Polet Cargo Airlines H4 Hercules (DONE!)

[TheChronicOne]

I'm going to take the livery from this:



And stick it on this:



I've even managed to get started by gluing the fuselage halves together:



According to what I've read from others who have built it, this kit goes together really well with no major issues. Just looking at it... it looks really simple. It's 1/200 scale so even being this large the thing doesn't have a whole lot of parts.

Here's the plastic. Fuselage halves then the parts sprue and a couple wing pieces.





Should be a lot of fun! 

[NARSES2]

Now that should look good

[sandiego89]

It is a good, but basic kit.  The propellor blades are VERY fragile. 

Plenty of WHIF potential in the Hercules/Spruce Goose. 

[TheChronicOne]

Now that should look good

Should, Chris! I think it will come down to my painting and masking methodology. The transfers will help hide a multitude of sins, thankfully. There are ones for all the black cheat-lines that run between the blue/white on both the fuselage and all engines. It just comes down to coming up with a sensible layout including a good way to do the white triangular lookin' stuff on the fin and toward the nose area. 

It is a good, but basic kit.  The propellor blades are VERY fragile. 

Plenty of WHIF potential in the Hercules/Spruce Goose. 

Yeah, Dave, I agree!  I've had thoughts of a few paint jobs and stories for a few but they just involve simple scheme swapping or whatever. One more adept at kitbashing could probably modify one, though, and make something spectacular. I toyed with the idea of putting 1/144 C-5A Galaxy wings and engines on it but the way the kit is engineered makes it totally impossible at my skill level.. but.. what a thought! 


As far as an update.. I've been working on this one for a good many hours today. I've been slowly, methodically, trimming, filing, sanding, and test fitting parts. When they seem perfect..... I GLUE 'EM UP. 

It's been fun and rather therapeutic to go through this process. I work on single pieces and assemblies at a time. At each stage I do all the filing and sanding before I add more or do the next step. Instead of building the entire plane proper, for instance, then starting, I'll get the fuselage halves together, then PSR them to the max, then build the wings, PSR, then when I glue them on, I'll do it again, before I do the tailplanes... so on and so forth. I suppose it would be quicker to do it all at once but this way is more thorough and sometimes more fun. 

Anyway, enough bloviating:

            Fuselage is 95% good to go.. I just had to add a bit of glue to a few small sections. Probably dry enough by now to file/sand, in fact...

            Both wings cleaned up and glued together.

            Both tail planes cleaned up and glued together.

            Outrigger pontoons cleaned up and glued together.

Next up I get to attach the wings to each other. They're constructed in a way that they *snap* together and each has a tab and slot that joins to the other. Knowing this... I took extra time to also file, sand, and "clean up" all the parts of the wings I wouldn't normally bother with to ensure that this stuff fits together correctly.




Had to clamp down on the ends of the engine stubs because some of them were warped I guess, and when put together separated like a ducks bill...   

Tailplanes and outrigger pontoons:



Not all that exciting, I know, but I wanted to provide some pictures to offset my long winded posting. 


EDIT: Note to self: Don't forget some nose weight.

[TheChronicOne]

Worked quite a bit on this today. 

This kit has been fun!

There are a lot of little things needing addressing in the way of filing and sanding...  like... the 8 or so ejection pin marks on the TOPS of the wings and filing flat the engine "faces" so that the cowlings will fit on properly. Not only were they trying to split apart like a duck bill, but once put together, they weren't even. There was an overbite....   Anyway, I did the best I could with it and I think I got it pretty good. I'll know more when the props go on but for now the cowlings are on and look good to the ol Mk. I Eyeball.

Here they are with the jacks props that I lovingly trimmed, filed, and sanded. They're (props) pretty petite but at the same time, for 1/200, pretty large? If that makes sense? 


Engine cowlings and intakes also glued on. Everything sits well and looks good!

Before I forget; I managed to not.. uhh.. forget...  to put some ballast up in the nose. There's something visually appealing about the near perfect way the BBs settled in:



As I was looking at the wings.. it struck me that they look a bit familiar in shape and size to another project of mine. I dug it up for a couple comparison pictures. One picture is absolute garbage but it works well enough:




That's a 1/48 U-2A with these 1/200 Hercules wings.    Similar shape, and, similar size. The 1/200 wings are actually bigger. 1/48 U2 wings ain't nothing to scoff at... so.. in short; this thing is big!

To that end, to cap the day, I went ahead and assembled the wings to each other and plopped down a couple 1/72 planes for a bit of reference:



Paging Dr. Kit, I have long wing fever and need a cure!   (No.. no I don't .... the longer the legs wings on this gorgeous lady, the better! )

Calling it a night now and will away to some Naval ship warfare simulator game.    Next round of work will involve putting the wings onto the fuselage. I forgot to mention earlier but the tail planes are already PSRed and glued on, so, once these main wings are on I can do a little more PSR on the joins and then it's off to primer.

[The Rat]

You can get around the fragile prop blades by making clear circles for an in-flight example. But if you do we expect a detailed flight crew with moustaches and name tags. Can't have a flying model without pilots! 

[PR19_Kit]

Paging Dr. Kit, I have long wing fever and need a cure!   (No.. no I don't .... the longer the legs wings on this gorgeous lady, the better! )

There IS no cure, once it has you in its claws you're there for life, sorry.

Ask me how I know this?  (© Zenrat)

[McColm]

Paging Dr. Kit, I have long wing fever and need a cure!   (No.. no I don't .... the longer the legs wings on this gorgeous lady, the better! )

There IS no cure, once it has you in its claws you're there for life, sorry.

Ask me how I know this?  (© Zenrat)

Have you ever tried scratch building the wings for the Lockheed Starliner, I've tried several times. Got close once by using the Airfix B-29 wings grafted to the Airfix Constellation Super G but this didn't work.

[zenrat]

Paging Dr. Kit, I have long wing fever and need a cure!   (No.. no I don't .... the longer the legs wings on this gorgeous lady, the better! )

There IS no cure, once it has you in its claws you're there for life, sorry.

Ask me how I know this?  (© Zenrat)

Ummmm, actually it's "Don't ask me how I know this".

[McColm]

Good build so far

[PR19_Kit]

Paging Dr. Kit, I have long wing fever and need a cure!   (No.. no I don't .... the longer the legs wings on this gorgeous lady, the better! )

There IS no cure, once it has you in its claws you're there for life, sorry.

Ask me how I know this?  (© Zenrat)

Ummmm, actually it's "Don't ask me how I know this".

Ah, sorry. I'll add it to my list of quotable quotes correctly. 

[TheChronicOne]

I see a U2 with 8 electric motors and solar panels for extended cruse.

I like the way you think, brotha!  That sounds GLORIOUS. It could be like a NASA livery on it and how cool would scale solar panels be?!

You can get around the fragile prop blades by making clear circles for an in-flight example. But if you do we expect a detailed flight crew with moustaches and name tags. Can't have a flying model without pilots! 

HA!!! HAAA!    That would be the day! I can barely paint my lil 1/72 buddies.

[TheChronicOne]

Paging Dr. Kit, I have long wing fever and need a cure!   (No.. no I don't .... the longer the legs wings on this gorgeous lady, the better! )

I don't suppose there's one for long noses either! Or T-tails for that matter. I'm fine with that.

There IS no cure, once it has you in its claws you're there for life, sorry.

Ask me how I know this?  (© Zenrat)

I don't suppose there's one for long noses, either. Or T-tails...... I'm alright with that.   

[TheChronicOne]

Good build so far

Thanks, she's gonna be a biggin'!!  Just our style. 

[TheChronicOne]

"Quietly" stopping by for a bit of an update. I've been working on this today but only in an extremely lazy, slow type of way. 

I've been watching TV and generally goofing off on the internet, etc. but would work on some of this at the same time. Watching the new season of Longmire. Man what a good show! 

Anyway... I've painted all the props and spinners. I went with white on the spinners themselves and I think I paint the engine cowlings all white, too, so they should look pretty decent together. The props themselves are all black. I didn't see much need to put any warning bands on the tips as no one would likely be anywhere near them with the engines running. 

Glued the massive set of wings on!!  Wow! Looks large and in charge now, and like a real airplane! (sorry no pics, now, but I promise I'll provide some the very next time I get to work... that "lazy bone" is in full effect)  I did a second pass on the seams with glue and that will probably suffice. I'll sand those areas in the next phase.

I also painted the windscreen frame work. It's about 90% good-to-go but I need to go back in and do some touch up. At 1/200 scale, it's sort of finicky and even my tiniest brush is tempted to put way too much paint on. The usual toothpick method is in effect for clean up.

I think that's about it??     I swear it seems like I did a lot more but I guess not. I guess the fact that I stretched it out over a number of hours just makes it seem like it. Not complaining, though. I hadn't really planned on working on it today so I look at is as being ahead of the game for the next time I get to work.