fast ropping

Dragon had or has a set of Delta figs that you can pick up if you find them.
These are what I plan to use if I can find them for fast ropeing off a Blackhawk.
I plan on buying a few of these sets so that I can convert them them into differint postitions.
I'm also going try to run a wire up through the ropes so that I can run power through them from the base to a small moter in the Blackhawk for the roters.
At least thats what I'm going to try.
I just dont think a helo looks right hovering or flying with the roters not moving.

The vibration of the spinning main rotor with the diameter of 40cm will be too large. The whole thing will be shaking on the wire. Beside this, how are you planning to spin the tail rotor?
About the Dragon figures - I am buildin a Somalia diorama right now too and have all available Dradon kits of modern US troops. I would say they need A LOT of corrections and scratchbuilding. Espessialy:
Delta Team helmets are incorrect
Kevlar vests are not like those used in Somalia
Just take a look on this photos and compare them to Dragon figures )))))
Ranger 1993:




Delta 1993 (Somalia):




http://www.special-warfare.net/data_base/index.html
Andy

Yeah i have orderd both delta, seal team and even L.A swat team. I also purchased a series of us modern marines/army. I read some where about using some sorty of puddy/clay to do modigy arm position. Anyone heard of this

Yep,I have two Blackhawk kits and one is for experimentation.LIke I said I'm going to try this out.Hopefully it works out.The rear rotor I thinking on using one or two of those small moters that power those mini RC cars.I've done some experimenting by mounting a rotor on one of these and worked ok but think it might take a couple of them to get the job done.I'de also have to run those seperate from the main rotor's power because the small ones are rechargable.
As for the vibration,I'm thinking that if some brass tubing with the wiring running up them as the ropes is'nt stable enough then I'm just going to have to anchor the helo to something else somehow.Maybe a rod or two from the otherside of the helo where it cant be seen as well.And if I go this way I can run the power through it instead.
Any idea's?

If you are planning to show the dioram only from one side - it is easy to make a tube with the wires connected to chopper from opposite side. The brass pipe will be strong enough to sequre the model and prevent from vibration.
How many figures are you going to envolve in the dioram? Which one of pilots sets you will be using? Decals for the Hawk? Bad guys?
Please tell us more!

Andy

I think I'm going to have to convert the Dragon Veit Nam helo crew set to use for the crew.Dont know how many figs I'm going to put into this Dio,still doing research on the ops.Same with the decals.
Bad guys?I'll probably put a few of them sculking around in the buildings or alleys.In most pictures or films these guys are out of site when they have troops inbound,at least thats all they let us see.
Oh, to modify arms into a differint position what I do is cut the appendages at the joint or joints I want to change and drill a hole into them so that I can glue(superglue) a small guage wire(I use paperclips) drill another hole into where this appendage goes,position it to what you want then fill the joint with the putty of your choice,shape the putty to the details(folds in the uniforms and such)then let the putty dry.Its not that hard just practice on a few spare figs that are lying around.

I just read the above posts and had a few ideas for the planners of each.

For the Fast Rope (Remember that it is much larger than a rappelling rope in diameter) and the suspension of the Blackhawk use a gauge of brass tubing slightly smaller than the diameter the fast rope is supposed to be in scale and either cover the brass tubing with liquid cement to give it texture prior to painting. Or the second thought is to find cord that is slightly larger than the brass rod and sheath the brass rod with the cord. Parachute cord may work as the inner strands can be removed and leave the outer casing, however the texture would be quite out of scale. The final thought would be to search the wire section of an electronics store and find a diameter of wire that the inner strand(s) could be removed from to sheath the brass tubing.

As far as the "How to make the rear rotor work" a friend years ago was puzzled by this when building the old Revell UH-1D Gunship. Finally he installed a small two AA powered motor for the main rotor and scratchbuilt a power take off for the rear rotor.

He used two pieces of brass tubing that ran the length of the boom and bent and shaped it to follow the contours of the boom to the rear rotor. With this superglued in place a piece of the beaded chain from a sink plug was fed into the tubing and form a loop. The rear rotor axle was given a "spoke" system of sorts which was actually just styrene fitted snug enough that when the fuselage was closed up the tension was held on the chain to power the rear rotor using the main rotor motor by looping it around the base and attaching a "spoke" system to it.

It can be done and it does work. You just need to think of a solution and work the problem to the solution.

As far as converting the figures. Sanding and Puttying will do the trick. If you doubt that decent figures can be made look at the work of Bill Horan. He sculpts his own figures from wire armatures and putty. He started out working with the AIRFIX Multipose sets and converted as required. The book Military modelling masterclass by Bill Horan is a great read if you want to convert figures. Or to learn some of the basics read the Osprey series of Modelling manuals dealing with figures.

The putty that Bill Horan uses is DURO, although it may be hard to find in North America there are similar types. All you need is to do a little research and you will find what you need.

I hope this helps some of you get the results you want.

Cheers:

Gregory

My solution for the having the helo hover can be seen in this pic:



It's a steel rod and it will be covered wit a shoestring to simulate the rope. I will use a second rod on the other side to stabilize the whole thing since with only one rod the helo shakes like jelly.

As for the figure I'm going to use various dragon figures and convert the body armor and equipment according to intruder_bass' indications. I'll also convert some figures to have them roping down.

The bad guys will be converted Vietcong and Taliban (Dragon and Verlinden). MIG makes some technicals and I'll be using the one with the recoilless rifle.

There is a synthetic clay I use sometimes; it's called Cernit. After hardening it can be filed, glued and puttied. To harden it you have to put it in the oven so you can't use it to convert styrene figures since they would melt, but it's OK for resin figures.

Personally I don't like moving things in dioramas. My philosophy is that dios are 3D paintings and besides that it looks strange to have water flowing or rotors turning while all the figures (or people) are frozen in position.

Alot of good idea's coming in here.
I'de actually thought about the chain drive but just could'nt figure out what to use for the chain.Thanks for the pull chain idea gburdon!
Yep Avus the fast ropes are thicker than the rappeling ropes so thats why I was thinking of using the brass tubes for the ropes.I'm hopping they'll be strong enough to hold up the kit without the vibration.

squidsson2003
A brass tubes would do the trick, too, but maybe being a softer metal than steel, they would bend easier once the model is done and you'll end up with a "downed" helo.

What ever material you choose, I'd suggest you use a rod instead of a tube. It's true that tubes stand compression, but they don't resist inflection.

Further to my above post. After reading the post by AVUS I would suggest this.

Use brass tubing to form the "ropes". To add strength and prevent vibration insert a smaller diameter of brass rod to strengthen the mounting. This would also allow the wiring required to transit between the motor and power supply in a hidden capacity.

Cheers;

Gregory

P.S. As far as thanks for the chain drive idea. You're welcome. After all that is what the forum is for. Sharing of ideas. I appreciate the thanks though, this seems to be a common courtesy that is lacking here. When a member takes the time to use information posted by another, the least that could be done is to reply with a "Thank You" to the posting member for their assistance.

Another great idea!Thanks again gburdon and Avus!
Yeah,Mama raised her kid right.Courtesy and rescpect where always fundamentals in our household.

You're welcome!

And I perfectly agree with gburdon :

QUOTE: After all that is what the forum is for. Sharing of ideas.