K'nex C-130 Hercules

Make no mistake, the American C-130 is a proud favorite used by the U.S. military and allies alike. Its special design allows it to carry payloads of over 20 tons, and be easily modified for a variety of important missions, both hostile and peaceful. Despite being originally introduced in 1951, this magnificent plane still flies today, offering great reliability in many fields, such as supply delivery to remote locations, firefighting, recognizance, hurricane tracking, transportation, and more. To learn more about the C-130 and its many variants, visit https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/1555054/c-130-hercules/.

This is a close-to-scale design has a large cargo bay, and a locking cargo door. Its length is about 30 inches, and width is a little over 40. Its weight totaled to around 4.6 pounds.

This plane requires over 1,390 pieces, and even more if you make your own changes. The white plates that are in the bay can easily be replaced by a simple square, shown above. Here is what you'll need:

Rods:

• Green: 343
• White: 266
• Blue: 44
• Yellow: 43
• Orange Flex rod: 2
• Red: 6
• Black (or gray): 4

Connectors:

• Purple (or gray 1-way): 15
• Light Gray (2-way): 6
• Orange: 66
• Red: 39
• Green: 98
• Yellow: 87
• Gray Slider: 71
• Blue: 50
• White: 60

Misc.

• Blue spacer: 119
• Gray Spacer: 30
• Ball joint: 2
• Y-clip: 13
• Silver clip: 6
• Small wheel w/ tire: 6
• White panel (or sub): 3
• Black cap: 14

One White Panel Sub:

Green rods: 8

White Rods: 4

White connectors: 5

There's a good chance I missed a few pieces, so I'd add a small handful to the pieces that require larger quantities.

This is just a quick section of tips and info. If you want to skip, go ahead.

We will be building the plane in sections; base, top, head, tail, wheels, wings, and engines and tanks. Before you add the wings, the plane might lean back. That's okay, the wings will balance it out. If you still are having issues, you can add small tires to the front of the cargo bay to add nose weight.

Start by building the frame of the base, then adding the panels. add the small extension to the rear of the frame. Then add blue rods to all the gray sliding connectors. Add each of the pieces shown in the order they are shown in, separating each part with 2 blue spacers. I apologize for the poor picture quality. Once all the pieces are on and the model looks like the final picture, you may set it aside in a safe place where it will not fall or be messed up. It is very fragile so far.

Once this is added, it'll be safer to move around more. the order for the blue connectors and where to put the "not-all-green" arcs might be a little tricky, but the spacing is the same on every section. Use the photo of the complete top to reference where the special pieces go. Once the top is finished, add the small red connector to the front as shown, then add it to the body. Please note two things: 1. do not put a white connector at the back. You will do that later. If you do, thought, it's no big deal. And 2. make sure that everything lines up. The red connector should be over the part with the cross piece and two purple connectors, and the piece with the missing white rod should be over the back where the small extension is.

This pat can be tricky, so b careful to check your work. First, build the top of the head as shown. The only yellow connector should not be completely attached to anything. Check closely to make sure what you have matches the photos. If it does, then you can set it aside. Then build the space-filling piece and set it aside.

Next, work on the bottom to the head. Attach one piece at a time. The section on the bottom layer should connect to the blue slider pieces in front of the nose. Separate each section with two blue spacers. Then build the green arc piece shown in in the picture. Use two purple or gray one-way pieces to add to the center of the green arcs. Add that part as shown. Build and attach the red and blue piece as shown. Build one more arch and connect it to the top of the blue rods as shown.

With the pieces of the head complete, you may attach the pieces to one another using the orange connector between the white rod and the yellow one.

Then align the pieces with the body of the plane. First, attach the green and white piece as shown. Then attach the entire nose to the pieces it lines up with. This may be difficult, so take your time and do it slowly to avoid breaking anything.

First, create the top of the tail as shown. Then create the door lock piece on the red rod, and attach it to the bottom of the tail. Now that the blue rod should touch the red connector in front of it, but should still be able to slide over to the top of it. Once the lock is on and functional, build the sides to the tail and attach them as shown. Next, build the cargo bay door and attach it to the green connectors as shown. Test the door to make sure it aligns up with the lock and holds correctly. If it does not, inspect each part of it closely.

Next, you will build the horizontal stabilizers. Simply follow along with the diagram in the pictures and attach them to the tail as shown. Note that the Y-clips should not attach to anything, but simply hold on to the white rods.

Next, build the horizontal stabilizer. Build the template as shown. Then build the outline, using a ball joint and Y-clip at the front. Build the small piece in the next photo and attach it as shown. Then connect it to the Y-clip on the first template as shown. Your vertical stabilizer should look like the photo. If it does, then attach it to The top of the tail so the green rods connect to the inner corners of the gray sliding connectors and the white rods attach to the top of them.

Once the tail is complete, attach it to the rear of the plane. Every rod should align with an opening. Before you move on, however, build the small piece with the red rod and attach it so that the white rod that goes through the end attaches to the body (where the white rod was missing) and the Y-clip at the front attaches to the front of the stabilizer. Ensure everything is on correctly before you move on.

Note that the real C-130 has two bay doors, one on top and one on the bottom. Personally, I think this is more convenient.

Building the wheels isn't as difficult as adding them to the plane. First, build the small template on the first image. Then slide one wheel onto a white rod with a blue spacer on one side. Do this twice. Then attach them to the wheel frame as shown, with one white rod going though the hole in the red connector and the other through the front slow of the yellow one. Then build the green connector piece with the two blue spacers on the top of the section. Add them so that the green pieces are facing the same side that the wheels are on. Add green rods to the blue sliding connectors beneath them so that they are parallel to the ones on the ends of the green connectors above them.

Then build the front wheel, separating the two wheels on the rod with a single blue spacer. Attach them to the frame. Then build the small section with the yellow rod and the two green connectors.

Once every wheel piece is complete, you can add them to the plane. The back wheels should be facing inward on the plane. I prefer to have the yellow connector toward the front, but it's a matter of preference. The green rods should connect to the yellow connectors on the body.

To add the front wheel, attach the gray connectors to the lowest yellow ones in the opening behind the head of the plane. You may need to detach the tail or turn the model over and perch it up on something. They should be behind the yellow connectors. With the wheels connected, add the yellow rod with the two green connectors to the bottom between the gray connectors on the bottom. I can't describe this too well, so focus on the pictures to help. Slide the white rods through the holes with two blue spacers dividing the red and green connectors. Once all the wheels are on, put the wheels on the ground and check to make sure everything is connected.

As you can probably already see, the C-130 has no wing struts. Which means that the added weight from the wings will make it bend. So I did what I could to add supports. They may not keep it straight, but they sag to the ground completely without them.

To start, simply build the flat wing as shown. With the wing build, build and add the rod as shown in the picture to the underside of the plane. Then look closely at the different connection points for white rods on the wing. There are three total, which will be used to hold up the wing. Then build the model with the two gray connectors and yellow rod, and add it to the inner part of the wing, just between the two innermost yellow connectors.

With the wing build, you can now build and attach the wing supports. The longest goes on the front and connects at two points. The others connect at only one. The medium overlaps at the center of the longest one, and the two others go on top of one another on the trailing edge of the wing.

Once all the supports are added, connect a blue rod through the innermost orange connectors on the top, separated by two gray spacers, as shown.

Once this is done, you need to mirror it with the other wing. Anything you did so far, you do again but in the opposite direction. Once both wings are complete, connect them together with four white rods and add them to the body.

The main wing should connect to the top of the plane, and the supports should rest above it. Your wings may be bent a little still, but we will fix that in the final step.

I apologize for the poor quality in some of the photos. You should still be able to get the general layout though.

Follow the pictures to put together the engine and propeller. Build four engines and set them aside. Next you can build the fuel tanks. These aren't on all C-130s, so if you do not wish to add them you do not have to. Attach the engines and fuel tanks to the underside of the plane so that the tanks are in between the two propellers on either side. The engine should stick out a little for each one.

Note the rear green rod on the back of each engine should go near the front of the rear gray connector on each part of the wing. Then the two on top of the tanks go straight down in the middle.

With the engines and tanks added, the wings may sag a little more. To counter this, build the small parts with the blue and white rods and add them to each wing as shown. The white rod should go through the three yellow connectors with the blue spacer being on the inside between the inner yellow connector and orange connector. Attach the blue rod to the white connector on the body. You now have a C-130.

Congratulations. You now have a model of one of the most famous planes serving our country today. I know these weren't the best instructions, or quality. But I hope you had very few troubles while building.

If you have any requests for plane models, let me know in the comments.

This section also features bonus material I took while making this plane.