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The Duke's Cargo Hauler: Heller C-118 Liftmaster

Duke Maddog

Duke Maddog

Well-known member
Here is my submission for this Campaign. This is the Heller 1/72 scale C-118 Liftmaster.

Start up pics taken a couple days ago:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_I.jpg


WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_II.jpg


I knew this beastie was going to be giving me serious fits in the future when it comes time to paint it (White over Bare Metal as you can see on the Box Art: double trouble for me!!) so I went through the instructions and found everything that was in halves and assembled everything except for the fuselage.

I started with the cockpit, naturally:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_III.jpg


Then I assembled all the wheels that were split in half:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_IV.jpg


Those will stay there until I'm ready to put them on the plane.

Then I assembled the two halves of the horizontal stabilizers:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_V.jpg


Finally, I assembled the wings, followed by the four engine nacelles which I then added to the wings. This was one of several lessons I learned from building my DC-6 which is essentially the same plane:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_VI.jpg



There. Now all I have to do is add the windows and mask them; then fix all the seams and other issues. That means I have the rest of the year to do battle with this model as I try to lay down a smooth, even white coat over a smooth, even bare metal finish!


Okay, that is all the work I managed to get done today. Thanks for looking in, comments are welcome.
 
I flew on a DC6 YEARS ago when I was a child back when our local airport actually had service to Atlanta, think it was Eastern but probably Delta. I was probably 7-8 years old. Flew there to spend the weekend with my cousin.

Good start Mark. :popcorn
 
Thanks for the comments guys! Bob, the DC-6 I built had American Airlines livery from decals sent to me by a friend. I had a rough time with it; I'm hoping this one turns out better.

Thanks again for the comments guys!
 
Thanks for all the great replies guys. Here's my latest progress so far...

I painted the cockpit and then added the decal sheet for the instrument panel:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_VII.jpg


WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_VIII.jpg


I'm not sure why I bothered, that won't be seen through the cockpit windows anyway. Oh well, I know it's there.

The instructions called for about 40grams of weight in the nose. This looks about right:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_IX.jpg


Actually, it's a little more than I need. I used the converter on my phone to convert 40 grams into ounces and it came up to 1.4 ounces. I put three half-ounce bullet weights and one 1/4-ounce bullet weight. This puppy won't be sitting on her tail!

Once that was secure, I closed up the fuselage halves and then added the main wings:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_X.jpg


The fuselage on this bird was slightly warped so I started at one end with some Tamiya Extra Thin and slowly glued around the edges section by section. Once the one section was secure, I used the twist ties to pull the fuselage together some more; added more Tamiya Extra Thin and tightened it up. On and on until all the edges had been glued. I used tape to hold together parts that twist ties couldn't hold; and clamps on the flat tail surfaces. Then I added the wings....

There are some pretty serious gaps at the wing roots of this bird so I will try out some Tamiya putty I found on my workbench the last time I did that major cleanup. I didn't even know I had any, but I found it and I will try that on the wing roots to see if I can get a smooth transition. You can see how big this bird is on my workbench, I have no space to work on this:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_XI.jpg


The final thing I did to this was to add the main windscreen/canopy:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_XII.jpg


This way I can hopefully blend that into the rest of the fuselage so it looks like it is one complete piece after painting. Another lesson learned from the DC-6....



Now the Liftmaster War begins.......
 
Just a small update here. his beastie will be going slow for awhile. I spent a lot of time doing sanding and buffing and filling and sanding and buffing on my C-118. In this pic, you see the result of more than a month of repeated sanding, filling and buffing; and I'm still not done yet:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_XIV.jpg



She has only started to get somewhere in the vicinity of being ready for paint. Another couple weeks of this and I'll be able to spray a primer cost to find all the imperfections I'm missing now.

Thanks for looking in.
 
Okay, after months of sanding, polishing and generally refining the finish on this, I shot a primer coat of Tamiya Grey Primer over the C-118 to see how many flaws I still have:

WIP_CargoHaulersCampaign_XVI.jpg


There's at least ten or twelve I've seen already. Time to break out the polishing pads again...
 
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