Minicraft 1:144 Lockheed C-130H, 39th AS, Dyess AFB, TX

C-130H 84-2069 of the 39th AS, 317th AG, Dyess AFB is the goal. 

A couple of 39th Herks deployed. 

Herk wing walk. Notice that 74-2069 has a black dorsal & nose radome. The other Herk in the previous photo has AMC Gray radomes. 

Construction begins with adding the long wheel sponsons to the fuselage sides. Pretty simple process. Clean cuts and a little bit of sanding with a sanding stick to square the corners. A little putty will follow.  

1/2 oz fishing weight cut up and placed in the radome and around the cockpit area. I will use a little rubber cement to hold them in place.  

C-130H & HC-130J fuselage wheel sponsons puttied. I will sand smooth, reapply putty, resand and rescribe lost panel lines before gluing the nose weights and completing the fuselage assembly.  

Bra.Z T-56 engines removed from their mounting block on the left and AE2100 engines on the right. I had to sand the mounting flange on two of the Bra.Z engines to get them to fit the wings. J model engines fit fine, but require a little cleanup and putty before I add the lower door and mount to the wing.  

Fuselage glued up. Nose weight held in place with a Styrofoam peanut in the rear of the cockpit. 

Outer wing tank holes filled with plastic rod using liquid cement. 

And now sanded flush after glue dried. 

Forward stbd side heat exchanger added. I will simulate the openings with black paint or decal. Now I need to find the round dorsal radome. 

Wings on! Horizontal stabilizers to follow.  

Horizontal stabilizers on and rear ramp in. There are no internal tabs to hold the ramp in place, so I first glued the upper ramp and let it dry before super gluing the lower ramp. In both the C-130H & HC-130J there is a slight gap between the upper and lower ramps. I will fill with super glue and sand to shape. On future Herk builds I will add internal tabs along the rear fuselage inside the ramp area to help support the doors.  

Fresh out of the paint shop. Rattle can gray, but close enough to AMC Proud Gray. Nose radome and underwing areas masked for flat black.  

Underside masked for exhaust areas. 

Wheel centers masked with KV Models masks, DME radomes (I will use the spare on another Herk kit.), and propellers sprayed with flat black. The can ran dry on the props, so they are a little splotchy. 

Exhaust areas and nose radome hand painted with flat black and masks removed.  

All the extra little pieces. Dorsal hump DME antennae (center right) are really Academy 1/144 P-38J Lighting main wheels with a little putty to round over the top. I figured I had better keep it all Lockheed on this build. 

Props masked and painted Testors steel.  

Wheels are on! That was harder than it needed to be. I glued nose door on first. Good! Ignore the directions about gluing the forward gear rear brace into the wheel well and just glue it to the back of the strut, then the scissors link to the front of the strut, before attaching the wheels and letting the whole assembly dry before inserting it into the forward wheel well. Main u/c is much simpler. I followed directions in gluing the wheels to the proper end of the struts, but found out that the mounting holes in the main u/c wells are too small in diameter to accept the large strut mounting pin. Maybe the directions are wrong? I reamed the holes with my x-acto #11 blade tip and then inserted the main gear struts. Make sure they are properly aligned fore & aft. I will let dry for an hour or so before setting her aright. 

Now begins the laborious process of trimming each decal by hand. 

Tada! The first decal is down! I followed the Draw Decal instructions directly & carefully. A little Micro Set helped it to settle into place. I may use a little Micro Sol to help the clear portions of the decal settle into the engraved panel lines.  

I have applied the center fuselage and tail plane walkway decals. That's it for tonight.  

More decals to come, then a flat coat, followed by the last few bits and props. But she sits on her wheels just fine.  

Wing walks are done! That took 1.5 hours. Careful trimming followed by careful application. The port wingtip lines are a little off, but too late to fix now. Initial alignment is critical with these decals. Dip in warm (not hot!) water for 5 seconds and within 5-10 seconds they are coming off the paper. I used a little MicroSet to help the decals slide into place, then daubed them and applied MicroSol with a Q-tip to snuggle them down into the recessed panel lines. A few of the long wing walk lines tore and required extra effort to re-attach and re-align. Oh no, the the nose wheel came unglued!  

Short pause to re-attach the nose wheel & let it set. Tail and windscreen decals are on. I cut & trimemd the windscreen as one decal. In the future, I would do it in three parts. Just a few more decals to go. The Draw Decal markings are a little too long. The wing walks were about 3mm too long, so I overlapped the wing center section a little. Also the red tail strip is too long. I will see about trimming the excess along the rudder trim tab and about 2mm back from the leading edge. 

Okay, all decals are on. I am very pleased that the gray lightened considerably with the decals and additional clear coat to something very closely resembling AMC Proud Gray.  

Only one decal [a "CUT HERE" rescue square outline on the port side] curled up beyond rescue or repair. I had to add one missing portal above the forward port wheel sponson. Otherwise, decals are done! 

Port front quarter view. 

Bottom view. I will clear coat tonight and let dry before applying the remaining parts.  

All the remaining parts: 4x engine exhausts, 4x props, 1x DME dorsal antenna, 2x wing tanks, 4x main u/c doors with landing lights, 2x wingtip navigation lights. 

Port front 3/4 view. You may notice a little sheen on the nose, but the gray has matted and lightened very nicely. Only a few air pockets under the decals are noticeable. I will also add a couple of drops of bronze paint for the two IRCM sensors under the nose window panes. 

Stbd front 3/4 view. I am pleased that the windshield decal fit so beautifully. Greg did a terrific job with the artwork. I trimmed it out very closely as one whole decal. In the future I will separate it into three decals: upper panes, and lower port & stbd panes. It will be much easier to apply then. Now, all I need to add are: 4x exhausts, 4x props & 2x wingtip nav lights. 

C'est finis! Lockheed C-130H 74-2069 of the 39th Airlift Squadron, 317th Airlift Group, 9th Bomb Wing, Dyess AFB, TX circa 2006-2008.  

Lockheed C-130H 74-2069 

Lockheed C-130H 74-2069 

Lockheed C-130H 74-2069 

Lockheed C-130H 74-2069