Helicopter Group Build 2009

I know this GB ended a year ago yesterday... and unless some unforseen disaster hits tomorrow, my OH-58 will be done tomorrow... over the past few days I scratch built some armor side panels for the cockpit seat from sheet and strip plastic and got them painted. I also finished up all main painting including the tips of the main rotor today. Last week on my days off I applied a flat top coat over the decals and installed all clear parts and the nose pitot.

Armor side panels front and rear

Main rotor

and the rest of the bird...

tomorrow, tomorrow...

I'm not sure how to overcome this canopy issue of chunky frame lines ???..........

Try some strips of black decal on the inside of the frames , Its a bit like a torture test but then you will not need so many coats to cover them on the outside .

Hey John,

I broke one of the blade on my MH-6 when I built it last year. Just put it back together w/ ca glue and a pin joint. Then once its cured just sand it to shape. Shouldn't take too much extra time.

As far as bending the blades, and I'm sure you've done this a few times, I just take them and put them into a glass in the sink and let hot water fill and over fill the glass. Keep the hot water running while you boil a little. Then pour out the hot water and add in the boiling water. Should be able to manipulate the blades easily after only a couple of seconds. The boiling water will stay hot enough for a good minute for subsequent "fixes".

Hope this helps a little. Keep pluggin' away .... all streaks have a breaking point.

Ah, John, I see you are locked in the canyon of rotor blade despair.  Maybe we need some carbon fiber aftermarket blades, eh? 

Just to show there is hope in helicopter land, Jeremy entered his Hind in a contest, and no surprise he took home the gold.  Congratulations, Jeremy!

If there's a record for having the most number of "failure's'' in a row , I must be close to breaking it....

I snapped another Hobbyboss H-34 rotor blade , a liitle too much heat with the hair dryer caused one of the blades to bow to much , I tried to straighten the blade back a bit and then snap

The two hobbyboss birds were supposed to be a UH-34A for the RCAF and a UH-34D for Air America ;

I have plenty of Italeri UH-34's in my stash with the bent leg landing gear , so I'll start again with two of those kits .

Hopfully this modeling slump can't last for much longer , it's all quite depressing....

                                                                   John .

I have similar issue's with the canopy's on my two SH-3 Seaking helicopters as I did with the USCG HUS-1G build ; Although not as much specks of dust sticking to the inside of the canopy but more smudge like film in different places

I didn't dip the canopy's in future , which I now regret

One of the reasons the painted frame lines look chunky is , I think after giving the canopy two coats of black to start with , and then trying to cover with a lighter color , it's obvious that there too many coats of paint being applied .

I'm not sure how to overcome this canopy issue of chunky frame lines ???..........

                                                       John

Hi Fatpigdog ,

Thank's for the tip on re-bending the rotors , I filled the sink with some hot water and dropped the rotors in ;

I drilled three holes in a piece of board and cut some plastic sprue , the middle hole is more forward than the outer end two holes ;

I found an old hair dryer and I'll carefully apply some low heat to the rotor blades and see how that works .

                                   John

Sorry Helo - Just read some  previous posts , I have on occasion needed to add some droop to rotors. I found that softening the plastic works wonders . First very hot water - this makes them pliable enough to fix to a mould and then using a heat source ( Hot air gun - portable heater ) apply heat for 2 -3 minutes and allow to cool . Of course too much heat and you will have a good collection of jelly bean rotors for the jelly bean choppers

Hey , hang on , if the fixed wing guys have their Egg Planes , why cant' we have Jelly Bean Helos ?

Nice job .  Why Italeri rotors?

Hold on to your hat's , I've actually finished something ...

Here is Hobbyboss's 1/72 scale UH-34D Seahorse with Italeri main rotors and custom made decals ; For a HUS-1G United States Coast Guard rescue helicopter .

I'm happy with the build , although I seem to struggle with canopy masking and painting . I may replace the canopy with another Hobbyboss one , as the painting on the frame lines are not as crisp as would have liked . I didn't glue the canopy on so I can easierly swap the canopy's but for the time being I'll leave her as is .

Thank's for the tip Art on using the fabric softener sheet for removing the static electricity.

Also a big thank you to fellow FSM member Aaronw for his help on my USCG builds .

                                                                John .

artabr

This is just a thought. I haven't tried it on models yet .

I reload firearms ammo. I'll get a static electricity buildup on my powder measure tube, which is plastic. The gun powder will start to stick to the sides of the measurer.

When this happens, I'll take a fabric softener sheet and rub the outside of the powder tube & it removes the static electricity. It might be something worth a try. As I said, just a thought.

 

Art

Just thought I'd pop in here to see what people were posting when I ran across the above .... Nice Tip, Art!!!! Thanks for sharing. Will definitely keep this one in my pocket if I run into this problem.

On another note, I've started working on the OH-58D kit I thought I was going to do as my 2nd build for this GB .... better late then never I guess ....

This is just a thought. I haven't tried it on models yet .

I reload firearms ammo. I'll get a static electricity buildup on my powder measure tube, which is plastic. The gun powder will start to stick to the sides of the measurer.

When this happens, I'll take a fabric softener sheet and rub the outside of the powder tube & it removes the static electricity. It might be something worth a try. As I said, just a thought.

Art

Hi John ;

Your 100% correct about it being static electricity , I also should have dipped the canopy in some future , I had been doing this with the Mach 2 kits I've been building and I should've done the same with all my canopy's .... "These past few months I really have been making a lot of dumb mistakes with my builds'' .

Anyway I carefully removed the canopy with a thin razor blade .

I stripped the paint finish off with some Mr Muscle oven cleaner, I sprayed on the foam and sealed the canopy in a plastic container for a few hours ; Afterwards I used a old toothbrush and some bleach mixed in some water and gently scrubbed off the paint .

I got ready to dip the canopy in some Pledge one-go [Future] when I realized that I should also dip the three H04S-3 canopys as those kits are on the bench as well . However yesterday I had masked and sprayed some Gunze clear green on the H04S-3 canopy's , so I tried just dipping one of them to see if the Future would affect the clear green paint but it looks like it might work out .

I'll wait untill tomorrow to see if the canopy is okay before dipping the other two . I can't decide whether  it would be easier to mask and paint the HUS-1G [H-34] canopy seperatly or glue it back on and then paint , probably the latter would be better I guess .

You probably want to bring this GB to a close John , So I'll do my best to finish by March 31.

It's probably static electricity, John.  I've had that happen and it's not any fun.  Sometimes I've been able to tap on the model and get the specks to dislodge.  Coating the clear parts with Future/Johnson's Klear can keep it from happening.  But maybe you've done all that already.

After removing the masking tape from the canopy , there are specks of paint on the inside which I cant get to unless I completely remove the canopy altogether .

I thought everything was going really well but I always seem to have problems when it comes to masking canopy's , there are also some sort of smudges on the inside of both cockpit side windows which didn't show up in the photo . I made sure the inside of the clear parts were clean before closing everything up , so it must be something to do with the Tamiya masking tape and Gunze acrylic paints thinned with isopropyl alcohol .

I'm quite disappointed .

                                                          John .

Hi Ray ;

I really like the color scheme on those "Bravo" Trainners , some how the red and olive drab just seem to go well togerther .

I guess I still favour the Italeri UH-1B build , she has a little more rivet detail , which I like .

Both builds are great , I can see those nice cockpit and cabin seatbelts through the windows , your steady hand and eye co-ordination is much better than mine ; I guess in all the excitment of new builds we all sometimes forget about the nose weight , you should try and build one of those Airfix/Heller 1/72 SA-342 Gazelle's , there's almost nowhere to fit any nose weight . 'scary' .

Two great Huey's anyway

                                                John .

Lookin' Great, John!

Finally got around to taking some decent shots of the UH-1B trainers.  The Italeri and Hobby Boss kits are totally OOB with a set of Joseph's custom decals. As you can see, the decals make the build, at least IMHO. At any rate you can compare the two kits and figure out which you think is the best. By the way, I made one of the dumbest mistakes a Huey builder can make by forgetting nose weight.

   Ray

top is HB, bottom Italeri:

left is Italeri, right is HB:

top is HB, bottom Italeri:

left is Italeri, right is HB:

I'm really happy how the decaling worked out on the HUS-1G .

I had to do some carefull airbrushing touch-up after decaling , I left finger marks where I was holding the helicopter on both sides of the engine housing , despite wearing latex disposable gloves . After the yellow touch-up I finished with a couple more coats of clear gloss

Unfortunatly I struggled to get the fuselage halves re-glued back together on the H04S-3G ; The cockpit and console seem to be sitting slightly off center .I checked  the fit of the clear canopy and it sits okay but as for building her as a Coast Guard helo , I would have liked everything to line up better .

So I have decided to build her now as an early British Westland Whirlwind using some spare decals from an old Airfix kit .

I have now started another Italeri H04S-3 kit ; This build will be a H04S-3G for the USCG

I know it might seem like I'm being a little fussy about my USCG builds but the decals were custom made for me and I want my Coast Guard helicopters to be the best I've built so far .

                                                                             John .

I doubt you will lose that one on your bench.  It's BRIGHT!

Hopfully I'm only a couple of day's away from having my first USCG Helicopter build finished and in the display cabinet

I broke two main rotor blades in half after trying to correct the error in that Hobbyboss molded them upside down ; I decided to use some from a very early H-34 build , I then gave the rotors a fresh coat of paint .

After checking Squadron's H-34 book , I now realize that the wheel hubs are black , I had been a little concerned about painting the tyre's black by hand and not looking very neat , I may have to look at buying wheel mask for future H-34 builds [ I'm planing on a whole lot of Sikorsky and Westland Wessex builds for the rest of 2010 ]

I'll think about a Desert Bone Yard dio for my early H-34 [doner build]

Anyway I'll start decaling tonight and then add the last bits and pieces ;

                                                                       John .

Looks like a bad day at Black Rock, John!

Well , I'm having one of those months where nothing seems to be working out .

It seems that when ever I get close to finishing anything for the USCG , I fail miserably .

I went to mask the cockpit rear window on the H04S-3 and it came unglued and I had to pull one of the fuselage halves apart to re-fix it back in position . With the H-34 , Hobbyboss molded the rotors with the droop upside down , I tried correcting this by glueing the rotors to the hub and then clamping the rotors to a dinner plate and placing them outside however three of the blades broke off the hub and one blade snapped in half .

I have some Italeri UH-34J Seahorses in my stash , maybe I'll take the Hobbyboss bent gear legs and use them on the Italeri kit and start again .

                                                                                                           John .

I'm finally ready to start masking the two Coast Guard birds , my progress has been a little slow but usually when I get to this stage , I get excited about finishing the builds .

Unfortunatly I'm not at all happy with my efforts on the HH-60J Jayhawk

Airbrushing the front cockpit flat black just isn't good enough , You can't see any detail at all.

I've ordered another Hobbyboss HH-60J along with some PE for the SH-60B and I'll start again .

Thank's for the tip on making seatbelts john and stikpusher , I ordered  the Detailing Model Aircraft book from FSM and there is some info on making seatbelts etc .

So I'll get busy masking the HO4S-3 and the H-34 , I have quite a few birds to mask and paint over the next few day's .

                                                                        John .

Thanks about the paint, Helo. Some alternate methods for seat belts are lead foil, paper, or medical tape. bucked\s can be PE or scratch built from wire.

Here are a couple shots of here now. Almost ready for a gloss coat and decals.

Most of the time I just cheat and get some Eduard PE belts, they make sets for different countries with multiple sets so it's not so expensive.  I have seen belts made from the foil from wine bottles and bits of fine wire that looked pretty good.  On larger scales I sometimes use a fiberglass fabric tape used to wrap aircraft wiring, but it would be pretty coarse weave for 1/72.

That's bad luck about your H-19 having a window missing , john .

One of my HO4S-3 [H-19] kits had broken main landing gear struts , one of the broken parts was floating loose in the box the other had disappeared completely . The only thing that saved the kit and the $20 spent was that the italeri H-19A with the 'hot dog' floats also comes with the standard main landing gear on the sprue . I did send a request with a pic of the broken/missing parts to italeri but unfortunately I never received a reply . Perhaps you may have better success getting a replacement side window .

If stikpusher hadn't mentioned he's bird was hand brush painted , I would have thought it was airbrushed ; A very nice smooth finish indeed .

I wanted to add some seat belts to the cockpit seats of my birds , does anyone know of a easy technique , I've heard some modelers just use narrow strips of masking tape , I tried that and it just looks like masking tape stuck on the seats , obvisiously I'm not doing it right .

Anyone have any suggestions , a lot of my builds have stalled because I'm struggling highliting 1/72 cockpit consols and adding seatbelts to seats

It's good to see the activity.  I'm sorta getting the urge to do another.  Drug out an Italeri H-19 only to find the cockpit window is missing for one side.  Guess I'll try to find or make a vacform replacement.  The styrene ones have that coke bottle effect anyway.

I am still chugging along here slowly. I decided to try something different and handbrush this kit. I first used Model Master  Olive drab,a nd then did a top coat of Polly Scale OD which gave it a more brownish shade. After I paint the nose black and the stabilizers red I will add a gloss coat and be ready for decals.

You've got your own factory over there. I don't know how you can keep up with all of 'em.