[Helo 53]

I gave Trojan Thunder's idea a go and cut a piece of plastic roughly the size I needed for an APU unit for the Starfix fuselage ;
I used some evergreen plastic strip 6.3mm x 1.5mm and used about six pieces laminated together ;



Hopfully will look something like the real thing ;



It looks reasonably close ;



The Starfix fuselage isn't as rounded as the Lindberg kit as it meets the rotor housing section so it is a liitle difficult trying to get it looking like the reference pic's ;





I drilled a small hole in the rear for the exhaust but the white plastic tends to get washed out a little with the digital camera ;



Perhaps I'll give the APU unit a couple of coats of paint and take another pic and see how it looks then .

John .

[rotorwash]

Looks like you are on the right track now, John. I like the laminated plastic idea.
Ray

[arkhunter2002]

Helo 53, on 22 January 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

I drilled a small hole in the rear for the exhaust but the white plastic tends to get washed out a little with the digital camera ;

Looks good! With the APU, you can always give it a very subtle black wash. It will pick up in the pictures...

[Helo 53]

Making steady progress on the CH-3E "Crazy Legs" builds .
The trumpeter rivet maker seems to work okay on the smooth Starfix fuselage ;



Next I glued the cockpit and cabin seats in place on both builds ,



Close up of the masking tape and plastic strip seat backs and UH-1D huey seat bases ;



The APU unit on the Starfix build looks quite different to the Lindberg molded version ;



You can see how different the shape of the upper fuselage and rotor housing are on each kit , which made it a little difficult to get the APU unit to look correct .

Anyway I'll glue the fuselage halves together next and then make another pair of fixed landing gear struts for the Starfix build .

John .

[rotorwash]

John,
Great progress. I love the scratchbuilt APU and the rivits. I need to take pics of my UH-1B build and get them up. I might actually finish a build before Easter!
Ray

[Amen]

Wow wonderfull progress with the Alaskan chopper

[Loach Driver]

John, you are doing a great job on your HH-3E. It's great to see a basic kit getting the treatment. Too many people overlook these types of kits and they miss out on the chance to build something really interesting.

rotorwash, on 25 January 2012 - 11:58 PM, said:

I need to take pics of my UH-1B build and get them up. I might actually finish a build before Easter!
Ray

Yea, Ray, you DO need to get your Huey up. I am looking forward to another one of your great Huey builds.

LD.

[Helo 53]

Hi everyone ,
My progress has been quite slow this past week and all I have managed to do is glue the fuselage halves together , so It's not much of an update ;



I'm hopping to get a lot more done this weekend .

John .

[Aaronw]

Get back to work


It is nice to see the two kits side by side. Obviously both have their issues, but also some advantages over the other.

[Helo 53]

Aaronw, on 21 February 2012 - 10:20 PM, said:

Get back to work


It is nice to see the two kits side by side. Obviously both have their issues, but also some advantages over the other.

I must confess to some "slacking-off" while the Boss has been absent these past couple of weeks .
However I'm back on the job and started sanding the putty...



Nice to have you back Boss ...

John

[Helo 53]

Well it's been a while since my last update and I finally have Crazy Legs up on her feet ;



The canopy is glued in place and surprisingly the gap under the front canopy where it meets the fuselage nose section is a lot smaller than previous Lindberg HH-3E builds , so I just filled it with some Micro Kristal Klear .



She is now ready for masking and then onto painting ....at last !

John .

[Trojan Thunder]

Progress is great John, glad the laminating trick worked for the APU housing. I have a couple of Revell and LIndberg kits to build. I think I will be using your thread as a nice reference

[rotorwash]

Nice work, John!
Ray (the other one)

[Aaronw]

Looking good even if weird. H-3s always look a bit odd to me without pontoons, but it looks like the right odd.