Helo 53

Nothing started as yet on the A-7D . Hopefully in about a weeks time I can start cutting parts from the sprue , I need to finish the HH-3E builds during the course of the next few days . John .

Hi Spectre ; I can't believe it's been 5 weeks since my last post . Anyway I have overcome my wrist injury and I should be back into the build in the next day or so . I'm looking forward to getting both HH-3E builds finished so I can move onto other Reserve builds . John .

My apologies for the slow progress of late on my HH-3E builds . I injured my arm a couple of weeks back , thankfully nothing too serious but it's kept me away from the hobby bench . Everything is on the mend so hopefully I'll be back at it in a week or so . John .

Thank's for the interest ; Unfortunately there's been no new progress on these or my other helicopter builds these past two and a half weeks . I slipped going down the stairs and hurt my wrist and elbow but thankfully I didn't break any bones just a lot of swealing . Hopefully in a week or so I can get back to the bench . I'm starting to have plastic with-drawl issue's John

I'm still plugging away on the HH-3E builds . The New York Air Guard helo is finally ready to mask for painting . I made some more cabin seats for the California ANG HH-3E and I decided to paint those red . One small thing that has been a little frustrating is I have had to make three rear cabin floor pieces as the first two pieces cracked ; One when filing the edges smooth after cutting and the next one when I pulled the masking tape off after spraying the non slip black down the center . Unfortunatly the third one just cracked now , near the end when I tried to take the slight bow in the

I suppose we are only guessing as to what Gallery might have in mind for the external tank for future issue's I also thought the bracket was a bit too long as well Here's a pic from my files I got off the net Here's some others of the rocket pods

Thank you kindly for the additional pic's of the external fuel tank and bracket . I also like the tie down look on the H-34 with those ropes coming from the rotor tips and going back to the fuselage . A couple more images of the main rotor mechanism are from my 4+ publication on the Westland Wessex I decided to have a closer look at my 1/48 Gallery kit sprue frames Sprue frame 'L' seems to have most of the parts for the external brackets , it's interesting looking at the size and diameter of the round plastic strip Gallery have used . I probably would have used the same size for my

I'm happy to help flypaper . The only other two images I had of the main rotor assembly were these two without much plumbing or wiring attached I see that there is now a white metal straight (V-style) landing gear available to replace the 1/48 Gallery kit supplied ones . I just wish someone would do a white metal 1/72 version . I have been banging on for years on how cruel Italeri are for not giving modellers the option of both types of landing gear . I've been forced to buy the 1/72 Revell H-34G versions from seller on ebay and pay ridicules prices for those kits . As a last resort I h

This is a really great topic and thread . I'm a huge fan of the H-34 (S-58) series helicopter . I have quite a few 1/72 H-34 and Wessex builds going on , kind of a never ending one man group build . I also have a lot of pic's from the net of different variants , I have this pic in my files of the rotor head another modeller sent me the link some time ago Although I build mostly in 1/72 scale , I did back order the Gallery 1/48 H-34 USMC and Navy kits from Tower Hobbies there in the U.S. The Marine Corps H-34 arrived on the front porch this morning and I have just had a quick look throug

I was browsing Hannants web site and saw as a 'future release' the 1/72 Revell F-101B Voodoo . This is great news for us 1/72 scale modellers , as it has been years since this kit was on the hobby store shelves . I did pick up the Revell kit a few years ago , second hand , but their so rare and I was afraid of messing mine up , I've kept mine hidden away in the stash What I did try to build was the 1/72 Matchbox F-101B/RF-101B Voodoo The build has been languishing in the bottom of the spares box for quite a few years as it is extremely basic with an almost non-existent cockpit and

I'm making steady progress on the replacement HH-3E I just need to sand a little more putty around the engine intake piece and a small section on the nose , then I'll glue the canopy on . I also started fixing the first HH-3E build and cut a new piece of plastic for the cabin floor and a second cockpit bulkhead/instrument rack . I was trying to decide what colour scheme to do for the original build and looked through Squadrons H-3 Sea king book and saw this pic It's a bit hard to see at first but there is the California Air Guard stencilling on the external fuel tank . I then decided

Spectre , you posted a pic of an SC AH-64 Apache in the inspirational thread and I was going through my stash and spied this 1/72 Hasegawa AH-64A Apache 'Iraqi Freedom' The box still had the shrink wrap on but I decided to take a peek inside and saw that the kit has markings for the South Carolina Army National Guard , October 2004 , Iraq Would this be a suitable entry ? With an all back cockpit and instrument decals this does appear to be an easy build OOB .

That's great work extending the rear stabilizers , Spectre I have this reference book in my library It's the same one I have been using for my HH-3E build . There is also lots of F-16 photo's ; You might like this one ,

I have several A-7 Corsair II books in my library and I was looking through the David F Brown book lats night and saw a list of Naval and Air Force Squadrons using the A-7 Someone mentioned earlier about VAQ-34 and according to the book it's listed as a 'Support Unit'. However while looking at photo's in the book some of the markings looked familar so I went and checked through my stash of A-7 kits and found a 1/72 Fujimi A-7A with VA-305 decals My reference book lists this as a Reserve Squadron , so I guess I could do an A-7A along side the A-7D build I'm about to start shortly . S

If it was just one minor issue with the paint finish I probably wouldn't have changed anything . In the end , I just wasn't happy with the camouflage patten and the wrong shade of grey was the tipping point . I'm more embarrassed than upset ; I would rather do things over than keep going and not like the finished model . Yesterday I cut open the side cabin door and added some plastic strip to the opening as I did with the first build . I also added some plastic strip to the bottom edge of the sponsons and glued the landing gear struts in place I decided to use some spare lindberg main rot