I looked at the “D” this weekend in a Denver hobby shop. The kit is has room for improvement, a detailers challenge! Most of the items listed here are 30' type, that is from 30 feet or more, you'll be able to see it or notice that it’s not there.
From the front office back…
For the most part the cockpit is that of an A with what looks like a revised panel and center console. The overhead console and PDP’s, Power Distribution Panels that flank the seats are for the A and undersized for the D. The overhead is just wrong, as the D panel stands proud of the cabin roof, it’s about 2 ½ - 3” thick.
Heater closet, well you get the heater, but not the cargo winch. This compartment is usually “open” and is rarely covered by blankets. Avionics shelves, wrong stack, wrong radios. However this is covered up all the time in the D for cooling purposes and is not that great a problem unless you want to depict he bird undergoing preflight or “Daily” maintenance inspections. The control closet, left of the Jump Seat, is always closed up, again for cooling.
Cabin area. Well it would have been nice to have some seats. Hooks generally never fly with the seats removed. The only time they are removed is for one or two types of vehicles or during maintenance. The Sound Blankets around the cabin roof are nice. They generally stop at the ramp, but I have flown some birds with the aft set removed. The Ramp area does not have any blankets, and the overhead doors to access the aft transmission are always closed for run-ups or flight. You’ll also need to build a wooden “Flyaway Box” usually lives forward, just aft of or under the FWD Left rescue hatch. In hot weather most of the Flight Engineers remove this window in flight and we keep the upper access hatch locked open. If we have a fir in flight the areas are closed up as the wind currents in a Hook go from ramp to the cockpit. If someone on the ramp looses their lunch, you get to enjoy it in the cockpit about 20 seconds later…
Ramp area, this should have been the jewel of the kit, but they decided to save lots of cash and leave it un-detailed. The is a very busy area visually. Cutting molds can cost $1000 - $1500 per cavity so do the math.
Underside, Well it has the tree hooks of a D, but overall the underside is for an A. The Doppler and Radar Altimeter antennas are missing. The Doppler antenna is about the size of a 15 Inch flat panel monitor, so it’s a big omission. The Radar altimeter antennas are about 5” across and tan in color so they stick out.
Cabin Roof. The breathers for the ERFS tanks are missing, Extended Range Fuel Systems, all D’s have them even if they don’t have either the old or new Robinson tanks installed. In the Gulf (WW Dirt II) we usually flew with one Robinson tank forward of the mid hook and to the left side of the cabin. Not sure what the configuration was in WW Dirt I. If your doing a fat Cow you’ll need 3 – 4 tanks plus the pumps. I also think they left off the GPS antenna.
Engine pods, the cowls look ok but the engines are a bit “odd” looking.
WEPS, you’ll need three M-60D’s. On in the front right cabin door, one across from it in the Left Rescue hatch, and one on the Ramp as Stinger Gun. Seating on the ramp gun varies from cushions to the pilots seat of a Beach Barron we stole it out of at Saddam International Airport. Most of the folks just stole white plastic chairs out of the mess hall and we used those for the waist guns.
Rotors. The “sag” looks good, but the dampeners are way undersized. The D dampeners are about 50% larger than the A dampeners and visually they stand out like sore thumbs.
There are several other fiddly bits missing her and there. To make this a “Real D” you will need some work.
While an inbox check shows it to be a great starting point, you will need to do a lot of research and updating to make it an accurate D.
As an aside I’ve flown D’s and accumulated about 500 hours in them over 10 years in the Reserves and an extended camping trip to the Mid East.
Bryan