[rotorwash]

OK, I'm finally ready to plunge into this build. I've made some progress but need to shoot photos. I'll be building the international orange bird on the top right. My initial plan was a basic OOB build, but I can't help correcting or at least enhancing a few bits and pieces. I'll post progress pics soon.
Ray

This post has been edited by rotorwash: 27 January 2012 - 04:00 AM

[Helo 53]

Great Stuff Ray .
Looking forward to the WIP pic's .

John .

[rotorwash]

 Helo 53, on 27 January 2012 - 04:28 AM, said:

Great Stuff Ray .
Looking forward to the WIP pic's .

John .

John,
Thanks. I just shot a few to show what I've been working on. I added B pillars behind the cockpit doors with sheet styrene. I'll put a first aid kit on them later. I robbed the unarmored seats from a Italeri/Esci UH-1D/H kit. I'd recommend picking those kits up anytime you can get them as there are a lot of useful parts. I also used the ceiling from the Esci kit as the Italeri roof is bare. Finally I robbed the rear troop seat from the Esci kit as well and modified it a bit to look more like an Army B model rear seat. I put sheet styrene on the backs of the seats and I still need to add seatbelts, but you get the idea. I am also going to add cargo to the cabin. If anyone has pics of 50 gal drums in a Huey I'd like to see them. I'm just curious how they would be tied down. I tried to add a bit of subtle weathering to the cabin floor. Obviously the last pic of the cabin and cockpit is very much a WIP. Thanks for looking.
Ray

This post has been edited by rotorwash: 27 January 2012 - 05:23 AM

[Helo 53]

Great start Ray .
I like the B pillars behind the cockpit seats and the extra ceiling piece . That's a good tip about buying the Esci kit for spare parts . I have been doing something similar (great minds think a like) with the Revell UH-1D kits ; using the unarmored seats in Italeri and Hobby Boss on-going Huey builds . The cyclic and control sticks for other helicopter kits , the UH-1D rotors for UH-1F builds and I like those stretchers that Revell supply in their Huey kit , great for other helicopter builds as well .
Anyway nice work so far on the cabin , The folded seat and stowage box look great and I like the idea of the 50gal drum .

John .

[Eastern]

Though it's not my scale but I love Huey whatever the scale it is.
Good luck with your build, Ray.
I'll be following with interest.

Cheers and happy modeling!
Alexander

[rotorwash]

Thanks John and Alexander. John, you need to post your other Huey builds in the helicopter forum. I never get tired of seeing you add to your fleet. Alexander, I like 72nd scale because it doesn't make me feel so bad that I'm nowhere near as good as folks like you and Oliver and Everett. Just a few bits of styrene here and there and most 72nd kits look pretty good. Thanks for stopping by. I hope to have more pics by the end of the weekend.
Ray

This post has been edited by rotorwash: 27 January 2012 - 01:36 PM

[Loach Driver]

Hi Ray. It's great to see you coming aboard with your Huey. This build will be my main reference for when I tackle this same helicopter at some point in the future. Keep the photos coming thick and fast. Thanks.

LD.

[arkhunter2002]

Lookin good Ray! I can't believe that you don't have an obscure huey reference picture though...

[rotorwash]

LD and Austin,
Thanks for the compliments. Time for another update.
Ray

First off, I added first aid kits to the B pillars:



I assembled the doghouse and engine cowlings before joining the fuselage. The wimpy Italeri bits that formed the top of the air inlet for the doghouse had to go. I replaced them with a piece of sprue and sanded it down a bit. The exhaust is painted using a custom blend of colors so secret I can't even remember what I did! Now I have to keep it from getting painted during the rest of the build.



The seats got deceleration reels made from pieces of round styrene. Not fancy but at 6 inches away it looks OK. The seatbelts are painted Tamiya tape. Once again not fancy but better than nothing.



The cyclics were painted black and then tiny white dots followed by red create the illusion of buttons. The seatbelts were just wrapped under the edges of the seats since they won't be visible when she's buttoned up:



Finally, here area few of the finished cockpit. I made tie downs for the box from the same painted Tamiya tape. The drum got surgical wire tie downs. I drilled holes in two of the tie down points and pulled it though and superglued the ends to tighten the tie downs. for the record I have no idea if they ever carried 50 gal drums this way or not and I have no idea what might be inside this one. I'd think liquid would mess up the helos' CG so who knows, maybe it's how they carried their dirty laundry! Anyway, I'm ready to close her up next. Wish me luck as fuselage seams are a major weakness of mine.





Oh yeah, this is for you, Austin

[center]

This post has been edited by rotorwash: 01 February 2012 - 03:17 AM

[Helo 53]

The Huey interior looks really great Ray .
It's amazing how even some strips of masking tape representing seat belts can really spruce up the cockpit and as usual your painted instrument panel knobs and dials look terrific . Your roof insulation piece and roof consol has given me the idea of adding a strip of plastic between the tinted overhead windows on my CH-3E builds , particulary on the Starfix kit as it will help hide the fuselage join on the inside ...(thank's for the subliminal tip) .

John .

[bdt13]

Very good build so far. I'm especially impressed with the wood finish on the crate! I'm taking notes to improve my modeling.

[rotorwash]

THanks for the positive comments guys. I'm moving right along with this build. Practically throwing it together for me. For this build I decided to focus more on the helo exterior than in past builds. I began by fixing the area Italeri molded on the left side where the fuel filler is located on a Charlie model. This area should be smooth. First I filled the area with Mr. Surfacer 500 and then sanded it down smooth with the surrounding fuselage. I also decided to add a tiny hand hold that is visible on the left side of the real aircraft. I put a disc of styrene painted black behind it after I took the photo and it looks OK. Before and after pics below. Red arrow shows area I filled.





Next I painted the inside of the engine cowling with my version of chromate green. Nothing fancy as very little will be seen in the finished model.



Next I prepared to join the fuselage halves. First I filled the divot where the armament mounts would go (green arrows) Then I removed the molded oil cooler (red arrows) and replaced it with laminated sheet styrene sanded to shape. The underside of the Italeri short bodied Hueys are remarkably bare, but there is no way to add the hell hole in it's correct location as you would cut into he bottom of the cabin floor. Landing lights would be another detail that could be added. I intend for the model to be fixed to a base eventually, however, so I'm just trying to fix the things you could see without turning it over.







Finally, I started working on the rotor. The one aspect of the rotor that sells it to me as a UH-1B rotor is the prominent blade counterweights. No B kit in 1/72 has them so you gotta make em. I took a piece of round styrene and drilled holes in each end and inserted some craft wire I got at Hobby Lobby long ago. Then I cut the wire and the styrene to the correct lengths. I drilled holes for the counterweights (red arrows) on the sides of the blade gips and glued them in place. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.







I just finished gluing the roof on and placing the front windshield (I swear every Huey kit has poorly fitting windshields). Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll be painting. Thanks for looking
Ray

This post has been edited by rotorwash: 04 February 2012 - 05:25 AM

[Loach Driver]

Wow Ray, this Huey is really moving along at a rate of knots. You are definitely going to beat me on this build. Can you let us know in detail how you deal with the roof joint just in front of the air intake? I messed that up on a previous build so I'd love to see how to do it right. Thanks.

LD.

[arkhunter2002]

Looks good Ray! I like the fixes that you are doing to make it more accurate.

[Winnie]

Very nice build,

Your idea on the seatbelts work real well, and I might borrow that idea on some of my builds. As a matter of fact, the seatbelts are attached to the seat about where you have them anyways (the lap belts of course).

When we transport 55 US Gal drums, we have them upright like you show, and use two herk-straps to tie them downone over the top, and one looped once around and then to the aft to prevent it from moving forward.

I'm also going to use your idea with the yellow emergency exit around the front doors, nice touch.

Looking good!
Cheers
H.

[rotorwash]

 Winnie, on 05 February 2012 - 05:09 AM, said:

Very nice build,

Your idea on the seatbelts work real well, and I might borrow that idea on some of my builds. As a matter of fact, the seatbelts are attached to the seat about where you have them anyways (the lap belts of course).

When we transport 55 US Gal drums, we have them upright like you show, and use two herk-straps to tie them downone over the top, and one looped once around and then to the aft to prevent it from moving forward.

I'm also going to use your idea with the yellow emergency exit around the front doors, nice touch.

Looking good!
Cheers
H.

Winnie,
Glad you like it. I just wish I had your info on the barrels a couple of days ago. At least I got the position correct.
Austin,
This is my fifth Italeri short bodied Huey and I', still learning something each time
LD,
I took pics of what I did with the roof join tonight and I'll post em tomorrow. I wouldn't say I "fixed" the problem, but hopefully I mitigated it.
Ray

[Youngtiger1]

Ray, awesome subject. I always enjoy looking at hurts with bright color scheme and you cannot get brighter then a whole orange chopper. What decals are those your going to use? From the instruction layout it looks like Aeromaster sheet.

Mike

[rotorwash]

 Youngtiger1, on 05 February 2012 - 06:37 AM, said:

Ray, awesome subject. I always enjoy looking at hurts with bright color scheme and you cannot get brighter then a whole orange chopper. What decals are those your going to use? From the instruction layout it looks like Aeromaster sheet.

Mike

Mike ,
The decals are from Joe Maxwell at Max Decals. Lots of cool high vis subjects.
Ray

[Deacon]

This is s great build. Watching with interest Ray.

Deacon

[arkhunter2002]

 rotorwash, on 05 February 2012 - 06:07 AM, said:

This is my fifth Italeri short bodied Huey and I', still learning something each time

And how many more in the stash?