UH-1C Academy

Charlie,

  Sorry about the gallstones, but glad to see you are back at "work".  She's looking great!  I am kinda surprised by the fit isues as most reviews I have seen suggest this kit goes together quite well.  you have the new nose art boxing right?  wonder if the molds are getting a little long in the tooth?  Anyway, she's coming along just fine.

     Ray

I would like to believe I just got a bad run and they are not all this bad. I was really disappointed in how this model is fitting though. Well let me get to work on it and see if I can get the last few areas glued and fitted. Will post some more images later tongiht.

Charlie

Here are two more images with the gluing completed and a ruff first sanding. Tomorrow I will apply a little putty and see if I can get all the seams to disappear. As you can see from the right side view, the rear cabin wall does not fit very well. I have tried everything and this is about as good as I can get it. I guess I will live with it and build the door closed or semi-closed to kind of hide the fit error. Other than that it appears to be coming along okay. I'm still disappointed in the transmission and push/pull tube fit. I will play with them a little more after I get the sanding done.

Charlie

Charlie,

   She's looking great, but you better get busy. I'm headed down on teh 17th and I want to see that bird in person if possible!

    Ray

Hopefully it will be done or very close to being done.

Charlie

Well, here is an update. Hopefully, I will get a first coat of paint on this baby by Sunday night if I'm lucky, but it wil probably be next week sometime. I have finished all the basic sanding and just finished applying a coat of Mr Surface 1000. The front windshield is dry-fitted for testing and I have a few gaps I need to figure out how to seal the windshield gaps. They do not show up much in the photo, but they are primarily along the front top right side and down the right window frame. I have the greenhouse glass in and slowly am getting the rest of the exterior on and should be done by tomorrow night. Then I will do a final sanding and get it ready for painting. My pilot's sight fell from the roof when I install the front windshield, so I will have to reglue it after I take the wind screen off. She is at least starting to look like a C-Model.

Charlie

Lookin great Charlie!  Can't wait to see her in person.

     Ray

She's really coming together well Charlie . I went and ordered my 1/35 UH-1C Huey Frog from Tower Hobbies , so hopfully the kit will arrive for christmas . I also back ordered the Academy 1/48 MH-53E Sea Dragon . I've been copying your pic's into the computer so I'll have lots of references to work from . I can't wait to see your bird finished .

                                           Kind regards John

Thanks Ray and John for the complements. Here is another image from the left door to highlight the front windscreen center post that covers the wiring harness that connects the overhead console and circuit breaker panel. I have not seen any Huey models that included this cover and decided to scratch build it with some .010 spruce strips I bought. It gives a little more up close detail to the aircraft. John, I hope you do not have the same fit problems I am experiencing with your hog.

Charlie

Retired Gunpilot wrote:

Thanks Ray and John for the complements. Here is another image from the left door to highlight the front windscreen center post that covers the wiring harness that connects the overhead console and circuit breaker panel. I have not seen any Huey models that included this cover and decided to scratch build it with some .010 spruce strips I bought. It gives a little more up close detail to the aircraft. John, I hope you do not have the same fit problems I am experiencing with your hog. Charlie

Especially since the Center post is also where the center of the metal combing on the Canopy glass goes since the canopy is a 2 piece affair.

Well, as I thought I would not get as far as I hoped this weekend. I do have skids mounted and most of the weekend was working on the windscreen and adding all the PE parts to the bottom of the fueselage, e.g., tie-down points, access panels and structural panels. I still have to add PE to the skid assembly and a lot of fine sanding around the windscreen. The fit was bad and I had to slowly build up some testor's clear glue to get it looking like there is no gap on the pilots windscreen. Also when I did a dry test of the skids I found the Huey had most of its weight on the rear skid. I dug into my fishing tackle and smashed a whole bunch of lead weight and dropped them down the cargo hook hole and then poor a bunch of CA in the hole to glue them stationary. That helped a bunch but next time I will glue a bunch of weights under the center console. It would provide a more forward CG. One other thing I noticed is the air scoops on the roof are to thick. I used a razor knife to thin off the front edges and this appears to have helped a little.

Thanks for looking and your comments

Charlie

Charlie,

Sorry to hear about your gall bladder surgery!  Glad all went well!  I apologize for being late with his picture of a "Mike" model swashplate.  I remember a post about the control tubes being too far forward and rubbing against the front bulkhead.  One problem is the swashplate ears are incorrect for the "C's" and "M's".  It's for a "B" model in the kit.  Notice the control rod ends instead of forks on the control tubes and the swashplate ears are forked and do not have the trunion type mounts.  You can still correct this on your kit and it will bring the control tubes closer to the transmission.  I don't know if you want to tackle the drive link type of rear attachment.  Sorry about this late info! 

Thanks Mel,

Ray just left my house heading back to Auburn. We spent most of the day taking pictures and I got some really nice pictures of a M model at the museum storage buildings. Why they don't have that in the museum instead of that beatup B model I will never know. Anyway, while it is never too late to fix something in most cases, I am getting tired of this project and will just finish it up. I will build another C model in a year or so, but I need a break from it and move on to another model. I'm thinking a H-13 for my next build. When I build a new C I will scratch build the transmission area and fix the engine exhaust so it sticks out correctly from the back of the aircraft.

I am really disappointed in Academy's C model. They used an engine and transmission mold that is not correct for this aircraft. They don't mine charging us more for updated kits, but they only update certain components of the kit and leave wrong parts in the kit.

Anyway, the important point is I had a lot of fun with the kit and learned a lot and refreshed some of my old skills that are still rusty. The next kit will be better if I can improve my scratch building skills.

Charlie 

I hate a great time, Charlie.  Thanks for the hospitality!  It was great to see your bird in person, it is really nice in spite of the issues with it.  That cockpit is awesome!  Take care and have a very Merry Christmas.  Hopefully you'll get some time to sit down and build.

     Ray

First off Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I did not get to put in as much time as I was hoping during my vacation. I guess we never do, but anyhow, I have made so progress. I have paint on my Huey. A couple of disappointments have made me redirect my end results on this model. First I screwed the 7 rocket rocket pod and so I decided I am not going to install the miniguns. I broke one of the pods and I had too much trouble trying to get the tubes into the pod plates. The tubes did not fit very well at all even after sanding and I pushed just hard enough to brake a plate in half. I do not believe this ship flew with the miniguns and the nineteen rocket rocket pods. So I will leave off the guns and just go with rockets. My other reason is the PE parts and miniguns can be saved for when I build this model again. Anyway, I'm going to paint the nose black today and hopefully get it covered with future tomorrow so I can start applyin decals.

Thanks for looking

charlie

Charlie,

  Happy New Year!  Lookin Great!  I wish mine had turned out half as good.  I can't wait to see her finished.

   Ray

Here is a small update. I painted the black and added the Wheel mounts and rings on the skids. You can not see the rings in this image. I'm going to touch up some of the gray and let it cure overnight before spraying the future tomorrow. Anyone know what the recommended drying time is on future before adding decals and weathering?

Here is my last image tonight. I cleaned up the overspray and painted the NAV lights. To get them to appear lit, I painted them first with Chrome Steel and then when dried I painted Tamaya's clear green and red. The chrome gives them a fake transparency to the clear paint.

Thanks and Happy NEW YEAR to All.

Charlie

Here is my Friday's work in progress. Got more done than I thought, albeit still a slow process. I painted but have not put together the rotor system, clean up a lot of seams and spot painted them, mainly around the cargo doors and got the left 19 shot pod installed. As I said earlier because I broke the 7 shot pod I will not install the guns. Below is a picture of the left side showing the rockets. The cargo door is just dry fitted. I found when buidling the armament supports, dry fit the supports braces to the fuselage. I found I had to thin out the inserts to get them to fit properly. I also found out it is easier to glue the braces to the side mount first and when the assembly is almost dry then glue it to the fuselage. It was very difficult tring to glue the cross support to the two fuselage supports when they were glued to the fuselage. Much easier the way I did it. I'm going to attempt to get the right side pod mounted tonight.

Thanks for viewing and I invite questions and comments.

Charlie

Charlie,

  Happy New Year!  She's coming along GREAT!  I decided to do one myself and, based on your comments, to just do it basically OOB or as close to it as possible to find out the fit issues before I do the full on PE adorned version.  I think I found the main problem with the cabin to fuselage join.  The left rear bulkhead and the area behind it where the fuel tank is needs to be sanded down quite a bit.  I took photos of where I sanded if you'd like to see em along with the results from dry fitting it together.  Anyway, thanks for the heads up, you definitely saved me a lot of grief later!

    Ray

Thanks Ray, and also make sure your transmission and control tubes are not going to be up against the transmission cowling like mine. That bothers me more than anything. Also if you are going to build it with the engin cowlings closed, push the engine further back so the exhaust sticks out the cowling more than mine does. So far I give this kit a B for fit issues. I'm also done gluing the other rocket pod on.

Thanks and Happy New Year to you too. Hopefully your model will fit better than mine. 

Charlie

G'Day Charlie,

The Iroquois is looking great so far! I'm about to kick off the Academy UH-1 soon as an RAAF Bravo model with the Cobra Co conversion and am keen to get my hands on the PE you have used Do you have a set number for it at all?

 Thanks very much
Cairnsy

G'Day to you Cairnsy

Thank you for the nice comment. I used the Eduard kits. There was an interior, exterior and armament kit. The part numbers are 32 086, 32 092 and 32 093. Hope this helps and good luck.

Charlie

Cairnsy,

   You could also get the Big ED set BIG 3209 that includes all three sets RBF tags and masks as well.

  Ray

Well I finally finished up the right side and sprayed the model with Future. I guess now I have to wait 24 hours before I can do anything else on the fuselage. I sure hope when I'm done that a flat clear will dull out this shine. In the meantime, I'll work on the rotor system and get it ready for mounting.

Thanks for viewing

Charlie

Well she is finally almost done. A little weathering, not much on this build, spray dull cote over the model and install the rotor system. The Decals appear to be settling in okay for all the complaints I read in the decal forum on Academy Decals. I only had to used Micro SOL on the US ARMY decals on the tailboom to soften them up. All the rest I just used the Micro Set which appears to have worked fine. I'm not going to use the nose art or unit specific paint schemes. This will just be 509 shortly after it arrives in country before the unit artists gets their hands on it. Does anyone know whether there is a rule of thumb for decals to cure before spraying a clear coat?

Thanks

Charlie

Charlie,

  She's a beauty!  I think I'm goint to do mine as an early Charlie with Rucker trainer colors.  she'll have the bell mouth intake and no weapons. Should be good for a first crack at this kit.  Next one will be dad's bird with all the bells and whistles.  You have me itching to get mine moving along.

     Ray

Hi Charlie,

I just discovered your thread and have really enjoyed it.   Let me say that you have a done a great job building this one!   I did an H model this summer and afterwards I told myself that I was all set with Hueys.  I'm starting to get the urge to build this one though.  

Don't know if you've seen the Dragon H model, but if you have, I'm wondering how the Academy kit measures up in detail and finess of molding compared to Dragon?   

Anyway, keep up the good work.  I can't wait to see this completed.

Regards,

John

John,

  I can't speak to fit, but as far as finesse of molding, the Academy kit is AWESOME compared to the Panda/Dragon kit.  I am building the UH-1C right now and as Charlie says the cabin needs some sanding to fit properly.  I haven't built the Dragon kit, but the UH-1H that I just finished is the same kit in 1/48 and I'd say the fit of the cabin was much better with that kit than the Academy one.  However, the Academy/MRC has so many details and extra parts like machine guns and fire extinguishers and such that I think it is the best Huey kit out there hands down in any scale.  Just my two cents.  We'll see what Charlie thinks.

     Ray

Here's a comparison of the Dragon and MRC Hueys tailbooms to make my point about finesse of moulding (Dragon top MRC bottom):

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I agree the MRC does have nice detail and in the right hands (Not me yet) this can be a great model with a little more skill than I have. Here is my latest image. I sprayed two coats of Flat Cote tonight and took off the masking tape. The windshield fit issue on the pilot side cover up pretty good. On the real disappointment side my decals are showing silvering. They look a lot worst in the image than in real life. Under normal lighting it is hardly noticeable. I should have listen and ordered custom decals. This is the first and last time I use Academy decals, they just stink for the quality of detail in the aircraft model. While this was drying I laminated my base airfield laminate to the base board and will add a little molding around the base to make it look better. I still have the doors and installation of the rotors. I also want to do a little more inside work. But she ought to be done by this weekend.

Thanks for viewing

Charlie

Hey John and thanks for the comments. I have not built the Dragon kit and what Ray said in the post earlier about the two variants is propably fairly accurate. As to the MRC kit, DO NOT USE the Decals. Buy custom decals from a good aftermarket company. I really messed up by not taking all the comments about MRC decals in the decal forum that seriously. As to fit issues, my big areas that did not fit well was the cargo section left rear wall. You can see it in the pictures. It will be hidden though because I will partially close that cargo door. The windshield did not fit very good on the pilot side and the transmission sits to far forward causeing the large push-pull tube to be slightly bent on the forward cowling. Other than that a good modeler can easily fix these issues. Other than those issues I found the model to be fun and interesting to build. I plan on rebuilding this model in a year or so after I build other helicopters. I learned a lot and I think the next time I can do a much better job than I did on this one. I think I pretty much covered everything I had issues with in this thread if I left out anything in this post.

Anyway, thanks again and I would recommend the MRC over the Dragon on the C model.

Charlie