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Showing results for tags 'C-87'.
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Hello, Here is a conversion of the Academy/Minicraft 1/144 B-24J into an early C-87. The C-87 was a cargo/troop version of the B-24D. It had a rather poor reputation, in part due to numerous crashes while flying “the Hump”. One was built to function as the first Air Force One, but it was decided that the C-87 was too dangerous too carry FDR. The nose art is “Hump Happy”. The decals are ALPS printed. The olive drab/neutral gray paint is Mr. Color lacquer. The conversion required modifying the nose to a shorter solid piece and adding many side windows. The small windows were done with Kristal Klear and decal film. The tail has been modified and corrected. The cowlings and engines are resin replacements. The canopy has been replaced with a reshaped vacuformed part. If I can fix some of the problems that popped up in this build, this resin conversion may be released by Muroc Models. The issues included the vertical fins being angled too far back and the kit sitting tail high due to long main gear struts. The 7 grams of weight I put in the nose was not quite enough to make it sit on its nose wheel (In the pictures the model is sitting on a down-slope to make it sit properly). The Minicraft B-24 is a bear of a kit. You can see that a second test build is under way with the cargo door opened up. This will be finished as a bare metal aircraft. David Muroc Models
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In the sequence of this thread (and I thank again all the contributors for the very good information) I started the work on the Airfix kit in order to convert it to a civil aircraft. It will be, most probably, either G-AGZI in Scotish Airlines livery or the same airframe in Greek colours. As discussed previously, the airframe was an LD-30 converted to the C-87 configuration, with a belly structure in place of the bomb bay. The photo bellow is from the warbird tech book: The bomb bay in Granger's plans: May I assume that the new belly profile is a straight line from E to G? It is what it seems to be on the photo above and, of course, it's a simpler structure than a gentle curve shown on some C-87 technical drawings. By the way, I also assume that this is the very same structure used on C-87's, not only one converted LB-30's. Is that correct? May I go ahead? (As a side note, the Academy bomb bay profile is wrong, being a straight line from E to G; As you may see from the plans and from many photos, [EF] is not in line with [FG]. They probably used Diamond Lil as reference, that was backdated from a C-87) I already took out the engine nacelles from the wings - will modify the kit rear nacelles and use the Revell PBY fronts as a model to make my own (the Academy Catalina engines are under scale). The wing profile also will look much more like the Davis airfoil of the prototype. The too small fins and rudders were enlarged with plastic card but must be finished, namely in the airfoil. Both Airfix and Academy made the sides uncorrectly parallel. The wing root was relocated 8mm to the back and the fuselage was extended by the amount needed to conform to the plans, as is was not tall enough. Still must cut it at the back, where a new tail cone must be scratched. The rear art of the fuselage was also thinned and must do the same to the nose. I have lots of in progress photos but no time at the moment to publish them.