1/144 Anigrand C-5M

[Fellow Hobbyist]

This monster arrived last week and finally got cracking on Sunday soaking the resin in Simple Green most of that day.

I seriously underestimated how large the model would actually be until I taped together the major components.

Presently I am cleaning up the engines pods for assembly. The Anigrand kit provides the option to build either the C-5M or the C-5B; providing the appropriate CF6 and TF39 engine pieces. As this is a gift to a friend who is going into the USAF and will be ultimately assigned to a C-5B base, this particular subject will be the "Bravo".

Edited June 7, 2012 by Fellow Hobbyist

[riceballtrp]

Builds up quite nicely!

Edited June 7, 2012 by riceballtrp

[Berkut]

How about that An-22, which i assume is Anigrand as well? Does it builds up nicely?

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Builds up quite nicely!

Great Galaxy! I have a quick question. The cones that go into the ends of the engine pods are not flat but slightly angular like this diagram

Thus how are these pieces supposed to be positioned?

[riceballtrp]

1339067218[/url]' post='2380394']

How about that An-22, which i assume is Anigrand as well? Does it builds up nicely?

The AN-22 was ok. The main issue was with the "droop" of the wings. The kit has too much from what I could determine in various photos. Shims and putty is in order. Also, the wheel pods were slightly warped, so I had to put the fuselage in a mini vice after gluing to insure they contacted the fuselage the entire length. The fuselage is in four pieces and the back half has to be aligned correctly to insure the rear stabilizers are level. It's a challenging build, but the results are stunning. I'll post pics when I get home to my comp.

[riceballtrp]

1339115492[/url]' post='2380668']

Great Galaxy! I have a quick question. The cones that go into the ends of the engine pods are not flat but slightly angular like this diagram

Thus how are these pieces supposed to be positioned?

They can be fixed by slight sanding to get the correct fit. Not difficult to do, just work with small adjustments.

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Okay, so that inclined area is actually supposed to be flush! I thought that was intentional on the part of Anigrand.

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Much of the little work I could get done this week revolved around the engines pods.

I managed to complete assembly of all four. I took some patient dry fitting and some research. I did not know one had to rough up the surface of the resin for superglue to bond properly to it. But alas my patients did not pay off as one of the outboard pods has a big problem.

Despite my efforts one side of the pod is severely misaligned. The thickness of the resin is vastly different. This is going to be a super beeyach to fix.

Edited June 22, 2012 by Fellow Hobbyist

[Fellow Hobbyist]

I've been working on the wings this week. Very tedious these sub-assemblies have proven to be. The bottom panel flexes far too much. So styrene strips of varying thickness needed to be used to stop that. Needless to say fitting and refitting ate up a lot of my time this week.

These are the wing assemblies. The one on the left is one I prepare earlier in the week. The one on the right is one I just got down working on about a half hour ago. Note the spacers.

Improved image

Close up view

I used double sided tape for the test fitting phase. That came in handy. One peculiar thing I noticed. On the first wing I built I had a small piece of card stock to shim the end of the panel near the wing tip. Strangely that piece stayed put without any form of adhesive or tape. Movement and jarring the wing parts did nothing to separate card from wing panel.

If I could figure out how it did that I imagine patenting a line of models where parts self-adhere to each other.

Once the flexing was resolved I superglued the strips in place and then glues the wing pieces together with clothes pins holding everything together over night.

Edited June 30, 2012 by Fellow Hobbyist

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Gap filling and shaping of the wings has commenced.

First to be dealt with was burrs and excess flash on the wing fairings. Simple enough task. Next to be remedied was to repair shallow cracks on both side of the wings. I used CA glue with Talc Powder being sprinkled onto the glue. That took two applications to completely remove the cracks.

Talc sprinkled onto the glue. I learned a new technique to apply to talc powder from a a youtube tutorial by SprueCutter.com. He dipped a brush into the powder and lightly tapped the brush to drop powder; in his case Baking Soda. It is very precise and cleaner than what I used to do.

Next came using traditional filler putty; Squadron's White Putty, to fill the seams and misaligned wing joins. The spacers did what they could but the joins still needed filler to shape a more even contour. Admittedly, I've never really used regular filler putty much till now. I've never had confidence to use it in my builds so I've only used it sparingly till now. In addition to this the smelly fumes were not welcomed. As many might tell I've probably used too much. But with more practice the technique for applying the filler should improve.

Once dried sanding and blending started.

This is the 1st application. There are shallow wholes in many places and more filler is needed to even out the transition between filler and resin.

[Exhausted]

This looks like it's coming along great!

Keep us posted.

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Some thoughts on where I want to go with this project.

I'd like to place the model upon a display stand I've sketched.

This eliminates the need to design and install furnishings to mount the model on a single pedestal like some of the various wooden C-5 models I've seen for sale online. However I was wondering. Will I need to add ballast to the model if I use a display stand like I envision?

[AlexanderJ]

I like that idea! My Anigrand C-5 built up great! The shape of the nose is a little different in my opinion, but its close!

[Fellow Hobbyist]

I've been annoyed by filling the wings. There were numerous steps that needed to be dealt with and getting the areas that require copious amounts of filler finally down smooth has remained elusive. To make matters worse I dropped the left wing onto the floor yesterday and the glue holding the bottom panel to the wing broke loose in several areas. So now that wing needs to be re-glued and refilled to repair that damage. But I think I'll be out of the woods once the wings are finished and work on the fuselage can commence.

[AlexanderJ]

Builds up quite nicely!

This is the correct way how the nose is supposed to be shaped.

The little cap at the tip of the nose it too pointed.

Also the decals are thick if i remember correctly.

Were the Anigrand AN-22 decals okay and manageable?

Edited July 11, 2012 by AlexanderJ

[Fellow Hobbyist]

...and getting the areas that require copious amounts of filler finally down smooth has remained elusive.

Solution found....the amazing Bondo!

I recently learned that Squadron's putties aren't designed to bond to resin. That would explain the difficult I have been experiencing this week with that material. I recall that garage kit builders swore by Bondo so I dug out an old tube I have had in my box of supplies and tried it out. And it worked! Now the refilled areas are sanding down smooth.

In the mean time here is another look at the pesky Engine pod.

As you can see the blue section has a different diameter compared to the red section. I had read on Scale Model Guide.com about dealing with misaligned parts. The author suggests whittling down the higher of the halves before filling the seam to maintain the overall shape of the pieces. The problem is that the sculpted overpressure doors are also misaligned at the join. To cut away some of the material on the blue section would undoubtedly destroy those details. How should I go about correcting this sub-assembly?

.....

Quick Question. Are those overpressure closed while the C-5 is in cruise?

Edited July 16, 2012 by Fellow Hobbyist

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Solution to my engine problem!

Note that in these photos of older C-5 variants (C-5A and B respectively) that the over pressure doors are closed. As I suspected those over pressure doors are not open all the time depending on the configuration of the C-5. This photo confirms this. The new plan of action call for filling in the door openings and scribing new panel lines where the doors would be is feasible and realistic considering the configuration I am depicting my build.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Fellow Hobbyist

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Update:

On Sunday I applied an initial coat of primer on the wing surfaces recently filled and sculpted to check my progress.

Sadly the spray paint I used dried to an almost powdery texture.

So I spent the better part of Sunday night wet sanding the primer to get it to a smoother finish. I went through a lot of sand paper strips. But once that was done I was able to see my work.

The areas highlighted in silver marker are areas that still need filling. As of tonight I filled these areas with Bondo.

I proceeded with my plan from the last post. I filled the over pressure doors with plumbers epoxy; but not before taking measurements of the OP doors dimensions to make templates to scribe the door panels at a later date. All four pods are now filled.

Once cured I foresee a great deal of sculpting in my future. The misaligned pieces on that troublesome engine pod was fixed by filing the top and bottom of the blue colored half; improving symmetry. Lastly I have test fitted the pieces for the vertical stabilizer. Much like the wings; some pieces of plastic stock are needed to improve the fit and reduce the amount of filler need after the two pieces are attached.

[Fellow Hobbyist]

After some time away from the project I have resumed work on the Galaxy.

I screwed on one of the engine pods. Thus they will need to be replaced. Fortunately I learned Contrail makes a set of 1/144 TF-39 for C-5 builds so I will buy these some time in the future.

Anyway work has focused on getting the fuselage assembled. Last week I drilled a series of carefully aligned holes along the edges of each forward fuselage half. I cut over a dozen lengths of brass wire; varying between 1/8" to 1/4" and super-glued these pins into one half. Prior to bonding with 2-ton epoxy I stuck four lead wall anchors inside the halves with marine epoxy putty and let that set overnight. The following day I applied epoxy and carefully attached both nose halves together and clamped everything together.

Tonight I have done the same for the empennage halves.

Here is a shot inside the forward fuselage; note the anchors bonded within.

I notice a defect on the nose; a shallow depression that will have to be filled and sculpted back to shape. I'll tackle that when I filled the seams of the model itself.

Finally I have been filling in seams on the vertical tail.

Edited August 11, 2012 by Fellow Hobbyist

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Progress Report:

Early last month the troublesome left wing panel separated once more. So using CA solvent and gentle leverage I removed the panel and cleaned away the old filler residue.

The wing panel and spacers were given a new coat of two-part epoxy and clamp together again. The repair section held fast up until the present phase of building.

Over the last two weeks I have been drilling larger holes to install locator pins and screw holes that will reinforce the structure when the nose and empennage assemblies are glued together. On the advice of club members I started out with a small 1/16 drill bit to start the holes to avoid splitting the resin. Afterward I used an 1/8" bit to widen the holes to the final diameter.

As you can see in the photo below I had to fill in the old holes and start again. Alignment was a frustrating thing to achieve as each fuselage piece is not symmetrical with it's opposite number. Initially I measure from a common reference to place the proper location. However doing that caused the two assemblies to be misaligned by 1/16" with the nose piece offset to the right and the empennage to the left. I filled the misplaced holes with CA glue. Once cured I tried again. What I did the second time around was hold the pieces in as best alignment as I could and made pencil marks running across the joins. With this done I simply drew lines through each half until they intersected and started drilling there. This worked out alright.

To shore up the fuselage assembles I glued very thin plastic sheet over the seams the closest to the fuselage and wing sections. This was to prevent the fuselage sections from coming apart as I worked on drilling the pin holes and help carry the weight of the wings and wing support rods.

Once I finished test fitting the wings and support rods I moved onto joining the fuselage assemblies. I superglued the brass pins in place then applied some 5 minute epoxy to the "male" nose piece and the pins. I then joined that with the "female" empennage piece and held them fast until the epoxy set. Once that was done I fastened two stainless steel screws and nuts through the main landing gear bay walls.

With this done a milestone in the project has been achieved. After weeks of feeling like I have been getting nowhere with tedious work this makes all of that toil worthwhile. There is still much to do but this gives me a boost in morale.

Now my attention must return to the wings. Filling still prove elusive and I have to repair some damage that occurred while drilling pin holes into the wings. The drill bit push up on the wing panels and broke the adhesive bonds holding the panels to the area the drill bit went through. Fortunately this did not fully separate the panels from the wing so a quick squirt of CA should fix the problem.

[bdt13]

A very ambitious build - may your diligence pay off!

[Fellow Hobbyist]

Thanks bdt for the well wishes. I certain hope so too. Working with resin has proven challenging.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Fellow Hobbyist

[erikztm]

Ouch! I am really glad I resisted the urge to build that one instead of "ye old faithful" Otaki.

This kit looks very challenging. Some inspiration perhaps, in order to keep things going:

[Fellow Hobbyist]

I have not abandoned the project. The main motivation; to build the kit as a gift, went away as the individual I was building the kit for has been out of contact for months and I'm not sure I will see that person ever again (Promoted and transferred into the active duty Air Force and may have relocated). Nonetheless with the National Guard/ Reserve GB starting I am looking forward participating by completing this C-5 project.

[Scott R Wilson]

that in these photos of older C-5 variants (C-5A and B respectively) that the over pressure doors are closed. As I suspected those over pressure doors are not open all the time depending on the configuration of the C-5. This photo confirms this. The new plan of action call for filling in the door openings and scribing new panel lines where the doors would be is feasible and realistic considering the configuration I am depicting my build.

You might be interested to know those are not 'over pressure doors'. They are known as 'blow-in doors' or less commonly 'suck in doors'. They are for increasing the air mass available to the engine compressor face. They work on Bournoulli's principle that moving air has less pressure than static air. So as the engine compressor pulls air in, the air moving past the lip of the engine intake has lower pressure than the static air around the outside of the nacelle. The blow-in doors are spring loaded closed flush to the nacelle with a fairly weak spring, so the pressure differential is enough to allow the higher outside air pressure to push (and the lower duct pressure to pull) the doors open. The higher pressure static air then flows through the doors to the engine compressor, helping the engine develop more thrust at no or slow airspeeds. As you saw in the photos you posted at higher airspeeds there is not enough pressure differential between the air outside the nacelle and the air inside the duct to open the doors. Of course with the engines not running the doors are closed as well. The doors open inward toward the intake, they cannot open out to relieve over pressures if there were any.

Many airplanes have blow-in doors, and on some aircraft types the doors weren't spring loaded but merely hinged so doors on top of the intake would hang open when the engine wasn't running. Some other types with blow-in doors just off the top of my head are Harriers, F-111s (except the A models), B-52H, C-141s, turbofan versions of the 707, KC-135E, and I'm sure there are a lot more.

I am impressed with the work you are doing on your FRED, and I look forward to seeing your progress and the completed model. I have some good memories of FRED, my father was stationed at Altus AFB, Oklahoma in the late 60s, and I was there to see there very first C-5A delivered to the USAF on December 17, 1969. Hard to believe it was that long ago!

Scott Wilson

Edited January 5, 2013 by Scott R Wilson