
Fairchild AC-119K

The
Fairchild C-119 history goes back to army requirement for a freight
carrier with a large cargo hold with ground level loading capability.
Fairchild's answer to that requirement was their model 78. Initially it
was requested that this aircraft be of wood construction and after a
year was spent on the design and drawings the army ordered Fairchild to
redo the drawings for an all metal aircraft. The army designation was
the C-82 in service and was given the name "Packet". The XC-82 first
flew in September of 1944. The XC-82 was deployed to Saipan in 1944 as
part of the test program. An initial order for 100 C-82A's with
deliveries to begin in 1945. A second contract for 100 more issued and a
second manufacturer was to produce the C-82. A new production line was
established at the North American plant in Dallas and a contract for 782
C-82N's was issued. Only three of these had been completed when the
contract was terminated on VJ day. The C-82 entered service in May of
1945 and the production run of 223 aircraft was completed in September
of 1948. The twin-boomed, high wing, podded fuselage aircraft had
a fuselage capable of handling a variety of standard military vehicles.
The aircraft was powered by a pair of Pratt and Whitney R2800 engines
driving Hamilton standard three-bladed propellers. The crew consisted of
a pilot, copilot, navigator, radio operator and crew chief. It was
capable of carrying up to 42 paratroopers or 34 litter patients.
In 1947 an XC-82A was modified to lower the flight deck and move it
forward, delete the ventral fins and install more powerful R-4360
engines of 2,650 hp. Addition windows were added to the nose to enhance
drop zone visibility. thus modified the air frame was re designated the
C-119A and made its first flight in December of 1947. The Air Force
ordered 55 of them in 1948-49, designated C-119B models. The booms were
weak in the B model, so they added dorsal fins, reworked the horizontal
and vertical stabilizers.
The
next model was the C model of which the most C-119s were built in 1950
through 1952. These had P&W 4360s, with Hamilton Standard props,
most reversible, some not. Many of the last ones built as C models, were
modified in the field as F models. This consisted of dual nose wheel
tire to replace the old single one that shimmied very badly, ventral
fins under the tail, and some other minor internal modifications.
About this time, General Le May
decreed that all SAC reciprocating engines should be the same, and he
chose the R-4360, which was then on most of the SAC aircraft. So the
rest of the F models then on the assembly line and the G models that
were built in 1953 - The 53-32xx and 53-78xx numbered aircraft all were
fitted with Wright 3350s and Aeroproducts 4-bladed props. All remaining
C-119s were eventually modified to be G models. The Aeroproducts props
had a deadly fault. They were prone to over speed.
When the need arose in Vietnam
for a 3rd gun ship, 56 C-119s were pulled out of mothballs in Tucson in
1968 and converted to AC-119G and AC-119K models, they still had 3350s,
and Aeroproducts 4-bladed props, and went to Vietnam and were flown with
those props until there were several runaway over speeds, that caused
the loss of one Shadow and one Stinger. The Shadows had to keep the
Aeroproducts propellers because they did not have the extra help of the
two jet engines carried by the Stingers, however the Air Force converted
the AC-K Stingers to Hamilton Standard 3-bladed props that gave less
thrust, but were not prone to over speed and runaway with the engine.
My interest in the AC-119 comes from my service with the 317 Field
Maintenance Squadron at Lockbourne Air Force Base near Columbus, Ohio
from late 1968 through early 1970. During this time crew training was
being performed on the base for the crews that would be taking these
aircraft into battle. While I never had the chance to get any hands on
work on these aircraft I could hear them many nights as they droned
around over the base practicing their pylon turns and learning how to
use the equipment that located targets.
The
Kit

The
Italeri AC-119K comes in a fairly large sized two
part top open box with an in your face artwork of
the subject model. Inside the box there are five
sprues molded in black and not bagged and one bag
with the clear parts. A fair number of parts were
off the sprues. The kit came from an eBay dealer and
was shrink wrapped but it may have been opened and
resealed at some point so I don't know for certain
it came from the manufacturer that way. Fortunately
it appears that all parts were present and no parts
suffered anything worse than some minor scuffing.
The kit has been around a while and has raised panel
lines. These are actually quite well done, very fine
and uniform but may prove problematic trying to
restore ones that are lost during assembly. The
parts are crisply molded and have a minimal amount
of flash on them. I did not find any sink marks or
other surface blemishes on any of the airframe
parts. There are a fair number of ejector pin marks
that will be troublesome if you find them
unacceptable. They are present on the gear doors
along with otherwise nice structure detail and roof
of the gear bays, which also features structural
detail. They also mar numerous parts of the interior
detail as well and are on the landing gear struts
and one side of the tires. The control surfaces are
all fixed.
The kit includes a rather extensive level of detail
for a 1/72 scale model. The insides of the fuselage
features structural detail in the cargo area and
molded on panel detail in the flight deck area,
albeit marred by several prominent ejector pin
marks. The flight deck includes the instrument panel
with raised instruments, center console, control
columns, seats for the pilots, navigator and radio
operator. These do not have belts or harnesses. The
bulkhead dividing the flight deck from the cargo
area is detailed appropriately on both sides with
the cargo side showing ejector pin marks. The cargo
area has both a floor and ceiling. The floor has all
of the weaponry for it. The rear clam shell doors
are very nicely detailed and even the small crew
doors have interior detail and ejector pin marks.
The wheels wells are boxed in and feature structure
detail. The engines have minimal detail but do
include both rows of cylinders but the cowlings are
very tight fitting and the engines can't be seen all
that well any way. The two jet pods feature only
intake and exhaust detail. The kit also includes
most of the important of prominent details that were
added externally when modifying it from a cargo
carrier to a gunship. One accuracy bugger with the
kit deals with the props. Although the K models were
originally equipped with four bladed props, these
were changed prior to seeing much service in Viet
Nam and the kit would more correctly represent an in
service aircraft with three bladed props and this in
indicated in the artwork on the box but the kit
supplies only the four bladed props. Altogether
the kit includes 135 parts by my count molded in
black. See photos below.





The clear parts are a bit thick but nice and clear
and should look great when coated with Future. The
smaller cargo area windows have a bit of a bulls eye
effect in them but they are small enough that it
shouldn't be all that noticeable. altogether there
are 37 clear parts for a kit total of 172 parts. See
photo below.

The decal sheet is rather small as the marking on
these aircraft were minimal. There are decals for
two different aircraft with their attendant artwork.
No stencil detail is included. The decals are thin
and in register. See photo below.
The instructions are
printed on a long folded sheet that consists of ten panels. The
first panel hs a brief history in multiple languages, the second
panel has basic kit instructions in multiple languages and
multilingual forms for ordering replacement parts, the third panel
has a parts map, the forth panel has a color list calling out Model
Master paint numbers and starts the assembly diagrams, panels five
through seven are the balance of the assembly instructions, panels
eight and nine are painting and marking diagrams and the tenth panel
has multilingual safety warnings.
After
Market Goodies
At
one time Cutting Edge had a mask set for the kit but with their
demise finding it would mostly likely require luck on eBay. The
good news is that AOA Decals recently released a set for this
kit that is just what the doctor ordered. Printed by Cartograph,
one of the best decal printers in the world The set includes
markings for a whopping 14 aircraft, 8 of them G model Shadows
and 6 of them K model Stingers. The instructions are printed in
color on six 5 1/2" by 8 1/2" sheets, glossy in finish. One side
of one sheet has a list of some of the more obvious changes that
need to be made to the kit to make it more accurate. One sheet
has the stencil placement printed on both sides. The sheets
include painting instructions. Two of the aircraft have VNAF
markings as some of the aircraft were turned over to them. The
decals have a glossy finish are in perfect register and almost
all of the stencil information is readable under magnification.
An excellent set and very much needed as the kit decals are
pretty poor.
Conclusions
This is actually a fairly
nice kit in spite of is age. I suspect the fit is not quite up
to current standards but nothing that can't be dealt with but
one will need to exercise care when filling and sanding not
damage any more of the raised detail than necessary. My
biggest gripe if you haven't already figured it out is the
large number of ejector pin marks that need to be dealt with.
Other than that I don't see any major stumbling blocks that
would prevent most modelers with some experience from doing
justice to the kit.
Links to kit builds or reviews
Here
is a nice build of the standard C-119 which is basically the
same model and another in box review can be found here.
References
"Fairchild C-82 Packet and
C-119 Flying Boxcar" by Alwyn T. Lloyd
Two internet
resources, the first on the C-119 in general located here and one dealing with the
AC-119 located here.
Updated 8/8/18