Before I begin, I beg forgiveness to all of the helicopter regulars as an armor modeler drops in.

After years of service in Air Assault and Artillery, I thought my first try at a heilo would be the OH-6 or Loach or Egg, whatever you prefer.



I will finish the OH-6 in a mid 80s look on an aerial artillery observation mission. Besides the kit itself I will be working with the Eduard PE set and some resin cast extras for the cockpit, plus the usual sods & ends scratch details.

Here is the cockpit generally assembled from the first two steps of the instructions along with Eduard PE added. In general the fit was good but had to fill some part holes in the rear cabin as I will not be using the mini gun. After assembly the cockpit was given a primer of Tamiya Black and then a coat of Tamiya Gull Grey (XF54). The control stick was painted with Tamiya Black and the document holder with Vallejo Dark Green.



I have begun the assembly of the figures. The kit only included the pilot and gunner and had to swap the gunner with the co-pilot/observer from the Dragon figure kit. I have worked the figures from the bottom up and the uniforms will be the BDU style using Shinsengumi decals. The figures were first painted with Vallejo Dark Green, except the boots, which were painted Black. They were then coated with future to allow the decals to set down. The picture shows the pants completed with the decals.



While waiting for some parts to set I have added the PH parts to upgrade the control panel



That’s where I am at for now. All comments are welcome, thanks for looking.

Rounds Complete!!

Looking good Mike. Can't wait to see how I come out.

Gino - Thanks for looking in. Oh, by the way...your the guy on the left....but I'm sure you knew that.

Rounds Complete!!

Looks good, Mike. It will be interesting to see this bird in 80ties scheme and markings.

Fire for effect

SGTJKJ - Thanks for looking. It is easy to do the VN version, I wanted something different and in my time when I flew in them.

Thanks Again

Rounds Complete!!

Very nice so far!

Those BDU are decals? Great idea.

Klaus - Thanks for looking and your comments.

Rounds Complete!!

It has been a few weeks since my last update and with the combination of short bench time and working on the figures, it has taken a while to give you some news.

Figures were done with Shinsengumi BDU decals, Vallejo Dark Green for the vests, boots were painted Tamiya Black, the helmet uses Model Master OD for the helmet and Tamiya IJA Green for the visor section. The knob on the visor and slide section in the center of the visor cover, were coated using a graphite pencil to give that dull worn metal look.
The boom microphone was made from 28 gauge stainless wire and a small piece of painters tape for the microphone. Then it was painted Tamiya Flat Black. Also coming off the helmet is the connection wire which was also made from 28 gauge Stainless wire.
The face, arms and hands were done with Vallejo Flesh tones and then washed with a mixture of flesh and burnt sienna oils.

The entire figure was coated with clear flat to give the final finish. The binoculars used Tamiya Flat Black and the strap is painters tape coated with Model Masters OD. The binoculars are worn using a graphite pencil.

Seat belts were painted with Model Master OD on the belt, Tamiya Flat Black on the buckles and clips which were worn using a graphite pencil/ After all that….here are the figures in their seats





The observer was missing one thing….a map….so I scanned and scaled one of my military maps, folded it and my observer was complete.



After the figures I weathered the cockpit with MIG City Dust and a graphite pencil for wear on the ribs.

Before gluing the cockpit into the body halves, I mounded some 26 gauge stainless wire to create the grab handles on either side of the front door.

After gluing the cockpit in and the two body halves together I had to do some serious seam filling as the kit has a poor lineup and really no lineup pins this leaves a huge seam all around.



I then applied details to the hatches and access ports using Archer Transfers . I assembled the engine covers and exhaust port which fit fairly well but will need some filling. And lastly, the tail boon was assembled and mounted.





That’s it for this installment. Next is the control panel and wiring details along with the canopy and details.

That’s where I am at for now. All comments are welcome, thanks for looking.

Rounds Complete!!

You keep proceeding vey well!
Looking forward to see it done.

Klaus - Thanks for stopping in and your comments!

Rounds Complete!!

Looks like its coming along great Mike. I should be wearing some flying gloves though. The figure is molded with them on. The pilot doesn't have them though. Keep up the good work.

Gino - Yep....heard all about the gloves over on FSM. The figs did not seem to have gloves and I had an attack of the stupids (wait till you get to be my age).

Among other items I will try to get gloves on the pilot soon. The AO....well I never liked the gloves except in the cold and the egg always seemed to be hard boiled. But....I have seen the error of my ways and will work on it for the pilot.

Thanks for the look.

Rounds Complete!!

Here is my latest update.

I completed the control console. I first painted with Tamiya Flat Black then masked areas to stay black. I followed with Tamiya Gull Grey. After removing the masking I set instrument decals, and then used Future to create the instrument bezels. The warning lights are painted with Tamiya Yellow Green and the knobs were highlighted with a graphite pencil.



With the front done I turned to the back where I created the wiring harness with 22 and 26 gauge stainless wire painted black.



With the console complete, I mounted it in the cockpit…..Hey….Joe (the pilot) found his gloves. I will wash them for highlights later.



I completed the body assembly which this kit has a VERY POOR fit. Every seam required filling and sanding.



Also completed the painting of the interior of the canopy and the painting and assembly of the rotors.

I should be off to the paint booth shortly

That’s where I am at for now. All comments are welcome, thanks for looking.

Rounds Complete!!

Looking good Mike. She's coming along nicely. The instrument panel looks awesome. Great job. Can't wait to see it with paint on it.

Gino - Thanks for looking and for your comments

Rounds Complete!!

Have to agree on the instrument panels... Awesome! The boots are kinda shiny though...

Cheers!

Russel - Thanks for looking and for your comments. A little dirt on the boots is coming.

Rounds Complete!!

Great looking OH-6, Mike. This project is coming along very nicely.

Looking forward to see more - thanks for sharing

Jesper - Thanks for looking and for your comments!!

Rounds Complete!!

I started with the masking and painting of the main body. I decided to paint he canopy and body separate, a mistake you will see later. After masking the openings I painted the “egg” with Poly Scale OD Green. After a few light coats here is the result.



The canopy and side glasses were also masked and painted with the OD Green.



After the paint set up I coated with a thin coat of future for decaling. With all the rivets and panel lines I did not feel comfortable decaling onto flat. Allowing time for the future to set, I then applied the decals which included some custom decals for the aircraft number and the 187th patch. The aircraft number is a pure guess, just tried to make sure it was a real number. The patch was as I remember the 187th egg which had the patch forward of the number area. Here is the egg with the decals on.



Now came the nightmare….first the figures which Dragon makes for the kit are slightly too tall for the canopy to fit. The tops of their helmets had to be flattened and they were repainted. Fortunately, they sit under the tinted glass and it is almost impossible to tell they are flat heads.

Even with the figures modified, the canopy glass is a HORRIFIC fit to the body. You cannot get the bottom and top edges to line up as the canopy does not match the body shape correctly. Also the body panels are warped (which also caused a lot of the previous seem problems) which cause the body sides to be inside the canopy. After a NUMBER of hours sanding fitting etc, I gave it a shot. First I glued the top and bottom and after some set time, using 3 micro clips per side, pulled the panels out and glued them.

Even with all that, the top panel did not fit perfect and was raise slightly and required EXTENSIVE joint filling. The sides also required some filling. Sanding would cause a problem in that the warped body would pop loose of the glue and so I would go back and start again.

Without going on through this rant, here is the canopy filled and mounted.



If I knew this was going to be this nightmare, I would have mounded the canopy before painting. Once everything was touched up, the final few little parts and the rotors were mounted. I then gave the egg a wash of black to highlight the body panels and rivets.
Here are the complete shots of my OH-6…egg. I have to take a mulligan on this one in the canopy top- to the body does show. I was at a point of after 8 hours of working with it….it was time to move on.

It will grace my display cabinet but is not at a standard which I would feel comfortable taking it to a show.

Be warned….if you want to build the OH-6 in 1/35, this kit is the pits. Hopefully Dragon remakes the kit, if not try another scale by another manufacturer.









Thank you for looking and for your comments. To the regular roto-wash guys…this old redleg gave it a shot…hope I can come back aging with a better kit and build in the future.

Rounds Complete!!

Outstanding!
Despite all the problems you encoutered, you managed to complete it to a great looking model.

Klaus - Thank You for looking and thank you for your comments.

Rounds Complete!!

Mike, superb work! It obviously took great effort to turn this dog-of-a-kit and turn it into a great looking egg. Glad you've decided to stick with it

Mario - Thanks for lloking and for your comments.

It is hard to make a sunny side up when the yoke is broken!!

Thanks again

Rounds Complete!!

She came out great. Looks awesome.