Author Topic: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane  (Read 4463 times)

Offline kitnut617

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Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« on: June 08, 2019, 12:09:36 AM »
OK, I'll make this a place holder for the moment, got to finish the A310/A400 first.

I've been thinking about doing this for quite a while now, got the bits to do it too.

There's not much to go on other than this picture, so some of it will be guesswork. Unless someone has some more info on it, I'll build it like I see it here.

I have read that a water tank size model was tested --- not found any pics of that though  ----

The biggest challenge was to find some floats that were in scale with the 1/72 kit (Italeri) but a RC hobby shop came to the rescue there.

I got this catamaran speed boat which has similar hull shape to the floats.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 12:17:07 AM by kitnut617 »

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2019, 12:18:00 AM »
The idea is to cut the hulls off and modify them slightly

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2019, 01:10:26 AM »
Another thing I've read about it, is that the floats were to be removable, I can see how the front end is attached but the rear end is a bit of interpretation I think.

Offline elmayerle

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2019, 02:50:49 AM »
Another thing I've read about it, is that the floats were to be removable, I can see how the front end is attached but the rear end is a bit of interpretation I think.
It would take some careful design, but I'd suggest that removable floats would probably require the attachments pick up existing structure.  My thoughts would be to have the front struts pick up the nose landing gear trunnion while the aft struts pick up the trunnions for the main landing gear.  That would take the landing loads through existing load paths and not require a lot of new structural members and added weight.  It would take some work to emplace or remove the floats and struts, but it would be doable.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2019, 03:37:29 AM »
Another thing I've read about it, is that the floats were to be removable, I can see how the front end is attached but the rear end is a bit of interpretation I think.
It would take some careful design, but I'd suggest that removable floats would probably require the attachments pick up existing structure.  My thoughts would be to have the front struts pick up the nose landing gear trunnion while the aft struts pick up the trunnions for the main landing gear.  That would take the landing loads through existing load paths and not require a lot of new structural members and added weight.  It would take some work to emplace or remove the floats and struts, but it would be doable.

I think you're on the right path Evan, the connecting points would have to pick up what's there already ---

Offline finsrin

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2019, 04:24:43 AM »
Novel concept.  Hull sides look right.  Good luck with plastic surgery.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2019, 05:59:44 AM »
Thanks Bill --

Looking at the picture, it would seem to me that the top of the floats are the same height as the cargo floor. I'm thinking that at the rear end of the floats, the top edge could be close to the ramp top edges when its down in the horizontal position so that you'd have a continuous surface from one float to the other, giving a sort of docking area for lighters to come up to the aircraft. The picture doesn't really show an extension but I could always make it like that.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 06:01:54 AM by kitnut617 »

Offline Old Wombat

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #7 on: June 08, 2019, 09:25:45 AM »
Neat idea & it ain't a ship! :smiley: :smiley:
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Offline Jeffry Fontaine

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2019, 10:41:50 AM »
@Robert/Kitnut617 - if the catamaran hull does not work out there is another option in to consider.  Revell PT-109 (ELCO 80.0' hull) kit has a hull length of about 13.0" and width at the widest part of around 3.25" so it could be cut in half down the center to give you two hull sections leaving the rest of the work up to your imagination.  Also the ELCO hul is a lot deeper than the catamaran hull.   
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Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2019, 09:01:26 PM »
Thanks Guy,

Jeff, I will keep that in mind but what I've got I think will work. I intend to extend the inside side of the hulls after I cut them off the bridge section which will be discarded.

I'll hook the kit out of the stash later this week, I think I had drawn some pencil lines on the hull where I was planning the cut, I just need to refresh my memory where I had experimented with the parts.

Offline finsrin

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #10 on: June 10, 2019, 03:19:08 PM »
Looking at the picture, it would seem to me that the top of the floats are the same height as the cargo floor. I'm thinking that at the rear end of the floats, the top edge could be close to the ramp top edges when its down in the horizontal position so that you'd have a continuous surface from one float to the other, giving a sort of docking area for lighters to come up to the aircraft.

Good point.  Having ramp line up with top of floats is best for cargo handling.  Ramp able to go lower to water allows special forces boats to slide in as seen in CH-47 picttures.

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #11 on: June 10, 2019, 09:35:04 PM »
Looking at the picture, it would seem to me that the top of the floats are the same height as the cargo floor. I'm thinking that at the rear end of the floats, the top edge could be close to the ramp top edges when its down in the horizontal position so that you'd have a continuous surface from one float to the other, giving a sort of docking area for lighters to come up to the aircraft.

Good point.  Having ramp line up with top of floats is best for cargo handling.  Ramp able to go lower to water allows special forces boats to slide in as seen in CH-47 picttures.

Yup! that's my thinking too Bill  :smiley:

After Evan's comment about the float attachment points picking up on the main structure points the u/c are fixed to, I've been doing a search for photos of how the u/c is attached to the aircraft. Well, the system that the C-130 has looks fairly straight forward and not too complicated, I think they could be mounted the same way in the floats. I wonder if that's why they picked the type of float, the flat inside face of the float just screams that's where the u/c would've been installed if they went amphibious ---

While looking at photos of the u/c on C-130's, I realized that the main nose gear door opens rearwards in the manner I want the nose door to work on my A310/A400 airliner. I think I'll use the doors arm parts from the C-130 for that as I had been trying to come up with something to do exactly the same thing.  Now, I'm off to find the C-130 kit and other parts.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2019, 09:59:53 PM by kitnut617 »

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #12 on: June 11, 2019, 12:05:16 AM »
Found all the bits & kits to do this --- and looking in the kit box, I found the floats there and it seems I've already separated the outer hulls from the bridge part (top pic). Also in the kit box was a set of Jennifer Wright C-130J replacement nacelles, spinners and blades (2nd pic). I bought these ages ago and forgot about them. And it looks like I got hold of a large PE fret from Flightpath and their -30 fuselage plug conversion (3rd & 4th pics)

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #13 on: June 11, 2019, 12:13:43 AM »
And this is the kit I'll use, the Testors boxing of the Italeri C-130J.  I found another set of wings in the box, I then I remembered I had got these from Airfix, in error --- I had asked for some replacement wings for their boxing of the Italeri B-17G kit because the ones in that kit were so badly warped they just fell to pieces when I tried to twist them back into shape, they sent me these C-130 ones (and they didn't want them back --  ;) )
Bottom pic is the float I thought I had drawn a line on to represent where I would trim the top down too. As I get into this I'll see if what I had done is correct. you can see it's quite close to the right size to the Lockheed picture I posted earlier.

Priority at the moment though is to finish my other build --- so I don't want to get to distracted from it.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2021, 09:46:38 PM by kitnut617 »

Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #14 on: September 14, 2019, 04:22:18 AM »
This ended up as non-starter I'm afraid, too many things I had to catch up on after my surgery. Can the thread be moved to the 'Aircraft-Physical' board please.

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #15 on: September 14, 2019, 04:49:54 AM »
This ended up as non-starter I'm afraid, too many things I had to catch up on after my surgery. Can the thread be moved to the 'Aircraft-Physical' board please.

There or the 2019 Clear your workbench GB?
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Offline kitnut617

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #16 on: September 14, 2019, 08:34:56 AM »
This ended up as non-starter I'm afraid, too many things I had to catch up on after my surgery. Can the thread be moved to the 'Aircraft-Physical' board please.

There or the 2019 Clear your workbench GB?

Having looked at what I have to do to it, I don't think I'll even get it done this year. So in the Physical board please. But I've a few others which probably will get done for the clear your workbench.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: Lockheed C-130J-30 Float Plane
« Reply #17 on: September 14, 2019, 09:15:19 AM »
Got you covered, Robert.

I hope your recovery is going well and I look forward to seeing this one when you get back to it.

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