So, I've been hiding this one a little until now. I had a hard time finding the kit I wanted but was able to get ahold of one, although I will not disclose how .... thanks again BTW. The kit is from Dragon, 1/35 AH-6J Little Bird "Night Stalkers". I will be converting this one into a MH-6, pretty much like those built by Avus and HeavyARTY ... who have been tremendously helpful in getting this one started up. I'm planning on setting this one in flight, just before touching down in the roof of the Olympic Hotel during the battle in Mogadishu, 3 OCT 1993. Pretty much like the scene in the Hollywood movie "Blackhawk Down". I haven't decided yet if I'm going to buy Verlinden's mid-east building corner yet, or if I'm going to scratch my own .... (side note ... things at the house have taken a funny turn ... I lost my civi job ((they said they couldn't compete w/ my military job ![Sign - Dots [#dots]](/emoticons/icon_smile_sign_dots.gif)
Bastards.)) so my modeling funding has pretty much ground to a halt .... booo). Anyway, I'll probably end up scratching it. Styrene is cheap and I know have the time ... ok, bad joke.
N E HOO ... the kit ... the kit is decent, although it does need a lot of cleaning up for the flashing/ molding lines. Detail is good, but the *REPORT ME!!* pit is lacking a little. But it seems to be going together fairly well.
Getting to what I know you guys want ...
Here, you can see the *REPORT ME!!* pit interior going together. IOT to get a little more detail out of the interior, I drilled out the dials/ gauges so that they can be filled w/ detail and topped with Future later on. I backed the drilled holes on the backside with sheet styrene.
I started adding copper solder wiring to the backside of the *REPORT ME!!* pit wall. I have pictures, but I'm not 100% certain of its accuracy ... I'm using artistic latitude. I also started in on scratching the frame work for the skid benches. (Thanks again to Avus for his help on this.) I'm getting closer to a finished product, as far as the benches go, but I still need to add a lot of detail IOT get them to look the part.
Benches are made from sheet and c-channel styrene. The rounded nose/ tail sections are thick sprue cut in half, glued down, and sanded to shape. They will pretty much just slide into the frame work hanging off the bird after the halves have been closed up (making the build a little easier).
That's pretty much what I've got thus far. This one is kind-of my side build from my HMMWV dio. For now, its staying pretty easy ... which is nice. I found a steal on ebay and picked up Academy's OH-58D Kiowa. I'll be using the pilots for this build and building the 58 later on as a static display.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to get the interior finished up and painted pretty soon .... but I'm in no rush.
Enjoy! And as always .... crits and comments welcome.