I am building this model for the 'Trouble In South East Asia' Campaign but thought I might write a Build Blog as well to try and get some interest in this largely forgotten aircraft.
First up a little background from the ubiquitous Wikipedia..
'The Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star was a United States Navy and United States Air Force airborne early warning radar surveillance aircraft. A military version of the Lockheed Constellation, it was designed to serve as an airborne early warning system to supplement the Distant Early Warning Line, using two large radomes, a vertical dome above and a horizontal one below the fuselage. EC-121s were also used for intelligence gathering (SIGINT).
It was introduced in 1954 and retired from service in 1978, although a single specially modified EW aircraft remained in service with the U.S. Navy until 1982. The U.S. Navy versions when initially procured were designated WV-1 (PO-1W), WV-2, and WV-3. Warning Stars of the U.S. Air Force served during the Vietnam War as both electronic sensor monitors and as a forerunner to the Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS. U.S. Air Force aircrews adopted the civil nickname, "Connie" (diminutive of Constellation) as reference, while naval aircrews used the term "Willie Victor" based on a slang version of the phonetic alphabet and the naval version of the aircraft's pre-1962 designation of WV-1, WV-2 or WV-3.'
Love cut and paste!
The Navy lost 20 Warning Stars while USAF lost 11. One of the Navy aircraft was shot down off the east coast of North Korea by two fighters. Reading the history of the incident it would appear the who;e thing could have been avoided if the Warning Star had been given warning that the two North Korean Migs had taken off. It took them 30 minutes to finally get too the Warning Star and shoot it down, with the loss of 31 crew. From what I read the people who were supposed to be monitoring the developing emergency were away from their posts on personal business. As I said that is what I read...
But back to the build. This kit has been following me around Australia for 30 years now and I almost sold it about 2 years ago but the deal fell through because the Ebay person never bothered paying.. lucky for me!
Just after I got the kit I test fitted some stuff together including nacelles and the fuselage and lower wing. This is what the contents looks like after I opened the box.
I don't know what it is.was but the weird gluey looking stuff in the corner of the box got on one of the outer wing panels but did not dissolve it. I wouldn't have a clue what it is!
The nacelles have the remains of ancient masking tape residue on them and after having a look at the real things in photos I have realised that the nacelles in the kit are crap!
What happened to the lower intake?!?! Initially I had a look at the Fisher upgrade set which includes resin props etc but at US$45 plus postage it seemed a bit steep. Then I happened across a build blog on another site and I saw a photo of a different set of engines by a company called Flight Path. They went out of business long ago but D.J. Parkins, of 1/72 Flower-class Corvette upgrade sets fame, bought all the moulds from Flight Path and have started moulding them again. Bonus is they are about half the price of the Fisher set.. but don't include the props.. Decisions decisions.. Might have ot get both yet as I have the Airfix QANTAS Super Connie in the stash and I assume it is the ex-Heller kit and it will be needing better engines as well.
Fisher and Ozmods both produce replacement radomes. The upper one in the kit is much too skinny, and doing a quick eyeball check I must agree.. The problem with the Ozmods ones is that I can't see from the picture on the website how wide the upper radome is, whereas the Fisher one looks fine.
As in ancient days I did a test fit of the fuselage and it is a little warped, but nothing a little pressure won't fix. The lower wing centre section fits the fuselage beautifully as does the lower radome.
Will be waiting for info from both Ozmods and Fisher and will decide whether I will be spending USD$79 on all the FIsher mods or about AUD$50 or so on the simpler Ozmods and DJ Parkins sets.
Oh, that's right, anyone know where I can get a set of white NAVY decals in differing sizes for the model as the original decals have gone a bit yellow over the years.
Cheers for now
Warren
