Fairchild C-119 Steward-Davis Jetpack conversion tanker - Modified Italeri 1/72nd scale

 

As everybody knows, California's four seasons are Wildfire, Mudslide, Earthquake and Oscars. If you live here, chances are that you have seen air tankers in action, and are grateful for them and to their crews. Italeri has done a good job kitting the Fairchild C-119, and even went through the trouble of creating two versions of it. The level of detail for a kit of its age (38 years old as I write this) is quite remarkable. The parts are almost flash-free, and the modeler can pose the clamshell cargo doors open, as well as the three doors; the interior thus revealed is fully detailed with a convincing enough cockpit. The transparencies are nice, and the fit varies from ok to quite a bit of work. How Italeri missed to add the one part (fuselage top jet engine) that would have provided such colorful air tanker liveries, is a mystery and a sad oversight. The oversight perpetuates, as -in spite of the availability of the kit and the high numbers sold- no aftermarket entrepreneur provides the resin or 3D-printed part that would allow such easy conversion, so I had to make my own. The only relative drawback of this kit is the antiquated, very visible raised panel lines (not on the cowls, though). As you will see in the building post, a set of metal landing gear legs and resin wheels are available from aftermarket vendors. Draw decals offers a sheet that covers three Hemet Valley air tankers, but detail on the airframes varied, so you may have to do a few mods. Italeri's C-119 is not a modern kit, and it needs some work, but it is fairly doable. It turns out into a big model, even in 1/72nd, and besides the air tankers that fight wildfires there other civil variants, plus movie props; two of those that I enjoyed are from "Always" and "The Flight of the Phoenix" (second, re-make movie), but there are a few more. I took a path of relatively less resistance, but I would have liked to build N383S "Stolmaster" (with two jet pods under the wings) or Comutair's plane (no jet but big radome), or the strikingly colorful N48076. I even made a master for, and vacuformed, the nose radome for the two former, so perhaps in the future. This is one of those kits you see and want to build, and when I finally gained a little more experience (after decades) I committed, if in a simple, (jet pod notwithstanding) almost out of the box manner. An aftermarket metal landing gear set was used to alleviate the burden of the weight of the model, as well as the Draw Decals set for it. Home-made lights were used. All doors were left opened to have a glimpse at the kit's interior. I wasn't able to find a photo of the retardant equipment on the plane, if I ever get one, I will slide it in on a thin platform from the back. 

(the step-by-step building article can be found here:

 https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/04/fairchild-c-119-steward-davis-jetpack.html