Hi All,
Well I haven't posted a build for a while so I thought I'd share this project that I am starting.
Firstly, a little bit of history.
The ATL-98 (Aviation Traders Limited) Carvair, was a conversion in which a new nose was grafted onto the fuselage of a C-54 Skymaster. The purpose was to elevate the cockpit above the fuselage level and allow cars to be driven into the fuselage.
Already, the car ferry operation had been carried out by the Bristol Superfreighter 170 Mk.32, which could accommodate 3 cars and up to 20 passengers. The new Carvair aircraft could accommodate 5 cars and 22 passengers, but had the ability to be reconfigured to carry mixed freight/cars and up to 55 passengers so making a better more useful airframe.
The initial design was the brainchild of Freddie Laker, who drew a rough drawing of what the aircraft would look like on a cigarette packet. From there he formed the Aviation Traders Limited, and began buying war surplus C-54 airframes with the view to converting them into Carvair's by adding a new bulbous nose and a strengthened floors. As a result of the floor the nose undercarriage had to be re-configured.
To model a Carvair in 1/144th I could have bought the Roden kit, but having seen some builds, there seems to be an issue with the cockpit area.
So I decided to kit bash a Minicraft C-54 Skymaster and Braz Carvair fuselage conversion. The conversion parts are a bit clunky, but after refinement I think will be okay. In addition I purchased some new decals for BAF (British Air Ferries) in a nice pale blue and pale brown livery.
I intend to display the model 'loading' a car into the nose, and this means I will have to scratch build a 'Hylo' scissor lift. This was made by ATEL (Aviation Traders Engineering Limited) and was created purposely for Carvair operations, later variants would be sold to other airline operators such a Flying Tiger Airlines using Canadair CL-44 swing tail freighters.
A layout of the parts and decals follow, for your information.
Next post will see the build underway.
Thanks,
Bigkev