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C31A Troopship F-27 Fokker friendship US Army Aviation


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In December of 1985, the U.S. Army Parachute Team, the Golden Knights, leased two F-27-400M Friendship aircraft from the Dutch aeronautical firm, Fokker. The two planes were to replace the team’s aging fleet of YC-7A Caribou, which had served the Knights’ airlift needs for more than 10 years. A short time later the Army purchased the two aircraft from Fokker and redesignated them as the C-31A “Troopship.”

The two planes are primarily used to provide the Golden Knights with safe and economical travel to more than 300 different demonstration sites annually. While at these sites, the C-31A serves as the team’s jump platform, carrying the men and women of the Golden Knights to altitudes as high as 2 1/2 miles above the show site where they begin performing the precision freefall maneuvers and formations that have become trademarks of the team. During many of the Golden Knight’s shows, once the jumpers have exited the C-31A, it will descend and perform a low altitude, high speed fly-by demonstrating the maneuverability and versatility of the aircraft.

The model is from Esci scale 1/72. The paint used is from Xtra Color. 
The decals are from Draw Decals.

Regards, Orion / The Netherlands.

 

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In Preparation: F27 Fuerza Aerea Argentina T-41

 

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Edited by Orion
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On 1/7/2019 at 4:49 AM, Unfinished project said:

Nice to see this kit finished.  I have one on the shelf of doom. I can only hope it looks half as good as this 👍

So do I, the retooled Airfix kit, I had all sorts of paint adhesion issues!

 

Your F-27 looks excellent Orion! :thumbsup:

17 hours ago, Jpthedog said:

Tidy model and smart scheme. Interested to see how you sort out the nose on the Airfix F27 - mine has been on the buffers for a while now!

There is enough plastic on the retooled nose parts on the Airfix kit to file the nose down to get the correct shape and saving a lot of putty. I did it on mine.

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Hi There,

Thanks for the positive responses. My problem was the side windows. No masking available.

So I did the build in reverse. Painting the two fuselages completely, including decals and final varnish coating. Installing the windows and the putting the two halves together.

I did the same with the wings. It takes longer, but the windows are CLEAN.

Regards, Orion

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