In My Stash GB : Threepeat

Thanks gents.

Paul, I'm gonna have to go dig out my ship camo references now to find out more on that destroyer scheme.  Thanks for the info.

Hey, sweet builds you guys! Glad someone is making progress. Luckily for me, I'm finally back at the bench after my summer hiatus. Hoping to get to the Cobra some time soon! 

kenny_conklin wrote:

unfortunately my model building career has come to a grinding halt over the past few years . so i dont think i will be running this group here again because of my lack of participaton. if one of you want to take over and keep it going four years in a row that would be great.

Kenny - sorry to hear that. This GB needs to continue - too much fun! Maybe an Arki/IL2 combo team running the show?

Paul, Arki, enjoying the progress on your builds.  Keep the pics coming. 

I'm still working on the Snowberry but it is so huge that doing anything takes time.  A couple of bottles of paint and a few rolls of masking tape later I've got the hull camo painted and I've started on the deck.  I'm also trying to work on some of the subassemblies.

The deck colour I used was darker than anticipated but I'm hoping the weathering will lighten it up quite a bit.

Next up is installing the porthole windows and weathering the deck and hull.

Snowberry   Very, very nice to see you still plugging away at this one.  She's looking great, camo is cool, and wow she is a big model!

Thanks Dupes!  Hey, where is IL anyway?  I haven't seen him in the forums in awhile.

Some progress on my end.  The interior is finally finished although not fully installed.  There's another rucksack to place and control panel to install at the ceiling, but most of it is there.

The black jump seat hanging from the wall and webbing over the storage area were made from metal foil from a wine bottle and spare styrene.  They are not included in the CC kit, but help complete the look.  They aren't exactly like the real deal, but you get the idea.

Next is to focus on the glass and other fuselage half.

Hey guys - i'm still here.  Work has been busy, and my personal life has been a bit of a mess lately.  Sorry I haven't contributed much, but there's hope emerging that the Fall and Winter will permit me to finish my Ka50.  Keep up all the good work.

You can count on me for IMS4 - I'll be glad to run the election again when December comes around.

Quick progress update.  Fuselage is closed up!  Sweet!  Finally glad to have finished (mostly)  the interior.

I've begun masking the glass with the Black Magic Masks.  One thing on this kit I am disappointed with is the glass.  Way too thick, and fit with the fuselage is poor.  

The underside has a final piece to install, but before I do that I need to use the cavity for ballast against the weight of the resin tail.

I've glued lead fishing weights mashed flat to the underside piece.  That's nearly 1 oz. of weight, so I should be fine.  I hope.  The weird marks on the lead are from the pliers I used.  Didn't have a vice, more's the pity.

I'm working on the canopy glass currently, and will install the engine covers next.

Cheers

Next project update.  Upper portion for the engine bays is on, which really begins to create the iconic profile of the Dolphin.  Seam work is well underway.  I've already puttied the larger gaps, and have now slathered Mr. Surfacer 500 over the major seams for future sanding.  The Trumpeter fit isn't great, but isn't bad either.  The underside piece with the ballast is in, and this where I have most of the seam gaps.  Patience, young grasshopper.

Front canopy(s) have most of the window portions masked.  I went ahead and shot Clear Green to replicate the tint on the real deal.  I'll mask that off before installing to the airframe.

Lastly, Eduard includes little PE handles and straps for the interior of the door frame.  Nice touch, although I doubt I'll be able to see them once the glass is on the fuselage.

Obviously have seam work ahead of me, but the next big steps are to install the front canopies and then the resin radome.

Cheers

You're really going all-out on this one Arki - and it shows. Looks awesome so far.

Those masks you've got...never seen those before. Where do you get them?

AHH young arki grasshoper you have learnt well and on the way to being a master. Realy like the way its comming along arki. Defo looking like a dolphin now. I was going to ask about the masks also, from here they look like electrical tape. Get er done.

Steve

Thanks, Steve.  If you thought it looked like a Dolphin before, how about now?

Woot!  Resin nose and tail are on, with a sigh of relief.  Unfortunately, I didn't get enough lead weight for ballast.  It still wants to sit tail heavy.  I might be able to stick some more in the front gear bay, just not sure how much.

Need to fill and sand the seams at the resin attachments next.

Ugh, not as much progress lately as I would like, but that's life. 

I have managed to paint the canopy black to match the interior color.  As I've complained before, the canopies are way too thick and fit is terrible.  That little scoop is from the Eduard PE set.  The hoist is partially installed as well.

Vertical tail feathers are on, fan blades are installed, and some miscellaneous antenna are on.

And lastly I've started placing some of the Eduard PE screens and such to the outside.

Hopefully I can work faster and get this thing to primer stage!

Anyone else working?  Bueller?

Not as close as I'd like.  There's a bunch of exterior PE, and I need to determine from research photos what I should install when.  The sliding door needs some scratch-building, and the glass for that door needs to be installed as well. 

One step at a time, however.

Hi...sorry for being away from the build so long, between taking care of a sick wife and a dying mother and work it's been somewhat hectic here. I finally got some time in on detailing the HIND cockpit area and building up some of the sub-assemblies and weapons. What's slowing me down so much is just how far do I go into trying to detail out the cockpit/cabin or just stop, wrap it up and slap it all together.

This was at the start of the build.

And this is the continuing work in progress...

The circular tub behind the cockpit wall is one area I'm sctratch building by extending the walls up towards the pilot seat though once it's all together, it would barely be visible through the open aft cabin doors.

So much left to do here, I hope to have some more progress done by next week along with some new pic's.

Hey Arki, Ive been finished for a while but still enjoying your progress pics and its looking great by the way. I am bogged down myself in PE on a current build and beginning to wonder is it all worth it in the end.

Shooter, sorry to hear of your family problems, and of course life comes well ahead of build models. Your build is looking good though and looking forward to you finishing it.

Steve

arki30 wrote:

Sweet cockpit!  The extra detailing was worth it.

Man, ain't that the truth. Nice work!

Finally managed to get primer on.  Whew.  Now the real fun begins!

Next step, Coast Guard Orange.

MM Acryl Chevy Engine Red.  I've read on several forums that this is the best color for the Coast Guard Orange, because it's not International Orange.  International Orange is too...well, orange.  Nearly every picture I have of a Dolphin has a much redder tint to it than International Orange will give me.  Anyways, we'll see once I shoot it.

That being said, recently Testor introduced Coast Guard Orange and Coast Guard Red.  I have no idea how those stack up to the real thing.

Pics will be forthcoming, just let me get to a good point.  Primer is fairly dull.

Hey Arki

I've been lurking in here from time to time to see your progress.  Your helo is looking great.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that I am not going to get my build done for this GB   My humblest apologies for entering a GB that I could not finish.

My build schedule has two armor kits at the top of the priority list, but following the Winter Warriors GB, I may switch to an aircraft, in which case I'll build the Avenger.  Better late than never, I guess.

Sorry guys...

Umm your not the only one. I hit a stumbling block on the Saturn V with the body tube wraps. The kit supplied ones were pre printed and very thin. I had tried finding some thicker styrene sheets at the LHS but they were not big enough to make the circumference.. Even thought of using thin wall pvc pipe Soon as I find something to make the tubes out of it will be ready for all the preassembled structures and bits.

I have really enjoyed seeing the building and progress here ! Arki and Dave - Exellent Work

Eureka!  Finally have some real paint work completed.

The Chevy Engine Red IMHO looks pretty darn close to all my reference pics of the real deal.  I will say that it sprayed much like white or yellow, or in other words difficult.  Multiple thin coats and patience are required as everything shows beneath it.

Next is to begin masking off areas in black, mostly the front glazing and radome.

Cheers 

Nice looking red Arki, it turned out very well. Know what you mean about coverage, I have a lot of yellow to spray today and not looking forward to it. Thought most of the chopper would be white with red stripes etc. Is this one going to be mostly red. Its looking great

Steve

Thanks dupes!

Thanks Steve. The USCG Dolphins are red with white highlights. 

You might be thinking of their larger rescue helicopter, the Jayhawk.

I'd love to do a Jayhawk as well, but that's a monster conversion from the Italeri Seahawk.