Building a fleet of 1/72 Italeri UH-34 Seahorse's

John,

You've got quite a fleet of H-34's there. Really nice and neat builds. You're fast too. The Civvie versions are colorful and I like them very much.

Keep them coming.

Cheers,

Richard 

Excellent work, John. It's great to see the different colors-and-markings combos so well replicated. The possibilities for S-58 and H-34 schemes are almost endless.

I know you're mass-building for liveries, not detail, but have to point out that -- thanks to the kit manufacturers -- the tail rotors are all backwards.

Keep up the great work on these birds!

Len

.

Here's one for you.

Thank's for the kind comments on my H-34 builds , everyone .

I wanted to add a U.S. Army , Medivac bird to the collection , so I scrounged around the spares box and found some streatchers .

I tried printing my own U.S. ARMY lettering to suit as I didn't have anything in the decal stash to use .

On this build I added a small wedge shape block to represent where the rotor drive shaft would travel through , I also tried to give the cabin roof panel a quilted look ; It's rather basic but it's a little more detail than the other H-34 interiors I had previously done , I got the idea from watching Richards amazing UH-34D build .

I also found some pieces to use for the nose antenna , bits from the Huey spares box .

The decal lettering isn't as bold as I would have liked , but I really like the medivac bird so I'll keep going with her .

                                             John .

Unfortunatly I haven't completed any more H-34's as yet but something interesting I found out while using Tamiya Masking tape to mask the canopies ;

Until recently I always used the 40mm wide Tamiya masking tape and this year especially , I had a lot of issue's with canopies not looking all that great after airbrushing and removing the tape . With the last three H-34 builds I completed , I started to use the Tamiya tape that comes in a plastic dispenser , 18mm wide , and I was really happy how the canopies looked .

To me it seems that the 18mm tape is a little more easier to work with especially when pushing the tape into the frame line edges with a toothpic . It also seems a lot easier to cut with a hobby scalpel .

Anyway I'll be using and buying the 18mm Tamiya tape in the plastic dispenser from now on ,as it appears that I have solved a big problem I was having with canopy masking ...

                                                 John .

I was a little curious as to how difficult it would be to scratch-build my own V-style landing gear set up .

I haven't done a lot of scratch-building in the past as I'm not all that confident trying to replicate the real thing . My first try at the V-style gear is a little chunky in places so I still need to do a little filing with the sanding stick , the two main support struts are just sitting in place to see how everything looks .

I guess its okay for a first attempt , some more sanding and filing especially on the underside where it attaches to the bottom of the fuselage should make it look a bit better , If so I'll build a West German H-34G III Navy version with the overall aluminium and orange scheme , I think I can scrounge up enough decals from the decal spares box !!!

                                                John.

I had a second try with slightly smaller diameter rod [1mm]

I think it might work , I just hope the super glue holds all the joins together ...

I'll leave the two upright support struts off and glue the V shape frame to the underside of the fuselage and get ready to airbrush .

I hope this works....

                                              John .

I glued the V-style frame to the underside of the fuselage .

I have four H-34's ready for the spraybooth

I found some decals for a German MFG5 Navy H-34G III , I also found some U.S. ARMY decals for my medivac bird

There is also a USAF and another VNAF H-34

I cut out an opening for where the lower exhaust was originally positioned on the USAF H-34 , I wasn't happy with the paint finish on my USMC "Evil Eyes" UH-34D , so I lightly sanded her and re-masked for a camouflage "Kingbee" VNAF UH-34D .

For a USMC Evil Eyes bird I thought of doing this...

I'm going to add M60's to the cabin windows and door opening , I found some figures to use like in the pic above and I'll see if I can get a couple of pilots and maybe cut open the cockpit windows as well .

                                                       John .

Well I just discovered I made a really dumb mistake , I thought the cut-out in the landing gear frame faced the rear to allow the pipe ducting to fit ; However I was looking through a back issue of FSM [April 2005] , there is an article on building a SH-34J Sea Bat . I was checking to see how to cut open the cockpit side windows and saw this pic...

I guess I'll have to carefully remove mine and turn it around ,

                                               John .

I managed to carefully remove the landing gear frame , turned it around and re-glued it back on ;

I suppose it doesn't look too bad for a first attempt ;

Hopefully everything will blend in nicely when she is all painted up ;

                                             John .

My progress has been really slow this week ,

I was only able to get three H-34's airbrushed .

I'm quite happy how the H-34G III MFG5 has turned out ; I ordered another two Italeri UH-34J kits this week and when I opened the box's they had the V-style landing gear on the sprue ;

I guess "lord helicopter '' must of heard my prayers

Howdy Helo53,

I admire your work, it's a gigantic enterprise you got yourself there...

For feedback, I's suggest changing the title of your original post, it got seroisly misleading over time, the more when you take into account that you got your V-style landing gear now!

I'd also suggest using some kind of "lacquer thinner" cement for scratchbuilding, when you glue styrene pieces together. It's IMO better for scratchbuilding, because it allows a lot of correction time before it dries, and when it dries it's much more stable over time. And it's cheap.

Keep 'em coming (you have no problem with that so far) and have a nice day

Pawel

Thank's Pawel ;

I didn't realize you could change the original title , I will think up a more appropiate topic title .

I'm running behind my own schedule for getting the first batch finished off , I'm hoping to get some decaling done over the next couple of nights ...

I've put together another 15 H-34's , there just about ready for some putty and then sanding . I would like to get three USMC and one Army Medivac bird into the spray booth by the weekend .

                                                 John .

Helo 53

Thank's Pawel ;

I didn't realize you could change the original title , I will think up a more appropiate topic title .

I'm running behind my own schedule for getting the first batch finished off , I'm hoping to get some decaling done over the next couple of nights ...

I've put together another 15 H-34's , there just about ready for some putty and then sanding . I would like to get three USMC and one Army Medivac bird into the spray booth by the weekend .

                                                 John .

That is quite a collection there, looking forward to seeing some paint on them.

Black and White 

I have almost got five more finished...

Tomorrow a couple of coats of clear flat , remove the mask and add the rotors .

There's not a lot of markings on these birds but decaling always seem to take a couple of evenings .

Anyway I'll post some outside pic's of the finished birds hopfully on tuesday ,

                                  John .

Here's five finished H-34's

German Navy H-34G III

VNAF UH-34D Kingbee

Early JMSDF HSS-1

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

U.S.Navy HSS-1N

Reserve Navy/Marine UH-34J

Thanks for looking...

                               John .

Helo 53

Reserve Navy/Marine UH-34J

John,

Very nice builds. I have a question about the bird above - how come the inscription on the tail reads NAVY MARINE? Didn't see this one before. Could you explain? Thanks in advance, have a nice day

Pawel

Hi Pawel ,

I'm using Len Lundh's , Sikorsky H-34 An illustrated History book as my source of reference for different color schemes and markings ;

Some reserve H-34's were given " joint service " markings .

Kind regards

                       John .

Great looking work!

A lot of Reserve bases were joint Navy and Marine, and the helos assigned to the base were marked to reflect that.

Len

I've been trying to figure out how to mount an external fuel tank to the side of a LH-34D build , I also want to fit one to another Air America S-58T ...

Len Lundh's book has a couple of great pic's of an external tank and I also came across some pic's on goole images from the New England Air Museum ...

Apart from the bracing that bolts to the fuselage above the cabin window , What type of bracket bolts between the fuselage and the inner side of the fuel tank ?????

                                      John

Sorry John, I've no reference on the pylon. It would surely look nice with your scratch building skills. I noticed your scratch on the spoke landing gear and they look great.

Your kit's in grey plastic. I like working with grey plastic rather than the dark green that I have.

Cheers,

Richard

Thank you for the kind comments on my builds guy's ;

I'm reasonably happy with series one of the H-34 fleet....

The U.S. Army CH-34C , the USCG HUS-1G and the German Navy H-34G are my pick of the bunch ;

I have a couple more H-34's in the works with the replacement scratch-build V-style landing gear ; A UH-34J for the Netherlands Navy and I'm going to have a try at building an armed UH-34D , a USMC "Stinger"...

                             John .

I am happy with series one as well .  Nice fleet.  Your scratchbuilding skills are top notch Helo.   Can't wait to see series 2.

It looks great, Helo 53.

I can't wait to see the finished version of the one with the door gunners with rocket-pods mounted on the side. Exelent work.

Mabe I could do something simaler, with some huey kits. Since the end of Vietnam, there have been some interesting schemes. Thanks for the insperation.

Thank's macattack80 and railfan 233 ;

I found another pic on the net of an Auxilary fuel tank on a LH-34D ;

I've been staring at this pic for so long , I'm not sure if my eye's are starting to play tricks on me ; there seems to be a bracket bolted close to the fuselage coming up on the inner side of the fuel tank that looks similar to what you would see on a Huey ? . Or am I just imagining this

                                        John .

I'm not sure, as the immage pixelizes on me at around 200X zoom, which doesn't bring any luck with it. There is definately something there, but I can't get a good look at it.

All I can say is to try to find the same type of helicopter, in a museum, and ask the tour guide if you can go past the velvet rope. Tell him your trying to reproduce an accurate replica of the helicopter, and you need to know what's behind the fuel tank. I don't know if it would work, but it's worth a shot.

Your not immagining things, or we could both have our eyes playing tricks on us...

Dear Sir, Do you have some more digitale photos of the Sikorsky S-58 helicopter. Like your nice one of Okanagan Group? Greeting Jack Gravemaker from Middelburg in The Netherlands     jackgrave@zeelandnet.nl

Hello Helo

I need to ask you this...

... how many models...

... do you have going...

... at any one given time?

You've got a production line of Pahantoms...

... you did all of those Hueys...

... now you've got all these choppers...

... and god only knows what else you've got goin' on in the hangar.

OMFG that is insane.

This one's for you my friend.

P.S. I f you could kindly start a time management tutorial you will get great amounts of praise and gratitude no doubt. Not to mention help me and others pump out more builds. lol

After searching around for a while , I finally found my Sikorsky /Wesetland S-58 fleet build Topic .

Anyway , I've started working on series two again and have a few ready for masking

I'm dry fitting the canopy's but leaving them off to mask and paint seperatly , hopfully these current 18 builds will look something like these reference pic's ;

I have one HU-5 Wessex painted and ready for decalling

So if everything goes to plan I should have at least another 4 builds painted over this weekend

Thank's for looking .

John .