Douglas C-47A Skytrain Hellenic Air Force 492622

Interior completed, painted with Humbrol acrylics (33, 56, 88, 156 and 226) according to kit instructions, with some minor changes according to photos of the original. 

Fuselage halves painted with Humbrol 226 acrylic; painting made partially by my brother who came home for a week. 

Fuselage (and central wing part) assembled, with a "little" help from adhesive tapes. 

Wings attached. 

Engines with their cowlings assembled; not the most beautiful job, and yes, I have broken the propeller shaft on one. 

Propellers (partially) painted, mounted on toothpicks 🙂 

Main landing gear wheels, tail gear and exhaust pipes assembled and painted. 

First attempts at camouflage painting (Humbrol 116, 117 and 118 plus 33 used) on horizontal stabilizers, painted entirely freehand, by brush. 

Underside, with stencils applied (main colour is Humbrol 28, plus 33 on the leading edge). 

Propellers ready; painted with Humbrol acrylic colours 33 and 28, plus Humbrol 154 was used instead of 24 suggested by kit instructions (since my "eye dropper" of H24 was somehow filled with paint of another colour; my guess is H99). Kit contains stencils with yellow letters, while the actual aircraft has white, plus they are smaller, so I chose to omit them, trimmed off the text part, and kept only the Hartzell badges for the blades. 

Slow progress: painting of engine nacelles/cowlings completed; paints used were Humbrol 117 (green) and 118 (tan) for the upper side and 28 (grey) for underside, 53 (gunmetal) for the exhaust pipes, plus a little bit of 33 (black) according to photographs. Kit instructions suggest the original large air intakes for supercharged engines, but the original of my model didn't have superchargers (maybe they were removed before the plane was exported to Greece), so I was pleased to find out that smaller intakes for non-supercharged engines were also included on the sprues. 

Wings painted on the underside with Humbrol 28... 

...and on the upper side with Humbrol 116, 117 and 118. Black (33) on leading edges was applied freehand, so it forms anything but a straight line... Splotches of green and tan on the fuselage and the vertical stabilizer are of "salvaged" paint from accidental spills. Camouflage pattern was drawn and painted according to photographs (and a little bit to drawings of Vietnam War-era AC-47s), since I had found no appropriate top-view drawings for Greek Skytrains. 

Some minor corrections on the wings, plus black stripes (walkways, I guess) applied, but with paint instead of decals, as they refused to fit the surface due to some small protruding details. Landing light covers also installed. 

Painting of the three-tone SEA camouflage on the upper side is roughly complete; some errors are to be fixed. I find it strange that the side windows are to be installed from the outside (and their edges painted afterwards); next challenge ahead. 🙂 

Port side view; the small "window" in front of the cabin has no clear part, so I tried to solve this problem by applying aluminium (Humbrol 56) on it, then painted it around with camouflage colour. To be done is the anti-glare field in front of the cockpit, and the belly; both will require some masking. 

Black (Humbrol 33) applied for anti-glare field, and at last a picture with better colours (not made by lamplight). 

Painting of the underside complete; figuring out the masking the nose section caused me a little headache (the "curvy" front part at most), but the result has become tolerable, I guess. 

Clear parts in place, and their painting complete. Decals, landing gears and some small parts left to do, plus the propellers at the very end. 

Decals applied: insignia, serial numbers and propeller warning signs from LM Decals set, stencils from the kit itself (some of the stencils have been omitted, as they were absent from the real aircraft, or did not match the real ones closely enough). 

Underside; most of the stencils went here. Alignment of the serial numbers is a bit weird (one readable from the front, the other from the rear), but the real aircraft also had it this way. Tail landing gear also installed. Some decals would have needed softening, I guess (well, next challenge ahead 🙂 ). 

Model completed; the final result has become very far from perfect, including silvering effect on some decals that I was unable to eliminate (softener and matt varnish did not help either). 

Some glue went to some of the windows (on the inside, of course!), which is a painful sight for me to look at, but there is nothing I can do about it now, I guess.