VNAF Psychological
Warfare
I have always wanted
to do a U-17 Skywagon (Cessna 185) in 1/48th scale but I could not find it any
where. Therefore I had to settle with this 1/41st scale kit of the Cessna 180.
I know there would be a lot of modifications to make it look like a (U-17) Cessna
185.
Right off the bat, I
can see the leading edge that leads to the vertical stabilizer is thicker, so I scratch-built some styrene sheets to accommodate this. The under
cowling is different, so I had to modify this as well. The kit did not
come with the tail light, so I had to scratch-build this as well... And yes,
the second and third windows in the back, this was painful! This kit is
made by Monogram many, many years ago… it is old and very fragile.
I had to drill tiny holes to the shape of the windows, punch out and lots of
sanding…
Since this is a
psychological warfare airplane, a speaker and a leaflet box were added to the
U-17. I had to scratch-built these from styrene sheets. The black
horizontal bar on top of the cockpit was made from a paper clip, steps were made
from pins and antennas were made from bristles of a paint brush. All
decals, serial numbers were home-made.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I have
included a picture of the real plane for reference.
Thanks for looking
at my VNAF U-17. This particular plane belonged to the 110th Observation
Squadron of the South Vietnamese Air Force. I hope you enjoy it...
Danny Dinh
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