KC135.. Kit and AM review. A video for modellers
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- In this video I will cover all the kits available in 1/72 of the KC-135 and variants, a great builders tip and show you some aftermarket PE, resin and decals and also the Aftermarket to be wary of.
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Very glad they added the French decals. In the 1980s i was an aircraft enthusiast, and seen the French KC-135 fairly often. This review sent me looking at my old photos and don`t see any white on the engines. They used to make 12-15 missed approaches to RAF St Mawgan, and then return to their base. One particular photo dated 1985, we had a tanker and did several approaches and the was joined by a Mirage 1V!! They a few more approaches, and departed together. The `135s were all in a dirty aluminium. Some years later, I saw one of the new 135FRs at an airshow and it was in the new French Blue colour scheme.
One of many USAF variants, was KC135Q. Didn`t look much different to any other 135, but exclusively refuelled the SR-71.
Nice in-depth review there Nige, I always wondered what they were like. I'll now look forward to the 707 vid.
More great content, sir! Love seeing this old bird, so often overlooked by modelers, covered in such detail. Quick heads-up as well, the hose & drogue you pointed out is called the Boom Drogue Adapter (BDA) and often referred to as "The Iron Maiden" to our USN & USMC friends due to the drogue portion being rigid & not "soft". It's been in USAF use on the -135 since the early A's through the current R & T models. Additionally, a handful of R models are MPRS capable/configured so you It's possible to use the pods from the FR boxing to do up a USAF MPRS jet. Though, I'm not 100% sure the FR uses the same MPRS pod used by the USAF. Regardless, it would probably be a great starting point. One additional note, based on looking at the FR boxart, I don't recall ever flying a MPRS pod equipped tail with three drogues installed (again USAF), May have been done at some point but not something I've personally seen.
I’ve started my KC 135 a, some initial comments. Thanks for the tip on the wings. I will use that. glass for the windows on the fuselage for the doors and other place like that is a very poor fi,I think you did on a B-52 on epoxy resin or something to fix that fit on them, but I can’t seem to find that in your videos. Definitely need to do something about that because they don’t fit very well. I’m afraid they will fall out the first time I put masking tape on them, other than that, it is a pretty neat kit. The kit I am building is the Desert Storm kit. I have a RIVET joint version also in my stash to build.
Thanks Nigel, That's a pretty nice looking kit.
Better than I expected so again thankyou...
Hey Nigel, I have an AMT EC-135-C Command aircraft in my stash. Forgot I had that kit…….very nice kit……
More insights into unknown (to me) territory. Cheers, Nige, great stuff.
Great video, the early KC 135s did have both the taller tail fin and J57s as in the A/D/Qs and so on.
Love this - scouring ebay now!
I know your not doing the AWACS/Sentry kits just yet but I built the Heller E3-A/B in NATO markings more than a quarter of a century ago. I remember loving the detail of the wheels and the fun and games getting the radar dome level but it was a gorgeous kit. Kicking myself now for not buying the Airfix D/F when it came out.
The AMT cockpit window area doesn't look quite right around the eyebrow windows. You may want to see if the BPK 737 part is a good fit. They sell it separately for 8 dollars. This area should be the same on all the Boeing narrow bodies, as it is ahead of the fuselage crease.
Awesome video Nigel! 👍🏻🍻
Hi Nigel permit me to make a correction. AMT stands for Aluminum Model Toys en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_Model_Toys
It may have been mentioned and I might have missed it, but when I attempted to build the AMT KC-135A when it was released in 1992, I had a very hard time getting the interior flooring to line up correctly with the fuselage halves...A lot of warpage due to the thinness of the plastic.
I have another of these in the stash, so I will have to check and see if the fuselage suffers from the same affliction. I also seem to remember that FSM had an article (maybe the same one included here) concerning the wings (or it may have been for the AMT B-52s).
The fuselage halves have location pegs for the floor. Maybe this was a modification?
USAFE 100 ARW at RAF Mildenhall have Drogue pods on the wings of some of their KC-135s.
Hi Nigel. When I commented I thought it was about the vertical stand in the kit. All the kits very stand are the same. You need to do surgery for an early A model. As for the horz stabs the Es has the bigger when built. As were modded as they found them too small when used in trimming
I am confused.. No E's were "built", they were all converted A models, as are the R models.
If anybody is interested there is a book called TANKER PILOT by Mark Hasara a American KC-135 pilot and the KC-135 history in four wars. Well worth reading👍
It's on order and should arrive in the next couple of days..
Wow that was a lot of gen on a lot of different AC versions. You have obviously done a lot of research. Do you have a recommendations for further references?
As a couple of generic points (I do not have any direct conection with these AC), it is nice to see the little balls in the cargo floor which are stainless steel ball rollers (makes it easy to move crates) which obviously has implecations for the paint colours.
When we were working on a refueling conversion, the wing needed vortex generators when the hose/drum refueling pods were fitted, nut not otherwise. It would be a good idea to check on the actual configurations with vortex generators before adding them.
If your PE fans are slightly too big, they could be trimmed.
Large airplanes (note US spelling for US aircraft) like this do have flexible wings which in flight have noticeable curvature so if you want a wheels up (say a refueling diorama on the ceiling) then you should bend the tips up a bit (research needed for how much).
I don't have space for such a large display but showing it off actually refueling with a F15 or F4 perhaps would be very atrachtive.
There is one book which is apparently very good, KC-135 Stratotanker, More than a tanker, which i have on order currently. Yes, flexing the wings up on this would be pretty easy, though I don't know just how much these would flex? This aint no 787 lol.
Nigel I know this is inappropriate to ask this here but is there anyway I can message you regarding my Fox Terrier Ted who has just had the same diagnosis as Jess. If you don't want to talk about this I totally respect that, no love lost. David.
Of course mate.. so so sorry to hear this. nigelsmodellingbench at gee male dot com.
Absolute star.
I look forward to your email buddy.
When I was going up the kit makers had one target audience now they are trying to sell product to the whole world and need to use visual and not verbal instructions for the kits
Yep