UH -34 Sea Horse WIP

tonka

Absolutely fantastic work!! Cannot wait to see the finished model. The pre-shading looks fantastic!

Tonka, thanks. I'm trying to finish it this weekend for the local group build. It should be going into a dio that I've planned.

I noticed you're also tackling a H-19 and H-34. Looking forward to see progress pix on them soon.

Cheers,

Richard

Helo H-34

Hi Richard ,

I really like the pre-shading on your H-34 build , this is something I will definitly try myself on my current builds , it really looks great . I have always been curious about the tinted overhead panels on the canopy , I've been tempted a few times to do it on a H-34 but wasn't sure if it was a standard practice on Seahorse's .

She's looking really good and great pic's .

                                John

Thanks John, I really appreciate your comments. Pre-shading is more forgivable than post shading and subtle.

Cheers,

Richard

Absolutely fantastic work!! Cannot wait to see the finished model. The pre-shading looks fantastic!

Hi Richard ,

I really like the pre-shading on your H-34 build , this is something I will definitly try myself on my current builds , it really looks great . I have always been curious about the tinted overhead panels on the canopy , I've been tempted a few times to do it on a H-34 but wasn't sure if it was a standard practice on Seahorse's .

She's looking really good and great pic's .

                                John

Thanks Pawel,

And there's more as I'm on a roll.

I added the orange panel after I I gave the helo a coat of Future. I should have added the orange panel during the primer stage.

The effects of pre-shading on the tail.

Then I removed the masking for the top of the canopy to spray on the sun-shade transparent green from Tamiya. Again this should have been done from the inside out but it turned out okay.

Decals next. Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Howdy Richard,

nice work with the preshading. And also an interesting idea to do the red on the fuel fillers at this time. Keep up the good work and have a nice day

Pawel

The heli is all masked up and ready for the coats of paint starting with grey for canopy frame and primer coat for the whole body so that the black pre-shade will show through. Then a coat of olive green and future for decaling. Re-seal with future. Then pin wash with water color. Add light filtering with oils then airbrush light coat of cloud filtering and then seal again with future and finally with matt coat. Lastly pick out details with fine brush.

But here is the mummyfied helo and steps until the main color while it cures before the coat of Future.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Hi Swanny, thanks. Although it's 1/72, I've seen other better builds and detailing than mine in this forum. I feel I'm just average with my skills and still learning as I progress. I lack detail references so most of it is basically guess work and pictures from the net.

It's now at the masking stage and on to painting.

Cheers,

Richard 

I would be stunned by this in 1/48 so to say I feel shocked in the head barely begins to describe it.

Hi All, I've added more details to the UH-34 and they are grab handles, rear view mirror stand and wind screen wiper.

These are grab handles in the front clam shell engine covers.

Grab handles for the left and right side canopy and side panels.

Rear view mirror stand and wind shield wiper which was dry fitted for the picture.

The wind shield wiper made from wire and plastic strip. Thw windows at the back are drying after a dip in Future.

That's it now to mask and proceed to spray painting.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Thanks John and Macattack80,

John - Glad you were inspired to scratch build and I see you're pretty good at it too. When dealing with the rain guard be careful to protect your transparencies with tape when you sand, cut or file.

Macattack80 - 1/72 it is and I was telling Adam on the dio forum that I was getting cross eyed from building it. I have reading and magnifying glasses to help with the close detail but after a while I get a headache.

Hope I can justify with a good paint job after all this work.

Cheers,

Richard

I am in awe at the work you have done on this model.  I can't believe it is a 1/72 scale helicopter kit.  It looks fantastic.  I can't wait to see it all painted up.

Thank's for the reference pic of the rain guard Richard .

I'll make the effort and add them on my builds .

The winch and the added wiring look great , I really have learned a lot about scratch-building from watching your awesome H-34 WIP .

Kind regards

                          John .

Thanks Pawel and Swanny,

Pawel - I found that mesh by the roadside near a construction site and only 6" x 8". Haven't seen any of it like its kind so I treat it like gold. I have shared some with fellow modelers for air intake covers. Since you like Vietnam stuff, I have a built Huey posted on the Vietnam Huey post if you like to have a look.

I enjoyed building the winch and am glad both of you liked it.

Here is another picture of the windows and doors dry fitted with blu-tac to see how it looks. 

The next thing to add are grab handles which are missing on the kit.

Cheers,

Richard

Great job on the winch, keep those pictures coming.

Howdy Richard!

I like your build a lot. The best thing about it is the addition of the wire mesh IMO. I wanted to do that on my Seahorse 10 years ago, but back then I couldn't locate the apropriate mash, nor did I know what should "peep" from under it (I mean the engine area). The detailing of the winch is so nice too. It just warms an electrician's heart like mine. I just have to build a helicopter soon myself

Good luck with your project, have a nice day

Pawel

Hi John,

Here is the reference picture that shows the rain catch lip for the front and top of the side cockpit window.

Here are more WIP's for the hoisting winch where I added wire and plastic strip.

I added some bracing also with thin plastic strip.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Hi John,

Thanks for the nice comment. As for the window frame on the kit, it's molded with the outer main frame that has the the lip or rain guard. What I did was to removed the main frame. While doing so I couldn't save it so I had to scratch the frame lip and inner frame(together it becomes the main frame). Also the bottom rail guard was replaced with strip and stretched sprue.

I thought it was going to be an easy modification until I realised I had to fabricate the cut off main frame. Here's an angle shot showing the inner and outer frame. The outer lip was thinner until I added extra strip to compensate for the gap with the canopy.

Will post reference later.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard , the tail rotor correction is absolutly brilliant , I'll be trying that as well .

I was a little curious as to why you added the plastic strip to the canopy window opening , some pic's I have looked at on the net and in books , there doesn't seem to be any type of frame around the opening . I was thinking of just sanding down the raised edge on the seperate window frame and leave the canopy as is or should there be some type of [strip] frame to the cockpit opening ???

Kind regards

                        John .

Swanny

You're doing a wonderful job on this, excellent attention to detail.

Thanks Swanny, I took a look at your link and it's cool.

John, thanks for the info on the props and figures. I saw that you also did some scratch building to your V undercarriage. Really good, it's like you've been experienced in scratch building all your life. Have to warn you though, over detailing can sometimes stall building progress and I've been there.

Here's more WIP on the UH-34...

The overhead console got painted and the canopy was soaked in Future to get the shine. I let it dry on a paper towel as I tackled the rear rotor blade.

There was a mention that the manufacturer had produced the rear rotor blades backwards. I checked with reference and it's true (picture attached)

So I had to flip the rotor from this ...

...to this...

...and it was easy, I just had to slice off both ends at the correct distance and switch them over...

With that aside I added strip bracings for the front mesh and secured the canopy with the added backing strip and liquid cement.

Now the hoisting hook assembly looked a bit empty so I'm going to add some electric wire cables to spruce it up next.

Till the next post.

Cheers,

Richard

You're doing a wonderful job on this, excellent attention to detail.

I'm not really sure as to how much of an upward bend you would need on the rotors ? ;

I don't think it would be too much ...

I borrowed some pilots from two Hasegawa SH-60B Seahawk kits , there are three pilot figures in each kit so I will use two each in three USMC H-34's , It will be a tight squeeze so I may have to do some filing and adjusting to the main console panel and possibly their legs as well .

                                                        John .

Hi John,

Thanks, glad that you're sliding the canopy window open and adding pilots. I'm having a hard time finding pilot figures in 1/72 scale to fit this UH-34.

Yes, there is a slight console panel mold on the canopy underside, that's why I had to build a box to cover it instead of a solid one from plastic sheet. I did the same hanging communication wires for my Revell Huey. I hope to post it someday. Will the Vietnam Huey guys object if I post some pictures in their post? Would like to get feedback from some of the Vets there.

Progress is slow but steady. I'm stuck with deciding on a static bird or one that is just lifting off for my dio. With the lift off I would have to reverse the bend of the prop blades upwards. I've figured how to do that but how much of a bend should it be. John , perhaps you could help me on this?

Cheers,

Richard

She looks about ready for the spray booth Richard ;

The amazing workmanship you have put into your H-34 build has certainly inspired me ; I had a go at cutting open the cockpit side windows on three of my current H-34's . I'm adding pilots as well and I like your idea for the communication wire ; Italeri's UH-34J canopy has a slightly thinner console panel molded to the underside with some knobs molded on as opposed to the UH-34D canopy .

Again great progress pic's , thank's for sharing .

                               John .

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since the last post as I was busy with work and my other builds.

I haven't progressed much but managed to add the canopy console and wiring.

 I added putty along visible seams and sanded.

Again I test fitted the canopy to the frame and will need filler to the back of the canopy. I'll use a strip of card for this.

Then I made the console from card strips and stretched sprue and test fitted it on the top of the canopy.

I added wire to simulate dangling communication wires and painted it all black. Again test fitting on the canopy to see how it looks.

That's all for now till later. Thanks for looking.

Cheers,

Richard

Thanks John,

With all the scratch building done, the area I'm most dreading to do is the mating of the canopy to the cockpit which is second to masking of the canopy frame. To get my mind off it I'll probably add switches and wire to the canopy console.

I saw your growing fleet of H-34's and they're looking great.

Cheers,

Richard

She's really coming together now Richard . The engine screens look amazing and so does the dry-brushing/highliting of the cockpit consols . I like the way you fitted the cockpit consol in , it's sometimes difficult to get the consol to sit in place properly with italeri's instructions , I like the way you did it .

The high stack exhaust looks great too.....

                                              John .

Hi Guys,

More updates on my WIP. This is realtime WIP as opposed to the other completed WIP's I have posted in other forums.

These were done just a day ago...I have glued the body together with minor adjustments to the interior bulkheads by shaving and sanding.

Dry fitted the canopy...this is where more adjustments were made to the scratched frames.

I added more strip card to compensate for the gaps between the clear parts and the frame.

Notice that putty is needed for the gaps for the top engine vent frames.

Putty has been added to the front vent frames...I took off the dash board to facilitate sanding to fit the clear canopy.

Close up of the exhaust where I added bracings and spokes in each tube.

These two pix show what you see through the mesh...I hope I captured the look of it.

That's all for today. C & C welcomed.

Cheers,

Richard

Thanks Len, appreciate your comments. Looks like I got lucky using the cooling fan from the M-113. I've actually got the 1/72 ESCI M-4 Sherman. Don't know where I chucked the engine.

More updates...

The vents just behind the cockpit also have mesh that I had to replace. They're slightly more coarse as compared with the sample fine mesh here.

I used return rollers from a Tamiya M-48 Patton to simulate the gears.

This is what it looks like patched to the body.

I also added gyzmology plumbing to the tail boom.

CX & C welcomed.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard,

Nice work!

It's appropriate that you used the cooling fan from an M-113, since your "engine" is actually the cooling fan for the Seahorse's powerplant. The engine (and fan) sits forward of the firewall, and isn't visible through the air screens. Actually, there's not a whole lot of gear in that void between the back of the firewall and the front cabin bulkhead -- basically the fan gearbox and shaft, assorted wires and cables, and lots of room for the air to get in.

There aren't any AM engines that I've heard of. The closest appears to be the engine from the 1/72nd scale Esci M-4 Sherman tank, and its various reboxings by other manufacturers. It's not an R1820-84, but it's adaptable.

Len