So the front end of the a/c was built, cockpit detailed using info from various sources, scratch built five seats, throttle levers, side consoles etc, with the wiring in place with enough length to reach down the fuselage. I figured that the best place to provide power was from the front ground power point and I had in mind I could make a diorama using a GPU cart to provide the power.
FLARES IN GUNSHIP III INSTALL
So I thought I would install some LEDs for a bit of illumination which involved running some wiring. So I built those too, and then realised that you weren’t going to be able to see them as it was dark in there. But I figured it was so big I should really do it with the door open so you could see the consoles. The main reason for this was that I couldn’t stand the big empty space in the back of this thing, especially as there should be a large systems operator booth filling most of it, so armed with a few drawings from my references I built one.
ConstructionĪs I said, I’ve been doing this on and off for a long time so you’ll have to forgive me if I gloss over the bits I can’t remember.Ĭonstruction was initially much as the instructions but deviated more and more as time went on. The decals are a bit thick and didn’t react much to the Super Sol I’ve been using for years, but then I didn’t use many of them so this wasn’t a big issue. There are decals provided for three aircraft, a Vietnam era aircraft 60490 “Thor” in the three colour camo over black, a AFRES a/c 41630 in overall dark grey (Gunship Grey perhaps :-) and 56570 in overall black.
FLARES IN GUNSHIP III MODS
The props are the three bladed type appropriate to the -A but I’m told they have shape issues and a correction set is available from OZ mods ( ). Underwing there are four ALQ-87 ECM pods (in two pairs) and two fuel tanks (though I understand these were rarely carried “in country” and I have since been informed that the -A didn’t have the inboard pylons anyway). It’s moulded in black plastic and represents an AC-130As at around 1970, when they were armed with two 7.62 miniguns, two 20mm Vulcans and two 40mm Bofors and includes a flare dispenser that was carried on the rear ramp. It’s not exactly state of the art, raised panel lines, simplified details, some fit issues but I don’t think you’ll be seeing a Tamigawa kit of this a/c any time soon so I can live with it. The final kit has a wingspan of over 80cm and it’s about 60cm long. I must point out that I have been making this on and off about the last 14 years so I really can’t remember what it looked like in the box. This was deemed successful and resulted in modification of seven more airframes to this standard and since then the process has been one of upgrading the systems and sensors and up gunning to the current AC-130U standard. This resulted in Project Gunship II which added sensors and a fire control systems to a test C-130 armed with four 7.62 miniguns and four 20mm Vulcans. AC-130A Gunship Italeri 1/48th Scale Historyīriefly, following the success of the AC-47s the USAF was looking for something with more endurance and payload abilities. Milton Keynes Scale Model Club unless otherwise stated
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