by: Scott Lodder [ ]
Overall this kit was a fun diversion in subject, scale and genre. The C-119G or Flying Box Car was designed by Fairchild Aircraft Company in 1941 as a multi-purpose cargo and troop transport. Approximately 1,100 were produced up to 1955. They saw service in the U.S., Italy, Belgium, India, Taiwan and many other countries. It has been phased out by the Hercules.This plane is a twin boom airplane that earns it's nickname. It looks like a box car under wings with two tail booms and a connecting elevator a'la a P38. THE KIT ITSELF
The kit comes with a 10 page instruction sheet with a brief history of the plane. It has four sprues of injected plastic and one clear sprue. Panel lines are raised and are very nice. The instructions are easy to follow and well labeled. There are decals on one sheet that will allow you to build one of five versions. All very colorful, reds, yellows, checkerboard patters. They will stand out. There is no crew included. I found Esci/Ertl’s NATO Pilots that could do the trick. CONSTRUCTION
The instructions have seven steps. You start with the cockpit, which is decently detailed for this scale. I wouldn’t put a whole lot of time into super detailing it. The roof and canopy only allow limited visibility when all is said and done.The next step is the interior. The cargo bay is well detailed with wall ribs a floor a ceiling and 20 windows. The raised detail is good and worth putting effort into. The windows fit into fuselage fairly well. Be careful and take your time, there is some cleanup work to do around the windows. They don’t have an absolute tight fit so they can be put in crooked, be aware of this.The next part is the main section of the wings. The wings route over the top of the fuselage and are made up of three sections: outer end outside the engine nacelles and an engine to engine middle section. The wing goes together well. The only thing to note is that there are no position pins to hold the wheel wells in place. Position them and hold them with masking tape and let them dry before moving on. At this point in the kit you also make the cargo doors. These are what sold me on a diorama for this kit. Each door is seven pieces of well detailed good fitting plastic. They are not built on working hinges so you have a permanent decision to make, open or closed.The next phase of construction was the wings, engines, and tail assembly. The wings went together without any problems. The engines are good. With such a small scale and propellers that are absolutely huge you don’t get much of a chance to see the engine.Here is the biggest construction challenge of the kit. Connecting the tail booms to the engine nacelles. There are two booms and the fit does not leave you with a smooth transition from the engine to the boom. I had to use a fair amount of putty to create a smooth continuous look for the connection panels. The configuration of the booms and the fuselage made the presence of small files and thin flexible sanding strips on my workbench a very welcome sight. Don’t get me wrong conventional sanding and filing tools would be O.K., just not optimum.The last phase of construction is exterior details. Landing gear, antenna, exhaust pipes, etc. The details are all basic and do the job well enough.All in all it goes together fairly easily. FINISHING
Finishing was fun. As previously mentioned you can finish the kit as one of five planes from the USAF, Italian AF, Taiwanese AF, Belgian AF, and French AF. The overall paint scheme will vary slightly with the version you select. The instructions give a color guide for each, so wait to see the instructions before you purchase paints.I did mine as a Frech Armee De L’Air Detachment C-199, Cat Bi, Vietnam 1954, this was a Troop Carrier. This meant primary aluminum skin with red and white and black accent and basic decals.One note: If you are going to finish the interior be sure you do that early in the process before you glue the fuselage together. Then mask off any openings and windows when you get to the end and outer finishing.I finished mine with Tamiya: aluminum, white, black, red, and Model Masters interior green. The instructions are straight forward and easy to follow with regard to masking and coloration.I added some drybrushed exhaust stains on my finished plane. In addition I added some streaks of spillage using a dilute bit of black. DECALS
Decals are normally part of finishing. With this kit they warrant a special section. There are decals for five different versions – all on one large sheet. This makes for a challenge in finding the appropriate decal. They are numbers well and I had no problems making out the numbers to use. It was simply a challenge to find and remove decals from ‘in and around’ so many others.Another special note on the decals is that there are walk way path markers on the wings that come in decals. These amount to long thin strips of decals. They are in large squares. The combination of thin strips in large squares makes them a challenge to deal with. Make sure your surface is absolutely ready when you drop these in the water. When removed from the backing you will need booth hands on the decal.I used decal solvent and decal set to help with the process. It will help adhere the decal to the kit and over the nicely raised panel lines.The quality of the decals was good. I had no breakage and they all adhered very well.
About Scott Lodder (slodder) I modeled when I was a teenager. College, family and work stopped me for a while. Then I picked it back up after about 12 years off. My main focus is dioramas. I like the complete artistic method of story telling. Dioramas involve so many aspects of modeling and I enjoy getting involved in the ... Copyright ©2021 text by Scott Lodder [ ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.
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