XC-8A Buffalo, air cushion- finished- Vietnam

[sandiego89]

Just picked up the De Haviland Canada XC-8A Buffalo.  This was a trial where a Buffalo was fitted with an air cushion skirt and could operate from land, water, ice etc.  1/144 kit from Amodel.  Lots of detail and number of pieces for a 1/144 kit. Has a ramp and cargo bay, pilot seats, full windows, etc.  Quality looks OK, with some flash. Looks like 2 extra spues extra for the XC version with the skirt, wingtip floats, blower engines.  

All kinds of What if potential, SE Asia, Special Boat Service Falklands, Rescue, Desert ops (hostage rescue???) Polar regions......  I am leaning special ops.  

[Green Dragon]

Better test the feel of the plastic sprue with a craft knife/scalpel before working on kit parts from AModel. My Yak 130's were pretty hard stuff but I nearly wrecked my C-8 Buffalo, I sliced off some flash with more effort than needed because the plastic was much softer and nearly had the tail off!.

Paul Harrison

[cc115]

Hey, that drawing on the box is of Buffalo 451. She is still in service with the CF here at 442 Sqn Comox, BC. In fact, I flew the old girl last week. You'd be surprised, the Cdn government actually put semi-modern avionics in it!! Now have an EHSI, EADI, 2 GPS-430's, and a GPS 500 in her.

Got to get me a half-decent Buffalo kit. Besides this one, any others out there. Don't care what scale.

CC115 Flight Engineer

[Weaver]

cc115 - A-Model do "straight" versions of this kit as well as this one.

Sandiego - nice one! I've got this kit so I'll be watching closely. What I'd like them to do is another Buffalo special, the QSRA research aircraft with 4 x turbofans blowing over the wing. When they do, I'll cross-kit the two to make a USBACLS version.....

[sandiego89]

C115, nice to see the old girl flying!  Can you tell if she has any of the clues to her former role as the XC-8A role such as where the skirt met the fuselage or where the blower engines were on the side of fuselage? 

For anyone else considering an Amodel Buffalo kit, I would say go with the XC-8A as it has the all sprues of the "staight" Buffalo plus the air-cushion and floats.  Good for the spares box.  Remember though that this is 1/144 scale, so not something to impress the friends with on the mantle- you can hold it in one hand.  As the above comment suggests, your choices are quite limited for the Buffalo.  Amodel looks like a good way to go.  Good tips on the decals from apophenia.   

As for the tip in post 2, yes the plastic is quite soft.  A few swipes of the sanding board will you have into the real model very quickly- be carefull.  I have not tried the decals yet, so can not comment on setting quality, but print quality looks very good with sharpo contrast and good color.

I have started the clean up and hope to get some work done this weekend.     

[John Howling Mouse]

I have a Roberts Model/Combat Models vac/resin in 1:72....do not buy that kit unless you really like buying overpriced junk.
I think the fuselage was a recast pulled from the HC Caribou...the rest is complete and utter garbage.  I have posted a complaint about this kit elsewhere on the old What If site.  Yikes, I can take pics of it if you want, just so you can see how truly poor quality it is.

[sandiego89]

Primer on. Takes some sanding and dry fitting to get a good fit. 

[rickshaw]

Hey, that drawing on the box is of Buffalo 451. She is still in service with the CF here at 442 Sqn Comox, BC. In fact, I flew the old girl last week. You'd be surprised, the Cdn government actually put semi-modern avionics in it!! Now have an EHSI, EADI, 2 GPS-430's, and a GPS 500 in her.

Got to get me a half-decent Buffalo kit. Besides this one, any others out there. Don't care what scale.

CC115 Flight Engineer

This Brazilian - Duate - http://www.commerce-center.com.br/subcategoria.php?categoria=Modelismo&subcategoria=Avi%F5es%20Brasileiros/FAB

do a Buffalo.  How good I can't say.

[Captain Canada]

  Yikes, I can take pics of it if you want, just so you can see how truly poor quality it is.

yes please !

[sandiego89]

Build about done, ready for paint.  Blower engines on.  Overall quite a bit of work for a 1/144 kit with lots of cleanup, dry fitting and sanding, but generally a good kit. I will choose Amodel again. More detail and parts than for a typical 1/144 kit which is good for an advanced builder, likely too much for a novice.  Has troop seats, control columns, instrument panel etc that will be barely visible on the completed kit. Ramp can be built up or down. Gear can be up or down. Flaps would have to be cut if you wanted them down.  Interestingly it looks like the XC-8A could use either the inflated skirt or traditional gear for land based operations.  I went gear up.

Special ops Buffalo coming up....   

[Taiidantomcat]

Nice job! Amodel kits can be very difficult but you have made it look charming!

[sandiego89]

All done.

XC-8A Buffalo, 63-13688, US Navy VAL-4, Binh Thuy, Vietnam.

Back story. The US Navy was in need of specialized transport aircraft to support SEAL operations in the Mekong Delta, and other areas of SE Asia in the early 1970's.  The Delta area had few traditional airstrips but numerous rivers, waterways and marsh areas.

The XC-8A program was viewed as an ideal platform as the Buffalo had good cargo carrying capacity, a rear ramp and in the XC-8A version, could operate from land, water or the mud flats common in the area.  Development of the joint US/Canadian program was accelerated and 2 additional aircraft, 63-133687 and 63-13688, were transferred from the US Army to the US Navy .  The aircraft were re-designated C-8N, and were unofficially called "Water Buffalo's".  After trials at Patuxent River, both aircraft were ferried to Vietnam and were assigned to Light Attack Squadron 4 (VAL-4) Detachment Alpha, for Game Warden operations out of the joint base at Binh Thuy. Here the aircraft were used for numerous covert operations of inserting and supporting SEAL teams throughout the Delta.  Primarily operating at night the aircraft were given black camouflage on their undersides, but retained their Army olive drab paint on the upper surfaces.  Field modifications included the mounting of searchlights,  M-60 machine guns in the aft windows to cover extraction teams and LAU rocket pods were trialed.   
Primary use was to insert SEAL teams for observation and prisoner recovery operations.  Small Zodiac inflatable boats were commonly deployed out the stern ramp.  The aircraft would often leave the team for several days, and then recover the team at a pre-designated location, often with captured prisoners providing valuable intelligence.  Recovery of the small boats proved difficult given the noise and spray from the aircraft, with the teams finding it easiest to approach the stern ramp at a good overtaking speed and drive up the lowered ramp.  Additional missions remain classified, but likely included covert operations into Cambodia. 
63-13688 is depicted in the configuration it was in when it was during the daring rescue of a downed Air Force F-4 crew near An Hoa, Vietnam. 

The Kit
Amodel XC-8A, kit #1419.  Cost about $25 US.  This was my first Amodel kit, and as per my entries above was a challenge.  Fit was fair, with much cleanup, sanding and dry fitting required.  Still some gaps that required gap filling glue.  Inflatable skirt was a tough fit.  The kit comes with many very small parts.  I choose to leave the cockpit details and the photo-etched flap parts off. Props have separate blades, I would prefer a single cast prop assembly for this scale. You could leave of the blower engines, floats and skirt for a stock Buffalo.    Instructions were good, but the part numbers are not numbered on the sprue- but easy to figure out.   I am not pleased with my quality on the seams and the paint, still practicing with my airbrush.