Here's the final shots of my NSCA 212.

The NSCA (National Safety Council of Australia) was a very active and world renowned safety and rescue organisation in the 1980s. They ran a fleet of 30 or so helos and fixed wing aircraft including Bell 204, 205, 206, 212 and 412s, a couple of MBB Bo 105s, Beechcraft Baron, GAF Nomad, Beech King Air and Cessna Caravans. All were painted in a similar overall yellow scheme. The NSCA was active Australia wide until the late 1980s when it collapsed under controversial circumstances.

The donor kit was the Panda 1:35 UH-1N Twin Huey.
The kit went together easily enough, but it is not as good as the MRC choppers in the same scale. The coarseness of the detail is very reminiscent of the Revell 1:32 scale UH-1H offering. The rivet detail is way overscale and you are probably better removing it. The kit pieces are quite thick and the plastic is relatively hard. Fit is generally good, but I had a lot of trouble trying to eradicate the underside fuselage seam. There were only two locating lugs for the whole fuslage and I had to glue it in stages and add strip inside to get a reasonably good alignment. I added weight under the floor and inside the console to make sure he nose sat down. Cockpit detail is barely adequate for the scale and it would lend itself well to aftermarket resin. The re-release by DML with photoetch panel will help a lot. Decals were shiny and hard and the dash decal broke into 4 pieces just putting it onto a flat piece of painted plastic. The tail rotor should be mounted on the starboard side. The kit has it on the port.

Overall impression: The kit is only average, but it is the only game in town. I would build it again, or the UH-1D. But I'd go the DML version for the crew, weapons and etch.

Modifications:
This particular bird, VH-NSA, had some unusual attachments. The NSCA were world leaders in the use of IR gear for non-military SAR work. I imagine the extra box structures under the nose and tail were aerials or receivers of some sort for this gear. These were all scratched up out of plastic card, as were the boxes in the interior, and the floor panel. The tail cone was cut away and supporting structure added in its place. A rescue hoist was nailed together out of the spares box. I replaced the jet pipes with new ones formed from rolled plastic card. The tail antenna is stretched sprue (Thanks Joe). The door windows were enlarged to represent the type of door with emergency exit panels, and a triangular strip was added to the bottoms. The "bedroll" on the floor is froma Tamiya M113 command car.

Paintwork:
A base of white car primer was sprayed on straight from the can, This was followed by Mr Surfacer yellow spray can, which didn't match the cap!!! This was the coated again with Tamiya gloss bright yellow, again, straight from the spray can. I do have an airbrush but don't have much luck (skill) with gloss schemes, let alone yellow (Any tips?). Once this had cured, the black areas were masked off and airbrushed. Details were hand painted.

Weathering:
The NSCA were an organisation bordering on para-military. They kept all their equipment in pristine condition. I have only seen one shot of an NSCA Huey with exhaust staining on the boom. Consequently, I didn't apply any weathering to my model, with the exception of some serious chipping evident on the skids.

Decals:
I generated my own artwork for the decals and had a local manufacturer run them off on their Alps machine.

Conclusions:
The build took me much longer than anticipated. I think this was mainly due to the bits of scratchbuilding. The build was very enjoyable, and I would use the kit again to do a different version. In fact, I ran some 205 decals off while I was at it! Or maybe a Bushranger? I do have plenty of spare miniguns and rocket pods from a UH-1C kicking around...Hmmmm...Another theme build? Miniguns ... Makeshift Gunships (The RAN mounted MGs on its Squirrels in the Gulf) ... Loaded Bases (Something hung from every hardpoint) ... Outlaws ... How about just Hueys?

Learnings:
• Be patient, you silly bugger!
• Don't set silly deadlines so you lose the pleasure of a leisurely build.
• Check the colour of the spray can paint BEFORE you try it on the model. (I still an't believe I did that!).
• I CAN do aerials out of stretched sprue.
• I CAN get a transparencies to mask cleanly.
• This is probably the most scratchbuilding I have done, boxes are a good start!
• Forums are good places to be!!

Anyway, Guys, here are the pics.

Thanks again for everyone's input. You are a very helpful bunch of people.

Just keep build-ng, building, building...

See you next time.


Graeme.

Hai Graeme,

Very nice!

You sure know how to make a very good first impression

I would love to see pictures of the rest of your models.

Hi all!

I totally missed that I had to post my finished model on this tread.

This is the Academy/MRC OH-58D "Kiowa Warrior" in 1/35 scale.

History;

Bell's Model206 was one of the top three machines in the U.S. Army's LOH (Light Observation Helicopter) competition in 1960. The Allison T63-A-S turbo shaft engine in the 206 yielded a cruising speed of 110 knots with a 400 pound payload. Afterward, the LOH program was on hold, but was opened again in 1967, and Bell's five-seat 206A Jet Ranger won that competition. The 206A was designated the OH-58A and deliveries to the U.S. Army began in May of 1969.
The OH-58A served in Vietnam from 1969, through the close of that conflict and beyond. It underwent many improvements, including its Infra-Red suppressing hot metal shroud, "Black Hole" exhaust stacks and the superb or T-63-A-700 engine. In 1981, Bell's ModeI406/0H-58 won another U.S. Army competition, the AHIP (Army Helicopter Improvement Program). This led to the ultimate development of the OH58D Armed Kiowa Warrior. "The OH-58D Armed Kiowa Warrior is the world's most advanced integrated armed reconnaissance system."

About the kit;

This was a troublesome build.

Interior went together fine, but when I tried to fit the interior in the fuselage, it was a very tight fit!
I had to brutally clamp the fuselage halves together.



Rear doors and all hatches fitted almost perfectly, but the forward doors was another bad fit and had to be forced together!

Another nightmare was the front glass part, I had to perform some plastic surgery to get a decent fit!

Perhaps I created this bad fit myself as the interior was about 2mm too far forward?

Everything else went together very well, so I believe the fit-problems Is my own fault.

A little bit of filler and I could paint the little chopper.

I used White Ensigns " US Helo Drab" for the fuselage and Humbrol 85 Satin Black for the rotor.
I painted the interior Humbrol 140, Dark Gull Grey.
Later I learned it should have been black, but at that stage I was already done, so grey It remained.
Only AM addition I did was Etched seatbelts fron an old Eduard set made for the OH-6 Cayuse.

I could not source any AM decals so I had to use the crappy Academy ones.
Despite a high gloss surface and liberally with Micro-sol, they silvered badly.

Not one of my best, but I like the model anyway as It´s a tough and mean little chopper!

Markings are for the "Thugs", 4th Sqn, 17th Cavalry, 18th Aviation Brigade, U.S. Army Seagoing Unit, Vietnam(?).



And now, here she is;











Thanks for a fun and well run Campaign!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Well, this one seems to be finished.

Its a Hasegawa 1/48 Sea King finished in a special "bicentennial" color scheme.

And... I finished it in time (thanks to the extension ;-).

Now I have only two months left to turn my Mark Shape entry into reality; ooogghhhh

I’d like to thank everyone who has finished their helicopter models, and to those who tried to get in on time…We had 18 of 44 helicopters completed, not to bad. Campaign ribbons were awarded, if I missed anyone please PM me. It was a great campaign build, many choices and colors. If enough support we will do this again in the fall of 08’ so keep it in mind.

Happy New Year

Joe

Thanks Joe for all the work done leading this campaign.

It was fun and it made me finally finish something

I am certainly in for a new helicopter campaign later this year but first I need to finish a few other things (and finalise a feature I have been working on)