Blackbird Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 My name is Kingdon R. "King" Hawes. I want to say hello to everyone from Omaha, NE. I'm new to modeling and will have questions about building a custom model of an RC-135S (#59-1491) named "Rivet Ball" that I crewed on back in the 60s during the "Cold War". Any help will be much appreciated. You can read about Rivet Ball by going to the following address: http://www.RC135.com Rivet Ball: http://www.wtv-zone.com/kingdon/SAR-Photos...Ball-Shemya.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phantomordie Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 Welcome. This is the best place for straight answers and good help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David M. Knights Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 My name is Kingdon R. "King" Hawes. I want to say hello to everyone from Omaha, NE. I'm new to modeling and will have questions about building a custom model of an RC-135S (#59-1491) named "Rivet Ball" that I crewed on back in the 60s during the "Cold War". Any help will be much appreciated. You can read about Rivet Ball by going to the following address: http://www.RC135.com Rivet Ball: http://www.wtv-zone.com/kingdon/SAR-Photos...Ball-Shemya.jpg I believe that AMT released a kit of a Rivet Ball or Rivet Joint RC-135 a number of years ago. I know that the different Rivet aircraft all had very different antenna configurations, but I think that kit would be your best place to start. It is in 72nd scale so it ends up being a pretty big model. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moose135 Posted October 8, 2009 Report Share Posted October 8, 2009 (edited) Welcome aboard, King! Have you checked out this book on the KC-135 and its variants? You may want to drop a note to the author, Bob Hoskins (his e-mail is on the "author" page). He's a good guy - we flew KC-135s together at Grissom AFB 20-odd years ago, and he's covered the various -135 models in his book. I don't have my copy at hand to see what it has on Rivet Ball, but I remember that he goes into extensive detail on most of the -135 mods. If you do get in touch with him, tell him Moose from Grissom sent you! ETA: Apparently, Bob is a model builder (which I never realized before). Checking the list of his other published work, he wrote an article on building the AMT/ERTL RC-135V Rivet Joint for the IPMS Journal in 1994. Edited October 8, 2009 by Moose135 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 Hi, King, Welcome to the research and builders society. There is some good information about your aircraft RC-135S #59-1491 in the book Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, from the series Modern Combat Aircraft 27, by Robert F. Dorr, copyright 1987. Specifically, it says: "Aircraft 59-1491 (built as a KC-135A, converted to RC-135D and again converted to RC-135S) was the only aircraft of this variant to be powered by J57 engines. It was lost in a crash at Eilson AFB, Alaska, on 10 March 1969. The more recent examples of the RC-135S series have been powered by TF33 turbofans." Also: "Associated with programmes bearing the names 'Rivet Ball' and 'Cobra Ball', the RC-135S is usually seen in the Pacific. The aircraft always have the thimble nose, but the external appearance of the different airframes varies considerably, with differing numbers of large circular windows and of 'towel rack' antennae on the forward fuselage. It has been reported that the RC-135S performs both telemetry and photography of Soviet missile re-entry vehicles, the picture-taking being the reason for the circular windows, with the upper surface of the wings painted black to prevent glare from distorting the pictures. "The RC-135S aircraft have also been seen with a variety of teardrop fairings on the rear fuselage and blister fairings farther forward. Numerous blade aerials appear above and below the fuselage." While crammed with profiles and photos of the many variants, not one in the book is of the RC-135S. I hope you have some that you took yourself when you were crewing this aircraft. Apparently you will need specific shots for the pattern of circular windows. It looks like you will need two of the AMT kits to build this RC-135S #59-1491. The AMT Kit #8956 of the RC-135V contains the correct fuselage with the thimble nose, but it has the TF33 engines only. For your specific aircraft, you will need the J57 engines from another AMT (or Italeri or Heller reissues) kit. Some of the kits had both the CFM56 engines and the J57 engines in the box, so you might get lucky if someone has the J57's left over after using the CFM56's. In the 1994 IPMS/USA National Convention book published by the Omaha hosts, there is an excellent article with photos by Scott Hackney titled "...Me and My RC!" The accompanying 1994 National Convention Decal Sheet has markings for RC-135V #64-14845, KC-135R #59-1495, and EC-135C #62-3581. The AMT Kit #8956 above for the RC-135V contains decals designed to allow you to build all eight of the airframes of this variant: #64-14841, #64-14842, #64-14843 (NOTE: RC-135U #64-14849 wore this number as a disguise, also), #64-14844, #64-14845, #64-14846, #64-14848, #62-4139 (RC-135W), and #63-9792. Photos of some of these aircraft (highlighted) are in the book. I hope some of this helps you. Good luck on your project. Perhaps we will get some in-progress build photos and then see it on the table in Omaha in 2011. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David M. Knights Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 Ed, That is a great reason why folks should join IPMS. Good job answering the question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted October 9, 2009 Report Share Posted October 9, 2009 (edited) Hi, King, Squadron Signal's KC-135 Stratotanker in Action, Vol. 118 in the aircraft series, copyright 1991, has some additional information on pp. 34-35. To quote: RC-135S Rivet Ball/Cobra Ball Used by the 6th SW, the first RC-135S was a conversion of a KC-135A (59-1491) to the Telemetry Intelligence (TELINT) role. The RC-135S was used to gather information on Soviet missile tests. The first RC-135S was lost during January of 1969 being replaced by two converted C-135Bs and one C-135B T/RIA. A second RC-135S (61-2664) was lost during 1981 and one other KC-135A may have been partially converted before it was lost during 1968. The RC-135S series has featured a number of different configurations, all of which featured the elongated Hognose radome. More recently, cameras have been installed and the surviving aircraft are used to fly missions code named Burning Star. There is a line drawing profile on p. 33 that shows blister antennas and rooftop antennas. No round windows are depicted. Again, no photos are included. It is agreed your RC-135S aircraft was converted from a KC-135A and lost in 1969 in Alaska, but the month is different in the two sources. Ed Edited October 9, 2009 by ewahl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimHortman Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Welcome Aboard Kindon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewahl Posted October 13, 2009 Report Share Posted October 13, 2009 Oh, wow, King, After following your link to the website with the tale of two aircraft, I opened and read all 14 pages and also some of the imbedded links. Obviously you have better film and still photo references than would be published in any book. Why you asked for more information is a surprise because you most likely have better information than anyone else. The story was incredible, and the loss of Rivet Ball under the circumstances seemed such a waste. Rivet Ball was an historical aircraft, even though few ever knew about it or what your crews accomplished. My modest historical contribution above could mostly be deleted, leaving only the information about the AMT KC-135A kit and RC-135V kit and the decal markings that are available. With these kits and the photo references you have, you should be able to convert the fuselage for the windows and add the necessary antennas and blisters with relative ease. Good luck and best wishes with this project. To those reading this post who have not read the story, go back to the first post and open the first link. Be prepared to spend a couple of interesting hours. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackbird Posted October 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2009 I want to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions on my "Rivet Ball" project. I haven't made any decisions yet but I'm leaning toward modifying a Heller 1/72 scale KC-135A. The most difficult part for me will be adding a "thimble nose". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackbird Posted June 20, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2010 Below is my completed 1/72 scale model of Rivet Ball (RC-135S, #59-1491). It took about a month to complete. It's not perfect but it works well for my purpose. Detail construction photos are located on page #13 of my story, "A Tale of Two Airplanes" by King Hawes @ http://www.RC135.com/. Scan down to the "2 March 2010" entry for 69 high resolution photo links. Once again, thanks very much for all the advice and help. Yours Truly, Kingdon R. "King" Hawes PS: I've been invited to conduct a seminar during the 2011 IPMS/USA National Convention in Omaha, NE. Hope to see you there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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