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Posted (edited)

Gently throwing my entry into the GB. Yes, yes, I have KUTA thread that I almost gave up on but at least ADGZ one is done.

 

Not really a fan of Heller, but there are some subjects that I like. Some of them fly, others crawl or ride, perhaps float in some cases. This one happens to fly.

Some of you have seen it, others sat in a passenger seat or perhaps quite a bit forward - a pilot seat. Some of you know much more than me about it and someone else might have stumbled on it just now, but we can all agree that the plane looked good and was equally good at doing its job.

It was from time when design was beautiful and tech had style, time when sleek curves of a car were matched only by... khm I am not writing that... but rather the daring boldness of its creator who may have had slight disregard for safety. Anyhow, this was a product of its time and one of the last of its kind in a country over the pond. One of last civil aviation ventures of still existing corporation... guessed it?

 

Of course it is our Lockheed C121-A Constellation! In MATS livery to boot.

 

Heller kit №80382, original mould 1982, re-released in 2020-something. Supplied in atrociously thin cardboard box with only protection for sprues being a box and some paper.

1354306-10105-58-pristine.jpg

 

I first need to unpack it all and count pieces that have not fallen off a sprue or came in multiple parts instead of one. How do I know they did? Because I repacked it after receiving in mail.

 

Likely no aftermarket parts unless you count some paints and (unless I forget, which I shouldn't) some finishing touches borrowed from my other hobby/trade/whatever-you-call-it that are still to be delivered.

 

@2996 Victor this one would like to be included in participant list please.

@Mjwomack @Snafu35 new entry to the club, a small constellation of Constellations.

Edited by Illusive
  • Like 14
Posted (edited)

I forgot my usual title... :facepalm: this one's fitting as well :D changing it later for my own thread tracking purposes. Current title: "This is going to be a Lockheed Constellation C121-A in MATS livery."

 

Edit: from what I understood based on different photos (plans are plans and you have to find them first), which are thankfully pretty abundant in almost every angle that one could dream of, -- we have way too many variations.

Sure thing is I'd need to reposition one of windows Heller placed way too close to the other for reasons unknown. If C121-A was a straight conversion from L-749 then it'd have the same structure. Borrowing a bit from Snafu35 thread but without perfectionism included. Therefore @Snafu35 me searching for a) how to make window replacement easier and b) photoetch is your fault :D

Edited by Illusive
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Posted

Welcome to the GB, Illusive, it's great to see another of these gorgeous aircraft making an appearance! The MATS livery will be something a little different, too. 

 

Looking forward to your next update!

 

Cheers,

Mark

Posted
6 hours ago, Illusive said:

I have KUTA thread that I almost gave up

Yep, plenty of those, one day we need a KUTA of KUTA with the sole criteria of a previous KUTA thread, I salute the endurance of @jean and @Back in the Saddle with their hardy perenials of the KUTA garden.

 

6 hours ago, Illusive said:

sleek curves of a car 

Whereas I see the hump of a dolphin in the top line and the legs of a spider in the undercarriage (to quote the band James, my therapist says I'km becoming a bore!).

 

6 hours ago, Illusive said:

a small constellation of Constellations.

It's a fun, on galaxy of them appearing, never mind aligning the planets in February!

 

I think cargo is the way to go as it saves worrying about the lack of interior (not that I do in any case)

 

I'll get my telescope ready

  • Like 4
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Posted

Hello Illusive,

 

I'm delighted to be sharing the construction of this MATS Constellation with another modeler. Welcome to the group.

I use two articles as inspiration for this model:

https://master194.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=126000&hilit=*Constellation

and:

http://scalemodels.ru/modules/myarticles/img_5786_1352490036_0.jpg.html

 

I'm quite demanding because I want to copy reality. So don't do what I do, because it takes a lot of time!

I plugged the holes in the existing portholes by cutting discs of the correct diameter from a 1mm thick sheet of plastic. I made a template, and I turn a needle stuck in a handle until the piece is cut.

I didn't have a photo of the model that I wanted to build, and I'd copied the window locations from an L049. I'm going to build the 48616 because I've found two photos, because it's a model that's closest to the Heller model (the MATS Constell' quickly received a new, longer radar nose).

The position of the portholes seems to correspond with what I've done. Lucky me!

The principle is the same for cutting porthole windows.

I bought the Brengun photoetch kit to dress up the wheel bays. I'd like to save time during these construction phases.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Regards,

Eric-Snafu35

  • Like 6
Posted
7 minutes ago, Snafu35 said:

I bought the Brengun photoetch kit to dress up the wheel bays. I'd like to save time during these construction phases.

 

Wheels! That reminds me fellow astromers- after all this ballast is on board, does anyone know if the plastic spindles AKA undercarriage is strong enough? Should I/we be looking for some white metal A/M undercarriage to carry that load (©️ Te Beatles)

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Posted

Hello, Mjwomack,

 

I asked my friend who built the Constellation on the Master194 forum, and he told me that the front leg is solid. 

Sorry for anyone selling concrete landing gear. :giggle:

 

Regards,

Eric-Snafu35

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Posted (edited)
30 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

Wheels! That reminds me fellow astromers- after all this ballast is on board, does anyone know if the plastic spindles AKA undercarriage is strong enough? Should I/we be looking for some white metal A/M undercarriage to carry that load (©️ Te Beatles)

In theory I could cast them from lets say aluminium if y'all need some. Wanted to try that for my XB-70 but thought that a) it might be stronger than the model itself and b) not really in the mood to work the kinks out. Turns out plastic is strong enough, so if XB-70 holds up, I think Connie will.

Edited by Illusive
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Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Snafu35 said:

I plugged the holes in the existing portholes by cutting discs of the correct diameter from a 1mm thick sheet of plastic. I made a template, and I turn a needle stuck in a handle until the piece is cut.

In best TTS Magnus voice: well, I'm not doing that.

(TTS stands for "If Emperor had text-to-speech device" Warhammer 40k animation by Bruva Alfabusa).

 

Thought about something a little bit easier and that needs good masks. In fact I will need good masks anyway. Ones that don't let anything seep under them.

Edited by Illusive
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Posted

Connies sprouting like weeds! What a joy.

Wishing you good luck and much fun.

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Posted
19 minutes ago, PattheCat said:

Connies sprouting like weeds! What a joy.

I'm becoming tempted, myself. Must resist.....must resist.....

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Posted
2 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

I'm becoming tempted, myself. Must resist.....must resist.....

Come on, you know you want it. Perhaps have it in stash already...

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Posted
42 minutes ago, Illusive said:

Come on, you know you want it. Perhaps have it in stash already...

:laugh: no, I haven't. At least.....not yet :evil_laugh:

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Posted

Great to see another one of these in the GB.  Good luck with it.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Hello,

 

@Illusive: How far have we got with the construction?
I suppose action has taken precedence over reflection, hasn't it? :rolleyes:

 

Regards,

Eric-Snafu35

 

 

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

@Snafu35 mostly cleaning up what shouldn't have been there in the first place, reminding myself to take photos and then post and contemplating if I really need 5mm windows or 6mm (in reality holes are close to 6.5mm) will suffice. And lots of CA glue as filler. Probably today tomorrow posting an update so that y'all can read it tomorrow later.

 

Moving along and cursing at "recycled environmentally-friendly" plastic that this thing is made of.

Edited by Illusive
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Posted (edited)

Alrighty then, doing it now or I'll forget again (have a habit of... ignoring some things after delaying for some time, eh, whatever).

 

Our Connie starts its story as a simple box of sprues, parts and plastic bags. Or it would if it was delivered correctly and not by a manufacturer more concerned about "looking good" then actually delivering its product intact.

Model comes in a box, also there are instructions and a large sheet of decals in the same box. Nothing else and all of the bags are my own addition.

e5b6812e7a9eb12b2e18a616ba863541.jpg

 

Model also comes with a lot of parts detaching from sprues and said parts having lots of sink marks. In fact, on further inspection it looks like Heller is determined at giving any short-run manufacturer its run for the money. Might also take more of your money while at it (looking at you 1/72 Concorde!!!)

 

That said, we still have no idea of the extent of the work at hand, just paint, plastic, glue and some plans. Also a thread by @Mjwomack and @Snafu35 each.

Reading threads leads to searching for whatever references I could find, understanding that Connie had way too many variations throughout its life and that pretty much only thing immediately wrong with it is that weird window.

So I make a new one. From spare parts and glue.

 

35e3fc81cfa796505bf64740c4f334ca.jpg72ca46509018eaf232de40790538eef3.jpg

 

Connect both internal grooves, attach thin (0.2mm it seems) flash from Heller central injection sprue area, pour a bit of CA, put a spare block of plastic from Heller part number rectangles, pour more CA, cover whole area in CA, sand filler, remove underlaying thin piece, polish and done. Blue color is black pen ink getting into the mix. Then it was marked out, drilled with approx. 1mm twist drill in a pin vise, then approx. 3mm drill and finished with 6mm brad-point and step drill bits to get size about right on the money with original "not quite 6mm or 7mm hole".

 

While CA dries out very slowly, very very slowly, we look at wheels, seats and everything else.

2/4 wheels have not sink marks but sink holes. Plugged them with shaved off plastic from previous step melted with Tamiya Ultrathin. They look much better than macro photo suggests, almost indistinguishable from correct parts.

Seats have sinks too, but I'm covering up only 2/3 of them. Third is under the seat itself and I'm not bothered about it. Might have not bothered with previous two but they were ugly.

Engines are ok and need just a bit of sanding to remove ejector pin marks.

Cabin door is crooked and needed to be wider and straighter.

 

12577489c8d96e99e9f30212b333ad59.jpgedb21cc3f438147e37656edfa383f396.jpgad8ff8b9283930f84305a3c5aeddf0a9.jpg697827e3d5f6a80e29d11cb19cec4466.jpg

 

Tail fins are ok once properly seated, filed and filled. Also brough to proper geometry as some parts don't quite line up. Gaps are filled too, CA is sort of translucenty-transparent here.

 

6c595cb00fbd176dcb18ebec169a1765.jpg

 

Same for the wing: clean up flash, file into proper geometry on connecting edges, attach with Tamiya glue, go over with CA and fill in any gaps with the same CA. Then file and sand again to achieve proper surface quality.

 

657a330a6555fefd0a71d5f197eca016.jpg81403a9c25364e34090c5d41e73eb9ff.jpg

 

However... before this there are some ejector pin marks (4 per part) and one thin hole in each of outboard nacelles. Naturally each of them nearly poking through part so they were filled in. With CA, more CA, then some plastic dust, glue dust from sanding same CA, various plastic crap, spare pieces from ADGZ sprues, solidified CA and more regular CA. No ham sandwich though. Parts then looked like this after removing all of the unnecessary filler:

 

e211c381f7d61ce3faa057b29b1df089.jpg

 

Same approach was used to work on plane body:

 

ac71003a8eea8456d395ad4e24d76c45.jpg

 

At some point interior was painted with two layers of ICM 1033 Sky Grey to cover up any white plastic that could be visible through window clear parts. Yes, I know that per instructions cockpit is supposed to be black almost entirely and internal finish is likely to be Gull Gray ro metal or anything else but this looked close enough.

 

fe0f1bd0e1f15d7dc40f11928e3d1f61.jpg

 

Next steps are: cockpit, transparencies, balancing, ballast, filling, full assembly, masking (5mm windows or 6-7mm ones as now?) and coloring. Not exactly in this order but cockpit and transparencies definitely come before everything else.

Edited by Illusive
  • Like 12
Posted

Hello @Illusive,

 

You've put a lot of work into your project, I see.👍👍

The windows should have been drilled to a size of five millimetres, because that changes the look of the aircraft, but I understand because you haven't moved all the windows. 
And it's already sporting to redo the windows.

Thank you so much for taking the time to take photos and show them to us.

 

Regards,

Eric-Snafu35

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Posted
19 hours ago, Snafu35 said:

And it's already sporting to redo the windows.

Isn't on your level, but that window was bothering me. As for photos... at least they exist. Frequently it's all a series of "correct this, paint that, align here, fix that thing that broke second time in different place" and photos are nowhere near being taken or posted so thanks for a reminder.

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Posted

Boy, the quality of the plastic looks terrible!  It's a far cry from what I worked with 30+ years ago.   You're doing very well with this, and it will turn out well.  Press on, sir!

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Posted
On 2/18/2025 at 8:16 PM, Illusive said:

Isn't on your level, but that window was bothering me. As for photos... at least they exist. Frequently it's all a series of "correct this, paint that, align here, fix that thing that broke second time in different place" and photos are nowhere near being taken or posted so thanks for a reminder.

Nice photos so far. You’re doing great work! I was also bothered by the two windows close together. I did a similar thing to mine to fix those windows. I think your job went a little cleaner than mine. I have probably looked at hundreds of Connie photos and I didn’t see any with those windows. Only the Super Connies have that configuration, but the windows are rectangular.

So we have 4 Connies on the go, and they’re all 049, 749, C-121. Someone needs to chime in with a 1049 Super Connie.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

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Posted
3 hours ago, MrB17 said:

So we have 4 Connies on the go,

I think it was Monday morning when all 4 were at the top of the message summary together- which I'd taken a screen shot of formation posting!

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  • Illusive changed the title to This is becoming a Lockheed Constellation C121-A in MATS livery. (add standard title later)
Posted
On 20/02/2025 at 10:22, Mjwomack said:

I think it was Monday morning when all 4 were at the top of the message summary together- which I'd taken a screen shot of formation posting!

 

So let's make the most of it, and I'll put Constellation's four posts back at the top of the page now!:lol:

 

Regards,

Eric-Snafu35

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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

@Snafu35 how did you orient engine inserts? Mine either have no keyes, they were part of sprue gates or were otherwise removed as flash and junk (wouldn't be surprising as this model has sink marks and/or flash on lamost every part).

Edited by Illusive

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