A few years ago I made a model Mitchell in 1:48, then for some reason i decided that i had enough experience to attempt the massive build of Italeri's c-130j in 1:48 - I didn't!!
It didnt go very well and it got put away in a box and left in the loft. Recently I found it and have decided to restore and rescue it to it's (should be) former glory

The main problems with the model are:

* The colour - it is meant to be painted in Air Mobility Command Grey (what is this?) although when i painted it, i believe from a can, it is a very light grey as you can see from the picture

* The decals - i didnt gloss coat or matt coat it afterwards or use anything to make the decals look painetd on and in truth they look like someone (me) has just stuck them on and look pretty un-realistic, and im not even convinced they are in the right places - check out the walkway lines on the fuselage, wings and tail!!

* The finish is pretty poor too - there are joint marks in the wings, and the fuselage and around the nose and main windscreen

* The nose wheel and right hand main wheel are broken, as well as the underwing fuel tanks, nose gear door and refuelling probe

Basically, its in pretty poor state and deserves to be restored



My plan for this is to strip it back to the plain plastic, then basically start again. I have a brand new set of decals for it thanks to the kind folks at Italeri as well as a supply of filler, sandpaper, and hopefully patience

I'm going to paint the walkway lines on the upper surfaces as well as the propellor warning lines on the fuselage and engines and then mask them off before putting the main colour on

Could be a big job so progress may be slow but will post as I can

As always pointers or comments always welcome

Wish me luck!

Magnusf recently did a similar project with a 172 kit. You could probably pick up a thing or two from his article

Thanks Jessie, looks a great build

Ok, day 1 of the project and i have spent most of the day breaking the model even further and then filling and sanding, and filling and sanding and filling and..........

I have decided that I'm not going to strip the paint back to the plastic as the paint work is not too bad and should do as a reasonable base for the top coat

Progress pics:

Im not anywhere near ready to paint the model yet, but i thought that i would try to guage public opinion of what colour i should paint it when im done. The instructions say Air Mobility Command Grey.

Here are 5 examples, please tell me what you think

I like the one at the wingtip. AMC grey is one of those strange colours that changes according to the ambient light so pretty much any grey that's close will be alright. In addition, whatever weathering you give your model will change it.

I saw a brand new (only 20 hours flying time) Canadian -J model Herk yesterday at the Abbotsford Airshow. I was amazed that it's a pretty light grey colour, very similar to what yours had for its first coat. The older Canadian Herks that were parked around the airport are much darker, similar to the second shade from the wingtip. But then the CF and RAF do use different paint specifications...

Here's the airshow's file photo of our new Herk:

Thanks for the advice.

Ive sprayed the red, black and yellow lines on the model for the doors, walkway lines and prop warning lines, now ive just got to maks it all up and then spray

Any progress James? looks like a big project! Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.