I am new to the forum, and just recently upgraded my skills (thanks to reading this forum, and the magazine) to where I am not embarassed to post in this forum.
I have an Academy 1/48 CH-53E in my stash that I am getting ready to start on soon. Because of its size I am not going to display it on my shelf, but rather hang it from the ceiling in a flying configuration. I have ordered a crew for it from some little company out of France I think which I found a link to on here. However, I feel it needs more than just a crew. I was thinking I could sling something underneath.. Like an artillery piece, or something in cargo netting. This creates problems though.
The first problem is finding modern US artillery or even a Humvee in 1/48. I have been burning up the search on greatmodels and coming up dry.
The second problem is figuring out what to use to sling it. I am guessing artillery or a humvee would be hung from straps, so I would need to find something strong enough and still look to scale. Also, I would need to probably embed some significant steel structure in the belly of the helo to support the load.
I have a fair bit of Ammo crates, Jerry cans, and some other stuff I have aquired to put in the interior of things. I was thinking about maybe sling-loading those in a cargo net.. Maybe even do that on my CH-46E which I am in the early stages of building right now and maybe make it look like it is involved in an UNREP. I just wonder what is out there in terms of a 1/48th scale cargo net.
Failing all that. I am planning on making the rear ramp open anyway, so I was wondering if anyone has some good suggestions for some 1/48 trash to haul... Troops would be better if someone knows of a good place to find a bunch of moderately priced 1/48 scale marines- and a good way to paint MARPAT. I guess that is more a question for the figures forum though.
So am I crazy? Suggestions? Comments?