Smudge Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 (edited) Hello, Please excuse my tardiness. I believe I put my name down for this GB, so it's about time I got started on something. I have had this kit for a little while now, and of course Roden have since issued their version which is no doubt the bees knees. Some may think that I should eschew this Mach2 and get a nice Roden, but I'll have none of that talk here. So here we go. Parts. They look harmless enough. If all goes well, it should end up looking a bit like this: Ok, so joking aside. It may not be state of the art, and probably lacking some of the finer details found on other manufacturers kits, but if I can get it to go together reasonably well it will make a good subject for some airbrush practice, and will certainly stand out on the shelf. Problem identified so far is the rather dubious looking cockpit transparency, which has been commented on by others elsewhere. A replacement is available in one of those Falcon canopy sets, but I'm not sure if I'll splash out on one or not. We'll see how things pan out. Cheers. Edited November 6, 2015 by chockhead 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fids Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 never seen one of these, looks tidy enough :-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Nice choice Chockhead. I have the Roden C-123B in the stash that I am gagging to build but lack the space at the moment. It isn't Tamiya quality by any standards but still looks like it will build up to be a good kit. I have only seen one built online. At Farnborough Modelfest in Sept someone had a NC/AC-123K built up on a table and it did look very menacing indeed. I assumed it was the Roden kit but never asked. The cockpit glass will probably be ok after a dip in Klear. There will be so little to see through it that it should do. My Dragon 1:35 AH-6J Loach had possibly the worst canopy I have ever seen which was a bummer as the helo is all glass at the front. It was my first time dipping and took three attempts to get the technique right but it worked miracles in the end. It was left in IPA and scrubbed off with an old toothbrush for the failed attempts. Before IMG_3108 by Mark Inman, on Flickr After IMG_3118 by Mark Inman, on Flickr 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted November 5, 2015 Author Share Posted November 5, 2015 Hi Snapper, Thanks for the reply. The C-123 is a bit of a favourite of mine, can't really explain why, I just like the look of it, and it is quite an interesting aircraft if you look at its development and use. If I come across a Roden one at a show I might pick it up. Cheers for the advice ref the canopy. It certainly would benefit from the Klear treatment. I recently picked up a bottle of the Humbrol equivalent, so this would be a good candidate. Another problem with the Mach2 canopy is the shape, The C-123 has two prominent front windscreens that slope in and down to meet at the centre in a shallow V shape ( giving the NC/AC version a slightly aggressive look from some angles ). The Mach2 shape is much softer and flatter across the top of the two 'screens. If I am not explaining this very well, here are a couple of pictures: Compare these with photos of the real thing and you'll get the picture. The Falcon Clear-Vax would I hope be much better, but it's not a cheap option, so I might just have to live with it. Vacform canopies aren't always that easy to use anyway. Cheers for now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted November 5, 2015 Author Share Posted November 5, 2015 A few pictures of various bits and pieces, and work to date. A fair bit of cleaning up of parts is required. I think the cockpit is quite nice, considering. The under cart is passable. Most of it will be hidden up inside the wells anyway. This will be the 'new' nose section, housing all the state of the art sensors. I will drill these out and use some little lenses etc, to replicate the sensors. Sadly I can only find black and white pictures of these, so if the lenses are coloured it's a bit of a mystery to me at the moment. The only short shot/ badly moulded bit in the kit is the bottom of one of the jet pods. I stuck a bit of card behind it, and will make good with some filler. Other than that I think it should all be ok. Cheers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted November 5, 2015 Author Share Posted November 5, 2015 A few more pictures of some of the component parts. The fit and detail is much better than I had expected. A dry fit of the engine nacelle to the underside of the wing reveals a very nice fit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted November 5, 2015 Author Share Posted November 5, 2015 Some of the big bits. Wings and tail empennage. As before they all need a fair bit of cleaning up, but go together nicely. The underside of the C-123 should be as flat as a pancake. The fuselage halves of the kit are a little bowed in at the centre line. I hope that when the floor is fixed in and everything is glued together it will straighten out a bit. I'm an eternal optimist. Thanks for looking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted November 7, 2015 Author Share Posted November 7, 2015 Chucking it down with rain all day here, so I battened down the hatches and got down to work on the 123. So much filing sanding scraping and fettling. Dust and bits of plastic all over the place. Well here's what I did. Cargo floor and cockpit in place. fuselage parts offered up for a check of fit. Some of the cabin windows are in place. Luckily for this aircraft most of them are covered up. Here you can see most of the major parts assembled. A few dabs of filler here and there, and lots of sanding and filing to get rid of joint seams and sprue gates etc. Here the nose sensor gimble housing is offered up for fit. Looks ok. A shot of the canopy, offered up for fit. Not a bad fit, but the shape? A day off well spent. Thanks for looking. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 Although I said that the fit of parts was better than expected, two very big parts that suffers from poor alignment are the fuselage halves. Considerable bending pushing and squeezing is required to get any sort of reasonable join. Unfortunately there is still quite a bit of a step here and there along the centre line, Despite my best efforts I couldn't get anything to grip on the extreme nose sufficiently to hold the two halves together. The underside still suffers slightly from a concave centre line. I feel that some work with filler and sanding down lies ahead Oh well. Thanks for looking. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Wow. She is putting up a fight. Once 90% of the seam line is cured maybe try gluing the nose then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted November 15, 2015 Author Share Posted November 15, 2015 I think using all those elastic bands and clamps may have paid off. The centre line join between the two fuselage halves was not great, but not impossible to sort out. A bit of filler/sanding, filler/sanding, filler/sanding Mr. Surfacer and you would hardly know it was there Next up were the main wings and empennage. Did the main wings yesterday evening, and the tail this evening. Strangely the starboard wing fits a treat but the port wing is dreadful, and will need some fettling. The tailplanes and fin are also a reasonable fit. Starting to come together. Hopefuly I will find some time tomorrow to stick a few more bits on, and try and deal with some of the joints. Thanks for looking. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted December 6, 2015 Author Share Posted December 6, 2015 Been doing a fair bit of filling and sanding of late, but the old '123 is starting to come together. I spent a fair bit of time masking up the cabin and cockpit windows, is there an easier way of doing this . Fiddling about with teeny tiny bits of masking tape! Oh well, it's done now (I hope). The join at the back of the cockpit transparency is very tricky to work on as the windows are so close to the join. Fingers crossed for a decent result. Nose weight added and she's up on her nose wheel, always a relief. Shouldn't be too long now and I can get some paint on, which should be interesting. Thanks for looking. Cheers. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted December 19, 2015 Share Posted December 19, 2015 So that IS what people call a shake and bake kit?! I am so glad I have seen one after all these years! Congrats! JR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted December 28, 2015 Author Share Posted December 28, 2015 Sorry Guys, not going to make the deadline with this one. The Christmas run-up /family/work demands on time have kiboshed this one I'm afraid. Still, I have enjoyed the GB and at least I got it out the stash and started. It only needs a few bits and bobs doing and then painting up. I will post in in the RFI section in the New Year (ish) Cheers, all the best. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magua87 Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Looking forward to seeing the finished product in the new year. You've done a good job at taming it so far! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Also this one Smudge. Did you complete her? Would be great to see it finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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