1/72 Airfix C-130 Maintenance diorama

[Gajman]

Hi,

Spurred on by my successful (well in my eyes it is ) hack of a Revell DC-3 into a representation of broken museum exhibit (click here) and the fact that I've been bitten by the scratchbuild bug, I thought I'd go for a similar type of build but one that is maybe a bit more ambitious.

A while back the magazine 'Combat Aircraft' had a feature on how the USAF extended the life of their C-130s. The article had a number of photos of a C-130 in a maintenance depot. One of the photos is here:

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This photograph is taken from this website which contains the full article. Link to article.

I saw the pics and thought it would make a great diorama and so I kept the article. A few weeks back a fellow BMer, Alex (acky190), was advertising an Airfix C-130 for sale which I bought off him with the intention of bringing that article to 'life'.

And now, a few weeks after receiving the kit I committed to the build by taking it out the box and starting to cut it up ready for its transformation. I've also started scribing the panel lines (the Airfix kit has raised panel lines).

I also started making the numerous platforms that will surround the aircraft.

I have searched the web for pictutres of these maintenance stands and have a couple of photographs. If any of you out there have other photos or references that you'd be happy to share, then please do so.

Thanks for looking.

Gary

Edited April 27, 2012 by Gajman

[billybookcase]

If the plane is half as good as the platform it should be a cracker.

BB

[GrahamS]

Now this I am going to watch closely!

Graham

[Acky190]

Having a personal angle here, this should be interesting! Good luck mate!!!

[Moofles]

now this shall be good, watching and following with intrest.

[thomasweir]

Looks like a interesting project.

[Smiffy]

Gonna watch this one.

[Gajman]

I've done some more work on the stands that will be around the aircraft. These two are the stands that go at the end of the wing.

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I thought I was crazy starting on this but then I saw this amazing Apollo model and I thought wow!, my plans are nothing compared to that.

Gary

[James G]

Great start on an unusual project. I'd like to see 'step-by-step' photos on how you build the platforms if you have them? Very nice work

[Gajman]

Great start on an unusual project. I'd like to see 'step-by-step' photos on how you build the platforms if you have them? Very nice work

Thanks for your feedback. I don't have step by step pics, but I still have another 16 platforms to build, I'll take step by step pics of the next one.

Gary

[bruce3371]

Very ambitious build, but will be fantastic when finished

[Gajman]

Here's the start of the step by step pics. Each stand has 4 wheels. Each wheel is made from 4 parts. The following pics are macro shots, so they show every little flaw. I will be cleaning the parts up before I paint them.

I start off with the wheel, which is from a 2mm rod, then I have two frames into which the wheel will fit. Finally there's a block of plastic that will go at the top of the entire assembly.

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The wheel glued between the two frames.

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Block of plastic fitted at the top of wheel assembly.

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I'm now going to complete all the wheels to this stage before continuing with the photos.

Gary

[Gajman]

I've decided that the diorama will use a SAFAIR hercules. The scheme I will be doing is the old overall white with orange and blue cheatlines on it. The only problem is that SAFAIR hercs were the L-100-30 version. So I need to stretch the Airfix kit I have.

The following photo shows where I've started on that.

The wing has been cut ready for building up as if in a maintenance scene. I've opened up some round panels on the wing. The ridges at the front and sides of the wing will be filed down a lot.

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Gary

[Moofles]

bud, anyone ever tell you that you are clinically insane. not only are you doing a simply epic project, but to, i dont know how to phrase it ''challange'' yourself (not really a strong enough word) your also going to stretch and scratch build a large protion of a herc...mad i tell you..mad.

serious note, fantastic work so far, those trollys/ trestles really look good, very lifelike.

[Radleigh]

Looking forward to seeing how you do this.

[Gajman]

One of the engines in my diorama will be on a trolley for maintenance.

So, I've started making the engine. I had to thin out the Airfix kit parts and cut out the access panels. Put a few strips to for the access panels to attach to. I opened up the air intakes in the engine cowling.

For some filler behind the main intake I cut up some drop tanks and filed them into shape. That's the green part you can see to the right in the following picture.

Finally I needed a base on which to put all the plumbing to make the engine. This was made from another cut up drop tank and a cut up laser pod joined by some strips of plastic.

Thanks for looking.

Gary

[Gajman]

Here's a pic of the stretching exercise as it progresses. I filled the gap with strips of plastic and then lay a sheet of .5mm card over them and filed it down.

The front gap is complete, the back gap has the strips in place, althought that is not complete yet.

Thanks for looking.

Gary

[Gajman]

The stretching exercise continues. I've now done both fueslage halves. I needed to tape them together to ensure that when I stretched the second half it lined up with the first.

And I've started on the rear ramp. I've added two 'railings' which will contain rollers and the white blocks are very thin plastic that will be the non slip pads. I've also drilled in some grooves that will hold tie down points but these don't show up so well on this pic.

Thanks for looking.

Gary

Edited June 19, 2011 by Gajman

[Moofles]

my word that is looking very impressive, your streching has come out very well, and the rear ramp looks the part with the added detail.

[Gajman]

Hi,

I've moved on to one of the engines this week. I will have one engine on a trolley with the panels removed.

Here is the cowling around the engine. This is the airfix part , thinned out a lot with thin plastic strips added as the inner layer to which the opened panels would attach.

And this is the basis of the engine. This is made from assorted hacked up missiles, drop tanks and pylons glued to plastic card. Most of this will be hidden by wiring once I've finished.

Thanks for looking.

Gary

[perdu]

brilliant work

amazing workmanship

and a bloomin' great idea to build this model

[Gajman]

Hi,

The engine is complete. I've made it look as busy as I could using a combination of wire, plastic rod and spares from the spares box. As you'll see, the cowling itself needs some tidying up. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have sorted that out first but too late now.

Thanks for looking and any comments/criticisms are welcome.

Gary

[Gajman]

Hi,

Slow progress on this one but another 'milestone' has been reached. The engine is complete and mounted on it's sctratchbuild maintenance trolley.

Thanks for looking and any comments/criticisms are welcome.

Gary

[Vulcanicity]

Superb idead and great work. I really look forward to seeing this done!

[Gajman]

Hi,

I've had a day off work and have done some more work on thi sproject. I've now started on the interior of the herc. Having extended the fuselage I now have two untidy plugs that need covering up. I'm going to start at the cocpit end of the cargo section and work towards the tail.

Here's a close up of the sort of thing that I plan to have against the bulkhead at the top of the cargo area.

This is an overall view of the fuselage interior. You can see the two plugs in this picture. The tissue paper represents the padding on the real thing. The photographs I have show that the interior is pretty untidy, there is padding running horizontally as well as vertically. I'm using the pictures as a guide because in 1/72 scale there is no way I can duplicate it exactly.

Another view of the interior. This gives an idea of how the wheel wells are boxed in and the wing spars too.

Thanks for looking and any comments/criticisms are welcome.

Gary