My Academy 1/48th CH-53E build

Wow, excellant weathering on the interior and the detail with the wiring on the inside and out looks great.  Can't wait to see the finish kit.  Great Work!!!!

Awesome Job!

The added little bits on the main rotor blades and fuel probe really add alot of depth.  Do the world a favor, and submit this build to the magazine.  It's just that good, and you're really going to capture the look and feel of the "Heavy Iron." 

Don't use electrical tape for the leading edge blade tape.  It curls up, even with CA glue. 

Semper Fi,

Chris

Doupnik,

 How did you drop the rotor head?  That's the one thing on this kit I wasn't too thrilled with, the head just looks too tall.  Great build, BTW.

ridleusmc wrote:

Awesome Job! The added little bits on the main rotor blades and fuel probe really add alot of depth.  Do the world a favor, and submit this build to the magazine.  It's just that good, and you're really going to capture the look and feel of the "Heavy Iron."  Don't use electrical tape for the leading edge blade tape.  It curls up, even with CA glue.  Semper Fi, Chris

Thanks a lot Chris, your build was one of my inspirations, I have "borrowed" liberally . I hadn't planned on adding leading edge blade tape, but I'll look at my refs. And I won't use electrical tape, thanks.

Almost ready to paint.

mason 

Yamafreak72 wrote:

Doupnik,  How did you drop the rotor head?  That's the one thing on this kit I wasn't too thrilled with, the head just looks too tall.  Great build, BTW.

Thanks for your comments. 

I did several things and I am still not quite happy, I will do things differently next time. I shaved a little off of the vertical support stubs from parts G3 and G4 to compress the head a little, this meant I had to also shorten all of the connectors, D16. I also cut away a little off the vertical pieces on C16 as that piece is what the rotor head is supported on. Finally because I was still too high and the rotor was not sitting low enough, I widened the hole in C16 so the rotor head sat low enough. I need to do some more work on it, as it wobbles.

Next time, I will compress the head the same, but I will take more off G4 as that caused the most problems and do more test fits with it and C16, earlier. I am definitely learning a lot of what not to do on this one.

Hope this helps.

mason 

Made some progress. Started painting, painted the cockpit in dark grey first so that it would match the interior, no pics. Then I got a primer coat on.

I also got some work done on the tail rotor. Mostly painted, just need to weather things.

Thanks for looking,

mason 

Here's another update. Finally threw some paint on it.

The main rotor blades are coming along. I need to weather them some more and wear down the leading edges a little more, bring the bare metal up more.

The tie downs are homemade decals and even after two or three good coats, some of them came up a bit with the MicroSol, so I will probably go custom decals for the squadron ID and modex. The tie downs look fine, but I don't want to take any chances with the big 70 on the nose.

Thanks for looking,

mason 

Got some more work done, main landing gears,

Got the painting done, it's not perfect, but decent. Got started on the decals.

mason 

Great work Mason!!!

I love the added details, like the brake lines on the main landing gear struts.  It's getting some color and looking fantastic.  Please keep us updated.  It's a great Machine.

Semper Fi,

Chris

Thanks for your comments. Big update, probably a two parter.

Got the decals done. I ended up making the tail codes and modex at home. It was a bit difficult to match the color with all of the variables, but I am close enough.

Next I sprayed a mist of light grey overall to tone down the decals.

Then came the ProModeler wash. I used a mix of lt grey, dk grey and mud brown.

mason 

Part two.

I then cleaned off the wash. I will be selectively hitting some areas with more wash, but the first part is complete.

The main rotor blades are almost done, just need to connect the lines from the blades to the head.

Thanks for looking.

mason 

A beautiful build and a great eye for detail. An Excellent model to be proud of.

Charlie

A bit more done. Airbrushed on a mist of dirty dark brown and used pastels to bring out the lines along with adding some more bits.

Thanks for looking.

mason 

Wow, Mason!!

     The weathering just made it all the more authentic looking; like to you could walk out on the ramp and get in!

     Outstanding!

     Frank 

Yamafreak72 wrote:

EXCELLENT build!  Really nice weathering also.  One thing that I'm sure you'll do is make sure the center of the rain shield where the rotor mast attaches is flush, it looks raised in one of your pics.  I hope my kit turns out half as well as your "shi**er" has!

Could you be a little more specific? Are you talking about the little ring around the hole in the center of the main rotor head?

Thanks a bunch, having fun with this one.

mason 

doupnik wrote:

Yamafreak72 wrote: EXCELLENT build!  Really nice weathering also.  One thing that I'm sure you'll do is make sure the center of the rain shield where the rotor mast attaches is flush, it looks raised in one of your pics.  I hope my kit turns out half as well as your "shi**er" has!   Could you be a little more specific? Are you talking about the little ring around the hole in the center of the main rotor head?   Thanks a bunch, having fun with this one.   mason

Exactly.  On the real deal it's just a hole in the middle of the rain shield, no ring.  It looks like that's one of the parts you modded to drop the rotor head, am I right?  The lowered height looks nice, BTW. 

 Shi**ers rule!

Exactly.  On the real deal it's just a hole in the middle of the rain shield, no ring.  It looks like that's one of the parts you modded to drop the rotor head, am I right?  The lowered height looks nice, BTW.   Shi**ers rule!

That actually is part of the Eduard pe set. I thought it was a bit high, but I don't think I'll change it now. It is now part of my extensive, " What I'll do differently next 53E build" list.

Thanks for the tip on the decals, I actually have hit it twice with DullCote without any trouble, I guess ignorance is bliss...  

Yamafreak72, thanks for your tips, they are much appreciated.

Minor update. She is now on here gears and has a nice big set of engines. I also put the FLIR on and wired it. It's not perfect, but I am happy.

Thanks for looking.

mason 

Mason,

I don't get over here to the Helo page often enuf - so this is the first time I've looked over this build thread.  Man - that is some seriously impressive work...  on the build the detailing the painting and the weathering.  Very very nice.

Chris

ALL DONE!!!

Thanks for looking.

mason 

OH MAN,

That's such a great job, that I cannot put into words how well you did.  You truly captured the dirty beauty of the great beast.  I can hear the APU lighting off, and it makes me homesick.  Great work.  GREAT WORK!

Semper Fi,

Chris

Great finish Mason on a great model. Could you please post a close image that captures the rivet detail. I am really interested in how your rivet work came out. Front a distance they look great and that is why I would love to see a close up.

Charlie

ridleusmc wrote:

OH MAN, That's such a great job, that I cannot put into words how well you did.  You truly captured the dirty beauty of the great beast.  I can hear the APU lighting off, and it makes me homesick.  Great work.  GREAT WORK! Semper Fi, Chris

As I said earlier, your build was one of my major inspirations. I've "borrowed" quite heavily from you, so thank you.

As far as the rivet detail goes, here are pics. They are a bit grainier than the actual model, but here you go.

Thanks for your comments,

mason 

The rivets came out really nice. Thanks for the extra image.

Charlie

Mason,

          You did an outstanding job on "Warhorse 70!" As a plank onwer of that squadron and my first Echo squadron you did the model proud. I am a retired H53 knuckle dragging mech that now works for Uncle Igor at MCAS Miramar and get to see these aircraft every day. I even helped ferry a few of these legacy machines out to Tustin back in the day. I have ordered a lot of the "trick" tools and other accessories you used on your model to try and duplicate your master piece if at all possible, but I will have to make it a "Wolfpack" aircraft as that was the last squadron I was in at Tustin before I go shipped off to Hawaii and back to the "D" models for my last two years.

Jerry

Great job!! Feeling a little nostalgic myself, but I worked on them on the Navy side. I really do miss them.

Excellent job Mason....I hope I can do as good when I start the one I just picked up at discount..(only way I could afford it.)

The exhaust marks look great...

, Dave.

I'm a little late to the game but I wanted to say what a spectacular job you've done!

Hope to see some more in the future!

I think academy must have fixed their decal issues.. When I built this kit I coated mine in Testors Dullcoat with no problems.

My only complaint about the decals was it seemed like they all wanted to roll up on themselves.