Spooky!

So, I've added a new model to my 'Nam range. Its a bit unconventional and not at all official, however I hope someday it will be! In US military terms its called an AC-47, but it was more commonly known as either "Spooky" or "Puff" (the Magic Dragon). It was a standard C-47 equipped with three fixed 7.62mm miniguns mounted pointing out of three windows on the pilot's side of the aircraft. The Spooky would circle over the target and the pilot would let loose with up to 21,000 rounds, aimed through an old fighter sight. A good pilot could place a round in every square foot of a football field sized target in a three-second burst.



Some good sites to visit for more information:
http://vietnamwarflight.com/aircraft/spooky.shtml
http://spooky47.com/spooky1.html
http://www.douglasdc3.com/spooky/spooky.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_AC-47_Spooky

There are also a couple of cool videos on YouTube:

AC-47s are pretty cool and with my Vietnam army taking shape I wanted to include one. I had an old 1/144 scale C-47 kit and decided that it would take very little modification to transform it from the old WWII cargo plane to the Vietnam gunship.

The next thing to do was to cut open three of the windows. Some AC-47s had miniguns in two windows and the third pointing out of the cargo door. I didn't have confidence that I could cut open the door, so I went for the three-window version.

I used the barrels of three spare MG42s, cut at the base for the three General Electric 7.62mm miniguns.

I secured all three miniguns with green stuff and superglue.

All three miniguns are fixed in place.

After assembly, I compared it to my WIP Stuka. Man, those transport planes were big!

All finished! For the Vietnam aircraft colors, I used Vallejo's Reflective Green (890), US Dark Green (893), and US Tan Earth (874).