1/72 Williams Brothers C-46F

Gallery Article by Jim Court on July 30 2009

 

Here’s a few pics of a Williams Brothers 1:72 C-46F that I modified to an E model by the addition of a stepped windshield instead of the greenhouse cockpit. I built the model in the normal fashion, except I cut away the greenhouse windows, down to the bottom of lower window line. I glued a block of balsa wood in place, then whittled and sanded away everything that didn’t look like an E model nose. I cut away a slice equal to the height of the new windshield and removed it. The top of my block now became the cockpit roof and, with more sanding and shaping, the bottom part became the new nose. I added some scrap metal for windshield posts and two pieces each of 1/32 clear acrylic for the windshield panels and the cockpit sliding windows. I made a template for one cabin window, then used it to cut out the rest of the cabin window openings. 

Click on images below to see larger images

Other minor mods were dropping 20 degrees of flap and cutting away and repositioning  the flight controls. The engines are from Engines & Things and the decals are from Whiskey Jack. Their normal decals  for the Nordair C-46 are for CF-NAE, but when I explained what I wanted he threw in a set of registrations for FBJ. Of the 3000 or so C-46’s constructed, only 17 were E models.

FBJ was originally built for the Chiang Kai-shek government, but when the Communists took over the airplane was acquired by Slick Airways. It was imported into Canada where it flew for Dorval Air Transport and Maritime Central Airways before being acquired by Nordair. The airplane disappeared in June of 1966 while on a flight between Montreal and Kuujjuaq, in Northern Quebec. It is presumed to have come apart in the air while traversing a line of heavy thunderstorms. All that was found of it were a few seat cushions on the shore of a lake.  

Take care,

Jim Court

Photos and text © by Jim Court