Minicraft Conversion in 1/72 scale
XC-47C Dakota

by Fred Shassberger

Minicraft's 1/144 scale C-47 is available online from Squadron.com

Fred Shassberger is a member of the West Michigan Chapter of IPMS and a member of IPMSUSA. In addition, Fred is the owner/operator of Creations Unlimited Hobby Products, and the inventor of the “Touch-N-Flow” liquid cement applicator and the “Flex-I-File.

Fred is a gifted plastic modeler with diverse tastes in modeling. Recently Fred completed a unique aircraft model.

The base kit was the 1/144th scale C-47 by MiniCraft. The landing gear was not used and the wheel wells were filled in. Areoclub plastic floats were installed. Fred also scratch-built the float struts.

The nose-mounted pitot tubes are stainless steel tubing, bent 90 degrees and cemented in place. The wheels are from the spares box, with the struts being scratch-build from brass rod. The four cleats mounted on the floats were also scratch-built using brass by Fred. The ladders were scratch-building using plastic and brass.

The antenna is invisible thread (Fred noted that he never uses stretched sprue for this application).

The national marking decals were taken from the spare box, and the tail numbers were custom made by Fred using railroad rub-on letters and clear decal film.

Paints used were Humbrol and ModelMaster.

Where did his inspiration come from to complete this project? Only Fred knows and he is not talking.

The display base is a simulated concrete runway with a sloped approach to the water. Along each side of the concrete model railroad materials were used to represent the landscape.

The aircraft was completed in about 75 hours and the base in 6 hours.

 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2007 by Fred Shassberger
Page Created 09 October, 2007
Last Updated 24 December, 2007

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