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The
Colombian Air Force in its battle against insurgency and drug traffic has
adapted several C-47 Skytrains to the role of a close support. With the
experience gained during the Viet-Nam conflict, a slow flying aircraft heavily
armed proved devastating to enemy forces on the ground.
Back in the early eighties the FAC
(Colombian Air Force) started the development of such Gun ships. Under
the utmost secrecy the flights of this nocturnal birds started and went
unnoticed for years. In 1988 a friend called me and he invited me to take a look
at a very unusual “DC-3” that had landed at the Flight Academy Marco Fidel
Suarez in Cali, Colombia.
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unusual part of this plane was that it was painted in an overall grey
colour, and it did not have any identifying markings except for a very
small FAC 250 on the tail. |
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| As I
saw the plane I immediately knew it was a gunship and I had not seen the
.50 caliber machine guns protruding from the port side. |
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Several
months after my visit, I learned that this particular aircraft had crashed. I
decided that one day I would build a replica of this plane.
The
model kit I chose was the venerable Italeri C-47/DC-3, and proceeded to plan the
conversion. I took some extra machine guns from a 1/72nd
Academy Ventura kit.
| I built a
platform to hold them at 30 degrees from the vertical axis of the
fuselage. The machine guns were placed in the rearmost two windows of the
port side of the plane. Two come out of one window. I scratch built a gun
sight for the pilot and mounted it on the left cockpit window. |
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The
kit in spite of its age fits together very well and it is an easy build. Those
were the characteristics of most Pearless Max models. I have always had a
healthy aversion for the sink marks on clear parts, particularly on side windows
of the fuselage. Unfortunately this kit had them and I decided to get rid of
them. I first flattened the back of the window parts using a fine file. I then
polished the backs to a high shine using a set of abrasives called
“Micromesh”. These are specifically designed to buff scratches out of
Plexiglas and other polymer based materials. Once the backs were clear again I
still had the sink marks on the outside of the window pieces.
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remedy this problem, I thinned out the lip around the windows to allow me
to secure them to the fuselage, letting the clear part protrude a bit on
the outside of the widow openings. Once the liquid plastic cement dried I
contoured the clear parts to the shape of the fuselage. Again I used a
fine file and then the Micromesh. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of
the process. |
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The
cockpit was painted in a medium grey, and the flight equipment was highlighted
with black, red, yellow and white. The instrument panel was painted black and
the dials were cut out of panel decals from other models. The sight was painted
black and a piece of clear plastic represents the HUD. This is a large box in
the real plane. The interior of the cargo area was painted interior green. I did
not build the electronics suite, as I was not allowed to see the plane inside. I
was only allowed to take a few pictures.
The
construction was pretty straightforward and once the joints were sanded smooth I
proceeded to paint the model. I was fortunate enough to find a nice size paint
flake that was about to fall off the
plane. I helped it a little and shoved it in my wallet. I matched the
paint using Testor’s Modelmaster Dark Ghost Grey, adding a bit of black and
red. 30 parts grey: 1 part black: 1 part red. The wheel wells and the landing
gear were all painted with this mixture too. I shaded the bottom of the plane by
adding 2 more parts of black to the mixture. My observation on the tarmac of the
FAC airbase and photos showed a bit darker color in the bottom Fuselage. I did
not get a chip of it! The engines were painted as described in the instructions;
I added brass tubing to the propeller and the engines to have a smooth
operation. The diameters are different so he propeller’s brass shaft fits in
the engines brass collar. I love to see them spin!
A
FLIR is used in this plane, and it is the semi-spherical shape under the
fuselage, behind the flap line, about 3mm. The sphere is about 5mm in diameter.
This was painted in semi-gloss black the plane retained all of its original
navigational and radio antennae, but I added High Frequency UHF on top of the
fuselage behind the cockpit and slightly to the left.
I
did not observe any stenciling on the plane, and the marking of the tail was
done using spare decals from my collection of unused numbers and letters from
other kits. The red beacon atop the tail structure was fashioned using a piece
of automotive brake light cover I once picked up at a crash site. I just carved
the plastic to shape and coated it with “Future” floor wax.
The
antenna wire is a piece of stretched vinyl sprue from the tracks of an Italeri
M-24 Chaffee. The insulators are made of very fine electronics wire. I stripped
the wire and used the miniature vinyl sleeve. Inserting a common pin on one end
can enlarge the opening of the sleeve, permitting to thread the filament of
stretched vinyl sprue. The filament is very tough and flexible, it can be tied
and heat stretched once it is fastened to the plane. This avoids having to
assemble it “taught”. The antenna wire can have a bit of sag and then with a
hair dryer from a prudent distance can be heated and it will tight itself.
I
enjoyed building this model very much and it is the centerpiece of my 1/72nd
of scale collection. The venerable DC-3/C-47 Dakota or Skytrain is always a nice
sight. In Colombia they are very popular, and the Air Force has upgraded many of
them with new turboprop engines and serve as transports or “GHOST” planes as
its foes call them. Happy modeling,
Edward
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