11bee Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Great shots! The pull down bar was also to be used as a "chin up" bar. Gear up to bail out, pull down the bar, which chops off the hatch then hang from the bar over the center of the chute to drop out and clear of the aircraft. To the best of my knowledge only ever used once in the history of the -135 fleet. Interesting thread, I'm learning much about the KC. Just our of curiosity, do you guys still fly with chutes onboard to bail out or is that a thing of the past? I'd be curious in hearing about that example above, I never new that anyone had bailed from a KC-135 before. Regards, John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST0RM Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Parachutes were pulled off the jet a few years ago. The main reason was to reduce the man-hours required to maintain them, since they hadn't been used in years. Additionally, this reduced the money being spent on the chutes and reduced weight on board the aircraft, saving more money. -Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Wow! All kinds of cool pictures and information. I love that there are so many people interested in the Stratotanker and all of the people willing to contribute! I'm certainly learning a lot more than I ever thought I would for this build. Although....now I'm feeling even more pressure to produce a museum-quality model. I guess with all of the reference materials I've received, there's no excuse not to. Mark, mahalo nui loa! I'm grateful for the reference material and everyone's input and will be working this weekend on getting the cockpit and forward cargo area up to snuff. I'll have some tangible updates by end of weekend. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Parachutes were pulled off the jet a few years ago. The main reason was to reduce the man-hours required to maintain them, since they hadn't been used in years. Additionally, this reduced the money being spent on the chutes and reduced weight on board the aircraft, saving more money. -Jeff If I was a KC-135 crewman, I'm not sure how I would feel about the parachutes being removed as a cost-savings measure. I get the whole "haven't been used in years" thing and I would expect that being able to successfully bail out of a critically damaged KC-135 might have a low probability of success but still..... John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
majortomski Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 (edited) Mark when did they pull the drop down bunk off the right side of the cabin? Another "common sense smart" by Boeing, the beatiful shiny cargo floor is plane old plywood. Seven ply and about 200 a sheet but just plywood. Edited November 22, 2011 by majortomski Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Buck Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Aloha jminer, More images for you and anyone building the 135R... Majortomski, pretty sure most of the jets had their bunks moved before I started flying. I only remember one of our birds with two bunks across from the cargo door, and those were moved aft during phase (1995?) Ahui hou all, Mark A couple of cargo compartment images... The APU enclosure & control cabinet... And again, more to come soon! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 Awesome photos, Mark! Thank you again. Along the lines of the electronics portion, I've been looking at trying my hand at doing some programming with an Arduino Duemilanove board to get the lights to do what they need to. Anyone have any experience with Arduino? I know there are easier ways to do the lights, but a co-worker and former Army helo and regional airline pilot made a comment that got me thinking. I was telling him about my plans to drop the flaps and he casually said "so if you're going to go to all the work of building those, why not take it a little further and put a micro servo on each one to get them to retract as well?". I laughed at first, but the more I thought about it, I'm already running wires through the wings anyway. I may as well try getting them to go up and down and put the spoilers up. I believe I'm getting crazier as the build goes on. I'm just waiting for someone to suggest that the refueling system be fully plumbed and operational. That's where I draw the line! ;) Well, I'm off to get some real tangible work done on this thing. Thanks again for the photos, Mark! Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 After looking at those troop seats, I'll never whine about being stuck in a USAir regional jet any more. The thought of being strapped into one of those seats on a trans-atlantic flight is enough to give me a backache just thinking about it. Great pics though, I'm enjoying this build and learning a good amount about the KC-135. John Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST0RM Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 Here is the breakdown of the lights: The lights just aft of the cargo door are called "Nacelle Lights". They shine out toward the wings to view the engines. The "Underwing and Underbody" illuminate the lower wings and fuselage. We don't have strobes on the wingtips. Only Red/Green nav lights. There is one more light on the underside of the right wing only. It's an extendable light called a terrain light. It's rarely used. It's located just below the right landing light box and about 2-3 feet aft from the leading edge. Great work. Although most of your interior ribs will be covered by the blankets. -Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted November 26, 2011 Author Share Posted November 26, 2011 After looking at those troop seats, I'll never whine about being stuck in a USAir regional jet any more. The thought of being strapped into one of those seats on a trans-atlantic flight is enough to give me a backache just thinking about it. Great pics though, I'm enjoying this build and learning a good amount about the KC-135. John Hi John, I'm sure there are far worse stories out there, but when I was in the Air Force, I flew in a KC-135R from Lincoln, NE to Istres France and we had no heat the entire trip. We stuffed ourselves in our mummy bags and sat in those seats the entire way. The best part about that flight, however, was flying over Greenland at night and being able to lay in the boomer pod and look down at Greenland at night during a full moon and seeing the ghostly landscape. The other story I have regarding the 135 is when we were doing an ORI in Gulfport, MS back in the mid-90's.. Since I was Security Police/Security Forces, I was one of the last people from the unit on the last chalk out for the exercise. We'd been up for three days straight, so we were all tired. We got on board, started to taxi out to take off, then we taxied back to the ramp for a maintenance issue. It was July, and hot as an oven in the cargo area, but we weren't allowed to de-plane. They did open the cargo and overwing doors to allow some ventilation, but it didnt help that much. Two hours later, we were ready to go again. So we started our takeoff roll and it seemed just seconds after the wheels left the ground, we heard the engines spool down, the plane dropped and we heard the brace for impact horn. It happened very quickly and we were all staring at each other in disbelief. Then, just as quickly as it happened, suddenly we were going up again as the engines spooled back up. After we got to cruising altitude, one of the Inspector General team members came back and told us that the pilot had inadvertently stalled the aircraft at about 2600 feet trying to avoid hitting a single engine plane that had crossed into our path. He told us we dropped 1200 feet before we started climbing again. So we cruised back up to Lincoln where we spent the next two hours circling due to storms and high crosswinds. We tried to divert to Offutt, but they were having the same high crosswinds and storms, so our next choice was Sioux City, but they were backed up due to taking overflow from Chicago since they also had storms. We ended up diverting to Ellsworth where we were allowed to deplane, hit the chow hall, then get back on board for the flight home after they refueled the aircraft. Another hour of circling and we were able to land in Lincoln again. By far, the most adventurous flight I've had. Despite some interesting experiences, I had a blast with the 135. One of my only regrets with regards to my military career was that I didn't try out for a boomer slot when they came around asking if anyone was interested. Looking back, I bet I would have had more fun with that than Desert Warfare School and spending most of my time in MOPP gear. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted November 27, 2011 Author Share Posted November 27, 2011 Here is the breakdown of the lights: The lights just aft of the cargo door are called "Nacelle Lights". They shine out toward the wings to view the engines. The "Underwing and Underbody" illuminate the lower wings and fuselage. We don't have strobes on the wingtips. Only Red/Green nav lights. There is one more light on the underside of the right wing only. It's an extendable light called a terrain light. It's rarely used. It's located just below the right landing light box and about 2-3 feet aft from the leading edge. Great work. Although most of your interior ribs will be covered by the blankets. -Jeff Thank you very much for the info on the lights and the comments, Jeff! I do realize the the ribs won't be seen, but that's the look I was going for. I never knew about the terrain light, that's good info to know. Thanks again, I'll have some updates shortly. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted November 27, 2011 Author Share Posted November 27, 2011 Hello All, It's time for an update. I started this session by tackling the forward bulkhead area. I didn't like the kit provided option, so I used it as a template and created a thinner version out of sheet styrene and built the details out of a combination of spare parts, foil from a wine bottle, rod styrene, and wiring from an old computer keyboard cord and some leftover photo etch. So without further delay, here is the in-progress photo. Forward bulkhead: Fire extinguisher for forward bulkhead: Warning horn for top side of forward bulkhead (it's glued to a spare piece of sprue for painting): I also started checking out the options for some of the ducting and wiring for the interior cargo area. I found that I had some styrene rod that would sufficiently allow me to bend it to shape for the duct (Mark....Jeff....what's that ducting for?) that goes from the forward cargo area back to the APU. I'll wrap the rod in cotton again and cover it with foil just as I will be doing for the interior walls. I will have to do the wiring that runs along the top side of the fuselage after the foil, and before I permanently attach the duct. Test fit of the duct: Second view of the duct test fit: I also noticed that when the crew access door is open, that a panel inside the door opens so that it appears that there is a panel that tilts inward. So I cut that piece out of the kit access door and will be working on rebuilding the interior details. Crew access door: I also cemented the crew entry hatch to the fuselage as it appeared to be pretty much as the real thing, so I didn't do anything special with that piece. And that takes us to where we are currently. I'm waiting for the forward bulkhead to dry so I can prime it and paint it. I'll continue working with the fuselage sides as well as detailing the crew entry area and flight deck area. Hopefully you are enjoying the progress. If you have any comments or ideas on what I could do better, let me know. Thanks for following along! Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST0RM Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 The duct is the hot air duct for the cabin. It heats/cools the cargo compartment and boom pod. The black box below the yellow pipe on your forward bulkhead is the control box for it. The duct itself is rectangular and comes from both sides of the cabin, to the center duct. The crew entry door looks great. The panel that pops inward is a pressure plate for the door lock mechanism. The large cargo door has two of them as well. Awesome detail work Justin. -Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jmel Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 It heats/cools the cargo compartment and boom pod. The boom pod has heat???? Good Lord, man, I don't know how you guys do it day after day. Justin, this is great work. I have one of these in my stash (who doesn't?) and would like to do something similar one day. Jake Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Icehound Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Now this is an excellent thread. I am having a lot of fun watching your progress Justin and learning more about the KC-135. Good stuff Regards Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Buck Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 Aloha jminer, And more images for you & those interested in the build. Which, BTW, looks like is going well... Very nice detail work! Ahui hou, Mark PS... will grab a few images of the crew entry door soon. Located just above the flight deck entry is our alarm bell/horn (a little outta sequence from the rest of the images but since you're working this area now...) The head. This guard 135 still has the old "Honey Bucket", most ANG birds have an RV style "Chem" toilet. There's also a new airliner type setup that does away with the urinals as well but those are pretty new (within the last couple/three years) and probably not applicable to your selected build. Now back to the back end of the cargo compartment. The gaseous O2 tank rack, boom-pod, & crew rest area... The O2 rack is divided into primary & secondary systems. The ridged cover is pretty much a ANG thing (again), I personally haven't flown any active duty birds with this type of housing. Oh, and they're different versions here as well, again depending on the unit... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Buck Posted November 27, 2011 Share Posted November 27, 2011 (edited) The boom pod has heat???? Good Lord, man, I don't know how you guys do it day after day. Justin, this is great work. I have one of these in my stash (who doesn't?) and would like to do something similar one day. Jake Howzit Jake, They say it's heated but I have my doubts The longest I spent back there, continuous, a little over 6 hours during a night missions a few years back. It was winter and absolutely freezing cold. The Coke I took back there froze solid & I ended up refueling partially zipped up in a sleeping bag left on the plane. Now we have cloth "chimneys" that help direct the warm air down from the duct, they help a lot more than the original air-outlet doors in the pod. Also, they can be placed at different points along the overhead duct to better distribute warm air throughout the entire cargo compartment. That really helps make for more pax comfort, getting away from the old 3 temperature level cargo compartment: Convection oven hot upper 3rd, reasonably comfortable middle 3rd, absolute zero lower third (too include the floor) ;) 11Bee, Believe it or not, those seats can be made comfortable! Sadly some crews don't realize or simply don't know how to tension the seat properly. I've seen pax sitting on slack seats with the most miserable look on their face, 5 minutes worth of adjustment & they were good Yeah, they're not C-17 seats or something you'd find in an airliner but they work and, if there's only a few pax, one can at least stretch out on them (and still be strapped in). The old girl was never really designed for passenger but with a little time/effort from the crew it can be a pretty nice & comfortable ride. Ahui hou Mark Edited November 27, 2011 by Buck Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 Another great set of photos, Mark! Thank you very much! I did a little more work today on the Stratotanker. Today's work was with the crew access door. The kit offering looks halfway decent, but could use some work in my opinion. So I set out with some photos as reference and decided to tackle the crew access door. First, I traced the outline of the pressure relief door that I had cut out in a previous post onto sheet styrene and cut it out. I glued the bottom edge of that cutout inside the opening, tilting the top slightly inward and let it set. Then, I took a rotary tool and removed the molded in step, then I took a knife and scraped the molded on rivets off. Then I took a thin strip of styrene, laid it on edge, and began with some CA and slowly worked my way around the inside edge of the inside of the door, leaving enough room to allow for the weatherstripping seal around the door. This raised the inside of the door approx 1.5mm. After that had dried, I took some sheet styrene just oversized for the newly raised area and glued it to the edges of the styrene I glued around the outside edge. Once that had dried, I took my knife and trimmed it all the way around to shape. I did the same when creating the step. Using a ruler, I drew some reference lines for the holes on the inside of the door and used a pin vise and drill bits to drill the holes and ovals. After that, I took some scrap styrene and cut the hooks that go on the side of the crew access door and glued those with CA. Finally, taking some leftover photoetch, I attached the cable holder for the door and the (just guessing here) prop rod to hold the door open. I still have a fair amount of cleanup to do with regards to some excess CA glue and a little gap along the top of the step, as well as where I had the door glued to some scrap styrene to allow me to hold it better while working on it. So, here are the results so far of my efforts: Top inside view: Bottom inside view: Outside view: Hope you enjoyed the update as much as I enjoyed the work. I'm still not the best scratchbuilder and I obviously have a lot to learn, but I feel that this was a pretty decent effort. As always, comments or suggestions on how to make it better are always welcome! Thanks again for following along. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted December 1, 2011 Author Share Posted December 1, 2011 Hello all, One quick update tonight. I wanted to start detailing the forward cockpit and flight deck area. In order to do so, I needed to apply the blanket effect on the fuselage sides. Here is what I did: 1. Took 3M spray adhesive, sprayed the inside fuselage. 2. Took cotton from a cotton ball and tore it into long pieces, fluffing it up as much as possible without getting it on the styrene ribs I added earlier. 3. Sprayed one side of a sheet of aluminum foil with the adhesive. 4. Laid the sheet of foil on the fuselage side. 5. Burnished the foil to the ribs with a cotton swab. I have to tweak my method a little as the foil does not stretch if you lay it down and the lowest part of the fuselage isn't covered, so I'll need to start at the deepest part of the fuselage and work my way towards the centerline for the cargo bay area to keep the foil from tearing. The nice part, if I do happen to tear some foil, more foil sprayed with adhesive goes right over the affected area and it blends very nicely. I'll also need to add a little more cotton between the ribs to make sure that the parts between the ribs are a little fluffier. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with how it looks. At least I think it looks better than just painting the inside. I think the effect below is going to look nice after the details are added and a wash is applied to highlight the wrinkles and folds. (as you can see, I've also started by scratchbuilding the emergency escape handle, it's still being worked on, so that's not how it's ultimately going to look) Again, I'll be spending some time getting this area detailed with first aid kits, a fire extinguisher, the door crank, and the grate for the crew access area. I'm also working on the part that contains the spoiler for egress and equipment rack behind the pilot's seat as well as the electronics rack to the immediate left of the crew access hatch. Thanks again for following along. I hope you enjoy the update! Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
twhite80 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Okay. Now you must scratch build the toilet. I have faith in you! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
majortomski Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Okay. Now you must scratch build the toilet. I have faith in you! Nah, just go buy one at an RV/camping store. That's all we did on the real plane. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted December 4, 2011 Author Share Posted December 4, 2011 Hi All, Another small update. I've been working on the crew entry area and trying to get that into shape. While I found I wasn't able to get that area 100% accurate, I think the work that I've done is a fairly decent representation of the area. Using scrap styrene sheet, stretched sprue, two part epoxy (kneadable), and various bits of paper, foil, and photoetch, I was able to create the emergency escape handle, the panel that contains the first aid kits and fire extinguisher, as well as the firefighter equipment pouch. I've also been adding some detail to the escape chute spoiler and equipment rack that's directly behind the pilot's seat. I'll also be giving the electronics rack to the left of the entry area some details. Right now, they're both just temporarily tacked in place for the purposes of making sure what I've done fits alright. I'm still in the process of creating some decal labels that will go on the wall and firefighter equipment pouch, so those will be coming soon, too. The work continues and I'll keep focusing on the forward crew area and detailing what I can. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome! Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 After looking at those troop seats, I'll never whine about being stuck in a USAir regional jet any more. The thought of being strapped into one of those seats on a trans-atlantic flight is enough to give me a backache just thinking about it. And try doing it when the middle is loaded with cargo and you've got about 12" of 'leg room' in front of you. And you have an aluminum tube running right under your a## for the whole trip. Ask me how I know about that :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jminer Posted December 18, 2011 Author Share Posted December 18, 2011 Hello All, It's time for another update. Things have been busy with the holidays so close by, so I haven't had a lot of time, but I did manage to get some more done the past couple of days. We'll start off this update with some progress with the electronics rack that is to the immediate left of the crew access area. I stretched some sprue and glued various bits of the stretched sprue to the faces of the electronics on the rack. When they're dry, I'll cut them down to size to simulate the various knobs and such. Then I'll paint it all up. I still have some bits to add, but until the current sprue dries, I'm leaving it alone. While waiting for that to dry, I decided I was getting a little tired of working on the front end, so I turned my attention to the leading edge flaps between the engines. I taped the wing assemblies together, then set to cutting out the flaps with a hobby knife and some Dymo tape as a guide. Once the flaps were removed, I took a piece of sheet styrene cut to length and inserted it into the cavity along the back side to create a wall. I didn't glue it to the top wing half on purpose since I still had work to do on the wings, so it was only glued to the lower wing half. Here, you can see one side drying after being glued in place. After allowing the rear wall of that area to dry, it was cut down to match the lower wing and sanded smooth. I then closed the wings up again, took a Sharpie marker and marked the area that would be visible on the upper wing portion and set out to replicating that area based on photos from Mark. To make the pipe that runs along the back wall of that area, I used styrene rod with some masking tape to simulate the connections. This was glued in place along the top wing with CA. I used some spare wire from an old computer keyboard cable to simulate the various wiring that runs through there. That was also attached with CA and allowed to set. The hydraulic pistons were done by drilling a hole for each piston in the back side of the wall, then taking 24 AWG telephone wire cut to a length just a bit longer than necessary and stripping the insulation off the wire at the appropriate location. I then took CA and cemented the insulated side into the hole along the back wall. Doing this allowed two things: 1. The hydraulic piston was firmly cemented in place where it needed to be. 2. The copper wire can slide through the insulation, much like a real piston, allowing me to position the actuator rods in their appropriate lengths for the flaps. More bits of copper wire simulate the rods that cross that area as well. In the photo below, the cross rods are drying and will be cut to an appropriate length when dry. I personally like the effect and how everything turned out. The last thing I have done is to glue the main gear bulkheads and water tank together, and then open up both ends so I can pass the wiring and fiber optics through the lower fuselage as necessary. This will allow me to be able to run the wires and fiber optics through the entire length of the fuselage without having it be visible. And that brings us up to where I'm at right now. I should get some more done on it tomorrow, and if so, I'll be sure to post some pictures. As always, I hope you enjoy the updates, and if you have any suggestions on how I can improve, be sure to share. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wolfgun33 Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Looking great!! Nice work on the flaps. That's similar to the way I did the flaps on my MV-22 Osprey. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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