Hey all,
Greetings from the Dark side. I am going to build a C-130 for my dad for his 15th year in the USAF reserve. He is in the 440th Air lift wing and operates with “Herkys” all the time so I think he would like that. I don’t normaly build wingy/thingy’s, so I have a few Q’s
1.How much of the plane do I put together before I paint etc…?
2.How do I go about weathering this type of plane?
3.I am going to have the green,brown,gray etc…camo scheme. Does that have hard or soft lines between colors?
4.What would be the best way to display some thing like this when it is done?
I never crewed one but I did jump from them and airland in them alot as an Army paratrooper back in 1990 till 1994 (3rd plt. A Btry 3/4 ADAR/ Vulcan crewmember 16R).
I do not remember any of the 130s or 141s that I flew on that had any weathering like you see on WWII aircraft. Most were AirGuard and Reserve planes and the majority of them looked almost as if they were painted the previous day. The most weathered planes i can remember were just faded a bit is all.
You could weather a bit around the jump doors and the ramp around the edges, but it may be invisible for the scale of a model. The camo patern is soft edged. The Airforce does a good job keeping their planes nice and painted.
Look at thee pics at this website to get ideas.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-130.htm
Lon
thank you Lon
Levi
Levi,
It has been a couple of years since any of our planes had a camo paint job, as far as I recall the edges were fairly distinct (i.e. hard).
As for weathering, the three main areas that I noticed “weathering” (1) is heavy exhaust stains from the engines. It flares outward in an inverted “V”. (2) Also there is light to moderate exhaust stain from the APU. And the other (3) area I notice problems is around the crew entrance door, particularly the left edge. This is the part of the door that we hold onto as we open and close the door.
I hope this helps.
Andy
that does help alot…thank you!
I never flew on a non-camoed 130. I know that some are solid grey as is the AC-130 gunship.
Look at the link4ed pic below and you will see the scheme I used to see in the early to mid '90s.
Actually the Spec-Ops C-130s; AC and MC versions are a two-tone gray scheme. A light gray lower and dark gray upper. The edge between the two shades is wavy (versus straight).
Blitzer
The Military Airlift Command (MAC) Euro1 scheme C-130s carried in the 80s and into the early 90s consisted of two greens and a gray on the top and sides and the gray was overall underneath. They didn’t use brown because it had something to do with brown and it’s ability to be detected by IR devices like missile seeker heads.
Here’s a link to MACs Euro1 scheme:
http://www.jpsmodell.de/dc/shemes/c130_euro1.jpg
There were variations however, sometimes the 34092 Dark Green was replaced with an near-black. TN ANG -130s flew like this and so did some of the 440th birds - http://www.afrc.af.mil/440aw/
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-130-dvic200.jpg
If your dad started with them back in '89 (and that’s the unit/time you want to represent ) then they flew in Euro1 colors before moving on the current overall Gray. The scheme with the brown that you’re thinking of is the SEA (South East Asia) scheme:
http://www.jpsmodell.de/dc/shemes/c130_sea.jpg
This lasted into the mid 80s at best.
In the early 90s when MAC became AMC, they ditched the good ol’ Euro1 for an overall medium gray for a number of reasons. One, those dark -130s got HOT in the arabian sun. Two, it’s easier, faster and cheaper to maintain a paint scheme of only one color than three. And finally, the greatest threat to their aircraft wasn’t coming from fighters above, but from ground fire below. Thus was born the (boring yet effective) overall AMC (Air Mobility Command) gray:
http://www.jpsmodell.de/dc/shemes/c130_amc91.jpg
ANG and Reserve units are commonly staffed with experienced people so their machines are kept in pretty good shape. Aside from a few exhaust stains and chipped paint here and there, they’re pretty clean. The Herk’s the kind of bird that once you’re done with the interior, you can assemble the rest of the kit and then paint it (but I’d recommend painting the propellor hub assembly seperate and assembling those to the nacelles after you’ve painted the model.)
Oh yeah, Lonh’s right. ANG units were slower to change over to the AMC gray so Euro1 flew on into the Mid 90s. Fleet color changes don’t happen overnight.
thanks alot every one[:)]