Aces of Spades - 1/35 Academy UH-1C [Build Thread]

Here a few images I took of the static display on Redstone UH-1M 64-14185 showing the sights and as mentioned previously the right side minigun feed system with de-linker.

You'll notice the electric motors on the M134 mini are missing. The rest is there though and the barrels are rifled. Someone ungraciously stole one off the other side. Also of note are the front mounting pins are missing. I used to eat my lunch in this Mike model when it was a static display at the US Space and Rocket Center before being moved to Redstone. At that time it was completely intact to include the L13 engine. It was repainted by the same group that restored Guns-A-Go-Go.

Sitrep!  Apologies for the grainy pics, I changed my camera settings the other week, and as you can see by the pics above, the changes made for slightly better pics, not today it seems!!

Unfortunately I don't appear to have disquised my putty work as well as I had hoped, need to improve on that methinks, despite having watched/read a ton of info about how to do it!!

Just waiting for the paint on the weapon mounts to dry now before I attach them, but I'm a little bit bemused by them as they don't seem to fit properly, the tabs don't seem to want to go into the slits in the fuselage, and when they do the weapon mounts aren't at the right angle!  Hmm...

Looking good. Man I love this kit. One day I'll grab a box myself.

Thanks.

If you do get one make sure the fuselage isn't as bad a fit/warped as mine was around the roof...

Also, if I were to build this kit again myself I'd cut a slot in the ammo box for the minigun ammo belts to feed into, feed them in a little and CA glue them into place, then feed them through the hole in the cabin floor prior to putting the cabin floor into the fuselage and when putting the cabin into the fuselage I would then push the ammo feed belts through the corresponding holes in the fuselage and I'd glue them onto the miniguns before I glue them to the mounts..

Reason?  Because I've just spent 2hrs wrestling with the little rubber ammo feed belts trying to get them to go through the holes in the fuselage and cabin floor, and to attach to the ammo box and the miniguns.

As it is now I have the weapon mounts attached (and the glue is drying) and the ammo belts are attached at both ends, but I had to take the miniguns off the mounts to attach them to the belts, so I've got the ammo belts glued at one end to the ammo box, and the other end of each belt is loose with a minigun glued on.

I'm hoping the CA glue holding the ammo belts to the miniguns dries rock solid and by tomorrow I can bend the ammo belts around to the position where I can attach the miniguns to the weapon mounts!!

It's great having those belts but so far they've been a PITA for me.  Just hope they turn out better once the miniguns are in place and the belts are painted...

With any luck the rotors/mast/head etc. will be nice and easy to build (that's about the only major assembly I've yet to build).

More progress this afternoon, nearly ready for a gloss coat and then decals and maybe a dirt wash all over, still waiting on my Tamiya Clear Red though, and I also have some paint to tidy up (the white marks) where I had to do an emergency superglue repair...

Got the weapons on now -

Awesome.

That's a neat kit, it reminds me of the airfix 1/24 scale stuka kits that I have. I like the way you are using  the after-market parts, and the scratch building with fine copper wire. Makes your model look so real. It seems like you have a lot of knowledge about your subject too. This is what I signed on to this forum for, to see how a real pro does things. model on dude

Those mini guns look wicked on that old chopper your using as a reference. I'll bet that the guys in the black pajamas were terrified when they heard one coming.

looking good

Rick

raven

Your Huey is coming along just fine. Great reference pictures for the guns sight and will be very useful when I get around to building mine.

I was lucky to find this very kit at a local model show and negotiated the price down to $15. I have seen the same kit on eBay for as much as $50! I also got the interior and exterior Eduard pe detail sets for enhanced detailing.

I am sticking a fork in this one and calling it done.  Getting fed up with it and it's been going downhill on me since I put some of the decals on...

The decals by Academy are rubbish, the decals I made for my 1/48 Huey gunship using the Academy ones for the artwork were far superior.  The one's I've put on so far have not gone down at all well (although I guess use of Microsol/Microset may have helped), they've wrinkled, some have silvered, some have become brittle after the Klear has dried and they've chipped off (you can see that on the nose decal), the nose decal in particular was very hard to put on as it just would not lie down, and some even had some remnants of white on the edges!  I won't be putting any more on.

My masking of the windows seems have been poor as at least one has some paint on it, and the overall quality is not good - might not be able to see the full extent in the pics but some how my nose windows have gone totally horrible!!!

Anyhow here's the final pics, It looks worse in real life I can assure you, I took photos of the "good" side, forgot to put the doors on though, doh! -

Sorry guys, even after all your advice I made a bit of a mess of this one.

I'm going to chalk this one up to experience and move on. 

Overall it looks good. One suggestion on the nose decal, along with the setting solutions, where it is bubbling up, you and use a sharp blade and make small incisions where it is bubbled, apply more solution until they lay down. But that doesn't always work.

looks great

Rick

@midnightprowler -

Trust me the photos actually make it look better than it is.

I tried making small incisions in the nose decals, didn't help.  Not sure it would have helped on the others either.

I even tried, for the other side of the nose decal, cutting the decal into smaller parts, it already comes in 2 or 3 parts, but cutting it down even further didn't help.

The Academy decals are just really thick and to make matters worse went brittle after the Klear had dried.

Probably what I should have done is what I did with the 1/48 decals I made using the artwork of this kit and that is print them myself...

Raven,

 If you are up to it, you might be able to fix your very minor spots:

Have you tried solvaset on the decals?  It's like Micro Set but a lot stronger and may make tough decals set down.  I will generally grab it when Micro Set isn't getting a decal to lay down for me.

With the silvering, I've had luck lightly brush painting along the silvered edge with future.  It will usually run underneath for me and sometimes make the silvering go away.  Just don't be too thick and you'll have to go over with some clear flat after it dries.

With the glass, try an eraser.  If that doesn't get it off, gently sand a toothpick to remove the sharper edges and gently try rubbing the paint off with that.  

You mentioned some decal chipping, as I understand it, those Vietnam birds were flown pretty hard, so some wear and tear is likely!

Your issues are all minor and we are always our own worst critics.  Your build looks great to me, particularly from what I understand to be a very difficult kit.

Groot