I was hoping that someone out there can help me with a small problem.

I have an old Italeri 1/72 scale C-119 Boxcar kit that I want to convert to its RCAF appearance. I was able to snag the decals by begging a terrific guy in Thunder Bay, Ontario (of whom I cannot remember his name). Unfortunately he did not have the AM resin nose for the radome.

Is there anyone out there who has a spare one or knows where I can get one?

I have checked Ebay for the last year or so and no luck. I have contacted a number of hobby shops across Canada who may have it, but once again, no luck. This is my last resort. Any other ideas or if you know if someone has one please let me know.

My late father flew them in the 1950's in the Suez and would love to build it properly as a tribute to him. Thanks for you help!

Howdy Augie,

Most sorry to hear you've waited so long for this project. Your motivation is most honourable and I wish you the best of luck with the project.

I post a pic here of the RCAF C-119 with it's unique radome or 'nose'....



I'm not really sure what your scratchbuilding limitations are if any but, I would just use the kit supplied fuselage and add a golfball sized lump of something like 'Makin's' Clay and sculpt a proper nose for this version of the aircraft.
The best thing about using Makin's is, that it's a nobake clay that you can sculpt to size and shape, and if you're not happy with what you've done, just pop it off and simply start again...............
And since it's clay you can, using a little water, actually smooth it out to a better surface than the surrounding model kit ;-)

hth.

Tread.

EDIT: My apologies for sometimes I'm not really sure quite how far I should go with my descriptions.....but, here it goes; If it were me I would premeasure just how far the radome nose would extend out forward of the existing kit 'nose' and, just before gluing the fuselage halves together I would predrill out the pointy part of the nose and glue a proper length screw in the hole with the shaft of the screw extending outward. Then once the fuselage glue had dried, I would stick my Makin's to the nose of the aircraft and begin my 'sculpting'.
This premounted screw {not nail} would give the clay something to hang on to, and ensure that after all you hard work of sculpting, priming, preshading, clouring, washing, and perhaps 'dusting' that your new 'nose' does not fall off during handling/showing of your wonderful creation....... :-)

ditto: hth

Thanks Gord, I think I am going to have to mold my own. I was hoping to avoid that but it will be good experience for me to do it myself.
I've actually been looking for it for several years now and I get the feeling it's just not out there anymore.

I know that not all RCAF C-119's had the bulbous radome though. It probably was a modification to the aircraft as they were in service. I have to get the aircraft ID# from the RCAF site and check to see if it IS needed, but I'm sure that it was there.

Leading Edge Models provided a resin radar nose along with their RCAF C-119 decal sheet. I'm not sure of it's availability. Here's thier website:
http://lemdecal.com/.

ps: I saw this the Leading Edge C-119 sheet and conversion at Aviation World in Toronto about 5 weeks ago. You may want to email them.

Steve, thanks for you lead to Aviation World.

I had been told by numerous LHS's that the decals and nose were out of production. I took a look at the Leading Edge site and lo and behold there it was in all it glory!!!

Once again, thanks for your help!