I finished up this project in December, it was a Christmas present for my father. The model is from Hobbycraft and it was fairly simple, both in ease and in detail. The cockpit has basically no detail other than the instrument panel, seats and control yokes. But it went together really nicely and gave me no problems.
Now then, I’m pretty sure US Army planes did not sport the SEA scheme, at least not to my knowledge. So some of you sticklers for detail may not appreciate the paint job. Oh well. I liked it better than the overall OD so that is how I did it. I model more for the eye than for accuracy. If it looks cool, that’s how I prefer it. Sorry.
So there you have it.
Comments and criticism is certainly welcome…
Hey, thanks Fermis, coming from you that is a very kind compliment. Its certainly not without its flaws. You may be able to see in one picture that there is some sag in the canopy creating a small ridge between the back of the canopy and the fuselage. Not sure when that happened, must of settled that way after I glued it as I don’t recall seeing it when I first test fit it [:^)]
Looks good Jon! Kinda reminds me of the Caribous at NAS Wildwood. They prolly looked like your bird when they rolled off the production line a looong time ago. Very nice work as usual.
Nice! But the US Army called them CV-2s not C-7s…I once made the mistake of referring to it as a C-7 to an Army crew chief, he literally threw me off “his” aircraft. They weren’t known as C-7s until the Army got out of the fixed wing business and transferred them over to the USAF.
I’m going to do mine in RAAF markings. One of the hairiest landings I was in was one of these things sideways on a wet heavily grassed airfield at Jungle Training School in '88
Len, I got the idea to build this from seeing those same NASW Caribous. I’d had a lengthy conversation with my father about them. We’d never seen a Caribou before so we had no idea what they were and had to ask some one in the museum. From additional research I did, I believe most of them were acquired from the Spanish Air Force.
Hawkeye, thanks for correcting my terminology. All the sources I’d seen up to that point, including the kit box, called it a C-7. It wasn’t until you mentioned it that I looked it up further on globalsecurity.org. I had no idea there were different designations for it.
Wirraway, do you have the same kit? Its pretty nice but I’d recommend scrapping the kit decal that represents the cargo bay mesh seats. I replaced the decal with pieces of window screen painted red to replicate the seats as seen through the fuselage windows. Looks much better and three dimensional.
Jetmodeler, thanks, and I agree the 'Bou is very ugly. Huge tail and skinny, bent wings. But I’ve never heard a bad word spoken of it, other than its appearance. It was a rugged airplane that performed very well.
Thanks again guys, guess I’ll find another project to work on now!
It was a thing of beauty when it brought in supplies and airlifted personnel out a not so nice place. Some of the places this aircraft can land and takeoff from will blow your mind.[:D]
I like it a lot! Still have to build my copy of this kit… There’s no telling when it’s going to be. Good luck with your next projects and have a nice day
There are some great videos on Youtube of Caribou pilots pulling off some pretty impressive stunts. It’s pretty maneuverable for a cargo plane, something I’m sure came in handy during the Vietnam war.
