Inspired by the movie Flight of the Phoenix (2004), I got a great idea- why not rebuild the Phoenix using the same methods those in the movie did! (You know, with a 1/72 C-119) It would be reletively simple. Just use the starboard pod and wingtip with the port wingtip and slice the tail up. (Then some specifics with the landing gear, but nothing major.) I think it can be done! And it would be an interesting bird to add to the shelves!
Which brings me to my question- what is the best C-119 Flying Boxcar in 1/72? (Or, do you think I can do it?)
If you can do ? Why not ? As you say it would be relatively simple, I think the most difficult part of the project would finding a 1/72 C119.
Personally I haven’t a kit for that bird in ages.
How is this movie ?
I remember seeing the old version when I was a kid.
Testors and Italeri make the only models of the C-119 Boxcar in 1/72 scale. I have the Testors one on my shelf waiting to build. I do believe they are still available, although I haven’t seen any in the Hobby sites lately,
Yeah, the Testor’s/Italeri kit in 1/72 is the most recent, and it’s twenty years old, and though I never built it I heard it was pretty good. They even released an AC-119 Shadow gunship version of the kit. Still, it goes in and out of production, and you should be able to find it on Ebay or elsewhere. I haven’t seen the new remake, but I was trying to remember what kind of aircraft was used in the original, which I saw when I was a kid.
Tom
Oops! I posted this topic twice! Here, I’ll try and put what’s in the other one in this one. (WARNING! Big quotes coming!)
And what I put-
"I remember reading that on the internet. (Good man. God rest his soul.) The reason I chose the 2004 version is because the Phoenix in that one seems the easier of the two Phoenixes (Pheonxi? Just Phoenix? Hmm.) to build, more straight from the “box” as it were.
I haven’t seen the original, so this will be the first time I see the story. I heard it’s pretty faithful to the original storyline, the only changes being some cast reshuffles (the new one includes one female role) and a little more exposition introducing and developing the characters.
The thought has crossed my mind to make a mini-diorama of the takeoff of the Phoenix next to the reckage and remaining pieces of the C-119. (Wouldn’t THAT be fun? All that sand…) A lot of the details would have to be figured out after I see the movie. As of right now this is the only shot of the 2004 Phoenix I could find:
You can see the tail seems a little lopsided and the wing on the right looks bolted on, as opposed to the one on the left, which seems straighter. Both things I will have to look out for.
Terrible thing. Just terrible. It’s all on film somewhere, but didn’t make it into the movie for obvious reasons."
Fortunatly I live near a hobby shop that specializes in cottage industry and hard-to-find kits. And his selection is huge. Unfortunatly he charges a little high… Can’t do much about that, though. I’ll make sure and keep an eye out.
I thought the original movie used a British design that looked like the C-119. Darned if I can remember the name of it, though. I’m almost 100% sure it wasn’t an American design.
Don’t know where you will find a C119. You will still have to reshape parts to represent a C82. The trailers I’ve seen for the remake are enough to make me not seeee it. There is still only one real movie to see and it is the original without all of the extra garbage. Sometimes new or improved is NOT better.
I remember having to watch the original film in High School (in Phoenix Arizona in 1973) over 3 days as an English assignment. From the previews I’ve seen on the 2004 remake, I’m not so sure it’s going to follow the original storyline other than they crashed and built an airplane to get out. Still, I have a C-119 in the closet to do a dio of the Phoenix being built from the original. I bought the kit off e-bay fairly cheap, but it was missing parts that I figured I could work around since the aircraft was crashed. But it did take seveal months of searching. Maybe when the movie opens, I’ll get the urge to dig the kit out and get the dio idea out off my head and onto my shelf.
Dang! I wish my English Class was like that! Too bad.
The movie’s not due out for a few weeks, and I’m really in no position to start anything for quite a while, so most of this is just fun speculation. We might be renting some videos tomorrow so I may keep an eye out for the original.
Each movie used a different aircraft for the base plane. The original had the C-82, while this new one is using a C-119.
I’ll try to keep an open mind between the two movies and not make any judegements until I see both.
I stumbled across a fascinating page on the C-119 that also discusses the plane(s) used in the original movie as well as the one used the new remake of “Flight of the Phoenix.” http://stripe.colorado.edu/~steinerd/C-119.html
I recently borrowed the original “Flight of the Phoenix” from my mother. It was a good movie, although rather slow in spots. Still, that last half hour gets quite suspenseful. (Will they get that engine to fire before they run out of cartridges?) I’m curious about the remake.
That website on the C-119 I cited above says that they used a real C-82 in the new flight of the Phoenix as well, and it shows a photo of the plane, which belongs to a firebombing outfit in Arizona, if I read it correctly. And yes, I can’t believe I never saw a photo of that butt-ugly XC-120 before. A flying mess kitchen. They really went for the practical ideas in the 50s, but then, that was the age when All Things Were Possible if we wanted to do it, and I can never scoff at that kind of attitude.
Tom
The trailer looked like it had a lot of explosions and machine guns. Knowing the movie industry, this is going to be one of those big-on-action, low-on-thought movies… But it has airplanes!
A company in Greybull, Wyoming is where the C-119 and the C-82(the last known in flyable condition) are based. I grew up there while my grandfather worked there. Since the crash of the C-130A and PB4Y-2 a couple of years back, they have been idle. They are in the process of selling off their aircraft, like the PB4Y-2(pictured below), A-26B, C-119G, P2V-7, C-130A, among others. Here is their website: http://hawkinsandpowers.com/
![http://stripe.colorado.edu/~steinerd/PhoenixII.jpg[/image]](http://stripe.colorado.edu/~steinerd/PhoenixII.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
![http://stripe.colorado.edu/~steinerd/phoenix3.jpg[/image]](http://stripe.colorado.edu/~steinerd/phoenix3.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}
![http://stripe.colorado.edu/~steinerd/phoenix4.jpg[/image]](http://stripe.colorado.edu/~steinerd/phoenix4.jpg%5B/image%5D){kind=link}