1/72 C-130 Air Drop Diorama Johan Brutus & Maj Muzaffar

A little bit history of that diorama It was idea co-created by the co-project maker Major Muzaffar of the 10th Para Brigade about 3 years back. The diorama was requested by the General of the Brigade. Since it was huge project, it took about 8 months to complete with the help of his men (they kind made the platform and placed the necessary ground work) Major was new into modelling and said why not I supervise the idea, so I agreed.

Made the C130 from an Italeri C130J (at that time we couldn't find any H around) with the props taken from a AMT/ERTL AC 130U Gunship. Those parachutes were really made out of REAL parachute using thin wires (they were shaped by him) The loads (Containers being dropped were from wooden blocks) painted and made realisticly by colors plus tapes painted on. The scenery was actually a shot from Gong Kedak drop Zone in Kelantan, Malaysia. Hidden in the trees are members of the Path Finder units that preceeded this air drop sortie. Note the Air Marker that would usually be set up by these Path Finder units.

The difficult part was to make it 'Fly' and being 'Dropped'....these were tied/placed using fishing lines. The diorama had travel to many exhibition prior to its final destination in the Royal Army Musuem in Port Dickson, during its 'tour' many times the fishing line broke..again and again it had to be tied back. Tedious work I must say. Problem was the tilt or the nose up of the aircraft had to be realistic (luckly had some knowledge on it) and maintain a 3.5 degree pitch...so simply tying it back wasn't the trick. Then after being placed at the musuem, I can finally not worry. Next year, I guess not as it was a time consuming project with huge effort. Anyway, it was 3 years ago that this diorama was built...Never again!! Click On above images for larger image