Here it is, Tax refund time… So I was thinking about taking on a ridiculous project.
I have been eyeing the 1/48th scale C-130J on GreatModels for a long time but making it all closed up and flying or sitting would be boring. I have a decent amount of free shelf space so I was thinking about making almost a diorama of something being loaded inside.
I was thinking about a Blackhawk or a Seahawk being loaded inside. Would they fit? If so would the rotors be folded or removed? If removed how would they be packed? What else would be travelling along with the helicopter? Say it is a replacement Seahawk being flown out to meet a ship at sea. I am most of the way through an Italeri Seahawk and I was just thinking it was a ridiculously fast, easy build- so it wouldnt be too painful to put one together quick and dirty to stuff inside a transport.
A google search was inconclusive. I know a couple Blackhawks will fit in a C-5… But nobody makes a big C-5.
If the Seahawk/Blackhawk option isn’t realistic… I have never done an Armor kit before… Is there something modern, light enough for a C-130 (I am pretty sure an Abrams and maybe a Bradley is out) and also comes in 1/48th scale?
I was thinking Paratroopers might be an option if the others don’t work out. Are there good 1/48th scale modern paratroops out there? I could probably get away with maybe 6 of them… Though more would be nice. Cost is not of primary concern.
The M-551 Sheridan used to be L.A.P.E.S.'d out of HerksIt could only hold one plus some cargo. I had a supervisr once who did that at Pope AFB as a demo for a bunch of military brass and the thing went all wrong, Instead of being relaesed a couple feet off the ground, it jammed on the cargo deck and didn’t release until they were climbing away.
Well I’ve seen C-130 hauling a lot of stuff. In fact I’ve loaded my fair share of them too. Once loaded a snow cat on one. Though rolling stock is neat, palletized cargo was the norm. 463L pallets piled high with plastic covers and netting over that strapped down to the pallet. I’ve asked several aftermarket mfrs to provide resin pallets and PE nets, but none have taken up the challenge.
You could do a firefighting C-130 the apparatus is unique and fills up the cargo compartment.
You could do a couple of pallets of cargo, one low profile baggage pallet (which usually sat on the ramp) with the front of the compartment filled with Ratan funiture, stereo & TV equipment boxes, cases of beer liquior & wine and just about anything one would buy on an overseas shopping trip. This was the norm for AF Reserve and ANG C-130 aircraft.
We had a C-130 show up from the Wyoming ANG at our base to haul a Hawaii ANG Prime Beef unit back to Hawaii after their deployment for Team Spirit. The aircraft was full of the aircrews personal crap. The aircrew’s junk took up three full pallet positions on the aircraft. It literally rendered the aircraft useless for the mission they were scheduled and tasked to haul.
I’ll tell you tempers were hot that day. The aircrew was uncooperative, the unit returning home was pissed off and I was mad as a hornet too. The aircrew had only flown in from Japan and wanted “crew rest” so they could go shopping in Korea before they headed back towards home. When I reported that the aircraft was unsuitable for the tasking due to it being filled with personal property PACAF, MAC and the AF were screaming at the ANG folks, especially the Wyoming unit commander.
I had to ship two or three of the pallets via normal airlift channels, which meant separating the team from their tools and supplies. Fortunately I wasn’t above sending them using a higher priority than they really were, so they got there PDQ. We packed the unit inside the C-130 as best we could, seating was tight because of the personal crap inside and the pallets of their deployment bags for the unit being transported. The commander of the Prime Beef team called me when his other pallets arrived at Hickam…he said they made that aircrews trip pure hell. The aircrew didn’t even set foot off the base in Hawaii, they left as soon as they could to fly back to Wyoming. I heard the crew was reprimanded.
After that incident there were fewer ANG C-130s tasks to support the units we were redeploying back to their home units from our locale after Team Spirit. Must have been something I said. [:-,] We got C-141s instead!
My old man did it in the South African Air Force for real… very carefully as they were only supposed to be carrying supplies… and the hold was packed with empty boxes to to hide the mirage (which wasnt supposed to be there)…
Kinda funny seeing this post pop up as on my way home from work today I was driving past the airport and to my disbelief there was a CF130 on the ramp right next to the fence, which in turn is right next to the road that I was driving on. It was an impressive site to say the least.
Not sure what it was doing here as we don’t get much military traffic here aside from a few “touch and go’s” every now and then from the F-16’s from Selfridge ANG base from Michigan.
You can also get 2 Whiskey Cobra Helos in there as well. Seen that once and had to do a double take. The blades we off the snakes, but the load masters somehow got them in there.
I do believe that anything based on the M113 APC chassis is transportable by C-130. Also, the Marine Corps LAV is transportable, but will most likely need to be partially disassembled first.
The largest thing I saw was a P-19 crash truck that we had shipped in to replace one we had that was broke down 11 tons empty sure looked like a tight fit going in and comming out
I was able to scare up some decent references that say a folded up ?H-60 will fit in a C-130
I was starting to consider palletized cargo though… Does anyone have a picture of an empty air cargo pallet? I was thinking about this at first and thinking they might not be too hard to scratchbuild.
Making the nets out of masking tape or something might be a PITA though.
It looks like pallet cargo is going to be the winner.
For posterity and in case anyone ever gets the same idea and searches the thread. I got the info from a current Blackhawk pilot. Will a Blackhawk fit? Yes. Will a Seahawk? No. Does the Blackhawk ever go by C-130? It is rare because loading the thing is a PITA.
UH-60A/L Dimensions
Width: 116in
Length with tail and rotors folded: 41ft 4in
Height: 9ft (approx)
C-130 cargo hold dimensions
Width (at wheel wells): 119.5in
Length: 40ft 4 inches (Blackhawk fits because sloped door makes enough room)
Height: 9ft
Also, the helicopter goes in nose first so there is exactly nothing to see.
You could build it as a diorama with the helicopter at the rear ramp getting ready to be pushed in or any other load for that matter. The load outside would give a better impression of what could be loaded inside. It seems I read something about loading a Black Hawk in a C-130 somewhere but don’t remember the specifics. The MH-60 have folding stablizers. I have a buddy that used to be in the 160th SOAR. I’ll ask him if he ever had to load or unload a UH-60 in a C-130.
the M198 howitzer and two large ammo pallets really fills one of them up. But of course you could do the right thing and just put a stick of Rangers in their with all their gear. Anybody for a barrel roll off the ramp?
Would those be IDF Landrovers Bondo? [:-,] form probably one of the most superbly planned and executed special ops ever…
Paint, the troopers that come with Monogram’s older issues of the C-47 kit could be modified into modern paratroopers without too much difficult. Replace the steel pots with K-pots and the Mustette bags with Large ALICE Rucks and you are pretty much there. The only other change would be to remove the carbine scabbards Griswold bags with either the M1951 weapons case or have weapons exposed.
If you do a google image search for “Stryker C-130 Afghanistan” you’ll get a picture and story from USMilitary.com that shows a Stryker driving off of a C-130.
My understanding is that the Stryker was specifically designed to weigh just under the max payload of the C-130J.
Tried to post a link, but couldn’t get the buttons to work.
