Finally calling this complete: AMTs 1/72 RC-135 built to early 80’s spec with Caracal’s decals. This one fought tooth and nail all the way to the end. To begin, the fuselage was badly warped in the forward end, Grand Canyon-sized gaps at the wing root, and the fuselage alignment pins had to be cut off to get the aft fuselage to align properly. Built internal bulkheads and used progressive gluing from tail to nose over the course of a week just to get everything lined up. Once that was done I went back and filled the fuselage with polyurethane foam to add rigidity. Added brass rods in each wing to prevent the well documented wing droop issue and used plastic shims to fill the wing root gaps. Lots of sanding, made more challenging by the external stiffeners on the aft fuselage, primed with Mr Surfacer 1000 Black and then finished with AK Real Colors Insignia white and Aircraft Grey. Joins my other 1/72 recce birds - EP-3E and RB-50G.
Wow, very clean! Beautiful work.
Nice job on a difficult build. Can’t tell from the photos that anything was amiss.
Holy cow! And I thought my Renewal USS Seminole was warped. Now I’m even more impressed with your build.
Good grief! That’s as bad as my revell B-1b that I haven’t finished for 30 years because I’m not sure how to fix it. You gave me inspiration.
Outstanding build, I like the EP-3 as well.
You made quite a nice silk purse out of that sow’s ear!! Way to finish! Reminds me of the 1/48th scale Revell Apache I did a few years ago. I DID learn new seam filling skills with that one. Would have put it on the ‘shelf of doom’ if it weren’t for the fact that it’s one of my bride’s favorite helicopters. It does feel pretty good when you finally wrestle them into submission.
Nice job.
Oh yeah, it’s a beauty, thanks for sharing!