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

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

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 .

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 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 .

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 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.

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 .

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 .

Here's one for you.

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

.

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 

Hopfully by the end of the week , I'll have another three H-34's finished .

I had some masking tape issue's with the Air America S-58T and the RCAF UH-34A ; I forgot when trimming the masking tape that the outer edges on sides of the tape tend to be a little feathered to start with ; When I pulled the masking tape off , some decarmation lines where nice and neat but other lines were not , there was some masking tape residue in a few spots as well , so I have lightly sanded both birds and I'll re-mask and airbrush the color's again . A little frustrating but I'll get there eventually.....

                                                                                    John .

I've finished three more UH-34's ;

First is a Italeri , U.S.Army CH-34C...

Next is a Italeri , UH-34G I for the West German Army...

Thirdly here is a Hobbyboss , UH-34D for the VNAF...

Here is a group shot ;

                                                          John .

I've been trying to scrounge up enough decals to go on a previous built H-34 with an overall fluroescent orange color scheme . I have some Numbers in various sizes I can use but I haven't had much luck finding letters the right size to suit .

Something that caught my attention and is a little worrying is the fluro orange is starting to fad to a light pink color on one side of the fuselage ...

I only airbrushed this helicopter about 18 months ago and I'm suprised how soon the color is fading , "I'm not sure if it shows up that much in the pic I posted'' , I guess I will have to re-mask  the Helo and airbrush Gunze H-14 orange , I don't think I'll use those Fluroescent color's again .

                                  John .

Aaron , thanks for the tip about the RAF decal markings , I'll make sure I use serial numbers that actually match a HAR-2 version .

Something else that got me a little curious , was while searching through airlinners.net for images of the S-58 , I saw some pic's of non military commercial S-58's without the transmission deck covers . Although this looks kinda weird , it got me thinking about the way Matchbox produced their HU-5/HAS-31 kit .

The rotor shaft is molded seperatly ...

Of course there would be a lot of work adding some plumbing and an oil cooler to the deck but it got me thinking about modifing another UH-34J and using the Matchbox rotor shaft as a starting point .

I like this pic I lifted from airlinners.net ...

Coming up with decal options to suit commercial versions would also be quite difficult , so for the time being , I won't put together the Matchbox Wessex , I'll see if I can figure out some way of getting/making an oil cooler and piping lines ??? 

                                               John .

Helo 53

I noticed that the Italeri HAS-3 kit has an option for an all over yellow RAF Wessex HAR-2 , however I couldn't see any reference to the RAF using the HAS-3 version with the dorsal radome and horse collor on top of the oil cooler exit louvres and the fuselage cabin windows seem to be the wrong shape , so I'll just use the RAF decals from the HAS-3 kit on my hybrid H-34/HU-5 bird .

                                          John .

Yep, Italeri didn't do their homework very well or they just really wanted to model a gate guard. I was curious about this when got the kit, so did some poking around online. The story I found is rather complicated.

The decals are for a company owned helicopter used as a gunnea pig for various Wessex upgrades over the years. When the Wessex was coming to the end of its service this airframe went to the RAF I think to their flying school and then to a local air museum. The museum painted it up as an RAF Rescue helicopter for display and apparently Italari used this aircraft for their decals as the numbers match up.

While looking through the Westland Wessex reference book , I noticed that the HC-2 and the HAR-2 Wessex helicopters have the same square shape fuselage cabin windows like the Sikorsky UH-34 helo's .

I guess I'll have to use one of the UH-34J kits and add the HU-5 Wessex nose to the fuselage to give me more accurate HAR-2 Wessex with the overall yellow paint scheme . The Wessex book also shows the duel pipe ducting under the fuselage , so I'll add that as well .

I noticed that the Italeri HAS-3 kit has an option for an all over yellow RAF Wessex HAR-2 , however I couldn't see any reference to the RAF using the HAS-3 version with the dorsal radome and horse collor on top of the oil cooler exit louvres and the fuselage cabin windows seem to be the wrong shape , so I'll just use the RAF decals from the HAS-3 kit on my hybrid H-34/HU-5 bird .

                                          John .

I was searching the net for images of the H-34 and saw this pic of a die-cast West German Navy H-34G

All of the pic's I have seen so far , have shown the 'Marineflieger' [Naval Aviation] H-34G's with the V style landing gear . Len Lundh's H-34 book mentions that nine H-34G's were transfered from the German Army to MFG5

I was wondering how accurate the die-cast model is with the overall aluminum / orange scheme and the markings , with the bent leg landing gear . Seeing I haven't had much luck tracking down any more UH-34J kits with the V style landing gear , I was a little curious as to the accuracy as I would really like to add a German Navy H-34 with the aluminum/orange finish to my H-34 builds ???

                                              John .

Aaronw

and I thought I was a Sikorsky S-58 geek... 

Yeah , I guess I went totally into the helicopter 'dark side' with these birds ; I forgot to mention while visiting hannants.co.uk , they also had these decals for the S-58...

I always like the picture on the front of Squadrons H-34 book , with the Belgian Air Force HSS-1retirement scheme, I also ordered a couple more Hobbyboss UH-34A kits .

I've given up on trying to correct the droop on hobbyboss's rotor blades , the one's that didn't snap only ended up badly kinked , so i'll leave the rest as they are .

                                                John .

Hi Len ,

I'll try and match the Army serial numbers to suit a CH-34C , another mistake I made was the Marines recovery helicopter was for the Mercury Spacecraft .

Thanks for the tip

                           John.

and I thought I was a Sikorsky S-58 geek... 

Hey, John,

Sweet looking work. Just to be picky, the nose antenna belong on the Army's H-34Cs, not the A models.

Cheers,

Len

Fatpigdog

  You must be the reason we cant find them on the shelves anymore.

 

Sorry about that

It's probably why I had to visit Hong Kong , England and the US online to find some more UH-34J and HU-5 kits . I did notice recently that some hobby stores were stocking Tamiya helicopter kits , which are ex-Italeri molds , I realize it's wishfull thinking on my part but it would great if Tamiya would consider re-issueing this one ...

I found the Tamiya box art pic while searching the net ; Also seeing that Revell seem to have lots of their HAS-3 kits in the shops , it would great to see them re-issue the H-34G kit...

I pray everynight to the Lord Helicopter that this might happen and I promise only to buy 5 or 6 of each kit , so to leave plenty of others for the rest of you guy's

                                            John

Thanks Helo 53 , this would explain it , I have the Itelari and the Revell and  the Matchbox H.A.S. 31 and non have seats , and it looks like you have the market share of the rest of them . You must be the reason we cant find them on the shelves anymore.

Some very nice work going on in your hanger , can only imagine how they will all look when completed   

Four more HAS-3 kits arrived during the week along with some 'Modeldecal No.99' Royal Navy decals ; I like the dark blue/gray and red scheme , also the overall light stone finish for a MK-1 Wessex .

Five more HU-5 kits also arrived with the Modeldecal No.96 Royal Navy sheet ; There is a dark olive green and red scheme and I also will do an overall yellow scheme.

A modeler over at ARC was selling a lot of kits , I bought a few helicopter kits from him including a Matchbox HAS-31 and a Italeri UH-34D . I have some Aussie decals for a RAN Wessex and I can't decide between a Navy VC-8 Sea Bat or another Marines Sea Horse .

I still have another seven UH-34J kits on order , I'm hopfull that one or two of them may have the V style landing gear , I only had three kits with the V-style landing gear , I started the second one and I'll build her as a Apollo Recovery Marines helicopter No. 44

I saw these decals over at hannants.co.uk

I like the two VIP color schemes along with the two tone green and an overall dark gray finish so I ordred the decals and four more HU-5 Wessex kits .

                                               John .

Hi FPdog ;

All the Italeri UH-34J Sea Horse kits come with cabin seating as does the Wessex HU-5 ; Only the Wessex HAS-3 kit doesn't include rear seating .

I have four H-34's ready for decaling ;

USMC "Evil Eyes" and VNAF UH-34D's ; Also a West German H-34G I and a US.Army H-34A . I found some spare nose antenna in a Italeri H-21C 'Shawnee' flying banana kit , so I decided to use those on the army bird . I'll continue airbrushing this weekend and hopfully have some more ready for decaling shortly .

                                            John .

Wow ! What a collection , Now thats a ' Group Build' for real , Can't wait to see it all finished . Looks like you have the rotors all worked out  but can I ask please ? Where are all the interior seats from? .I have some of those kits but do not remember seeing any ? I think I will have to open them all and see which one has and which hasn't .

I'm hoping to get some paint on at least three of the H-34's this weekend , maybe even six  would be great ???

S-58T in Air America official colors , Hobbyboss UH-34A for the RCAF and the UH-34D VNAF and if all goes well three Italeri birds , UH-34A US. Army , UH-34D USMC 'Evil Eyes' and another AAM UH-34D .

                                     John .

I have made a little more progress on my 13 H-34/Wessex birds ;

Hobbyboss UH-34A and UH-34D , Italeri [UH-34J] S-58T , Italeri HU-5 and HAS-3 and UH-34A's and D's

Before installing the cabin and cockpit windows , I diped all the clear parts in some Future ;

I'll close up the fuselage halves next , everything seems to be going okay...

                                                             John .

Nice looking H-34s you have there John!  Thanks for the pictures.

-Derek