Awesome whirley bird Doug, since there are about 5 months left to this campaign, we cant wait to see you start your real entry now that you have warmed up on this beauty. You sure set the bar high,

Bryan

Doug: Wow, this really is a beautiful built chopper. Very nice toned painting.

Oliver

Things keep moving, albeit slowly.

Last week I finally got my hands on this aftermarket set:




I guess that this makes claer what I am heading for. I did not buy the interior set. First because of expense, second because the interior set will hardly be finished inside the closed model. I did some interior painting ase well




The interior in the Revell kit is airly basic and will luckily be hardly visible.



I aslo made a few sub assembles like this engine




I hope to find the time to close the fuselage this week.

looking good Drabslab, I look forward to more.

Hobby Boss 1/72 Kamov Ka-29 Helix-B

Alright, some good builds going quickly on this campaign, very fun to watch.

Today's update: the cockpit

I have to take a few points from Hobby Boss as their cockpit was standard 1/72 fare, nearly nonexistent. The PE set helped but I added a number of missing elements constructed from representational little pieces of scrap plastic and bits. I built the HUD, ceiling, harnesses from tape, wine bottle foil and copper wire. I also build the control ... thing for the co-pilot, no Idea what that is. I think the final cockpit looks sufficiently cluttered that when it is closed up it will look the part.



Until next time, thanks for looking,
Bryan

Sorry for the delayed answer but "what ifs" are fine as long as it has a rotor.

Excellent, Actually it has two rotors - side by side I will get cracking on it then.

Update to follow soon.

Doug, awesome build! Really looks nice and the subtle weathing is great.

Jesper
I cant wait to see what you are going to do.

That is one fuselage coming together



To my surprise with this old kit, the fit is almost perfect

looking good Drabslab, I need to get my old kit out and have a look at it again, and now Revell has released it as a new kit with some extra parts so may have to get another one. You are inspiring me.

Greetings !
I'm going to jump in here with an Airfix 1/72 Westland Sea King
It's part of a double kit box that i got today from ebay.
(The Lifeboat i'd like to be a part of my proposed Lifesavers campaign- go sign up hint hint! )





I'm thinking as my second model here i'll up my game and do a little scratch interior and detail up where i can. We'll see what happens

Hallo Paul, nice to have You with us!

Just startet my Chickasaw by adding some PE-Material. I have not known, that there were so many PE-parts. But, now I am done with most of the interior, pleased to begin the painting process .





Oliver

A productive evening for me too and a solid start.


Horizontal ribbing on one side done, will add some vertical bits too. The floor detail is something i'm just trying out to sse how it looks. It's adhesive backed foil pinched from my girlfriends craft stash It's super thin and easy to cut and bonus is it's very easy to reposition to get it 'just right'. Once primed i'm hoping it will be just thick enough to show subtle raised areas.

@Oliver: that is just waaaayyy too cool. Nice job.

@Paul: welcome aboard. I have been looking for that kit for some time on this side of the pond.


Bob

If its any consolation Bob, the fit (especially the windows) is far from ideal.)
However, i'm getting ready to join the fuselage up. Just got to paint up the rear cabin bulkhead if thats the correct term.

Stalled on closing the fuselage...

The above pic is a bad canopy fit to begin with but the following pic shows just how bad it is in the other direction. :O

Gonna have to put a spacer in the front to widen the nose enough to allow the canopy to actually sit flush.
Some may wonder whether kits were ever test built by the company before going on sale?

My god! I have seen many poor fits but this one is a champion. Good luck, this will not be easy

Paul: Just as Drabslab said. Never have seen such a bad fit. Is this a gap? From the picture it seems, that the parts are warped, too. Best wishes for the great correcting work!

Oliver

I don't think anything is warped, possibly it's because the canopy needs to float in the air (!!!!!) to line up properly and i needed to hold it down to take the photo.
The two halves of the nose don't fit well and the clear part doesnt fit either part of the nose. It's an all round gap that i'm going to try to fill with stretched sprue. (another technique i'm trying for the first time)
Thanks for the best wishes, this kit will not get the better of me!

That's the right spirit!!!

Makes me remember my SU-25. It had spent years on shelves moving from one exhibition to another model show. The fuselage was so warped, if I pushe the nose togehter, the tail had several centimetrs of opening

But it became a nice plane anyway; I glued the fuselage with super glue centimeter by centimeter.

Hallo fellows,
the interior parts have been painted and washed. They now await their assembly. Here are some update pics:

The cabin with some seats.


And the cockpit parts.
.

Oliver

Looks great, Oliver. Nice details.

Looking forward to see more.

Oliver
looks wonderful and these pictures are so big, I bet it looks amazing in its small scale.

Doug

Oliver, that is really nice

So step 1. i glued some sprue around the canopy to get a better fit

Then sanded, tested fit, sanded, tested fit..... you get the picture.
step 2. Glued in a WIDE spacer of sprue in the nose to widen it enough for the canopy to fit laterally. (forgot to take a photo at that stage but it looked like Gonzo from the Muppets for a time.)
Step 3. Attached the 'chin' section. You can see the sanded spacer here.

And this threw up another horrendous gap!

Step 5. More sprue and superglue and i'm finally at the point where the canopy actually fits the fuselage ! YAY!