VNAF C-47 Echo Whisky

VNAF MODEL AIRCRAFT section - vnafmamn.com

C-47 ECHO WHISKY, VNAF 415h TS - TAN SON NHUT, RSVN 1970

(Added 5 photos taken on sunny day, first row) Model: Italeri C-47 scale 1/72

INTRODUCTION

VNAF C-47 Echo Whisky is perhaps one of the C-47s with the most beautiful color-scheme painting in the world. The C-47 eW model you are going to view has been assembled exactly based on the actual C-47 eW that was first used as transportation for VIPs along with the C-47 cG (Charlie Gold), which served President Ngo Dinh Diem in many official trips within the Republic of South Vietnam. After the "Coup D'etat" of Nov. 01 1963, the C-47 eW was reassigned as a special transportation for General Do Cao Tri till the General's accident death. The C-47 eW then resumed her old duty to carry the foreign dignitaries and official VIPs under the VNAF auspices.

On the her final mission of transporting the Ally VIPs to Vung Tau city, due to windshear, the C-47 eW crashed when she was about to land on the Vung Tau airstrip. Luckily there were no fatal casualties for all the passengers had helped one another to escaped the wreckage before it could explode. Like many of other VNAF aircraft, the VNAF C-47 eW has served dutifully along the nation's destiny, from the dawn of VNAF till the bitter end of Vietnam war.

Yanke Caribou's C-47 eW model is one of a few exceptional great builds that you can enjoy the model building process through his narrative and photos below (collected from our exchanged emails). A salute to the VNAF C-47 Skytrains and the ones who once flew the old classic wings of Freedom.

Text & Photos by Yankee Caribou

The build:

I always wanted to open the cowl flaps on prop engines that have 'em , to me there's some thing that make them very warrior and typically ingenuity of the prop era . Most of the time the manufacturer simplify the parts by having them close or if they are open, the flap usually out of scale . This is my attempt to open the C-47 cowl flaps, the material I used is soft drink can aluminium ...

The flaps were not glued in yet, I only built a few to have an idea how it would look.

I've got some hangar time, and to keep myself motivated ... please allow me to report the progress on the engine.

The engine cowlflaps are now in place . If you have a choice between ESCII and Italeri, though they look similar but in small thing like this airscoop, Italeri only provided you a U shape, where asthe Escii air scoope is much more elaborate than that . I rebuilt the airscoop front, to make it into an air duct over the cowlflaps. If you built Italeri C-47 they give you choices of airscoop, make sure you pick the right one for the model you want to build

I wish should have masked and sprayed ... to make the job easier . Also in making the decals I should have printed on clear (instead of too concerning about the colour underneath), now I have problem of cutting the windows out ... hopefully I pull this one off !! without having to re-work the decals ....

I had a lot more problems with this C-47 but will not bore you guys ... so here is the progress pics ...

The scariest moment was when to cut out the windows under the decal . I measured the the decal, real well but on application I still had no ideas whether the windows would sit square under the decal .... but I could not cut out the windows before hand as it would weaken the decal too much to be transfered . And no, I did not want to use the clear decal due to the opacity issue ... anyway I think I just pulled it off.

Ok, latest progress attached . I am building the engine exhaust part. The Italeri proviđe one is so simplified , they only give you a curve solid plastic rod to represent the exhaust pipe ! After engines glued in, I need to leave it a lone for the glue to set before working on the exhaust ...

Ok more updates:

All decals are in, Windscreen in , smaller detail you do not see but are there like engine exhaust .. look hard enough you could almost see the pilots and in real person you might even see the navigator, yes he is there, there are a couple of VIP's in the passenger compartment as well. Sorry about the picture quality, I am no good at taking picture in door especially if the object is shiny metallic.

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