Build Log: 1/32 UH-34D Conversion

Thanks and I'll pass on your words to my daughter.  I am very confident she will do well at anything she puts her mind to.  She is just that way; wonder where she got that from?  

Glad you like the build so far.  It has been fun and will be quite big when done.  I built the Heller Frelon many years ago.  It is huge, but well detailed.  It should come out nice.

Tanker-Builder

Are you NOT going to have the doors over the engine opening, or removeable, to show the power plant? I have never seen anyone do an exposed power plant on one of these types. How-come?

No engine in this one; for a couple reasons.  One, the kit doesn't come with anything for the engine compartment and I don't feel like sourcing an appropriate radial engine, scratching everything that goes with it, and cutting apart the 3-D printed nose to make it all work.  The 3-D nose is pretty brittle and I don't think it would cut well either.  There is word though that Reedoak may have an open nose and engine compart in the works.  Also, I plan on making this an in-action bird, with a crew and disgourging Marines, so no open engine compartment. 

First:

    Let me give you congratulations for your Daughter. Being in the service and a wife can be a strain. I know for sure. All three of mine got the " Military Flu" So I got one A.F., one Navy, and one U.S.M.C. All flyers. Husbands came later and the oldest is now single. May she have BOTH a long  Happymarriage and a long safe, career in the service.

      Now to the Chopper. That looks as fascinating as my French Helicopter. Lotsa of parts right? The Super Frelon is a big Model too. and I stopped on it till dry summer months get here. I want to paint it outside! The rotor blades are darned near as big a circle as the top of my A/C condenser fan opening!

 Are you NOT going to have the doors over the engine opening, or removeable, to show the power plant? I have never seen anyone do an exposed power plant on one of these types. How-come?

Thanks guys.

Yes, congratulations to your daughter.  May her career be long, safe and fulfilling.

Congrats to your daughter, and great work.

I have a small update tonight. Not a lot done as I have been pretty busy w/life lately. My younger daughter graduated from college last weekend and was commissioned into the US Army as an ADA officer. She gets married next week, so I have been and will continue to be busy.

A very proud papa.

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On to the H-34…

I have pretty much finished building and detailing the cabin and cockpit. I found that the cockpit floor was too long for the H-34 nose. The angled front firewall that separated the cockpit from the air intake grills area was falling across the middle of the grills. I cut the angled part off and glued it into the H-34 nose in the correct place.

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I then cut 1cm from the cockpit floor and angled the front of the center console to match the angle of the firewall. I will need to add about 3mm of styrene to the bottom of the firewall as the new position (further aft) raised it up as well.

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 The H-34 IP is also included in the kit listed as “For Other Versions”.

Lastly, I added details to the cabin side of the cockpit rear wall and the cabin front wall.

That’s it for tonight.

Work continues, slowly.  Life and Hockey on TV (Go Bolts!) keep getting in the way of bench time.  

I have continued with the cabin and cockpit area.  First off, the kit is inaccurate in the area where the lower front cabin wall and the cockpit rear wall meet.  

This is how the kit has you build it.  It has a couple issues.

To start, the cockpit rear wall comes down too far.  The kit has it even with the cockpit floor.  There is actually a step there.  I cut 5mm off the bottom of the cockpit rear wall.

Next, there should be a tunnel going from the cabin front wall through the cut out area to the ceiling that the prop shaft goes through from the engine to the transmission above.  You can see it in the below pic.

Here is how I replicated it.  I cut off the bottom of the rear IP at an angle, then boxed in the tunnel with sheet styrene and added an access panel on the rear side.

Also, here is how the mesh will look on the nose section. I'm not sure how much details I will add behind the screens.  I am using a PE mesh from Royal Model (no. 469).  It is relatively fine and I don't think you will really see much through it.  We'll see. 

Progress is moving along slowly. I have completed all the stringers and longerons on both sides of the cabin. After finishing them, you glue a bunch of triangular and diamond shaped PE bolt plates where they come together.

There was a minor issue with these PE plates. The instructions indicate a total of 33 of the diamond shaped plates. However, there are only 24 on the PE sheet. To rectify this, I left them off behind where the seats will be. You won’t see that area to tell they are missing.

Thanks gents.  Not much work on it this week.  The plan is to work on it most of the weekend, we'll see.

Gorgeous work as always; your helis are works of art.  Following!

I had no idea that anybody did a large scale one of these. This is too cool of a project! 

Yup, it is pretty big; about the same size as a 1/35 Black Hawk.

Big beast i bet.

I have made a bit of progress.  It doesn't look like much, but it was time consuming.  The Fly Models kit is very detailed.  You start by adding all internal stringers and longerons in the rear cabin.   The vertical stringers weren't too bad as each was a separate part that you glue onto thin lines on the inner wall.  The longerons and parts around the windows are each individually cut to fit between the stringers.  

Here is one side done, one to go.

They took some time, but it does look great when done.

Really looking forward to it. 

Hello Gino!

Another interesting subject - I'd be watching this one with interest. Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł