VTOL, STOL, STOVL GB 2020

I have been trying to wrap up another build and got it done so here is a bit of progress on the Osprey. Interior seating is dirtied up a bit and done and I have started on the pit. This one is moving into the primary spot on my bench now. I should have more progress in a few days.

Ran into the first issue with this kit 

Well done, Omar and John.

Buttoning up the bird.  Bit of warp on the underside of the chopper, so I'm working from tail to nose on the belly.  About 1/2 there in this pic.  Topside lined up pretty nice.

Nicely done Omar!

WOOHOO! Round strut supports!

OK, so Hurdle 3 was to find a way to replace the kit's airfoil shaped skid support struts with round ones. Well, I got my hands on a set of skids from Monogram's Cobra, thanks to Floyd Werner. (Thanks Floyd!) Although Monogram was round struts, the struts and skids are part of an assembly that makes up the entire underside of the fuselage and nose.

It also has boarding steps molded onto it, which the real demonstrator did not have on its struts. So, now that i had the parts, I had to figure out how to use them. I really had two options. Cut off the struts and somehow attach them to the skids, or since the distance between the struts on the -1W is wider than the distance between the struts on the -1F, somehow figure out a way to "lengthen" the skids. I decided to go with the latter.

As a proof of concept, I took an old unused skid from my spared box and decided to try out a little experiment. Since the diameter of the Monogram skids was the same as some styrene tube I had floating around, I decided to use the tube as a sort of lengthening plug. I cut out the piece of skid between the two struts.

Next, I drilled out the sections that contained the struts and glued in some wire. The wire was supposed to slip into the tube to aid alignment and increase strength.

Once I figured out that my idea would work, I decided to go for it with the Monogram skids. Before I could, I had to remove all the excess plastic. After that, I bit the bullet and went for it. 

You know what? It worked!

It looks like the white styrene is a larger diameter than the rest of the skid, but that's an optical illusion. Instead of two small "pins" inserted into each strut piece, I decided to go with one long pin, run through the tube, connecting both struts.

It's not perfect but with some clean up I think it'll pass muster. Under some paint and behind the weapons hung from the pylons, not much will seen or left to notice.

Today's final mod was a simple one. I glued the unused chaff dispensers from my recent Skyhawk onto the demonstrator's outer pylons; just like the real thing.

Oh, and one last thing. I might be able to get my hands on the resin set from Cobra Company that contains the corrected nacelles and exhaust area. Eventhough my fuselage is all glued up, I may still chop it up to get the rear of this thing's doghouse right.

So, tell me what you think. Comments, questions and criticisms welcome.

Thanks in advance for the input!

-O

oortiz10

Wow, a master? I've been called a lot of things but never a master. Thanks Steve! Much appreciated!

John, I have CC's AH-1W set for another Italeri -1W that I will use it on. I've heard that LSM is releasing CC's stuff, but I haven't seen it posted yet. Last time I looked at LSM's site, like you said, sales are suspended. I may reach out to them anyway and see if they can help me out.

 

Mike is on the Vacform and Resin Kit Builders Facebook page almost every day, you might reach him there by commenting on one of his posts.

keavdog

LSM is on facebook - you can ping him there...

Unfortunately, I am not on social media. I sent him an email through the contact page on the LSM website. We'll see if he gets back to me.

LSM is on facebook - you can ping him there

Bit work on the Jayhawk - looking to be a nice little kit

Wow, a master? I've been called a lot of things but never a master. Thanks Steve! Much appreciated!

John, I have CC's AH-1W set for another Italeri -1W that I will use it on. I've heard that LSM is releasing CC's stuff, but I haven't seen it posted yet. Last time I looked at LSM's site, like you said, sales are suspended. I may reach out to them anyway and see if they can help me out.

Omar, your work is always awe-inspiring . Your a master of scratchbuilding IMO.

John, YES, starting on the Coast Guard.

Ya don't see too many CG projects. I like the Yellow.

Omar. many thanks for your comments and very fine work on your chopper.

John. that would really look sharp in yellow.

Some great work going here.  I'm ready to get started on my Jayhawk.  This will be in the 100th anniversary of the coastgaurd colors

I don't normally work in 1/72 but it's all I could find for a Jayhawk - and I'm starting to think it might be a nice scale for helos anyhow.

Omar, check with Mike West, Lone Star Models.  His web site isn't taking orders right now but if you e-mail he he may help you out.  He has all the Cobra Company molds and is reissuing them.  He closes web site order funnction down when he gets too far behind on unfilled orders and production but he is very much in business.

Nick, nice Harrier. Looks great! Justin, yours is just as nice. Excellent work. I also like the racers. Too fun!

So, I figured this project has 4 big hurdles. The nose, the belly, the skids, and the nacelles. I've knocked out two, thinking about how I'm going to tackle the third, and I've decided to ignore the last one.

So, the -1W(4B) had a different profile nose. Two pictures turned up on airliners.net during my search for -1W(4B) references (#1 and #2) that show the profile to good effect. I decided I was going to use Milliput for the nose job and for the belly work. 

First thing I did, was freehand the shape onto the adhesive edge of an adhesive note.

Once I was more or less happy with the shape, I transfered the shape to a piece of sheet stryene, cut it out, and glued it to the nose.

The pictures also showed that, what I'm guessing an avionics bay, extends back from the nose to between the skids. I used some L-angle stryene to rough out the sides, length, and height, then used a hunk of styrene to act as backer/filler.

Once my "molds" were ready, I used some white Milliput as filler and sanded the areas to shape after it dried.

By no means is it perfect, but I'm very happy with the way it's going. Like I've said before, I'm a 3-foot modeler, so I'm confident these mods will look just fine from 3-feet.

OK, so my next obstacle is the skids. Their struts are rounded, and the struts in the kit are airfoil shaped. 

I thought about switching out the skids for some from another kit, but all the Cobra kits I own have airfoil shaped struts too. I was able to get my hands on some skids from a Monogram Cobra, which happen to be rounded, but there are some issues with that option. I'm going to keep thinking about this.

I also took care of a couple other small mods. One, the pictures of the real demonstrator show some blanking plates where the original stabilizers were located. I just glued on a couple of small styrene squares and called it done.

I also removed the recievers from the rear of the boom. They're not installed on the real demonstrator. Besides, I had to remove those to get the stabilizers to fit in their new location.

While I decide on what to do with the skids, this is how my Cobra rests.

Oh, that fourth issue I mentioned? It's the nacelles and the exhaust area. Italeri royally screwed up that area on their -1W boxing. I know Cobra Company sold a resin replacement, but they're out of buisness now, and the ones I can find for sale online are out of my budget. I'm going to leave the nacelles as they are and hope that with all the other stuff that's going on with this build, the viewer won't even notice. You know, a forest for the trees kinda thing.

Anyway, thanks for looking. Feel free to drop your two cents in the bucket on the way out.

Cheers!
-O

John,Stik and Chad. Thank you for watching and your comments this old kit was on the shelf for too long. I think its time to dust off some more monogram kits.

Awesome Harrier Nick!!

Excellent finish Nick!

That's a mighty fine Harrier!

Justin. many thanks for watching !

Real G. thank you ,I was working down town miami at the time and I saw the prop AV-8 on top of the building on Brickell ave..LOL.

MC. Thanks again my friend.

Awesome job Nick.

I'll get it on the wall

Gorgeous Harrier and photos!  Now where is Arnold Schwartzenegger and the cops?  

crown r n7

finished AV-8B 1/48 monogram.

 

Fantastic build!

finished AV-8B 1/48 monogram.

Those are soem cool looking card Justin, I'll bet which one is your daughters. Thanks for sharing.

G, I got it down thanks.

O, it sounds like you have some work ahead of you.

Nice subject choice Omar! I’m supper that you’ll do it justice.

OK FSM,

I got started on my Cobra. This is a project that's been collecting dust both in the back of my closet and the back of my mind. I've read that Italeri's AH-1Z boxing is not really a Zulu. It's just their Whiskey boxing with some extra parts to make a Zulu. In fact, it's not even a Whiskey out of the box. I have Kitty Hawk's Zulu and an Italeri Whiskey with resin correction parts that I'll get to when my skills are up to snuff. In the meantime, I'll stick to honin gmy skills on 3-footers, but I digress. The Italeri -1Z is a mix up of fiction, a Whiskey, and Bell's 4-bladed Zulu demonstrator. The goal of this build is to take this Franken-Cobra and build it as a representation of Bell's Zulu demonstrator, officially known as the Bell AH-1(4B)W Buno. 161022.

When I'm done, it should look something like this:

(Credit: A. Thomas)

So, I started with the cockpit. The original (4B)W started life as a Tango model. That was converted to a test Whiskey, which eventually ended its life as the demonstrator. To that end, I started by painting up the cockpit black on grey.

I also started on the fuselage modifications. The first thing I did was move the stabilizer aft. The plastic has it located in the Whiskey's spot, so I had to get out my 1/48 Zulu and find a them a new home. Because they boom is thinner towards the rear, I had to cut the stabilizers into individual airfoils.

Holes were drilled into the boom and pins will be inserted into the stabilizers for attachment.

Speaking of the stabilizers, the demonstrator had some attachment or strengthening plates added to the outside. They were an odd trapezoidal shape. I did the best I could to free-hand some out of styrene.

I think they'll look the part under paint.

I attached the doghouse halves to the fuselage halves and filled the seams and original stabilizer gaps. I spot primed to find that I still need to do a little clean up work. 

I'm thinking I might have to use some raised detail decals (a la Archer) to replace some of the sacraficed detail. Once the fuselage halves go together, the big challenges will be replicating the hump on the upper side of the nose and extending the underside avionics bay back to between the skids. Oh, and rounding the skids, since they're airfoil shaped in the kit.

OK...wish me luck!

Cheers,

-O

Harrier looks great, Justin.  Waiting for a canopy for my XFV-1, trading some decal work for it.

Justin,

Those pinewood racers are amazing!  A friend who worked for the Boy Scouts asked me to make a couple for him, so I made a Lotus Esprit S1, the Griffon from Bubblegum Crisis, and an original F1 car with markings based on Roy Fokker's VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross.  This was all pre-digital camea era, so no photos.  

Steve,

The Triebflugel is the 1/35 Miniart kit.