Air Station Barbers Point and it's "HERCULES," the C-130J.

The US Coast Guard acquired it's first C-130 in 1959 and still maintains a fleet of 28 aircraft today. These multi engine aircraft are flown out of Clearwater Florida, Kodiak Alaska and Barber's Point Hawaii, utilized as long range patrol aircraft in the Pacific and on the International Iceberg Patrol in the Atlantic ocean. The current Hercules flown by the Service is the C-130J version, updated with state of the art sensors, communications and engines.

The Model: I always wanted to build a large USCG C-130 (I've built a few in 1/72 scale) so it was a matter of time when a 1/48 version became available. The plane started as an Italeri USAF kit decaled for the Maryland ANG. It's a nice kit, good detail, goes together with minimal difficulty and BIG! With a plane this large I decided it would better to have it in a diorama setting as handling and moving this plane by the wings might cause my old mitts to break off a prop or other detail. I also needed a place to hide the batteries for the interior lights. A runway setting would be the easy way out so a piece of pink insulation foam with a little concrete paint became the base. Then it looked kind of empty so I added the "cargo" of a RHI boat on trailer and a CG pick up truck to give some visual appeal to the display. I repainted the Ford truck, RHI, and scratch built the boat trailer. In my "stash" I found a tow tractor fire fighting vehicle and added it the scene. The lights are simple LED's, the model is so large it was an easy installation. The plane was rattle can sprayed with Tamiya white paint but the red/orange panels and gray walkways were air brushed, no decals! I actually saw a C-130 at an Air Station take flight using JATO bottles assist. The noise was incredible but it sure was impressive.

9 additional images. Click to enlarge.