Dons baby. C-141A

[smokeriderdon]

When I was in the USAF, I was loadmaster on the C-141B. The best damned cargo plane ever. It was a sad sad day when the last one flew for the last time. The first thing JFK did as President was to approve the Lockheed model 300 program. What was to become the 141. The first operational delivery was made in 1965 and the plane almost immediately entered service in Nam.

It proved to be designed so well that its carrying capacity was greater than its cargo compartment. This lead to Lockheed stretching the 141 by adding "plugs" forward and aft increasing the length by a little over 23 feet. Mid air refueling was added as well. This upgrade took place between 77 and 82. In the 90s, 63 141Bs were upgraded to Cs. This involved up to dat avionics and electronics making them modern and making the navigator position irrelevant.

On 5May05, the retirement of the last 8 planes was announced. 1 year later, on 6May06, the Hanoi Taxi, the plane that brought the first group of released POWs from Nam back home, made the last flight of this incredible plane. She now resides in the USAF museum in Dayton OH.

This kit is the only A version kit I know of. The old Aurora kit from 1969. It is an odd scale, 1/108. Unfortunately the box is long gone. I purchased it bagged but with the original instructions and decals. I will be using new stars and bars as the color on the decals is COMPLETELY wrong. I will attempt to use the others as there is no other option out there.

The tail number is that of a plane that crashed in1973. So this will be sort of a tribute build to those guys. Link to read the incident.

https://c141heaven.info/dotcom/pic_63_8077.php

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oh yea, that’s a heavy lifter
Good luck with the build

[Stokesy44]

Cool choice. Best of luck with it

[Tomcat64]

Yep that's a whopper - looking forward to seeing this one come together

[Donkeywalloper]

I'm not a Winged Builder but this piqued my interest as you have a back story and the story is so sad.
How many crashes / disasters have been caused by tiredness and fatigue.
Its a good memorial build and I hope it goes well.
Best wishes,
DW

[DBMiller]

Oooooo! Very nice choice!
Just read the story of the crash! I can't believe someone survived that mess.

[BigWall]

Very cool!

[smokeriderdon]

OK, so on to this one. The one pic of the actually plane shows it in mostly bare metal scheme they all rolled off the line with. So the following pics are for reference to get the scheme correct. There isnt a huge parts count, so the challenge will be to get an almost 60 year old kit to go together decent and remove the seams for this finish. That and get the decals to work.

[digger303]

Love the intro to the build very pro.

[smokeriderdon]

Fuselage together, wings on. Now to work on these seams. And they arent horrid considering. I tested one of the stars and bars decals and Ill be damned, it worked! Came off the backing and didnt shatter.

[digger303]

Fuselage together, wings on. Now to work on these seams. And they arent horrid considering. I tested one of the stars and bars decals and Ill be damned, it worked! Came off the backing and didnt shatter.

Gotta have a win sometimes. Kit looks massively imposing even at this stage it's going to be a beaut.

[smokeriderdon]

Worked on the seams and sprayed flat black. Pretty much got them on the first try. A little touch up and I will spray the gloss black tonight.

The stealth spec ops 141...

[Twokidsnosleep]

The world will be in a black spray paint shortage after you are done with that "baby"
Nice stuff, I like that jig too

[smokeriderdon]

The world will be in a black spray paint shortage after you are done with that "baby"
Nice stuff, I like that jig too

LOL Yeah, the difference between 1/144 and 1/108 is a lot more drastic than one might think.

[Tomcat64]

Wow that's come together quickly - and great to hear the decals look like they're going to play nicely too

[smokeriderdon]

Wow that's come together quickly - and great to hear the decals look like they're going to play nicely too

The kit has literally NO INTERIOR. Its actually kind of refreshing. LOL

[smokeriderdon]

OK. So I took some 1MM Tamiya tape and masked off the walkway markings. Just cover the black thats already there and wallah, no need to use up my black line decals.



Then I sprayed the areas that will be aircraft gray. Though I did forget the nose area. I dint mask because I figured I will simply just mask the gray areas and spray the aluminum once it is set. I figured that would be better than spraying the metal and masking over that. We will see how it works out. Also, I am having to guess about the underside. I never saw an A model in real life. Either in the original paint job or the later gray/white. And I cant find pics really showing those areas. Just enough to see that it did wrap around under the leading and trailing edges and was not restricted to inside the walkway lines.

[digger303]

Nothing like seeing it all come together.

[smokeriderdon]

So, last friday was my birthday. So I took the weekend off. Not to mention the basement flooded, so I was dealing with that. Makes it hard to spray when there is water everywhere. But before all that, I did get a little done.

The landing gear on the thing are atrocious. Again, 1969. They werent looking for detail and accuracy. The tires are awful as well. So, I decided to close her up. When I close access panels and wheel wells, I pack it with kids play clay. This gives it support and allows me to line the parts up as much as I can. They are gonna require some more work, but still better than what the gear would look like.

[smokeriderdon]

The masking on this actually turned out to be kind of tedious. But its mostly done. Just waiting for the paint on the tail to dry (had to do some sanding) then I will finish up and spray the aluminum. Between personal stuff and other personal stuff and some more personal stuff, I havent been able to spend a lot of time on it.

[smokeriderdon]

So, I managed to absolutely jack the paint up on it and had to fix one side of the fuselage. It doesnt look bad, but not great. Overall, not my best NMF. And I am not going to try to do varying colors as there are NO panel lines. Nothing for guidance so I will leave it dull aluminum.

So some touch up, finish up the engines and put them on and decals and she will be done.

[digger303]

I like that ali paint , especially the wing edges they really gleam nicely.

[Tomcat64]

That looks great - if it's a recovery job then you've definitely nailed it.

Looking forward to seeing it over the finish line now

[DBMiller]

Coming along very well!

[smokeriderdon]

Finished her up. Check the completed thread.