Hey all,
Well, I've gone and done it. All of this talk about the TOW Hueys got me thinking and I figured it wouldn't be too hard to scratchbuild the XM-26 system for the Monogram Huey Hog kit. (I know, I know, I can hear the snickers already)
So, I started the other day in a moment of weakness. First thing I did was cut out the engine armor panels from sheet styrene. Piece of cake, this is gonna be an easy conversion! Next was the external TOW sighting turret and mount. Again, piece of cake. I just laminated some sheet styrene, sanded to shape, and voila! TOW turret! I even reshaped the ADF antenna on the roof! I'm on a roll!
Of course, I then realized, this is a UH-1B. It needs a completely different rotor. Oboy.... so, I cut the blades down, re-sanded the airfoil and boom... two blades! Of course, the pitch horns are different and are giving me fits, but I think I've got one done. That was all over the past few days, bringing us to the present.
Unfortunately my camera batteries died tonight.
I actually built the left side TOW mount and pod tonight. We got weathered, so I didn't fly tonight and had a spare three hours to kick around and do nothing. So, I put em to good use working on my Huey.
The mount was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The basic S-curve was just two pieces of sheet styrene bent to shape and softened with liquid cement. Once they were in the proper shape, I laminated them together and sanded them to an airfoil cross section. The end where the pod attaches has a very distinct, beefier cross section to it, so I added two additional pieces of sheet styrene to that section to get the proper thickness. It mounted to the airframe a hell of a lot easier than I figured it would!
The pod itself is just about finished. I decided to build it as a box, rather than as laminated styrene. Its lighter this way and won't pull the mount off of the airframe. I got the basic shape down pretty well, although I think the downward angle on the forward end is a bit much. Because of this, it forced the three tubes into an isosceles triangle instead of an equilateral one (they're just a bit more squooshed together than what they should be). I'm going to get some aluminum tubing at the LHS tomorrow and do the actual tubes and aft ends of the pod.
The rough part was the cradle assembly that attaches to the pod and to the mount. I basically just cut styrene into two wishbone shapes and then glued strips between the two wishbones to make the whole saddle assembly. It is kinda crude, but it works. Needs a little filling on one side, but it looks really good otherwise.
At this point, I've got the following to finish building:
1) Right TOW Pod
2) Right TOW Mount
3) Associated wire and hydraulic lines for both pods
4) TOW gunner's sighting system (parts that are in the cabin)
5) Toilet bowl exhaust
6) Rotor head
I'll be stealing the Toilet Bowl exhaust and the TOW sighting system from one of my Cobra kits. They'll be modified as needed for an accurate representation. The second pod and mount will be just like the first set. Should be pretty easy. The only real challenge left is finishing that UH-1B rotor head.
After that, it's an overall OD coat, followed by SEA tan and black camo pattern and a beautiful ATTACK HELICOPTER TOW TEAM "Whispering Death" patch on the nose!
I'm not so sure I like the tail rotor, so I may modify it as well, since it has this big donut in the middle of it instead of pitch change links. We'll see....
Jon