Wings of Intent: Fairchild C-119 Steward-Davis Jetpack conversion tanker

(Photo from Wikipedia/credit Alan Radecki)

If Pigs Could Fly

Odd is beautiful

Unusual designs exert an irresistible appeal on me, and my modeling endeavors have produced many an oddball, mostly by scratching, but also conversions. Some of you may be aware of my reluctance to build riveted sausages, but I seem not to learn my lesson, and when I saw again by chance the shape of the Fairchild C-119 in its flying tanker re-incarnation, with that jet engine strapped to its back, I was smitten. The worst of both worlds! between ridiculous and ingenious, a solution that comes straight out from Wile E. Coyote ACME bag of tricks.

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/05/fairchild-c-119-steward-davis-jetpack.html

This kits has been around for a long while, and it comes in pasta and hotdog flavors (Italeri and Testors) and versions C or G. I got the C version, but the G version is the one to get for the tankers, as it has the additional fin area under the booms (that I will have to scratch and add for my conversion). The Italeri issue has a truck and a reference booklet as bonuses. The kit is quite massive, even in 1/72nd, as corresponds to a massive plane. The parts breakdown looks reasonable, the level of detail is good (you can even pose the clamshell doors at the fuselage back open), but you get raised panels lines. According to Scalemates the kit was first issued in 1985 (that is at the moment of writing this 37 years ago), which explains them. Modelers may well leave them alone, or seat down for long sessions of engraving those panel lines. To enhance the model and help with the build a set of masks and a metal landing gear set were purchased. No photo-etched fret exists for this kit that I was able to find, but strangely enough one does exist for the Roden 1/144th kit of the same plane. Go figure. Instead of endlessly looking for a kit that may have a jet pod that can be used or adapted for this build, a master was fashioned from wood in order to produce vacuum-formed shells with the Mattel Psychedelic Machine. Surprised that no enterprising aftermarket outfit would not have produced one, given the number of kits available, and the possibilities for many aftermarket decal sets catering for these fire-fighting flying pigs. Instead of buying a mediocre 3D-printed airplane kit full of shortcomings and faults, I would rather buy from them a jet pod if they would have produced it.

The above-mentioned 1/144th kit is as said by Roden. Frog released the Boxcar in 1/179th scale during the Jurassic period (1958), and Aurora in 1/77th scale during the Cretaceous (1960) or thereabouts. Starting the build first tackling what could hinder the flow later down the lane is a sensible approach, so the first order of business was to create the "missing" parts, the jet pod and its pylon. I also ordered a set of canopy masks and a replacement metal landing gear, since the beast is large and heavy.

If you are tempted to do one of these tankers, bear in mind that some had the extensions of the stabilizer outboard of the tailbooms, and some didn't, like the kit. The kit also has parts for a single or double nose wheel, and two sets of engines/cowls. These tankers can be seen using both, so before you commit study photos of your intended plane and choose accordingly among the kit parts.

I think I will go for a Forestry Service Flying Tanker / Flying Hemet Valley Service (California), but I am also intrigued by the Stolmaster prototype that had two jet packs under the wing, surely a very pretty thing too!:

(Photo from the San Diego Air and Space Museum on Flickr)

There are plenty of images on the Net of these fire-fighters, but so far I have been unable to find any interior photos of the fire-suppressing equipment inside the plane.

The Mighty Box:

A booklet profusely illustrated (only one photo of a civil machine, though) as a freebie, and a truck kit that I may modify into something less boom-boom, as with the plane:

Impressive size:

Options regarding posing doors and hatches::

In spite of its age, interesting detail and great care shown in the making of the parts:

Instructions that look good:

A "Westinghouse J34 engine" wood plug (made of two doweled halves) is carved, and the pylon fabricated in styrene:

Vac shells are made using the wood master:

Aluminium tubes are cut for the front and rear. The one for the exhaust is reamed, the intake is gievn its double-angled to the sides and to the base:

I am making two to chose the better one...or to build that Stolmaster. We'll see. In any case the Stolmaster jet pack had a different shape at the base of the pod, like some equipment addition:

The metal landing gear arrived:

The portion of the fins below the booms is scratchbuilt, as this kit version doesn't have them:

Replenishing the stock of Mattel plastic sheets, and believe me, not at the 50c stated on the package. That no one has come with a contemporary vacuforming machine that is both economical and practical (and not the trash that you can find on the market or the super-expensive "professional" ones) is one of the many mysteries of hobby "evolution":

Lars Opland from Khee-Kha Art Products made me notice that if you are going for the back-strapped jet, Hasegawa's kit of the Neptune has those very same jet pods. Modelers that don't want to fuss scratching them could use those, but additional work -as Lars points out- would have to be performed to change the position of the pylon. If you consider replicating the Stolmaster, though, then you are set up, but only if you modify the intake and pylon shape, plus the Stolmaster had a different nose tip that you will have to fabricate, so nothing is really free in the harsh life of a modeler

All the parts are washed. If you do this under running water in the sink, put a strainer, as some parts will detach during scrubbing:

This is one that really needs you to pay attention to the instructions. I just prepared the nose weights -a bit more than indicated- so I don't forget (hopefully) to add them:

The frames for the clamshell doors have the holes engraved, but I decided to drill them, using differently-sized drill bits:

The bigger kit vents come already hollowed, nice detail:

Whist the cowls have engraved panel lines, the rest of the model has raised ones:

The big and medium size parts are removed from the sprues and refined. Notice the cowls, one pair of two different sets in the sprues:

Notice the interior detail, and the other set of cowls:

And the rest of the parts. If you tend to get confused when you detach a lot of parts from the sprues before even starting construction, don't do it. But yet again, if that's the case, maybe for this type of kit you would like to wait a bit as you gain more confidence:

Some of the parts are glued together. The fit is fair, but not sharp, and where appropriate filler will be needed:

To the right you see the alternate nose landing gear legs, with one and two wheels:

As the build proceeds, it becomes obvious that certain assemblies lack a good fit. In this case the already-mentioned clamshell doors, and especially the wing center section. Locating devices are insufficient and inadequate to provide a positive locking. All parts need some kind of adjustment to fit at least fairly, but hardly ever crisply. Care and patience are needed here, as being sloppy or hasty will only kick the problem down the lane, forcing you to much filling and sanding later, to the detriment of those old-fashioned raised panel lines. Surely many of those -after working on the surface later on- will need replacing with engraved panel lines, as it will be almost impossible not to obliterate some of them. And engraving in curved or not easily accessible surfaces will be a pain in the toches no doubt:

I drilled the smaller vents, that were solid:

In order not to forget to add the nose weight, this step is dealt with now:

Since I will be using metal aftermarket land gear legs, I put a bit more weight than required, just in case:

The small surfaces that protect the pilots from the glare of the wing lights are rendered coarsely and impractically by Italeri, one half on each part of the wing, too thick, with a bad surface, and a tad bigger than they should be:

They are removed and replaced by engraved sheet parts, to reflect the ribbing on the actual part:

The light recesses are tidied-up, and will be given home-made lenses and covers:

To the right, the first kit release nose landing gear doors, where each side is in one piece (which is inaccurate), but with detail. To the right, the correction that came with later releases, in the foreground the foremost section that closes back once the leg is lowered, and the two aft sections. But this time someone was tired at Italeri, so they didn't bother with the nice detail the former part had:

And the fore plug that Italeri provides has an issue on the external side, can you notice?

Yes, I had to engrave the partition line (they did do the partition on the inside):

So I cut the older parts, and will use the aft sections, with detail, to9 replace the new sections, that lack detail:

The clamshell doors that needed filler in some spots are primed. The cockpit gets a coat of grey paint as a base color:

There was a small stair to access the cockpit for what I can see in photos:

The ceiling can't get all the way into the position stated on the instructions, as those boxes hinder it. If you glue like that, it will exceed the fuselage length on the other side:

These ejector pin marks should be dealt with, especially the fore one, as it hinders the ceiling part:

Ejector pin marks removed:

You can see that due its thickness the ceiling part can't get into into the recess. You may sand the ceiling part on the other side where there is no detail, or remove part of those boxes, or notch the ceiling part, which is what I did:

Were the ejector pin marks were frames are restored:

Number? could it be the kits were numbered? look at yours and tell me if you have different one!:

The other fuselage side needs tiding-up too:

Again nice interior detail by Italeri:

Restoring more frames:

To the left, I thinned down the cowl trailing edge, to the right, untouched kit part, thick. Not sure why Italeri molded them like this, would have been so easy to mold those lips thinner:

How the thick kit parts would look:

How the modified part looks:

Since the interior face of the trailing edge will be a little visible now, the cooling gills are scored:

Dry run of the fuselage and wing, a very good fit this time:

So is the tailcone:

Booms fit OK, the stab roots will need filler:

Some parts are painted. You see two sets of landing gear legs, the one on the left is plastic, to the right the metal one that is one step behind, as it had to be primed first. Two sets of exhausts are present, as the final version is not yet decided. The kit doesn't provide a decal for the instrument panel, but the instruments are in relief, so the modeler will have to paint those dials and switches. Interior color details varied form plane to plane when not in military use anymore, so it's up to you and/or your references:

The cockpit ready and set aside:

Preparing a painting session:

A few detail are picked up:

Unless you are building N15501 in its XXEXPRESS livery or tanker N48076 (the most "colorful" of them all, but perhaps a bit gaudy), you have to remove these fairings. Only reference photos will tell you the type and number of fairings and antennas you need to delete or add, as most tankers differed from each other in some way:

The interior is glued in place and the fuselage halves united. The center wing section is added. The fit is quite good:

If I ever find out what fire-suppressing equipment was inside these air tankers, I can fabricate it and slide it in. For now it will have to remain empty.

The set from Draw Decals arrived:

In order to work on the seams the cockpit clear part must be glued on and all transparencies and openings masked. As with other parts, the fit is not bad, but not particularly good either, and will need some work with putty and the sanding sticks:

Some additional info on the Draw Decals sheet: Hemet Valley also operated #87 and #88 (not covered). There are, as the sheet explains, many differences between the several planes, and also changes during the planes' lives. So base your models on photos. Depending on which machine you are reproducing, additional details may be needed, for example: jet engine labels ("Jet Intake" seen in a few photos), an additional red band at the center of the stabilizer, and all black walkways on top of the planes, again, not provided or indicated on the sheet. The black lines that border the red areas on the booms the sheet provides are straight, whereas the contour should follow the different diameters of the booms, which are slightly conical (i.e., rendering not really a straight line but a very slightly curved one). We will see if they allow the slight bending that the booms will require, prodding them into position.

There were civil C-119s that had a nose radome (Stolmaster, Comutair), so just in case I change my mind, I made a wood master and vacuformed the needed part with my trusty Mattel Psychedelic Machine:

It has to be properly adapted, but it looks more or less like this:

In order to deal with the seams all transparencies and the back of the fuselage are taped. For this I use the good and trusty Tamiya tape, but a word of warning...:

...Tamiya also sells a 40mm masking tape roll that seems they outsource, as it is a different material (branded "Kamoi Tape"), unlike any other Tamiya masking tape. And IT IS CRAP, it just tears off in pieces as you try to unroll it, and you can hardly get a section of it off the roll that is whole, and the adhesive is way too much powerful, unlike the "normal" Tamiya tape:

Concentrating in the work on the seams whilst the main components are still separate makes things easier. Of course when these sub-assemblies are later put together more work will be necessary, but the bulk should have been dealt with:

The home-made sub-fins are added:

Differences from plane top plane can be seen in photos regarding the trapdoors for the releasing of retardant. Now that the belly seam is tidy and detail restored, those release doors will be added:

The trapdoors are installed:

The escape hatches are added (the kit has only one engraved, to the left, but photos show two)

Other versions of this plane have a Venturi that goes in those little two holes, as per kit's instructions, but not the air tankers, as it would be obviously get drenched in retardant, thus they have to be plugged:

For this the discarded ends of stretched sprue are used, glued in, and then cut flush when the glue has set:

The tailbooms and stab are added, and then the right wing:

Which leads to a comment: it's not a matter of slapping the decals on. #81 had the stab protruding outside the booms, for which you will need the corresponding kit. Photos of #82 show it with and without. #86 without. Not including in the aftermarket decal sheet: #87 with and without, #88 with. So look at photos of the plane you are building, and this goes if you go off the path and make your own decals: check the stab, nose wheel and cowls, according to the specific version.

All the main components are now assembled. More holes are plugged on the fuselage top as they do not serve this specific version:

The Vance Flying Wing was not a small plane, but the Boxcar dwarfs it:

The provisional masking tape is removed after the surface is tidied-up, and the aftermarket set masks are applied:

The back is also sealed with although you could put the clamshell doors in place temporarily too:

Aftermarket sets of replacement wheels. Photos show #86 (most likely the one I will be doing) with both -at different times. The kit's wheels, which are ok, show a late style:

The pedestal for the jet engine is dry-fitted:

I printed the prop blades de-icers, as none come with the kit's decal sheet or the aftermarket one:

De-icers in place, and the aftermarket decal sheet prop blade tips added. Now for some setting solution:

The aftermarket resin wheels are being prepared. They are truly beautiful. As said above, the kit's wheels are quite fair, but the resin ones have not only more detail, (and detail on the "inside" side of the wheels) but they are also "weighed", providing more realism:

The praise is marred by one detail: the masks provided are only half the count you need. Apparently either the manufacturer can't count, or did not realize that, unlike Odin's Disk (which had only one side), wheels have two, thus four masks for four wheels are, again, half what you need. Same for the two nose wheels, only two masks. The masks are vinyl, which is inferior to paper, by the way, tending to lift under primer, or by its own. One more time we corroborate that many manufacturers do not use their own products, otherwise they will know what is wrong or does not work:

First coat of primer to reveal spots that need attention:

After a few sessions of puttying, sanding and re-priming, the model is ready for the paint:

The added drop doors can be seen here:

The replacement set of wheels was painted:

I was about to start painting, when I realized I had not assembled the jet pack. Tabs are added to the thin vac halves to help with gluing surface and positioning, and the intake and exhaust tubes are capped to avoid see-through (the caps will be later trimmed down to diameter):

I toyed with the possibility of using an Engine & Things J-57 resin engine, and leave the side panels open, and thus acquired one, but sobriety came to me in time, as this would have added even more complexity and time to an already lengthy build as the resin has to be modified a bit and structural changes made to the pack. Nonetheless, the resources are there, and other modelers may walk that path:

The jet pods are primed (I made two to chose the best, or as back-up in case of boo-boo, a strategy I frequently employ):

Wheel bays are painted:

Some of the parts are given base colors:

The septum in the middle of the intake is added:

The jet packs are ready for painting:

The wheel wells are masked, and a coat of white is applied:

Now the other side. Airbrushing big models is not easy feat:

The assembled jet pod is tried in place:

And ready to be painted separately, as it would be difficult otherwise:

After more than a year of leaving this one in the back burner, the time has come to attempt to finish the painting stage. It took me a few hours to re-acquaint myself with this project, as in looking at the parts already completed it seemed that I had prepared for any eventuality (meaning several planes and registration possibilities), and even got metal and resin aftermarket parts too. So what was the precise plane/s I was trying to reproduce at the end?:

These monsters require careful handling, and are not the easiest to mask and paint:

The white area is almost completely masked now:

Panels are randomly selected, masked, and painted with a different metal hue:

Miscellaneous items are being prepared, what is not there is home-made:

Yet another round of masking and airbrushing different metal hues:

Further more masking and now the fire red. This is no picnic:

Masks off, and the following step will be adding the black on nose and cowl/booms. There are also black walkways on the fuselage top, but I think I may handle them in a next step, or with home-made decals:

And let´s not forget the ancillaries:

And now the masking to apply the black paint in progress:

Black applied and masks off:

Now is time to work on the remaining parts:

A bit more progress. The walkways on the fuselage top are a combination of paint and decals. The landing gear is on with its doors:

Home-made lenses are used for the lights. Decal application begins:

A beacon at the top of one fin is made shaping and coloring clear sprue:

The Draw Decals set is very nice, but it's important that you read the instructions even before painting the model, as you have some little homework to do regarding the delimitation of the colors on the nose and size of the "bands" on wing and booms. There are other aspects to consider: each image has to be cut and trimmed separately, as the carrier encompasses the whole sheet. The nose black stripes account for the shape of the nose (which renders a non-straight geometry, of course), but the ones for the tail booms and wingtips do not, as they are straight, in spite that those volumes do curve. Therefore you will have to cut some slits for the straight decals to adapt to the curved surfaces. Watch out as they set, as they may tend to "walk" a little as they dry (mine did) and you will have to -very carefully- prod them back in place, even adding a smidgen of water to make them compliant again. If you are careful during application and follow the instructions, you will have a good result.

I think the build has been completed: