First post in Helicopters. I usually hang in Aircraft, Ships and Space.
I've checked here and wondered why there were rarely any civil helos, and having just finished 3 planes, one AM, one Hasegawa and one Tamiya, I felt spoiled.
So for next project, I thought I'd try Revell Germany's 1/32nd Bell 206 Jet Ranger. I've always liked Jet Rangers having shot photos from them often. I knew the kit was an older one, but then, so am I. I'd never built in this scale, so I looked forward to the project. Little did I know just how much "fun" this project was going to be.
The kit is an OK one, but obviously not a popular subject. It has a decent cabin, a rather detailed engine and engine bay and opening cargo door and complete cargo bay. It also has ejector marks visible everywhere and is inaccurate on the top deck where the engine grills are. The rotors, having been designed to rotate, have some problems too. I suppose the kit was originally figured to have the deck pieces removed to see the engine, so the designers didn't bother with them. The kit's decals and paint schemes are for European birds, so I knew I'd have to cook up my own scheme and raid the spare decals.
I haven't done any sort of glossy paint scheme in years, so I thought that would be a good bit for the project too.
I had a rattle can of Tamiya racing green, that I hadn't used, so I thought I'd go with that as the main color, then just go with a white bottom color. I did the cabin in various grays and this would be also my first attempt at tenting clear plastic.
A few minor snags started. The decal sheet had an instrument panel decal, that didn't line up with the raised panel detail, so I cut the instruments and mounted them separately. Went OK. Added a few scratch bit details and assembled the fuselage. Fit wasn't great so I had some sanding to do, no big deal. When done, I attached the landing skids and sprayed the white.
Next day, I started to spray the green. Oops! The Tamiya is a lacquer, my white was enamel. Not good.
Tried to clean it up, only made it worse, so I got another kit. Ripped out the cabin and installed it in the new fuselage. Got the paints right the second time. I used one set of windows to protect the cabin. Not a bad way to go since I had a spare set.
Then the rather weak skids broke. I removed both and reinforced them with some thick wire and reinstalled them. Tried applying some red-orange stripes on the main rotor and the decals fractured. Just built the second main rotor. Even using a cotton glove, I couldn't keep finger prints off the glossy paint, so, after my mix of decals and prior to starting installing the windows, I gave the model a shot of semi-gloss lacquer.
The doors and windows had lots of fit problems and trying not to damage the finish, I had to let some of worse fit alone, figuring I'd try to adjust them later.
Decide to shoot some photos, then try to fix the poor fit of a couple of doors. Dabbed a swab into a bit of alcohol to clear away some fingerprints, set up the lights and shot of few.
Then I turned the model around...
The alcohol had taken the paint. I didn't use much, and never had a problem like this before, but there it is.
Large scale, lots of clear plastic pieces and glossy paints have it in for me here. Maybe that's why there aren't a lot of civil helicopters on the forum.
This one will be set aside and I'll come back to it later.