Sounds epic Jim....good for you!

Yow Jim you lucky guy!

I really want to see those photos- so cool!!!

Gamera

Yow Jim you lucky guy!

I really want to see those photos- so cool!!!

Ok, some photos!

Here the Blackhawk had just landed and you see one of the crew has just set the chocks - the rotor is still turning and we actually boarded while they were still running. Duck down, just like in the movies!

My buddy sitting next to the window just before we taxied to the runway and did a rolling lift-off!

Hearing protection was required - I wish I could have had a headset too, but they were for the guys who were there to do a job. Oh well!

Airborne!

Some of what they came to see. The actual river channel is just visible at the bottom.

I know a lot of that is just farmland, but it does mean a livelyhood to a lot of people. There is also the fact that these guys are delayed in planting as there has been so much rain, the ground is saturated and water is just standing in the fields.

This is just after we landed and got off. They made us wait as they had shut down the engines and we had to wait until the rotors stopped. As you can see, there is quite a bit of droop there. I could reach up and grab the rotor tips at this point. They did take on some jet fuel.

The rest are pretty much more of the same. I would have loved to spend about an hour or so photographing every square inch of her, but everybody was heading back to their cars.

They did tell us that they have been stationed out at Buckley AFB most of the winter so they would be available for possible search and rescue assistance, which they said they had already taken part in several this year.

You can see is is set up for this mission as the winch is just visible inside the door., plus there is a large medical kit attached to the back wall. Plus there is only seating for 6 inside, where as units that are used for transport, I think can carry 11 troops. They did have a crew of 4, but I had my back to the flight deck and was strapped into the seat with a 5 point harness, and I could not see what they were doing...

I assume that in a rescue mission, at least one of those guys would be riding in the back - perhaps both the 3rd and 4th crew members.

I did make a couple of short videos that I will have to try and upload to Youtube

Jim

Don't mean to step on you post Jim,

Gentlemen (and ladies),

Here it is, this was my first attempt at doing water for a ship. So without further adieu, my 1/350 scale Indianapolis. Please excuse the tape in the middle of the backdrop. I need to come up with a better method for a background.

As always comments and critiques welcome.

I'll take my badge now, if it's ok.

Steve

Jim: Hate to see all the flooding, what a mess. Still getting to ride in the Blackhawk was pretty darn epic!

Steve: WOW!!! Beautiful model and that ocean! I've only seen people do placid seas but that's just friggin' spectacular!!!

Yup, wow Steve!! Like Gam said, I've never seen hard seas like yours...AND, this was your first! VERY effective. You know what would be cool? A black and white photo to put it in the era? Anyway, very effective and I'm totally jealous that I don't have the 'you know what's' to attempt water, especially a raging sea. Well done...

jimbot58

Speaking of helicopters.....

I had a wild weekend! Went out to see my buddy out on the plains, where he works as a city official. I arrived on Sunday, and overnight they had some heavy rains, a ditch had overflowed and flooded some areas in town. I went out to the local airport to meet him as they were waiting for a chopper to take the group out to overlook the damage. What shows up but a Blackhawk! They were getting briefed and about to board, when my friends boss asks "we have an extra seat, does your friend want to go for a ride?" I couldn't say no, could I?

I have some photos that I will post later as I am at work now, but I couldn't wait to tell you guys!

Talk about a chance in a lifetime for a guy like me!

Jim

Wow Jim!  A free ride in a Blackhawk helicopter!  That is awesome!  You lucky guy!  I am so envious!   

Ken

jimbot58

Gamera

Yow Jim you lucky guy!

I really want to see those photos- so cool!!!

Ok, some photos!

Here the Blackhawk had just landed and you see one of the crew has just set the chocks - the rotor is still turning and we actually boarded while they were still running. Duck down, just like in the movies!

My buddy sitting next to the window just before we taxied to the runway and did a rolling lift-off!

Hearing protection was required - I wish I could have had a headset too, but they were for the guys who were there to do a job. Oh well!

Airborne!

Some of what they came to see. The actual river channel is just visible at the bottom.

I know a lot of that is just farmland, but it does mean a livelyhood to a lot of people. There is also the fact that these guys are delayed in planting as there has been so much rain, the ground is saturated and water is just standing in the fields.

This is just after we landed and got off. They made us wait as they had shut down the engines and we had to wait until the rotors stopped. As you can see, there is quite a bit of droop there. I could reach up and grab the rotor tips at this point. They did take on some jet fuel.

The rest are pretty much more of the same. I would have loved to spend about an hour or so photographing every square inch of her, but everybody was heading back to their cars.

They did tell us that they have been stationed out at Buckley AFB most of the winter so they would be available for possible search and rescue assistance, which they said they had already taken part in several this year.

You can see is is set up for this mission as the winch is just visible inside the door., plus there is a large medical kit attached to the back wall. Plus there is only seating for 6 inside, where as units that are used for transport, I think can carry 11 troops. They did have a crew of 4, but I had my back to the flight deck and was strapped into the seat with a 5 point harness, and I could not see what they were doing...

I assume that in a rescue mission, at least one of those guys would be riding in the back - perhaps both the 3rd and 4th crew members.

I did make a couple of short videos that I will have to try and upload to Youtube

Jim

Very cool adventure Jim!  That is just awesome!  Thank you for the pictures.  That had to have been quite a thrill.

Ken

modelcrazy

Don't mean to step on you post Jim,

Gentlemen (and ladies),

Here it is, this was my first attempt at doing water for a ship. So without further adieu, my 1/350 scale Indianapolis. Please excuse the tape in the middle of the backdrop. I need to come up with a better method for a background.

As always comments and critiques welcome.

I'll take my badge now, if it's ok.

Steve

Wow Steve!  I am totally blown away!  That turned out fantastic!     

Ken

Thanks guys, 

FANTASTIC WORK STEVE!!!!  That is way cool!  The cotton makes it come to life, I'm in total awe of how cool this thing turned out, impressive!!

modelcrazy

Don't mean to step on you post Jim,

Gentlemen (and ladies),

Here it is, this was my first attempt at doing water for a ship. So without further adieu, my 1/350 scale Indianapolis. Please excuse the tape in the middle of the backdrop. I need to come up with a better method for a background.

As always comments and critiques welcome.

I'll take my badge now, if it's ok.

Steve

Fantastic!

Those are some rough seas! I would hate to be on the deck of that ship!

Jim

Thanks again guys,

Rob,

I did what you suggested and took some B&W pics.

Steve

Nice Steve!! That's exactly what I thought it would look like in BW...nice effect! Thanks for that!

Rob S.

nice effect! Thanks for that!

You got it my friend. Thank you for suggesting it. It does look better.

Steve

modelcrazy

Rob S.

nice effect! Thanks for that!

You got it my friend. Thank you for suggesting it. It does look better.

Steve

First off, Jim I'm very envious; that helicopter ride looked awesome! I've flown in a lot of different fixed wing aircraft in my time but always have wanted to do what you did. Thanks so much for posting the views!

Steve, that diorama is outstanding especially when I think of how quickly it was done. Quite an accomplishment and a great addition to this GB. Thanks!

Thank you Mike.

mikeymize

First off, Jim I'm very envious; that helicopter ride looked awesome! I've flown in a lot of different fixed wing aircraft in my time but always have wanted to do what you did. Thanks so much for posting the views!

Steve, that diorama is outstanding especially when I think of how quickly it was done. Quite an accomplishment and a great addition to this GB. Thanks!

I'm trying something new: I am trying to upload a short video I made during all this to Youtube that I made on my little Nikon. It's only 26 seconds, and if I had known this was going to happen, I could have packed my tripod, an empty memory stick, and filmed the whole landing sequence. It's shaky, what can you expect from a hand-held point-and-shoot compact camera? Still, for $150, this little camera works pretty well.

Here is the link. I still can never get Youtube stuff to embed on this site.

Blackhawk!

Jim

jimbot58

mikeymize

First off, Jim I'm very envious; that helicopter ride looked awesome! I've flown in a lot of different fixed wing aircraft in my time but always have wanted to do what you did. Thanks so much for posting the views!

Steve, that diorama is outstanding especially when I think of how quickly it was done. Quite an accomplishment and a great addition to this GB. Thanks!

I'm trying something new: I am trying to upload a short video I made during all this to Youtube that I made on my little Nikon. It's only 26 seconds, and if I had known this was going to happen, I could have packed my tripod, an empty memory stick, and filmed the whole landing sequence. It's shaky, what can you expect from a hand-held point-and-shoot compact camera? Still, for $150, this little camera works pretty well.

Here is the link. I still can never get Youtube stuff to embed on this site.

Blackhawk!

Jim

I'm working on my cockpit for the 109 right now (photo etch) and will post my first pics this evening. It's still hard to find time to model with all the mundane housework I must do. Also, the weather here has been gorgeous and I feel somewhat guilty being inside! Oh well, I must prioritize.

Pretty cool Jim, for being what it is the video quality looks fine to me.

Here's a couple pics of the cockpit. Quite a bit of detail in there as well as on the sidewalls with an equal amount of P.E. as well as molded-in stuff. I will do some light weathering, (dirt, scuffing) and so forth before installing into the fuselage. I'm hoping to have the majority of that done during this week so I can get the wings and flight controls primed on my weekend.

Apparently photo bucket doesn't like my pics as it didn't post them so here goes again.....

Well, I got side-tracked again!

I finally got time to sit down and work on the Cobra, but then I got a bit curious about a Italeri Huey kit I've had on the shelf forever. Test fitting a few parts so I could size it up to the Cobra, and before I knew it....

The big problem though, is that I followed the kit instructions before checking actual references. That "Pale Green" is wrong - the back wall should be grey, and those pilot seats would be closer to medium green.

Further research has this Italeri as the exact same kit as Tamiya, comparing the two on Hobby Search Japan. Their version calls for their XF-5 flat green.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10001548z/70/1

How did test fitting a few parts get so complicated?

Jim

jimbot58

mikeymize

First off, Jim I'm very envious; that helicopter ride looked awesome! I've flown in a lot of different fixed wing aircraft in my time but always have wanted to do what you did. Thanks so much for posting the views!

Steve, that diorama is outstanding especially when I think of how quickly it was done. Quite an accomplishment and a great addition to this GB. Thanks!

I'm trying something new: I am trying to upload a short video I made during all this to Youtube that I made on my little Nikon. It's only 26 seconds, and if I had known this was going to happen, I could have packed my tripod, an empty memory stick, and filmed the whole landing sequence. It's shaky, what can you expect from a hand-held point-and-shoot compact camera? Still, for $150, this little camera works pretty well.

Here is the link. I still can never get Youtube stuff to embed on this site.

Blackhawk!

Jim

Nice video Jim!  Thank you for sharing!

Ken

mikeymize

Apparently photo bucket doesn't like my pics as it didn't post them so here goes again.....

Wow Mike, that looks great!  Well done sir!     

Ken

jimbot58

Well, I got side-tracked again!

I finally got time to sit down and work on the Cobra, but then I got a bit curious about a Italeri Huey kit I've had on the shelf forever. Test fitting a few parts so I could size it up to the Cobra, and before I knew it....

The big problem though, is that I followed the kit instructions before checking actual references. That "Pale Green" is wrong - the back wall should be grey, and those pilot seats would be closer to medium green.

Further research has this Italeri as the exact same kit as Tamiya, comparing the two on Hobby Search Japan. Their version calls for their XF-5 flat green.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10001548z/70/1

How did test fitting a few parts get so complicated?

Jim

Hi Jim,

The colors look close enough to me.  And you did a fantastic job of painting them!      Very clean.

Ken

Mike: Super work on the cockpit there- I love the seatbelts!

Jim: Looks good too, I know what you mean- I've had to put my foot down on starting anything new until I finish something.

Son Of Medicine Man

jimbot58

Well, I got side-tracked again!

I finally got time to sit down and work on the Cobra, but then I got a bit curious about a Italeri Huey kit I've had on the shelf forever. Test fitting a few parts so I could size it up to the Cobra, and before I knew it....

The big problem though, is that I followed the kit instructions before checking actual references. That "Pale Green" is wrong - the back wall should be grey, and those pilot seats would be closer to medium green.

Further research has this Italeri as the exact same kit as Tamiya, comparing the two on Hobby Search Japan. Their version calls for their XF-5 flat green.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10001548z/70/1

How did test fitting a few parts get so complicated?

Jim

Hi Jim,

The colors look close enough to me.  And you did a fantastic job of painting them!      Very clean.

Ken

I did decide to change it up to Testors medium field green:

The seat belts I went for Green Drab.

Cockpit:

The console was painted semi-flat black, then dry brushed with silver. I hit a couple of knobs with red paint drops. You can't see due to the shadow, but the instrument panel is just gray with drops of gloss black paint on the dials. Hard to do much detailing at this scale without making a mess.... even if I could see it!

Future tinted dip with green food coloring to color the windows above the pilots.

Probably no work tonight on the hobby as I just came down off the roof! Temps today were nearly 90 degrees and it was unbearable in the house! Time to work on the swamp cooler! 2 trips to the hardware store and it's still not done! But at least I got some air going through the house and I might just be able to sleep tonight!

I also now find that the screen in my bedroom needs to be repaired and of course another trip to the hardware store! I'm taping it closed for tonight as there are already plenty of skeeters out and I don't want visitors tonight!

Jim

Try and add my cockpit again: