1/48 Monogram C-47 Mini Whiskey 7 Commission build

[keyda81]

I've had several people try to commission me for different things, and most people just take no for an answer. Well there is a fellow volunteer at the museum that would not stop hounding me to build him a Mini Whiskey 7. I finally caved, and said I would do it. Gave me a hundred bucks to procure a kit. Which I did, back in the spring. Finally got started on it a few days ago. It is not going to look like Whiskey 7 on the inside. The guy I'm building it for didn't care what the inside looked like, and this one will have no frills, no scratch built gust locks, pitot tube cover, or chocks, no PE, no metal gear. It's already getting to me that I have to skip over doing things I would normally do. Like filling in injector pin holes on everything in the interior. I landed up just gluing everything together, throwing a coat of paint on it, a little bit of detail painting, and that was it. Not at all how I would normally do the inside of a war bird.

Coat of interior green on everything inside.


Bit of detail painting, wings and center section glued together.


Hacking up the fuselage making the little windows Whiskey 7 has.


Fuselage closed up, glad I can't see the inside anymore.


This will be the first, and only commission I ever do. Skipping out on all the details of Whiskey 7 is just being disrespectful to her. Might sound weird, but usually when building particular subjects I will think about the men that served on those birds, and this is my way of honoring them, gets me take to my time, and do things better. So don't judge my abilities on this one,

[Medicman71]

Very nice! If it makes you feel any better, I think the inside looks great!

[Stikpusher]

Nice start so far. Sometimes it is refreshing to do a less intricate project.

[LyleW]

No doubt it will be A-OK, just without the bling. I really like your approach in honoring the men / women wo served with these a/c. We should always honor them!

[keyda81]

Medicman, Thanks, it's just very minimal compared to what I usually do when building a Mini Whiskey 7. Her interior is far different from the normal war time C-47. She doesn't have the pan seats, and all the radios are long gone. I'll make myself feel better when I build one with LED's and spinning props, I'll go all out on that one, lol.

Stik, it was kind of nice not having to fill injector pin holes, but still bugged the crap out of me, lol.

Lyle, I do have a love/hate relationship with PE, and kind of glad I don't have to mess with it on this one. I agree, those men and women made a lot of sacrifices, and that should not be forgotten. Thinking of them certainly helps me to do better builds.

[scorpiomikey]

Is this the Italeri 72nd kit?
Im using this kit to make NZ3551 RNZAF royal transport.

[keyda81]

Nope, Monogram's old 1/48 kit.

[scorpiomikey]

Read the title dummy
Looks great. It really does look like an upscaled (or italeri kit is downscaled) version of the italeri kit.

[Stuart]

Yeah, I can believe commission builds aren't a lot of fun, I know I'd never do one.

Great start though, I bet that's a big beast in 1/48, the 1/72 Airfix kit I've got in the stash is big enough.

[keyda81]

scorpionmikey, it happens, lol. I have yet to build that Italeri kit, but have one in the stash. The plan(at some point)is to build it along with a 1/72 C-130J and do an "in flight" type of thing. Attempting to recreate the photo down below in a way. But instead of painting Whiskey 7 as she is today, I would do what she would of looked like on D-Day.



The current Hercs flown with the 37th Airlift Squadron(lineage to the 37th Troop Carrier Squadron which Whiskey flew with on D-Day)are sporting WW2 markings, carrying the W7 Squadron code, and invasion stripes.



Stuart, I do wish I hadn't caved in and decided to do it. He just wouldn't take no for an answer. This will be the 3rd old Monogram kit I've done, and yes it is a bit large. I will certainly be bumping wing tips, and the tail into everything around my bench.