Roden's AC-123 in 1:72 scale

1
July 31, 2020
Would you believe it? Apparently the AC-123 has two jet engines to help propel this twin engine transport plane. No idea if civilian planes come without these jet engines.

I used a round file to round off the deep inside. I used some kind of burring tool, held in my hand, to create a round exhaust opening. Finally, I filed the outside of the exhaust opening to match the inner circle shape.
2
July 31, 2020
Whenever I look into a new kit box, I tend to just spend a little time reworking the interesting pieces. I should probably finish other kits first. 🙂 I like working on small stuff listening to youtube or twitch videos. Btw, the two radial engines, from two different sprues have a different gray color to them. I drilled out the four engine exhaust pipes, but I can probably make them thinner by sanding the outside more. The prop spinner wasn't centered in this photo, fixed.
3
March 9, 2023
I basically removed the molded guiding pins and added my own with styrene rod. I thought I would just glue on the pylons, but the pins were so small, and I eventually wanted to work with bare metal foil, so I will add the pylons after having added the foil to the wing. This idea worked nicely, no a single issue adding the 0.88 styrene rod and 1.00 mm drill bit. The kit parts has markers and holes that are precies so that was fun.
4
March 9, 2023
I am very happy with this result. Parts dry fitted onto the model. Can't promise to finish this in a timely fashion, but I thought it was fun going back to this wip build and do some work on it. I initially wanted to re-scribe the whole thing, but I just can't be assed to do that, too much work for me.
5
March 10, 2023
Photos of the plane show the propeller axel sticking out some distance from the cowling. If you glue the engine parts together wrong, you might end up with the whole radial engine too far back inside the engine housing, and then the propeller will not have the proper offset from the opening in the front and round engine cowling.
6
March 13, 2023
I had to airbrush the wheels, and they have to be glued on to the interior before the two big fuselage halves can be joined.
I forgot to paint one of the sides of the box apparently. I am not doing anything for the interior I'm afraid. Interior kit parts not being that nice, and most of it won't be seen, but some gray color will help a little. The box the only thing that can be seen through the window I think.
7
March 13, 2023
I will probably add even more cyanoacrylate to the joints of this landing gear, because with plastic glue alone, I am confident the gear will collapse. I can't tell for sure but it sort of looks like Roden did not include a full nose landing gear, because there's no reason to think this nose gear could even be stable under load.
8
March 15, 2023
I snipped off some plastic and added a bit of styrene rod to the landing gear to stabilize it. Airbrushed on some Vallejo Metal Color 'Matte aluminium' on some stuff. Will add some chrome to the prop spinners. Adding chrome is difficult on some surfaces, as it is often hard to see where you applied the chrome on gray plastic, easy to end up with unpainted spots.
9
March 17, 2023
Hrm, this is tedious, waiting so long for each application of gloss coat to harden, before adding more.
I have an IKEA Detolf cabinet with anti-draft tape around the door opening, so the cabinet is mostly dust free, a nice place to place painted models.

Comments

24 31 July 2020, 11:25

Bernd Korte
I really like this little cargo plane and look forward to see what you make out of the kit.

1 August 2020, 07:20

Treehugger
A fun diorama could be a crashed plane, crashed in a swamp or something, but that would be way to advanced for me. 🙂

On my to-do list, I have ofc this, and some other kits on my table(s) that I should really finish, but I do I little here and there until I get to airbrush something, and then I guess I'lll queue it behind my other projects. Lol.

The most fun I have from building scale model kits is probably the sanding and cleaning up, and enhancing of details, or even adding them. Fixing glaring shape issues, isn't fun though. I lost all steam on my 1:72 Dora German WW2 railway cannon, when I figured, I had to do a 90% scratch build and buy a freaking lathe machine. 🙂

1 August 2020, 11:50

Oliver Zwiener
When will the progress go on ...... ?

10 March 2023, 05:49

Treehugger
Not sure. I guess I can add some bare metal foil soon. I like how I can now work with the wing parts separately, without having to worry about finishing the main airframe part.

So I found out that I like doing modeling whenever I am bored and for the last year and more, I just wasn't bored enough to do modeling, which is a shame. I spent too much time on the internet and playing Squad. :|

10 March 2023, 09:52

Łukasz Gliński
Interesting topic and very nice detailing. Following 👍

10 March 2023, 13:16

Cuajete
Following.

10 March 2023, 19:29

Peter de Bruin
Following! Got one in the stash. Looked like a challenging kit when I peeked in the box.

10 March 2023, 21:28

Treehugger
The one thing in the box that stood out to me and annoyed me a little, was the uneven panel lines. The panel lines on the wings are very nice.
The main fuselage has some wide panel line. I thought at first I would do a re-scribe of the fuselage, but I can't be bothered with it. I'll just sand the surface a little smoother, as the surface seemed a little rough.

11 March 2023, 08:56

Mirko Römer
Following, great project!

13 March 2023, 20:52

Łukasz Gliński
Have you considered exchanging the horizontal support of the front undercarriage for a brass pipe? And perhaps letting it go through the bay sidewalls to make it more robust?
I have to admit it looks very fragile on your photo.

13 March 2023, 22:05

Patryk S.
Following!

13 March 2023, 22:18

Treehugger
@Łukasz Gliński
Hm. I haven't. I think I will now consider adding one more styrene rod someplace without it looking funny.
The horizontal part can handle the weight, the problem is really how the horizontal part isn't center with the nose wheels, so the weight won't push right onto the "horizontal part", it clearly will make the nosewheel rotate around the horizontal part under great load.

It looks like maybet there's a hydraulic/pneumatic actuator at the front leading nowhere, I will extend this actuator with a larger rod and glue it to the green bar.

14 March 2023, 08:08

Łukasz Gliński
Sounds like a plan, fingers crossed.
The undercarriage topic gets tricky when it comes to bigger kits.

14 March 2023, 09:29