-100 kit and a reworked instrumentation boom at the nose. Closing the gear doors proved challenging at they weren't the best fit. They were close, but not exact. The wing were glued in place. I didn't want them full forward, but not full aft either, so I settled at about 20 degrees. The most glaring error with this kit is the front windscreen. It isn't even close to the actual aircraft. The aircraft had a more sloping windscreen and the kit is more bubble shaped. One nice thing about this kit is that it has recessed panel lines! Enjoy!
  4. I've neglected some updates, so here goes. Flight Deck. Not much to see here. Any detail in here is really lost when the model is closed up. I will dull this down a little bit before I close the fuselage. Cut the window and added the doubler to the paratroop door Boxed in the in Bofors cannons I didn't like the mounting of the two forward guns A side shot
  5. Yes, Just haven't taken any recent pics...I'll get some up this weekend.
  6. A little more work on Ghost Rider this morning... I added patches and fairing to the ex-forward cargo door area. If you look at early Vietnam era photos of Ghost Rider you will see intake scoops in this are which had be removed by the time it was heading into retirement. The fairing in the kit has an opening on the aft side of the fairing. This needed to be closed to be accurate. I also closed the left aft paratroop door and removed the raised reinforcements from the upper section. A window was added on the door above the Beacon Tracking RADAR fairing. The spotlight area is closed, sanded and polished. Next step will be to add the forward fairing for the removed spotlight opening. This fairing is also molded with having an open aft side. This too will have to be closed.
  7. I have put the WC-130J in a holding pattern while I get started on this project. The plan is to finish the Weatherbird and the Spectre at the same time. One weekend in the early Fall of 1993, I was called out to the airbase to work on a transient Herk that dropped in for RADAR problems. Well, I wasn't a Comm/Nav troop. I was a GAC troop. They Pro Super told me that they couldn't get a hold of the Comm/Nav person and since I was cross trained, it fell on me. I got out to the base to see an AC-130. The crew told me that they had already troubleshot the system and determined that they needed a new RT. So, I ordered the new RT and while we were waiting, I took a look at the aircraft and realized that this was a 1954 model AC-130A gunship. I looked up at the fuselage and on the side was the trademark crescent moon and skull emblem and the name "Ghost Rider". I will be modeling Ghost Rider as it appeared that day in 1993. Ghost Rider was retired in 1995. It was then flown to Dobbins AFB, Georgia to be put on static display. Ghost Rider is now on display at the Aviation Wing of the Marietta Museum of History. The RT came in, I quickly op checked it and sent the aircraft on it's way. I always wanted to model that aircraft. Now, keeping in line with my, building a model of every aircraft I've ever worked on, technically, if I close my left eye and squint my right, I can say that I worked on an AC-130A. This isn't going to be a Jon Vojtech AC-130 build, but it will be an in-flight build similar to my C-130H "Damien" build and WC-130J build. Beginning the build... Like all of Italeri's C-130 kits, they look good, but they have their shortcomings. I found the Testors boxing of the AC-130A kits with the 54-1630 "Azreal - The Angel of Death" marking. On a side not, aircraft 1630 is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. To build an AC-130A accurately, I would have to back date this kit to a C-130A. The C-130A had two cargo doors. There was a door on the left side forward fuselage and then the ramp and door oat the aft end of the aircraft. When the aircraft was converted to a gunship configuration, the forward cargo door was closed and doubler-plates installed to prevent the door from opening ever again. Holes were then cut into the door for cannons. Additional opening were added to the left side of the fuselage for gun placements. Many modifications were done to these aircraft during their service with the USAF. (All pictures are posted under "Fair Use Most AC-130A model Spectre builds I've seen are lacking key backdating features to make them correct, most notably the forward cargo door. Here are photos of the aircraft: Left forward fuselage Left Aft Fuselage The boring side of the aircraft You will notice in the photos that the aircraft has three bladed propellers. The aircraft was originally delivered with three bladed propellers. It was then modified to have four-bladed propellers. When it was retired at Dobbins AFB, the USAF removed the the four bladed and replaced them with the original propellers. I began the build by replicating the sealed forward cargo door. This was done by using .010 x .030 Evergreen styrene. All of the windows on the cargo door had been plated over during this period of time. On the aft fuselage, the forward window of two aft windows over the left aft sponson had been plated over. On the left aft fuselage where the ramp is located was the search light. This too had been remove late in Ghost Rider's career.
  8. Some more Herk work... APU Fairing left sponson Real aircraft Model - Styrene cut to shape and filled and faired in. Overall A/C pack Exhaust/Vent...pilot hole drilled Stiffeners on top of fuselage Overall shot on stand with 53d WRS patch
  9. Same area primed and aft window relocated Left side observer/escape hatch square window cut in. The right side sponson extension in place and the A/C pack scoop getting filled and faired in. I got the square tubing sleeve installed so the model can be in its in-flight configuration and the base is complete. I also added the forward inlet scoop on the right side of the fuselage. The revised J beaver tail mounting is also done.
  10. Following my C-130H "Screaming Eagle" build that appeared in the Mar/Apr issue of the IPMS Journal, I got inspired to pull out my Testors/Italeri C-130J kit. The Testors boxing of the C-130J was the first J to hit the shelves back in the 90's. Basically, this kit is the same old Italeri C-130E with the new 2100 engines and 6 blade props. It should come as no surprise when I say, adding 2100 engines and 6-blade props does not a C-130J make. There's a lot more to it. To make this conversion work, you need Parts Tree F from the Italeri boxing of the C-130J or just start out with that kit. If you already have a either the Testors boxing or the C-130E/H kit, you can contact Italeri through their website and request for this tree. Explain why you want it and they will be happy to supply it to you for $7.50. Getting this tree makes the process a lot easier. If you have the E/H boxing, you will need to either get aftermarket engines and props or request the engine and prop tree for Italeri. Here is the beginning of the WC-130J conversion: First, the forward sponsons are in the wrong location. The forward sponsons need to be moved forward. The left side of the aircraft is very easy to do this since the forward sponson is a separate piece. The right side forward sponson is not so easy as it is molded to the side of the fuselage. Notice there are some other changes to the right side forward windows that are going to have to be addressed as well. Also, all the NACA intakes need to be filled. The right side forward sponson needs to be removed. Carefully use a scribing tool and razor saw to remove the forward sponson. Then use sheet styrene to reconstruct the side of the fuselage. The newly separated piece will need to be modified using Parts Tree F, Part Number 15F (AC Pack Intake Scoop)to match the C-130H/J configuration. Here is the dry fit of the new forward sponson locations: To fix the left side, I am going to use both left side sponson parts. I am going to use the GTC part with the NACA intake and modify the APU part. Here are the differences in the two left side forward sponsons. The left one is the GTC (Ground Turbine Compressor) version for early aircraft. The right one is the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) version for H1-H3 and J aircraft. Here is the left side extended. I used Parts Tree F part 1F. Modify the APU part (1F) by cutting approximately 5/8" measured from the aft side of the part. This becomes the plug. This is also the APU exhaust. Graft the two pieces together then fill and sand.
  11. It would be cool on the last page of each Journal to have a "In the next Issue..." preview.
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