1/48 CC-130J Hercules

Gallery Article by Shawn "phantom" Weiler on Oct 8 2015

 

      

This model is HUGE, stinking HUGE I tell you. A couple years ago Canada started taking delivery of new build CC-130J Hercules. The stretch model with increased cargo capacity. To model it takes a rather large amount of work. Yes, Italeri makes a C-130J but its the standard or short version. In 1/72 there is a conversion kit which I understand does the trick nicely. But I do not build in 1/72 (much anymore). I found this kit second hand for the same price as a 1/72 kit. But the 1/48 included Canmilair decals to do a Canadian Herc. Did not take much decision on this one after that. 

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On to the work. You start with your new expensive 1/48 kit and cut two gapping holes. In those holes you add the centre section and rear from one of your earlier builds. That's right, to build this I had to destroy an old kit to source the stretch parts. I added some construction photos in this article to give an idea of the horror this involves. After the parts are in the right positions.....putty. Lots and lots of putty. Make sure you do each section at a time and not the entire half s of the build at once. Real easy to screw up the alignment of the model that way. 

Now, as this kit is SO big I had to make one piece of artistic licence. The rear is 15 mm to short. Mostly because the model would not fit on the shelf it was full length. But also because I just plain old ran out of the right sized material from the original kit to extend it any further. With the total length of this kit being so huge 15mm does not get noticed. The final touch was the excellent Canmilair decals. Other companies make Herc decals, but Canmilair is the only one I have ever seen for Canada's new J model Herc. Certainly the only company who will print them up in 1/48. So there is a wee bit of colour I added a couple of 424 squadron SAR techs. Sure its a 436 squadron Herc but in Canada we do a lot of search and rescue with what ever is. In addition to a couple build photos I included one with a couple older 1/72 builds and one with a 1/48 Hornet to give an idea of just how big this model is. In fact it is so big it must stay on the shelf with one wing off, as it would not fit otherwise. 

"phantom"

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Photos and text © by Shawn "phantom" Weiler