Bummer. 

Hi;

   I am sorry to hear that.I was following this to get to the finished model. Oh, Well ,You'll find some Whirly bird from which to salvage parts for the " Wolf"

I'm sorry, Mr. Mike. Sad to hear it (or to read it). I was following this...

Several months ago, the box containing my Airwolf model fell to the floor with many broken and some missing parts.  I have retired that model since it would require way too much scratch building and repair.  Sorry everyone, this model is gone.

Mr. Mike,

Glad you liked the tips. It's hard to tell where people are at sometimes on the skill tree sometimes.  I saw what looked like beginner's mistakes and thought I could help. Really looking forward to watching it come together.

lewbud, thank you for the painting tips!  I really appreciate it.  I have been doing most of that for years now and sometimes I like to throw caution to the wind.  With all of the angles and surface details, masking Airwolf has become a chore even with Tamiya tape.  It will get done and I have lots of time to mask it off.  Thanks lewbud!

Before you do any painting, wipe off the model with some rubbing alcohol. This will remove any remaining sanding dust and oils left by your fingers from handling it during assembly. If you don't have any, run, walk, drive, take public transportation, whatever, to your local hobby shop and get some Tamiya Fine Gray Primer. Mask off the canopies and windows and shoot the primer. After that, take your finest grade sandpaper and give the primer coat a light sanding and then wipe it back down with rubbing alcohol to remove any dust. The primer coat will help the color coat adhere to the model, and give a neutral base, making it easier to apply the white for the underside. When it comes to masking, get your masking tape (Tamiya's is the best) and cut it into relatively thin strips. Use the strips to mask your cheat line (where the dark grey meets the white) and burnish the heck out of them. After you've masked the underbelly, go back and shoot a coat of white along the taped edge, this should seal the edge and prevent the dark gray from seeping under the tape. Shoot the topside color. When everything has had time to dry thoroughly, take a new #11 blade and GENTLY run it along the edge of the tape. This will give you a sharp edge and hopefully allow you to remove the tape with out lifting the edge.

Thanks for the advice!  I will have to reconsider the Tamiya tape and I just might start taping again.

Hi;

      When I have a taping situation like this I use 1/4" wide automotive striping tape. It burnishes down real good and if you pull it back on itself I haven't had problems with it lifting the other color.

     It's mylar so it's real flexible. That said, the other alternative is the wider Tamiya tape. I think they have one that is low tack!

 I hope this won't upset you, but I would've sanded down the window framing more to put it more in scale as far as appearance! This kit surprised me with the large molded details as well.

The Tamiya tape is really good for comfirming to curves. If even it won't work you might consider using Silly Putty or poster tack type material. But the Tamiya tape should do the trick. 

I have not tried Tamiya flexible vinyl tape.  I will have to check it out.  Thanks!

Cool.  Ya white first.  Have you tried the tamiya flexible vinyl tape?  Covers contours well.

I figured that since the plastic is clolored, painting the dark grey first and the flat white afterwards wouldn'tt be an issue.  I had attempted to mask off the upper body to paint the lower body and the masking is not going as I had hoped.  The detail on the body is lifting the tape and paint could get under it.  I might consider brush painting the flat white instead.

Oh ouch I think I'd have sprayed the belly first, masked, and then done the top surfaces. Looking forward to seeing how you mask her off! 

Coming along nicely 

I have begun some assembly on Airwolf.  Unfortunately, I now must start the arduous task of masking for the flat white underbelly.

More Airwolf to come...

Cool! 

I fired up the paint booth this morning and painted "The Lady" with Tamiya TS-94 Metallic Grey.  I thought the shade of color would be a little lighter, but this came out perfectly!  I like it!

More Airwolf to come...

Hoorah!!!

I finally got Airwolf out of the Easy-Off bath and gave her a good scrubbing with an old toothbrush and Dawn Dish Detergent.  Ready for primer and paint!

More Airwolf to come...

I find myself humming that theme song all the time!  Never get tired of it!

Yeah! It's one of the best theme songs from any TV show. Funny how I hadn't watched the series in over twenty years till I picked up the DVDs and yet I could still hum the entire theme! 

I've been finding lots of covers of the Airwolf theme song.  I have a few on my iPod and I found a bunch on Youtube.  I think I like the theme song...

Absolutely loved this show when it was on, except for Season 4 which I just couldn't watch after the first couple episodes. My son was just a couple years old at the time and would always jump up and down on the sofa when ever he heard the music.

Gamera

Oh the weapons pod came out great! That's some nice work!

 

I hadn't heard about the whole push for more family scripts in season 2 but it makes perfect sense. Probably my least favorite season other than the 4th. I mean why not bring a military grade helicopter gunship in to solve your family issues???

Oh the weapons pod came out great! That's some nice work!

I hadn't heard about the whole push for more family scripts in season 2 but it makes perfect sense. Probably my least favorite season other than the 4th. I mean why not bring a military grade helicopter gunship in to solve your family issues???

I started playing some Airwolf music on Youtube and went to work on the ADF Pod.  I drilled holes in the Pod front and rear for more realism and detail painted the Pod.

More Airwolf to come...

Yes, the stories haven't held up as well as one would like, but I do agree that the helicopter is awesome!  The reason the stories had changed during the 2nd and 3rd seasons was the studio producing the series wanted to get away from the espionage storyline and have more of a family oriented show.  Unfortunately, Airwolf is a weapon used more for espionage and covert missions than something that is family oriented.  A few family stories here and there would have been better IMHO with the majority of episodes being of the espionage type.  But other factors were working against the show,  mainly Jan Michael Vincent's alcoholism and drug use. 

The Canadian/USA Network season 4 changed everything.  Much smaller budget, constant reuse of stock footage, new cast, storylines and studio.  I found it very difficult to watch the 4th season as did many other viewers.  Someone, somewhere wanted more episodes for series syndication and I believe they had achieved that. 

The actual helicopter was returned to stock configuration and sold overseas as an air ambulance.  It was destroyed and all lives lost during a rescue mission.  When the Canadian series started, an R/C helicopter was used a couple of times, but proved to be very unreliable.  The decision was made to use stock footage of Airwolf, thus keeping the series under budget.  Anyone could tell the difference showing Airwolf flying over a forest in one scene and then in a desert enviroment the next. 

I have the complete series on DVD and I paid about $20.00 for it at a local store that was doing away with DVD sales. 

Steve: If you wanted to pick the show up today I'm not sure I'd recommend it or not. As I said it was my favorite TV show as a kid. I picked up the DVDs and as an adult- well it's not aged as well as I'd have hoped. 

The chopper is awesome though! The Bell 222 is one sexy looking heli and the black paint and fiberglass pods for the jet engines and weapons only add to the look. Even as a kid I never understood how they could break the sound barrier without ripping the rotor blades off or have space for all those missiles though. But still it's more important that the chopper look totally badass. And she does even today. Flying over the SW American desert or over the ocean with the rotor wash throwing up waves is sheer beauty. And 'The Lair' in the Valley of the Gods is so much cooler than the Batcave that Batman would turn green with envy.

And I loved the cast. Ernest Borgine is fun in anything and Ann Bruce Scott is stunning. I had a big crush on her way back then. I may have her to blame for my current weakness for redheads/gingers. I can't say I've been that crazy about Alex Cord in most stuff he's starred in but he's perfect here as the government 'spook' in their corner. Jan-Michael Vincent was the perfect leading man until he started destroying himself with booze and drugs. It was sad to watch his slide downhill in the latter half of the series. I have a lot of respect for Borgine when a reporter kept harrassing him for dirt on Vincent and he told the guy that 'Jan-Michael is a good friend, and I'm not saying any more than that.' 

The main issue I have with the series as an adult is the stories. The first season is pretty good overall but season two and three they seemed to run out of good ideas and the plots were pretty bland. There were a few good ones spliced in there like 'The American Dream' but overall it was weak. And the less I say about the abomination of the 'fourth' season the better. On moving to the USA network the entire cast was replaced and they didn't even have the friggin' chopper to film with so they used nothing but stock footage shots. Eeeeyuck......