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WC-130A "Rainmaker"


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Starting another thread as the first one is in the wrong section.

Trying to make a 1/72 WC-130A from the Italeri C-130 E/H kit.

I have the OzMods C-130A set of engines, propellers, and external fuel tanks.

 

I lucked out and got a Zvezda kit for a future build, and was happy to see how detailed the interior of that kit is.  I have used some of the Zvezda parts as templates (finding out the parts don't fit the Italeri kit smoothly).

 

Per Scalemates, it's a 1994 kit that gets new decals, but the same old tooling.

The cockpit is pretty sparse, my first goal was to replicate the ugly green color this was my first and second attempt.  The lighter green color is the desired color. 

 

2021-06-28_09-31-44

 

I was going to have the crew entrance door open, but I am not convinced the bulkhead is in the correct location, so I'll go with the Crew Entrance Door closed.  Even so I wanted to experiment a little with scratch building for future builds.

I used the Zvezda kit to make a generic insulation pattern,

2021-06-27_10-00-21

 

I also had to make copies of the crew seats for the Dropsonde Systems Operator.

 

2021-06-28_09-41-28

 

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The ARWO (Weather Officer's) seat was used as my starting point.

 

 

2021-06-28_10-05-59

 

I made a partial cast of the Zvezda navigator table and used that as the starting point for the ARWO station.

 

 

2021-06-28_10-07-06

 

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2021-06-28_10-09-13

 

Navigators seat and table.  The ARWO station came out rough, but I learned from it and the next iteration will be smoother.

Little putty and some sanding should help.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Not getting a lot of bench time.

 

Slow progress on the cockpit, I keep going down rabbit holes and start over.  The general cockpit area is done, I need to work on the interior fuselage and station 245 (front cargo bay bulkhead).

 

2021-07-03_09-15-46

 

 

 

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Station 245 (bulkhead between the cockpit and cargo are is wrong on the Italeri kit.  The wall needs to be trimmed back.

 

before (sorry for the cloudy cell-phone picture)

 

2021-07-04_07-28-26

 

 

First cut:

 

2021-07-04_07-46-31

 

I actually cut a little too far in, but I am going to leave it.

 

Final cut:

 

WC-130A cocpit wall

 

The painted black/green areas are avionics racks, I have to repaint because the masking tape wasn't on well enough.  I'm looking at options for creating an avionics look without scratch building avionics.

 

The top wall should be extended to the edge of the wall coming in off the left fuselage. 

Next time.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Finally finished the right fuselage interior. The panels are darker then I wanted.  I also need to make longer/thinner insulation strips for my next build.  The paratroop door will be open so you can see the Drop System Operator's station. I didn't go as far down with the insulation panels because they will be covered up and can't be seen.  Test fitting the fuselage together pretty much hides any interior details.

 

rt side step1

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

A little more work.  Painted the no-skid ovals on the cargo floor (interesting that these A-models had small areas, later models had much larger no-skid areas).

 

The smudge at the bottom is the hole for the dropsonde tube.

Getting the floor under the wheel well insulation was a pain.  The fit was tighter on the right side, then on the left.  Once again, dry-fit saves the day.

 

cargo floor

 

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