1/48 Academy CH-53e

Beautiful model!  I can attest to its accuracy having worked at Sikorsky for a long and exciting career.  I remember the CH-53E line very well.  Great memories.  It’s repalcement, CH-53K, is even more amazing. 

Thanks John. Hawleys are a rare breed. Not as prolific as the Smiths and Jones. Hawleys know there are enough people on this small planet

What a gorgeous build; I love the weathering effects. Great job.

Steve, thank you very much. That will be a big help.

Cary

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Another part that puzzled me was why Academy left this area flat and blank. It appears like they were going to put a piece in this place but forgot to make it. So I just went the simple route and sanded the corners and drilled a hole. Very curious.

The upper triangle canopy windows are too big. I narrowed them laterallyFan,Belt,Pulley by steve hawley, on Flickr" alt="" /> but should have done it front to rear as well.

Many of the rods and arms for supports and levers are oversized. In some cases I made my own with styrene rods.

Don't waste too much time in the interior of the hull. You won't see any of it without a flashlight. You'll need that concentration and energy to deal with all you can see.

Hope that helps.

CH-53E HUB by steve hawley, on Flickr[url=" alt="" /> As I noted earlier, I had to modify the hub to get the right hub height. I did this by drilling out all of the center of G4. This allowed G3 into its center, making the height completely adjustable. About a 1/16" shorter.

  Side tank location: Academy left it to us to open up the location holes on the fuselage. I saw in many builds the holes were showing just above the tank. I wasn't gonna let this happen to my build. I thought I'd just add some styrene strip to the tank lip so it had more surface area to keep it pushed up and secured. But somehow when I clamped the tank it slid down unnoticed. Oh well.

  Academy decals have a terrible silvering problem, so make sure painted surface area is super glossy. Even if it is, you may still have silvering.

Main engine exhaust shape(3rd engine?) has little resemblance to the real thing. Even WolfPack's aftermarket is way off.

'Drop tank' wings are too thick but Eduard has an excellent PE replacement. I cheated a bit by adding a sliver of styrene on the underside to help support them. Also on the tanks, the filler caps are too low. I moved them up. Used a drill so the Eduard caps were properly countersunk. Not just stuck on the surface.

Rear tripod attachment point is at the wrong location. I had to shorten the strut and move it to the rear so it looked correct.

Hand holds behind the rotor hub are wrong. its a two piece affair on the right side. The way Academy has it, the engine panel would be impossible to lift. I shortened it a use a spare I had from another kit(MH-53e, cheaper).

Front gear door are rediculously thick. I made my own and added an Eduard PE strip.

Left off the nose sensors because Academy's looked so wrong. I can live with that.

Side engines(one and two?): Carved out the thick exhaust housings like I saw another modeler do. Looks much better.

Notice when I was done, the main rotor tips are very squared off. I should have sanded the thinner/rounder.

More coming later.

Nice looking build. I have the same kit in my stash and am looking to build it one day so your post really got my attention. In your post you say, "Its often said that the Academy CH-53e kit is challenging but I find all kits have their issues. This kit has many but with pateince they can be corrected or ignored. You'll see how I chose to deal with each", but you don't go in to those challenges. Could you go into a little more about the problems you found and how you dealt with them?

Well done.

Racer,

Great looking build. I love the look of these USMC beasts. I just finished Revell's -53C. If I can save enough nickels and dimes to afford one of these, I'd like to try to build one all folded up. Thanks for sharing!

-O

I'm still planning to finish off this bird with the blade ropes. I already have the blade link pins installed but trying to figure out what is going on with the braids and loops at the attachment points. If any of you Vets can share with me what's going on there, I would appreciate it. Maybe addtional photos? Thanks.Tie Down Loops by steve hawley, on Flickr" alt="" />

Really nice build.... It would make a great center piece to any collection.

Ben

The first thing that bugged be was the height of the rotorhead. Since I'm American, I related it to food. It looked like a triple cheese burger and needed to be a double. I modified those parts and it dropped it down about 1/16". Added my own vertical rods since I thought the kit's were too fat.

 I tried to do the plumbing but found it just looking like a mess of spaghetti. See, more food. So I passed on doing most of that. Did a bit of sanding/shaping of the blade holders. That's about it.

Really nice job - well done!  I like the weathering.  What fiddley bits did you use besides the Acadamy kit?  The roterhead looks fantastic.

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