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1/48 Monogram (Classics) C-47 Skytrain


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I'm still wrapping up what I can in the Monogram group build but while I'm at it I'll get this thread started. This one's been in the stash for quite a while. IIRC I got it in a trade with someone looking for the DC-3 release in Eastern Airlines livery, which I happened to have picked up on the cheap with the thought of converting it to a C-47. I built the kit once when I was a kid (some 40 years ago now, I'd guess) and brush painted it OD over light gloss blue. I still have a few of the paratroopers that came with it but the kit itself is long gone, of course:

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 There's not much to it, really. Plenty of big parts but I'll bet nowhere the part count of the Trumpeter kit:

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 So you would think it will go pretty quickly, right?

 

 The only aftermarket I picked up for this (so far) is a decal sheet I picked up at a LHS on sale-Eagle Strike's Skytrains At War Pt. IV:

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 It was a fortunate find as one of the nicknames I had for the girlfriend i had at the time was Sugarpuss, and this sheet features one:

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 Sugar Puss participated in Mission Elmira, the glider reinforcement of the 82nd Airborne behind the beachhead on 6 June 1944. It proved to be a particularly hairy mission as the C-47s had to tow their gliders over fully alerted German lines and some 50% of the transports were damaged. However, only a few were lost on the return trip in the channel and it was demoralizing to the Germans to watch unarmed transports reinforce American forces at will.

 

C-47-Skytrain-nicknamed-Sugar-Puss.jpg

 

 

 Researching interior colors on my spare time and that seems to be a unique challenge in itself...

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There can't be too many C-47s.    I do have a few photos of the interior of the restored Turf and Sport Special which I believe is pretty accurate.  From what I can tell the cockpit is Dull Dark Green.   I'll post the pictures this evening. 

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 Dana Bell tells us Douglas switched from DDG to Interior Green in 1943 and SP was accepted 12 Aug. 1943. Not sure if that's past the cut-off or not but I do have a bunch of interior green laying around-much more than DDG.

 

 C-47s and Typhoons :thumbsup:

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Also have a Monogram C-47 on the bench. So I took for interior Revell 360. It looks almost identical to MM interior green. Due to Revell C-47 instruction it should be darkend with Revell 67 (40%). But to be honest: later you will hardly see that. Same with the radio compartment - don't waste time detailing it. Will be invisible later. 

What I can see on the pic of Sugarpuss: it has the late style props! Mono only gives you early props. Best solution: take Ultracast props (and so I recommend Quickboost engines - pretty nice and not expensive. And they fit perfectly inside the cowling and connect to the wing.). Or you "borrow" the late props from Revell AC-47 (but even these props are have shape issues).

For stencils I got a decal sheet from Foxbot, no. 48-013. Eagle strikes provides only the main markings!

I will follow your build - Daks are cool!!!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Decided today was a good day to fire up the Band of Brothers DVD for background noise and get started on this. Sprayed the interior colors yesterday and built up the fiddly bits today. There isn't much on this one. By all accounts there isn't much to be seen inside once it's all buttoned up and this build will be unusually closed up. I read the manifests for Mission Elmira and no C-47 carried either troops or supplies; they were solely glider tugs so there is no justification for opening up the doors. Which is good. I never liked the way Monogram did the windows in the cargo bay and it would have been a lot of work to clean that up. As it is, if you look at the photo of Sugar Puss you'll note Monogram missed a window in the radio op compartment. Most C-47 pics I've found have this window and I've seen no evidence there is a corresponding window in the other side. So the opening for said window is cut open:

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 I have some pretty thick clear material kicking around to make the window from.

 

 And, the rest of the interior is built up:

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  Interesting that every belt is molded in a different position. Would've been nice to depict the seats folded down but again, it all disappears.

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 And the window's made:

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 Probably a little taller and narrower than it should be but I'm good with it. The plastic isn't styrene and it doesn't sand & polish out as well as styrene would but a little extra work cleans it up. Once I'm sure what antenna array is correct for this bird I'll button up the fuselage and get on with the wings.

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You are right, the window is a bit large now. Why not make a correction by using masking tape when you will paint the fuselage?  Btw. windows: most Daks have a small window in the toilet room, too. Monogram just made an engraved rectangle there but it is on the wrong position. It is over the cargo room. Same place but a bit more backward should be the pos. for the toilet window. But better check if your C-47 had that window! 

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On 2/1/2019 at 6:56 PM, nspreitler said:

Looking good,  love the C-47s.  

 

 

 And I'll pile on the C-47 updates for today :thumbsup:

 

 Probably shouldn't have had Band of Brothers running for "background" noise because I ended up spending more time watching the show than building the plane. But I did get the fuselage buttoned up Saturday and spent Sunday finishing up the DVDs and sanding seams. Nowhere near as much inside this one as the Trumpeter kit but it's the same story-can't see any of it anyway:

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 Note the broken hinge on the doors... 😒 Can't find it floating around in the box so it looks like I'll have to scratch up a piece to fix it. Some filler on the weak spots of the fuselage-I was expecting more from a Monogram kit so things are going well. And further on tobiK's suggestion, that's the most likely fix for the oversized window. The bathroom window on the other hand...

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 There's the kit's representation near the center of the photo and it is indeed too far forward. And very narrow... I spent some time cruising pics on airliners.net (first time I've been there in years) and it seems to be more consistent in C-47s/DC-3s than that radio room window. But I can't get real excited about making this window. Being so small it's more likely to give me problems than not and I want to keep this build moving. I'm thinking the best bets are either to scribe the window frame in the correct location and depict it painted over with invasion stripes, or least likely replicate it with a piece of Bare Metal Foil.

 

 Today's progress was the MV Lenses that showed up in the mailbox. Here they are glued in:

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 Horizontal stabilizers are glued up and now sanded and ready to fit. Also got a first coat on the engines. For the large bladed props on this plane I'll rob a pair of props from one of the B-17G kits in the stash. And as it now sits, the spar is glued in:

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 I'd be gluing up the wing but the contact cement on the lenses isn't dry yet.

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The detail of the kit engines is sooo poor! Hope you can bring ehm to life with some good drybrushing and adding the ingnition wires. The gearbox crankcase is usually painted in engine grey.

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 And the end of the weekend brings us here:

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 The wing roots are pretty decent-there won't be much filler there. But the seam in the back of the bottom is another story...

 

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 I think I'll fill that with strip styrene instead of putty. It'll make cleaner work of replacing the panel lines.

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  • 2 weeks later...

DAMMIT!

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 Who knows this kit that didn't see it coming... I was doing the sanding on the wing to fuselage joins and sure enough-the windows popped out.

 

 The fuselage access doors are sealed in and sanded to fit-the piece was 'flatter' than the fuselage and didn't conform otherwise. Add to that the delicate nature of the hinges and there was no way I was taking it off to fix this. So I came up with this:

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 It would seem Monogram depicted a sealed up window opening there which was likely present on the DC-3 version. What you see there is a 1/8" HOLE I had to drill in the model 😒 Big enough to fit a toothpick in:

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 Using the toothpick to push on the clear strip from the inside I wicked more liquid cement in around the windows. Then I tossed the crappy camera in the trash (yes, it finally gave up the ghost) and broke out an old one:

 

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  And finally sanding a taper onto a piece of sprue to plug the hole:

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 I'll sand that down once it's good and set up. Still have to fab something up for that broken hinge. Meanwhile, I have engines to tend to.

 

 And a new camera on the way.
 

 

 

Edited by WymanV
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  • 8 months later...

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