Roden C-5M Super Galaxy (332) 1:144

[Mike]

C-5M Super Galaxy (332)

1:144 Roden

 

 

The competition to design the next generation of oversize load carrying aircraft began in the early 60s with concepts and proposals, with Lockheed eventually winning the competition due to the projected lower total cost of the project (ha!).  The Lockheed design had the T-tail that we see today, and a quartet of high-bypass GE engines were selected to give the required range and thrust, but very soon after the type entered service, problems occurred that meant expensive changes were needed to make the fleet airworthy again.  Cost overruns were also an issue, and this caused Lockheed some serious financial concerns that threatened their stability, as well as questions as to the honesty of some of the decisions and their makers. 

 

The –B model made some improvements to the original design, but the major improvement was the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) discussed late in the last millennium and implemented in the early 2000s, which put many existing airframes through the rebuilding process, giving them new energy-efficient engines, a modern glass cockpit and improved avionics.  This also improved many other aspects of the airframe and gave over 20% additional power, increasing their cargo capacity accordingly.  Designated the C-5M and given the name Super Galaxy to differentiate them, these are the airframes that you will see in service today, side-by-side with the C-17 and Hercules fleets.  The Super Galaxy is expected to be in service with the US Air Force until 2040 at the earliest, and attempts are already underway to further enhance the aircraft's performance and efficiency.

 

 

The Kit

There have been a few kits in various scales over the years, but nothing recent that you could consider mainstream in a reasonable scale and in injection styrene.  Until Roden announced their kit a few years back, and now we have the latest variant of this behemoth, the Super Galaxy.  The kit arrives in a long box by necessity due to the length of the fuselage, with a nice painting of a C-5M heading toward us in landing configuration.  Inside is a bunch of mid grey styrene, although not as much as you might expect and as many have already noted, there is no interior other than the front cockpit, which has been carried over into this edition.  There are twelve sprues of varying sizes, plus the two fuselage halves, which have been removed from their sprues and have a little flash around the cockpit opening and the gear bay apertures.  They're the work of moments to remove however, and of no concern.  There is also a small clear sprue, a fairly large decal sheet, and of course the instruction booklet along with a separate painting and markings sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the engines, which have fan details moulded in, and are handed in pairs as you'd expect.  They are then shown being fitted to the wings, which are each made up from top and bottom halves, and have the slat actuators slotted in along the leading edge, and an elevator trapped between the two halves.  There are some shallow sink-marks along the trailing edges of the wings where the flap bay upstands are moulded, and these will need filling and sanding back to improve the look of the model.  The flap housings are all built from two halves that are glued together with a butt-joint, and will need to be fitted and marshalled carefully to avoid getting them in the wrong order.  Take careful note of which parts go where before you attempt the task, and cut off the mounting pips of the flap sections if you are depicting them stowed.  You may also need to fill the holes for the deployed flaps too, depending on whether they stand proud of the flaps when installed.

 

The Galaxy has lots of wheels to spread its substantial load over the runway, with 28 in total, all made up from two halves each, so plenty of seam-scraping unless you decide to get some resin replacements.  There are four main gear legs and one nose gear leg, with each main gear leg having six wheels on the bogie, and a strut that fits into a hole in the centre, which could well be a weak-point, and you must ensure that you don't cut off the pin on the strut, which has a slightly fuzzy join with the sprue gate.  The gear bays are made up comprising a large roof with moulded-in detail, to which is added a quantity of ribs and stringers, plus bulkheads closing off the bay from the rest of the fuselage.  The main bay is a single area, and has bay door hinges added to the sides before it is installed in the fuselage later in the build.  Before this happens, the large T-tail is made up from two halves for the fin, and two more parts for each elevator fin, plus the elevator itself, which both plug into slots in the side of the aerodynamic fairing at the top of the tail.  Finally, the rudder is glued together and fitted into the rear of the fin.

 

The fuselage is a bit on the large side, and due to this and the thickness of the walls, there is a quantity of distortion in the underside of my example, which should be easy enough to fix with some test-fitting, careful gluing and perhaps some tabs added to one side or the other to prevent them diving past each other.  The cockpit, nose gear and main gear bay platforms are all glued into place beforehand, and six holes are drilled into the fuselage top for a pair of towel-rail antennas.  The location of these are given using two scrap diagrams, which make a lot more sense once you realise you are looking at them from above.  For the benefit of alignment, they're probably best done with the fuselage together.  A number of clear portholes are supplied on the clear sprue, which are inserted from the inside, and will benefit from sanding flush if they remain proud (plus polishing back to clear) and a dot of masking fluid before you forget where they are.  With the fuselage together, it can be top-and-tailed with the nose and the tail cone, which reminds us that there's little interior detail other than the cockpit and bays, which is a shame when you consider its sole raison d'être.  The joint for the "visor" that allows cargo access to the front is engraved deeper than the other surrounding panel lines, so if anyone's feeling brave that makes the cut easier, but there's a lot more work still to do.  The canopy is simply inserted into the slot in the nose, and take care to test-fit this before gluing it, as an element of flash on either part could cause it to stand forward, ruining the slope of the nose.

 

The instructions show the landing gear and their bay doors added at this stage, but as the wings are yet to be joined, I'd be leaving those until much later for fear of shearing those joins on the main gear.  The wings are as yet without their slats, which are a single part each that affixes to the arms that were installed during main construction.  You might notice that these are attached by a very thin layer of styrene all along the sprue, which is presumably to obtain minimum short-shots from the mould, so take care slicing them free with your weapon of choice.  Then the whole assemblies are inserted into the big slots on the fuselage, which have internal buttresses to help keep the wings from sagging, although I'd also consider a little tab on the inside of the seam between the wings too, just as a belt and braces exercise.  Ba-dum tish!  It's done.  Now for some colour.

 

 

Markings

At the end of the instruction booklet there is an overhead diagram showing where all the miles of walkway lines go, which augments the A4 colour sheet that only has enough room for two side profiles and a partial underside diagram.  There's only one decal option, which is a modern grey airframe, as follows:

 

• S/n 86-0022 Air Mobility Command, 60th AMW, 349th AWM, Travis Air Base, 2007

 

 

 

The decals are printed anonymously, and although they're fit for purpose, they're a little fuzzy under magnification, and the highly visible white decal for the refuelling receptacle has been printed slightly offset on my copy, but I can probably fix that with a scalpel and a dot of white paint.  The American flags are also ever-so-slightly off too, but this can be fixed with a sharp blade.  Check your copy when it arrives, and ensure you'll be able to use them.

 

 

Conclusion

This is a great subject and as long as you keep your wits about you, test-fitting everything and adjusting things as you go, paying careful attention to the instructions, you'll end up with a good model.  If you approach it expecting it to fall together however, you'll have a lot less fun.  Sure, there's a bit of flash hither and yon, but that's pretty simple to remove, and is a lot better than having short-shot parts.  It would have been nice to have a little interior, the decals could have been a little better, but overall I'm still very glad to have it, and look forward to building it.

 

Recommended.

 

Review sample courtesy of

[Whitewolf]

It's a real shame that they did not put a detailed interior in with options to raise the nose etc - that would have been some model!! But I'm assuming the sheer cost put them off that idea?