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CARGO PLANES!!!!!


Mark Aldrich

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I wish someone would do one of these in 72nd scale.

 

AMEN BROTHA!! PREACH IT MAN!!

 

 

 

 

Some one did do a resin model of this plane in 1/72 scale, but it is prohibitively expensive, and looks like quite the job to build. I've seen one when Brian Casteel brought one in to our IPMS meeting for Show and Tell. Still, I'd rather have an injection-molded kit myself as well, especially given my current track record with resin models....

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Well, the repairs are passible so hopefully (if I can muster the energy) I will mask off the aluminum and start on that this evening!

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Mark, you have given me the urge to also complete a cargo plane (also, our club having a USAF 4+ contest helped). Here is my C-54 entry into the contest.

 

C-54.jpg

 

This is the Minicraft C-54 Candy Bomber from the Berlin Airlift. As I was building the model, it occured to me that the C-54 was the airplane that started my life-long love of things aircraft. I remember that when I was 4 years old and living with my mother's aunt, I added a crude drawing of a C-54 to a letter that the aunt was writing to my mother. The significance was that my mother was working at Douglas Aircraft in Chicago. She would crawl into the wing root of C-54s with a bucking bar and she and another woman would rivet the fuel tanks into place. She said that the men who had that job before them could do one and a half wings per shift. They could complete two and a half wings.

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That is awesome Clare! I've always wanted to find and build a C-54 in 1/72 scale. That would be so sweet!

Mine is 1/144 but as I remember, Heller offered the C-54 in 1/72.

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I didn't find anything from Heller but EBAY shows a Mach 2 and Mach 34 kit in 1/72. However, they seem kind of pricey.....$80 and $124!

Edited by Mark Aldrich
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Very nice 'haulers, gents!

 

Heller's 1/72 kit is a DC-6 (C-118). Saw an article online, on how to retro-build it as a C-54, by a guy who didn't want to pay those prices above.

Edited by VonL
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Thanks Clare!

 

I didn't find anything from Heller but EBAY shows a Mach 2 and Mach 34 kit in 1/72. However, they seem kind of pricey.....$80 and $124!

 

Yeah, I'm not surprised given how rare these are. Not sure I trust Mach 2 to do a good molding job anyway.

 

Very nice 'haulers, gents!

 

Heller's 1/72 kit is a DC-6 (C-118). Saw an article online, on how to retro-build it as a C-54, by a guy who didn't want to pay those prices above.

 

I actually have that DC-6 kit. I was planning on starting it this year. I may look into that article, but I'm currently planning to build it OOB.

 

Thanks again guys!

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NICE Greyhound! Perfect amount of weathering - just enough to highlight detail, panel lines there, but not visible from space. That's the point I try to hit, too.

 

Am also intrigued to see how thosee C-17 'Freedom Bird" intakes come out - lookin' sweet so far.

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Hi Calre:

 

Wing folds were superb. infact the fit of the entire kit is super. Only issue was HORRIBLE instructions. i proabaly ran 10 miles between the workbench and computer to figure out where things actually went. I hand masked and painted the tail markigns as I wanted to do VRC-40 which is the group that flew my son onto his current assignment (he has one trap!) Red Pegasus Decals did the rest- nice stuff

 

Dave

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Back to the 1/72 C-54 kit. There IS such a kit, but it is a vacuform from Rare Plane Vacuforms, dating back to at least 1976. It was formed with .080" thick plastic sheet, so the resulting pieces are somewhat rigid on their own without fillers. The surface details show panel lines and rivet detail in a fine appearance. I have one of these kits and have it out and open as I type this. There are no included markings, but there is a note that they are available separately (35 years ago). The cockpit "clear" window piece is quite yellow with age. I did not find the side fuselage window strips or the astrodome piece, but those can easily be replaced with current materials. The Heller DC-6 or C-118 could probably donate their landing gear struts and wheels if you don't want to build them from the vacuform sheets for the C-54.

 

Options include building the Merlin-engined Canidair versions C-54GM, DC-4M-1/2, and C-4. The props from the Revell 1/72 B-17E are recommended for use with the Merlin engines. The short-nose non-radar configuration can be modified to create the long-nose version of the C-54. The cockpit is BASIC, so go wild with your super details (there must be an Eduard PE set or an Aires resin cockpit set out there somewhere for this bird).

 

I keep telling myself to build this kit along with the 1/72 DC-7C Seven Seas vacuform kit to represent the first an last developments of this classic Douglas airliner design.

 

Ed

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Here's the weekends work. Intakes were aluminumed and then the plane was glossed. Hoping to start the markings tomorrow.

 

100_4266.jpg

Edited by Mark Aldrich
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Latest work so far. Top and bottom is decaled and hoping to have the sides done soon.

 

100_4278.jpg

Edited by Mark Aldrich
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Dave,

Thanks. Had more issues than I normally do! Very glad Revell included additional stripes. Tonight after I spray it flat, I'll see how bad the silvering is.

 

:Smile_sceptic:

Edited by Mark Aldrich
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I agree, that C-17 is looking sweet! And Dave, that COD is B-U-T-FULL!

 

This is the only cargo plane I have....

100_3485.jpg

It's the Monogram 1/48 C-47 in RL Scotts 1954 "squadron hack" markings. Markings were painted with decals cobbled together from the spares box.

 

GIL :smiley16:

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