aircommando130

Square window troop doors are the standard any more. Thre are still a bunch of "round window" HC's out there and they are slowly being converted to square windows. I have seen some C-130J's that had square windows in the forward escape hatches as well as the troop doors!

Nice looking A-1...another of my favorites from the SEA war. Your reventment sections look very good...a lot of work as well. I know the big ones I'm doing in 32nd scale are a lot of work. I've got in progress pictures and some of the first section finished...I will get them to a friend of mine that knows this picture posting process.

I measured a reventment at Udorn AB, Thailand from the South East Asia war...12 feet tall, 6 feet wide and 70 feet deep. Some had jet blast deflectors in the back. It was weird to walk among them and still read names of crew chiefs and pilots that had been stenciled on them. I'm working on a set in 32nd scale...it's big! I'm using Plastruct UFS-8 for the uprights and crossbars and AFS-10 angle for the end piece corners. They are 30 inches long, 2.25" wide and 4.5" tall. I'm using Grandt Line bolts to make it look as it's bolted together. For the basic frame to glue all the parts to, I bought t

There are standard C-130J's out there. Harrisburg Pa flies the EC-130J, the WC's at Keesler and the Coast Guard HC-130J's are all standard fuselage length herky birds. AFSOC is supposed to be buying 29 MC-130J's with refueling pods to augment the MC-130P combat shadow fleet. I hope the money holds out before the line shuts down!

I thought the 119J had 6 bladed props....

That's sad when the Irianian AF is flying more Tomcat's than we are! I think they are down to a hand full.

If it's a current C-130E it may have missile warning sensors on the fuselage and flare/chaff dispensers on the pylon tank pylons (aft side) and up under the wing root on each side and just behind the forward gear doors. They still have the SKE dome on top just aft of the forward overhead escape hatch and the HF radio antennas that go from the forward fuselage to the vertical stabilizer. Drill the hole in the end of the prop dome...that is to hook up a duct to heat the prop oil in cold weather. On the flight deck there is a bunk on the wall at FS 245 (lower and upper) it go's all the way across

Having 2000 hours on the C-130E/MC-130P and building a few Herk...the prop warning line falls in the same place on the model as the real airplane. The "E" had -7 engines and the "H" had -15 engines...same cowling for both. The "E" had a GTC and the "H" had an APU and all C-130's up to the first few E models had a side door on the left front side of the cargo compartment to load cargo (just aft of the crew entry door). Depending on which country you are building your airplane there may be some other changes as well. Enjoy building your model of "The four fans of freedom". Anytime/Anyplace...Ron

Joel, I was going to add in my first post that Col. Uttarro (then a Major) was the pilot of the EC-130E fuel bladder bird that was sitting next to the EC-130E fuel bird that got hit by the 53. Those guys were from the 8th SOS, MC-130E crews but needed air re-fuelable C-130's to get the job done since all the MC-130's had not been modified yet. He waited till all the Delta guys and the survivors of the crew of the burning airplane were on board till he left. The radio operator was burned pretty bad and the loadmaster "Banzi" Jim McClane broke his back in a couple of places and didn't know it ti

I have seen pictures of the phantoms that would have participated in the raid with yellow and black "invasion stripes" painted on the wings for air identification since the Iranians also operated F-4's. The 26th anniversary of the raid is the 25th of April. I hauled 2 of the 53's that were used in the raid from Norfolk NAS to Diego Garcia...made for a couple of long crew duty days. When I went to Special Operations in 1989 Col. Jerry Uttarro was my squadron commander and now working here at Kirtland training Special Operations MC-130 crews there are 2 guys I work with who flew the raid..Lt Col

I am going to build my 32nd F-15C into 73-100 from Luke AFB, AZ. It's the one with the yellow stripes on the tail and wings. I've got pictures of both sides of the airplane but can't tell if the yellow stripes are on the underside of the wings. I've got "A" model rims and instrument panel, Revell nozzels with turkey feathers and a Escapac seat. I've got to add the speedbrake stiffiner, no problem there. Those early eagles had the same size pods on top the tails and I had read that they did not have the Internal Countermeasures Sets installed in bay 5 when they were delivered. The pictures I ha

I did not know the T-37 was on it's last days. Maybe some will make their way to the airshow circuit. Another workhorse is soon to be no more...the C-141 Starlifter will make it's final flight in May. I remember seeing the first one arrive at Edwards as a kid...then I got several hours "deadheading" on the 141 when I was a C-5 guy. The workhorse of the Military Airlift Command...the T-tailed, subsonic bugsucker is soon to be gone to the boneyard.

I climbed in a CV-22 test bird that was here from Edwards a few months back...banged my head on the cabin ceiling when I stood up...and I'm 5' 9"...seating was cramped with the sidewall seats and it will not hold any current made military vehicles. I've got a couple hours flying in the full motion sim and when you get it in "airplane mode" it is fun to fly. Being a "fixed wing" guy...that hover thing took a while to get down. However...looking at the current issue of the Air Force Times, Secretary Rumsfeld says he is leaning toward the HH-47 as the CSAR-X helicopter and...is also considering

I flew a few missions that we had to sign "non-disclosure" statements...different call signs and late night departures...only to read about the whole operation later in Aviation Leak and Space Technology!

There is also a rumor going around that AFSOC will be dissolved and all SOF assets will go back to AMC as a numbered AF to reduce the number of major commands. That's how we were years ago...MAC, 23rd AF. I'm glad I'm retired and don't have to deal with that...Ron...alumni of 23rd AF and AFSOC...currently Lockheed Martin VTRAT/ MC-130P loadmaster instructor.

Gussets are triangle pieces of metal to stiffen up the angle so it won't bend with the weight of the ODS sliding dolly on it.

By the time I was flying these planes they were SOFI modded "MC"s but looking at pictures they were set up like the first set in your above request and they had gusset's every couple of feet up the door.

The HC-130 was built from the factory with the -15 engines...externally you can't tell them from a -7 though. The ODS rails were on the upper cargo door and mounted flush against the skin. You can use styrene "L" to make them. The flare tubes went between the ODS rails...again, 2 rows of 5 and if you look at the drawings provided by Larry you will see that they are at an angle so the flare will slide straight out of the tube. That way the flare could be deployed with the airplane still pressurized and the the doors closed with no reduction in airspeed due to limitations of the door being open.

Don't forget the big scanner windows up front left and right...you can use any C-130 kit to build it...other than the gunship kits because they have the holes in the fuselage for the guns!

Those are nice drawings Larry...they should help him out a bunch. Another thing about these airframes...even though they carry the "H" designator, they are actually "super E's"...having -15 engines and H-model outer wing panels to allow them to hang the refueling hose pod. The also had the GTC of the "E"...not the later APU. The air condition sucked but it was a good flying airplane as a Combat Shadow!!

5 months at Altus...I spent 9 years there (May 1980 to Sept 1989)...3 years in the C-5 school and 6 years in the ALCE (now known as TALCE). Was there when the tornados came thru and tore the base up 11 May 82...from there I went to a JSOC assignment...then the fun really began!!!

Those "walls" you mention are ramp air deflectors to keep the wind off the ramp during airdrop operations.

The HC-130's started way back with MATS...which later became MAC. Then in the mid 80's they lumped all the non-airlift airplanes into 23rd AF (special operations, rescue, weather and aero med) where they all became the neglicted MAC assets. In 1990 when AFSOC became a seperate command (which I am an initial member) only the SOF assets made the move. Later on TAC (now ACC) wanted control of the rescue assets so they left AMC and went to ACC. Last year they moved again to AFSOC for parts and airframe commonality. They are still RESCUE units but their mission is slowly becoming SOF capable....the

Go to "google images" and put in HC-130...there will be pictures of airplanes showing most of the stuff I mentioned. The fouling lines would be hard to see but they run from the wingtip to the "hognose"...just behind the wiskers. That would be easy to duplicate with nylon thread. HTH...Ron

The old HC-130N/P carried a radio operator on the flight deck so there was no bunk like on the C-130E. On top the airplane there was a cook tracker dome that would home on the ELT beacon from a downed flyer's parachute or the PRC-90 survival radio. Those airplanes also carried an ODS (overhead delivery system)...rails at the top of the cargo compartment for multiple MA-1 rescue kit delivery...The rails extended the length of the cargo door so it could drop free and clear the airplane. The door also contained a 10 tube flare launcher (2 rows of 5) so the crew could drop illumination flares to h