Bundegardagrenadashootywhatsit Puma. (1/72)
Fortunately, helicopters have long tail booms that they can write that big long thing on.
OK, so here we are with our component parts.
Initially, I had the Airfix kit, but it didn't come with the extended intakes, so I had to hunt around a bit more. Turns out that the Heller is just a re-issue of the Airfix. Or vice-versa. Both are just as old as each other. I figured this was OK, since as I was planning on hacking away at the parts in order to accurise them, if I messed up, I'd just build it 'stock' and play pretend. A very important feature to note was that the clear sprue came with a bunch of duplicate parts, not least a second canopy. This was to be crucial. Resin sponsons from Whirlybits, Decals from Max Decals.
Right.. Tally-ho.
Start simple enough. I figure you can see bugger-all inside the windows, I wasn't going to waste much effort on the interior. Incidently, the glass for the windows is a half-inch thick, and distorted. Horrible. I took out the trusty Krystal Kleer, and tried to 'span' the largest window. It worked. Thus I decided to simply abandon the glass entirely. Less to mask anyway. (You can always just punch out the KK and apply new windows!). Finding interior pics of Bundesgrenzschutz Pumas (Pumae?) before their modernisation wasn't too easy, but it looks like the entire interior except the dash is a form of grey. Fine so. Apply also a couple of seatbelts and rudder pedals, just for the sake of making the front more interesting.
The fun begins. BGS Pumas are somewhat modified from the standard. They have extra cabin windows, and the port-side door is equiped with a staircase, meaning that the usual wide windows aren't going to work. A dremel tool made short work of the thick fuselage side, and then the other fuselage side. Something didn't quite look right though. I counted the rivet lines one more time, and realised I drilled a hole in the wrong place on the portside. Bugger. That doesn't bode well.
In the meantime, I went after what I presumed would be the hardest part of the job: Modifying the door. Out came the X-Acto blade, and I cut out an area extending from (and including) the inside rim of the one window, to the other. Basically a single big rectangular slot now existed in the door. Cut off the window rims which were on the cutout, and glue them back into the door in their new correct positions, now leaving a big gap in between the windows. Some plastic sheeting filled in that gap, and a smaller amount the mistaken hole in the fuselage. Add filler, start sanding to suit. I find those Tamiya rattle-cans of spray paint are great for 'test sprays'. If I ever want to make sure I've sanded something down properly, spray a coat of paint and look at the result. It's quick, and it dries thin. Thus the photo above was taken after the use of a tan spray, and I then scraped/sanded down a bit.
The sponsons got their own bit of work, after being put together and sanded, they got a blast of paint (happened to be green this time), and then another sanding. Then glued onto the fuselage.
After the joining of the fuselages, another coat of paint. Also checking the sponson/fuselage joins. At this point, I realised that I was only now getting to the difficult bit. Those fuselage sides didn't exactly fit well together, and mad sanding was just going to sand away the rivet detail. I did what I could, but for the area just behind the intake extensions, I ended up having no choice but to simply sand everything down flat, rivets be damned.
The next problem: BGS Helos are a bizarre metallic blue/green colour. My first attempt using IJN Green, Gun Metal, Light Grey and Green Drab just didn't quite look even close. After playing around with combinations of shades, I just gave up and started the cocktail over.
IJN Green and Blue Angels Blue with a dash of Gun Metal came out a lot better.
Pull off all the masking from the canopy, looks good. Then I knocked the thing off the table, and it falls to the ground with a crash. At first blush, not too much damage. Tail stabiliser's broken off, and the canopy's snapped off. At second blush, however, the canopy had shattered. Still in one piece, but starred and cracked all the way through. Bugger, again.
Fortunately, Heller provided that spare canopy. Go through all the masking again, and more glueing and sanding (The canopy really doesn't fit very well, I'm afraid) but I wasn't objecting too badly to yet another coat of paint, as I found some more sanding I needed to do anyway.
Add a coat of future, start decalling. I'm not sure if it was the Future, or just the effect of long-term drying, but some of the windows developed pinholes in the Krystal Kleer film. Punch them out, re-apply new windows.
The prototype in this case was a West German Border Guards helicopter which was leased by the Irish Air Corps, and then loaned to the Garda Siochana (Irish police) for one week in Sept 1979 for the duration of the visit of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II. (Is this an obscure prototype, or what?) As a full third the population of the country was to be found in one park in Dublin (Fortunately, Phoenix Park is the largest city park in the world), the Gardai decided they might like a way of getting Gards from A to B quickly. The BGS provided a pilot, the Air Corps a co-pilot/navigator. But I digress.
In any case, they left all the BGS markings and German registration on the Helo, and just slapped big "GARDA" markings on the side, making it the first helicopter to ever wear Garda markings. I'm becoming more and more impressed with Max Decals. They're very thin, and go on very well. The only issue with them is if you're putting them on a multi-coloured background, they're transluscent and you'll see the colour change behind the decal. Not an issue on this one, however. Add yet another coat of future. Simmer and serve.
(Everything is really level, I just had the camera held wonky)
(A lot of BGS aircraft got transferred to the BPz)
NTM