Lockheed KC-130B Hercules Indonesian Air Force A-1309
Construction begins with the interior. Colours as suggested by the kit instructions, using Tamiya acrylics.
Decals on the walls applied: the kit instructions showed them with the wrong alignment (horizontally instead of vertically), and I thought they were too large for their place. Thanks for Jivko for the photos of his own build, helping me realize this mistake. 🙂
Fuselage assembled, with some painting done around the windows.
Nose cone installed, filled with fishing lead for weight, cargo ramp doors also put in place. Time for some work on the engines and wings next, then external painting. 🙂
Wheels and bay doors assembled and painted, engine nacelles assembled (except for the small antenna-like things on the underside; I'll put them on in the end).
Propellers assembled and painted; red tips and decals will be added next.
Propellers finished; tips done with paint instead of decals, as I found it impossible to fit the small white stripes to their place. Anyway, I would have had to put two of them on each blade! Painting was done freehand.
Windshield painting still isn't my strong point, but while doing it, also the inaccurate placement of the clear parts in the cockpit section became apparent. Yeah, I guess sooner or later I could publish an illustrated book titled "How to spoil great kits"...
Painting of the wings is complete on the underside, with black areas behind the engine nacelles. The upper side will be more of a challenge: not the camouflage pattern itself, but to work out that "wavy" pattern between the upper and lower parts on the leading edges (this also applies to the horizontal stabilizers).
Upper side of the wings and horizontal stabilizers complete; colours are pretty close to the real thing, I guess. Only the leading edges are left to do, but that appears to be a harder task.
Refuelling pods painted (Tamiya XF-81 and XF-83 used); they come from a set by Flightpath. The lines between the upper side and the underside colours are not regular on the real ones; well, I think I have managed to make them even more irregular. 🙂
Engine nacelles completed; the red stripes come from my sparebox. Revell 01 (clear, gloss) acrylic was applied in the end. Tamiya XF-81 and XF-83 used as main colours.
Painting of main gear bay doors and horizontal stabilizers done; the "wavy" pattern still leaves a lot to be desired after many corrections...
Finished the painting of the wings.
Wing assembly completed, decals applied on the underside. Revell 01 (clear, gloss) applied as finish. Upper side will be completed together with the fuselage.
Refuelling pods in their place; I used drawings of KC-130F for the determination of their position (I think it's also correct, or at least very similar to that of Indonesian tanker C-130s). This was the part that I was most worried about, as I had never worked with cyanoacrylate glue before (at least I had not used it in model building).
First coat of paint on the fuselage has been applied; not sure about the pattern if it's 100% correct. However, it's 100% certain that the edges need some correction, which I hope I'll be able to do properly when applying the second coat.
Painting is ready on the upper side of the fuselage. Coming up next is the "wavy" pattern between the three-colour camouflage and the underside grey.
I'm not sure that the pattern is correct, this is just what I could gather from photos of the plane.
Painting of the fuselage is complete after months of tinkering; underside colour is Tamiya XF83.
All decals on the fuselage applied, except the dorsal black stripes, which will be put in place after the "final assembly" with the wings and horizontal stabilizers. As you may see, things haven't gone together seamlessly (pun intended). 🙂
Roundels, fin flashes, serial numbers and titles come from Bright Spark Decals. The squadron badge is self-made, using white decal paper. Red stencils come from my sparebox; the rest of the decals is from the kit. In the end, a glossy finish will be applied (with the exception of the nose cone); now I only applied it under the decals before putting them on.
Roundels, fin flashes, serial numbers and titles come from Bright Spark Decals. The squadron badge is self-made, using white decal paper. Red stencils come from my sparebox; the rest of the decals is from the kit. In the end, a glossy finish will be applied (with the exception of the nose cone); now I only applied it under the decals before putting them on.
As I couldn't find red stencils for emergency exits and doors for the C-130, and "experiments" with home-made decals went wrong (they were translucent and appeared too dark when applied to the surface), this seriously threatened my sparebox of running out of red stripes. 🙂
After putting the vertical stabilizers in their place, next phase is applying varnish (done with Revell 01, clear gloss, in its spray form) to the underside, as I thought it to be easier without the wings on. Landing gear bays have been covered with pieces of paper.
The wings and the horizontal stabilizers have been put together with the fuselage. Fit is perfect.
Stripes applied on the upper side of the fuselage, wings and horizontal stabilizers. After spending nearly a day on them, I'm still not totally satisfied with the result, but the only things that broke more than these stripe-shaped decals were my nerves. 🙂
All decals and finish applied; now only landing gears, propellers and some antennas left to complete the model. 🙂
...and done. I find it almost miraculous that months after the assembly of the engine nacelles and wings, the propellers are still able to rotate, meaning that no glue has gone to anywhere it shouldn't have. 🙂
Larger dorsal antennas (the ones above the cockpit and right in front of the vertical stabilizer) weren't included in the kit, so I cut them out from a plastic cup.
Comments
35 18 April 2023, 14:28
Живко ДжаковI love this giant! I'm following too! I had no problem with the decals. I just didn't put them on. I used extra parts.
19 April 2023, 05:05
Gergely RáczWelcome on board! 🙂
The absence of these decals doesn't bother me too much, as I doubt it if anything's going to be (clearly) visible in the completed model through the cockpit windows.
I was a bit more concerned on the camouflage colours, but with a quick "test" (painting around the cabin side windows before clear parts are installed) my worries have gone. My choices were of the Tamiya range: XF-68 for brown, XF-81 for dark green, XF-67 mixed with XF-2 white (7:3 ratio) for light green, and XF-83 for grey underside. Might not be 100% accurate, but I had no reference point to start from, other than photographs.
19 April 2023, 10:44
Живко ДжаковI'll take a picture of my cabin with glass so you can see exactly what's visible. It is not much.
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19 April 2023, 10:53
Живко ДжаковVery goth! I'm thinking of painting and then assembling the Hercules. However, at this stage I am in no rush.
8 September 2023, 19:11
Gergely RáczThank You, Jivko. Nor am I in a rush, as it's already the fifth month of building for me. 🙂
8 September 2023, 20:12
Album info
Lockheed KC-130B Hercules of the Indonesian Air Force, intended to look as she looked in 2013, having received her new camouflage scheme. Manufactured in 1961 and exported to Indonesia during the same year, she was part of the second batch of C-130Bs delivered to the country, originally registered as T-1309. This aircraft was one of the two Indonesian C-130Bs that were converted to tankers. A-1309 is still on active service as of April 2023, with 32nd squadron.
