Dragon 1:35 UH-1H Huey WIP

Gino- Thanks man!!!! What did I win from you?  Kidding. Really appreciate all of help I am getting here.  

My wife will be spend the night at mother's tonight. You know what it means?  More bench time!!!  Life is good.

Looking great.  I knew you could do the wire protectors.  It's going to look great once painted.

Carl- Thank you my friend... do appreciate you tagging along.  Finally I am going to call the building part done so I can move on to the next stage priming and painting.  But I am not sure if I should apply Zimmerit first?

Guys- I took Gino's challenge to add the frame wires around the windshield.  I thought it would look cool too and it wasn't too bad... about an hour of work. 

First I drilled holes... inserted two styrene rods in the middle then I used guitar string 12 gauge.  They don't bent easily.  VERY firm and it was just perfect for this.

Unfortunately something very fragile broke while I was working on it...   Remember I warned you I can be a klutz sometimes!  Not only that it broke... it broke into two pieces.

Fortunately the kit came with antenna PE that I didn't use... cut it to fit the resin base.  I hope it holds better than fragile resin.

So far I am very pleased with this...

Can't wait to have it primed tomorrow night!

Gettin close Andy but you will make it ! Man , the details are somethin else .

Gino- Wire frames?  Is that a double dare? LOL I will see what I can do... I agree it shouldn't be that hard. Again thanks for bringing this up.  I didn't notice those wire frames til just now in all walkaround pictures.

Guys- Little update... the landing skid lacked details.  A guy in other forum brought up about the bolts and it sounded like a good idea. 

Here's the actual thing...

I wanted to add four big bolts on the strut only... other bolts were too small to be noticed at 1:35 scale.  Maybe I will do that in my future build but time is starting to run out for me.

Absolutely no details on the landing skids... shame on you Dragon!

Drilled holes and used .10 mm styrene rods... they were allowed to dry overnight.

After a day of drying, they were solid, I cut and sanded the excessive parts off.

I like it now... I wish I could add more details but again I have less than two weeks to prime and paint the Huey.  March 2nd is the deadline...

One more thing you may want to try is the wire frame around the bases or the windshield wipers.  These are part of the wire strike kit and keep wires from catching on the wipers.  You can see them below.

They are pretty easy to make with some thin wire. 

loachman

Gene,

SGM (Ret) Aviation Maintenance and Operations

Ron

Gene,

SGM (Ret) Aviation Maintenance and Operations

Ron

Ron- Sorry I missed your post earlier.  You just made me feel grateful that I am deaf so I don't have to learn how to speak in another tongue. LOL  Appreciate you stopping by... thanks!

Gene- Thanks!  I recall it had something to do with air speed just like the planes. 

Gino- Good to have you back!  Hope your short vacation was great! It shouldn't be a problem to turn the square block into circle base.  Typical Dragon error...

Hope to post another update... I have decided to add bolts to the landing skid.  Walkaround pictures show bolts where the strut and skit meets.

  Hey Gino glad your back at it to catch my mistakes.

  Loachman are you a VHPA member? What unit? 

By the way, you have a great build going.

Ron

Andy, that "rod thing" is the pitot tube, a pressure measuring device that works off air flow velocity to provide input to the airspeed indicator, the vertical speed indicator, and the altimeter.

As Gene said earlier, aviation (especially rotorwing) has a language all its own.  If you've been around it a long time, you don't realize that some need a translation when talking to us.  My wife says that listening to some old friends and me is like speaking in another tounge.  She has learned to translate.

Ron

The piece you have moved is the pitot tube.  It is hollow and measures forward airspeed.  You are correct, it is offset when the wire cutters are used.  Also, you may want to cut the square block off the base.  It only had a small circle for a base.

Gene beat me to it.  I'm back.  Just a quick vacation for Presidents Day.

 That's the "pitot tube", it was located on the nose on the UH-1D and is one sure way of telling the two apart. The pitot system is what reads the airspeed.

  I can't help but wonder where Gino is? MIA?

Gene- Got it about tail boom!  I applied more gap filling CA to the gap.  I may add more after the primer job to see if necessary. 

Guys- Added the wire cutters...  they were very fragile and I hope they stay there til the end. First of all Dragon had instruction wrong once again.  The wire cutter is supposed to be in the center but the rod was already there.  So I had to move it.  What do you call that?

Final look...the rod thing was supposed to be left from the center according to walkaround pictures I googled.

Added wipers stop ends but I see one of them has been bent down so gonna fix it.

  Yeah Andy, the "tail boom" is the entire structure of the tail. I'm talking about where they meet there just under the "tolet bowl". We did have our own language, but it was a whole lot simpler the "bureaucratese"!

  The door should be fine, it wont go far enough forward to hit the gun mount. Just enough to align it with the back edge of the well (the side facing seats where the gunner sits).

Carl- I can't wait either! LOL  Gonna add the wire cutters as soon as I get home hopefully I can have it primed tonight.  I was tired after working on it for nearly two days in a row. 

Gene- Thank you so much!  ALWAYS appreciate your feedback.   I wasn't sure if the doors were set properly.  That's why I used the putty to hold em and check with you guys.  My biggest concern is that the doors may not fit because of the MG set... it will be very tight. 

Please bear with me... I am still learning here.  I wasn't sure what you meant by 'tail boom' so I googled for pictures and it shows the whole body of tail.  Did you meant by the space where tail and fuselage meets? 

  Yeah Chris at cobra is really a nice guy. I've dealt with him before and he's alway been a great help. The "stinger" looks just right now, another great piece of work. The doors are just a hair too far back. Don't let the front edge of the door go past the back wall of the well. The track for the rollers that hold the door stops at the back wall so the rollers and their supports are right at that wall. Also the gap at the tail boom attachment might need a bit more work. Man I wish I could build half as good as your doing!

Looks great Andy , waiting to see how it looks with paint !

Gene- Thank you for the nice words.  Really appreciate you following my build very closely.  Learned something new.. 'stinger' that makes sense now. LOL  I agree with you the kit part was too thick.  Instead of making new one I sanded, sanded and sanded it without breaking it which surprised me!

Here's improved 'stinger' glued to the tail at proper angle.  I found a great reference picture to confirm the correct angle.

Also, I have worked on the MG resin set from Cobra Company... they were fragile so you need to treat them with care because I managed to snap the pintle into three pieces!   However the owner Chris replied to my email within minutes that he will mail me a replacement if I pay for the postage of $2.80 only.  Whew!  Great customer service you can say! 

If you can see the door attached to the fuselage temporarily.  I want to see how it goes... not too far back I hope.

Almost done with the building part, I only need to attach both top and bottom wire cutters then I am ready for next stage... painting!

Andy;

 Lookin better every day! The wire for the antennas look great! Much better than the kit stuff. Heat shields are looking good to. I agree about the "stinger" (that's what we called it), it looks too thick and the angle doesn't look right. You might look at scratch building, but at least see if you can correct the angle. Don't know where Gino's been he could really help on some of this.

BTW the little bump jsut forward of the D antenna on the tail is the rear (white) navigation light, one on each side. I'm not sure what that other part they gave you was.

Guys- Having a GREAT day... spent hours at the workbench and my wife isn't complaining yet.

More update... used same guitar string gauge 18 for the radio antenna.  It looks much better now according to the walkaround pictures.  The kit part isn't glued but wanted to show you how it looks like...

Like Gene suggested thin down the heat shields... wore the mask again.

They have been glued to the fuselage finally...

I am not too sure about this... the kit part of tail rod looks kinda thick.  I am pondering if I should scratch build it or not.  I need to look at more walkaround pictures to confirm.

What do you think?  Again thanks for looking!

Gene- Awesome!  Figured I need to cut the portion of heat shields off because they look out of scale.  They are actually 1/32 designed for Revell Hueys.  No problem about thinning them more... I never had to wear my mask that much before because I am dealing with a lot of resin parts.

About the resin fairings on the nose, I have seen many pictures with just one on the left side and others had both on.  I used Gino's WIP to include both... heh! 

Guys- Just a little update... I was not impressed with the styrene rod for the tail... too thick after looking at walk around pictures.

I have guitar strings in different sizes... they can be very useful for armor antennas.

I used gauge 18...

Much stronger now... no way I can break it off by accident now.  Working on the M-60 upgrade set today... more to come.

Andy: I think your on the right track with the heat shields. Maybe try to sand it a little thiner?

Gino;  The two bulges Andy has on the nose, RWR sensors? Whats the time frame on those? From the one small photo showing the nose that's on the facebook page, they don't appear to be on the aircraft at the time his friend was there. What that prominent a feature, I'd hate to have them there if they weren't on his bird. Your thoughts?

Guys- Made a lot of process last night adding details to the Huey!  Getting much closer to the painting stage.

Most of details at the bottom are completed except for two holes to be filled.

It looks like the instructions were incorrect again, the wire cutter was placed too close to the nose.  After looking at the walk around pictures, it seems to be placed farther in the rear.  I need to fix that... I should have checked the pictures before I had it glued.  

The resin heat shield from Fireball Co may be over scaled... take a look.I drew a black line where I may need to cut but I wanted to check with you guys first.

Picture of the actual thing... it is hard to tell but looks like I need to cut it shorter.  And there is little gap at the bottom...

Fireball Co gives me two options for the top wire cutter... I think I am going for the left without the object based on the picture Gene found in the Bob's Company Facebook group earlier.

Latest look...

Off to the workbench now for a bit... let's hope my wife doesn't find me there.

Carl- Thanks my friend!

Gene- I agree the PE blade antenna may be correct but knowing me I am one klutzy modeler so I know it will snap off easily if I use that PE breaking my heart. LOL 

Glad it is starting to remind you of your old friend!!!

 The blade antenna looks fine Andy. the PE one may be a little closer to actual scale, but if it breaks off that don't help. I think I'll let Gino comment on the tail light, that one just don't look right to me. Ours were on each side of the tail boom under the fin, but maybe they changed that later. It's looking a lot like my old friend Andy. Great job!

Nice Andy

Guys- Another update on the Huey... I try to work on it few hours every night this week.  Spent three hours at the work bench last night adding alot of details to the Huey. 

Most of the details on the top have been added except for rod to be added later on because I am afraid I will damage it. I tried to use the PE for the fin (NOT ATTACHED BELOW) but I wasn't impressed... way too thin and VERY fragile so I used the kit part but I sanded it LONG enough to make it thinner.  That way it will not snap off...

Added the heat shield... feisty little b@stards.  Good thing Fireball Company threw in four extras because I broke two.  LOL  And added the hook... Bob had one as he told me he hauled supplies often.

Added two small resin parts to the nose... I forgot what they are called.  Still learning here... remember that?

Now I only have one question... Fireball instruction is telling me to add a tail light to the tail but many pictures of UH-1H I have seen doesn't have this.  I think it is meant for Revell kit not my Dragon...the picture of part is taken in front of the instruction.

That's all folks!!!

Tonight I am going to cut and sand the top side head covers... thank you so much for the answers to my earlier questions.   Agree it will look great once they are attached...