Helo53 HH3 detail

Hi Aronw , sorry for the delayed response to your email , I'm more than happy to share what I did on my two HH-3 Lindberg kit bash . The first three pic's are of the USAF HH-3 , from what I remember there was a slight discrepancy where revell's cockpit front halves join the lindberg fuselage . That is , the lindberg fuselage is a fraction wider than revell's front section . I taped both section together for a dry fit and decided to glue each front half to each fuselage half , so there was a slight gap when the two halves were glued together down the centre join ; not a big deal but something you will probably notice if you follow what I did . As far as the interior is concerned the seats came from a Italeri UH-34 Seahorse but I had to add some plastic strip to the bottom of each seat to raise it up to the right height . You really dont see much of the interior when everything is closed up but you can see the red seat backs from the outside so I put them in for that reason . the rest of the interior you can please yourself , I had some spare ammo box's and I just remembered I put in some stretcher/seats that came out of the revell kit [ I think ] I'll have check on that ? . So that brings me to the most challenging part of the build the rotor housing ; If you look closely at the first three pic's of the rotor housing , I think it was easier than what I attemped on the second USCG 3F build . I tried to use the whole rotor housing and exhaust section on the 3F but I just created more work when trying to join the lindberg engine housing piece , it didn't fit flush which requied a lot of sanding . The way I did it the first time by using just the rotor housing middle section only , was a much better idea . I guess I tried to be to clever on the second build and really made things a lot more difficult , "Oh well-live and learn". One thing that did work out well on the second build was the slight droop in the rotor blades . One other member of FSM forum pages did something similar about the same time I did mine using a similar technique . That pic is on a different disc , I'll find it and post it shortly , I was very pleased how it worked out . Revell's cockpit really does improve the front section and wasn't that difficult to join onto lindbergs fuselage , with the rotor housing just take your time like I did , I always cut well away from the line's I mark , It makes for a lot more filing and sanding , but I would rather do that than cut to much off . Illl go and have some dinner and think more about what else I did and I'll find the rotor hub and blade pic . I'll be back in about two hour's . Kind regard John .

 

I searched back through FSM forum pages and found my pic's of the rotor blade droop . I glued the blades to the hub , the next day and following few days I placed the rotors outside in the sun and clamped each blade to a dinner plate and placed a metal bolt to weight the centre hub down . Loach Driver did something similar but I thing he may of used a low heat oven . I'll  keep thinging about what else I did , get back to you soon . John

The second pic didn't post last time so I tried again .

A couple more things I remember is that I had to extend the rear floor piece , as your probably aware that the seaking floor taper's in at the end , I had and old Revell seaking interior in my spares box ; A few years earlier I ruined the canopy by trying to use PVA wood working glue as a masking agent for the canopy , I continued to complete the Seaking and used some really nice decals from one of those rare Fujimi SH-3H kits with the MX-16 "MARINES" with a nice glossy dark blue paint scheme . I removed the canopy a few times trying to fix it but I just made it look worse , so in the end I wanted the shelf space for other helo builds and I scraped the kit . I used the spare floor piece for both the HH-3E and HH-3F builds . Another thing was that those stretcher seats were from a Italeri UH-1D kit and the roof hooks came from UH-1N Huey kits [from the rescue hoist] . As I said before you dont really see much of the interior cabin once the helo was finished , so perhaps the rear seats along where the cabin windows are , are really all you need . another thing that just poped into my head was the rear gunner , you can hardly see him , perhaps just a rear minigun on the ramp would have been sufficient .  I have three Fujimi Seakings in my stash to build , as I mentioned earlier one is the Sikorsky SH-3H Seaking I can either make as a 'D' type with the American flag on the side or as a 'H' version 007 USS America , The other two fujimi Seakings are boxed as Westland versions but I want to make them up as US Navy helo's . I think that the Revell Seaking cockpit is a little more accurate looking and seeing that I had to order the fujimi kits from Tower Hobbies and the Revell kits were available locally here in sydney , I didn't want to scrap the fujimi kits . I hope to have those three Seakings built sometime later this year . Also as I said earlier the centre section of the revell rotor housing is the way to go , that's what I did on the first HH-3E build . Please don't hesitate to ask more questions , I'm more than happy to help as much as I can . Kind regards John.

I forgot to mention about cutting open the cabin side door , I added some plastic strip to the top and bottom and one side of the opening after carefully cutting the molded door away . John

Thanks, it will take me a bit to figure all this out. I'll have to lay out the Revell Seaking by the Lindberg HH-3 then it should be more clear.

Do you think it would be worthwhile trying to replace the kit canopy with a vacform canopy?

 

 

Lindberg's canopy didn't fit all that well when I originally built both kits , there was a 2-3mm gap where the front bottom edge of the canopy meets the nose section of lindbergs fuselage . So I had to place some plastic strip there . That's probably why when I stripped back both kits to re-do them I decided to replace the whole front section . I didn't think Lindberg's cockpit seats and consol/instrument panel looked very accurate . I still have the left over fuselage pieces lying in the spare's box , I'll take a couple of pic's and post them ; It may help in deciding where to make the cuts . I'll get back to you shortly . John

I'm not sure if these pic's are of any help ; there the fuselage parts that were left over on the first Lindberg/revell kit bash . It may help in showing where I made the first cuts . John

Interesting build!

I'm in the midst of bashing two Hasegawa SH-3H kits into one HH-3E in 48th scale.  I'm about 85% done now, so I'm looking forward to getting this beauty on my shelf. 

Here's the build thread over on ARC.

 http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=145116

 

Jon

I may have caused a little bit of confusion with the last three pic's I posted . The Revell Seaking Fuselage and Lindberg front cockpit section , aren't part of an upcoming build . They were the parts that were left over when I kit-bashed the HH-3E earlier this year . I'm not going to join or build the kit parts I posted , I was just trying to show where I made the cuts on the fuselage and as I said those fuselage pieces were what was left over . One reason I saved the Revell Seaking fuselage pieces was that I was thinking about building a stretched version of the Seaking , like one of those Sikorsky S-61N types . It's only a loose idea floating around in my head and I would need to do a great deal of research before attempting any type of conversion and obvisously I would have to buy another Revell Seaking kit . In any case I have enough current projects on and under the workbench to keep me going for the rest of the year and like I said I just saved those Revell Seaking fuselage halves for a future-maybe build ????????

Kind regards John

This will be very useful thanks. If you think of anything else please post it, don't let a lack of response from me discourage you. We have several hundred fires burining in the state right now so I probably won't have much chance to check in for awhile but I will get back to this when I get a chance.

I'm happy to help Aaronw . Kind regards John