Hajo L.

Little update, I had some time and took care of the door-mounted MG3 machinegun. Scratched a nice little mount and had the gunner test-seating his new position. The co-pilot also got a little map to navigate his aircraft safely into trouble... ;) HAJO

For your clear part: Try sanding it until all of the glue-contested area is removed, using a very fine rasp. Then a final coat of future and you should be good to go. It does work, here I used that technique when I removed the attachement on the front window for the refueling-probe on my CH-53GS: Concerning the brackets on the engines... Oh dude, you totally made it wrong here! You mounted the starboard engine on the port side and vice-versa! That´s the biggest issue here. The next problem is that the sand filters (those big thingies in front of the engine with the many little "butto

Some already saw my in-progress "Killer-Egg" Alouette III, and thi sis the current development of the second kit I bought of this nice little helicopter. This one is going to be a troop carrier or "Slick", and the correlance to the old rhodesian birds is no accident. I´m using mostly 1:87 figures by Preiser for this, they have several advantages: - They are small enough to fit in the cockpit without problems - They have excellently sculpted faces - They come in "normal" plastic that is easy to work with What we do have here are sitting german grenadiers from WW2 (Preiser), a set o

Put the german government on that wish-list, too. But I think they want it in 1:1 scale... If some talented scratch-builder is able to do that he might get a lot of money for his work. HAJO

I´m more into central africa... I will post some pictures of the progress of the second Alouette III soon. HAJO

And the second colour, Humbrols green 117. First set of pictures without flash. And some with flash. I like how the camoflage came out on this model. HAJO

I applied the first half of the camoflage, using Revells Brown 84. It´s quite typical for me to fall in love with painted camos that aren´t finished yet, gotta love this brown and grey! And a last one, using the flash. The colours look a bit strange because of that. HAJO

And some update. I painted the whole helicopter grey to make the following application of the camoflage easier. Although I kinda like the looks it has now with the grey... Anyway, at least some of the details are now more visible: HAJO

The helo will not sport any particular national insignia... It´s part of my "soldiers of fortune"-force and will fight at any place as long as the pay is worth it... For the green tilted windows I used window color for "normal" glas-windows. You have to be a bit careful when applying it because otherwise it will dry up with areas of much color and others with few, giving the window unwanted shades. But I´m pretty satisfied with it, and I prefer it over the Humbrol Window color. The Humbrol stuff can not be cleaned out of your brush, must be some really strange chemical thing... HAJO

And on we go! Most of the building-process is done, this is the result of the "clean" chopper: And after some detailing it´s "dirty": :D I added the TOW-weapon sight/target aquisition system and the FLIR-turret (can hardly be seen, it´s obscuring the front gear) from an Italeri AH-6A kit. Also added were a cable cutter and a new exhaust pipe, made of a straw. It will reduce the helicopters IR-signature... hopefully. :P Some more pictures: HAJO

Although until some weeks ago I only owed two Alouette IIIs I regard this kit by Heller as one of my favorite model kits. The first one I bought and built went straight into my personal "OpFor"-unit: As you can see, the helo was desperetaly needed, and the new owners who purchased it from the french "Securité Civile" didn´t bothered much about giving it a new color since they were pretty busy with installing a FLIR and a 0.50 machinegun... ;-) Well, some weeks ago I bought two additional Alouettes on ebay and here is the current one in progress. It´s the so-called "Killer Egg", and

I used Humbrol 117 and Revell 65 for the greens (they have hardly any contrast in real life and so the choice of those two greens looks good in my eye) and a slightly brightened up Revell 9 (added some white and pale green). Can be seen here: HAJO

I wonder why that posted list above has a AC-130U by Airfix and Italeri. The only Italeri Spectre-Gunship in 1:72 scale I know is a AC-130A, and the AMT/ESCI AC-130U (the only one in town) is missing. HAJO

Yeah, too bad, the Oceanhawk has all the equipment for the Penguin, but it lacks the really nice sonobuoy-launcher and sonar-console the "B"-kit contains... On the other hand I already scratched a pylon for a HH-60H before and could do so again...: Italeri kit: HAJO

Can the SH-60B be armed with the Penguin ASM? Because I plan to buy a B and a HH-60H, and would then arm the H with Hellfires (since they don´t carry the Penguin) and load up the Penguin on the B instead. HAJO

Some progress after a long time (haven´t been at home). The model is now more or less fully painted and perfectly blends into the carpet. :D I also scratched the aft minigun and the gunner. Looking good, I apologize for the dark picture. I hope you still get the idea. Next update in a couple of weeks... HAJO

It´s finished! I presented it yesterday on our monthly hobby club meeting, it sure looks good, although with some more motivation (the kit simply sucks!) I surely could have done better. Anyway, here are the pictures: One fine day I will make a biiiig report about the four different Spectre-kits in 1/72 scale.... One fine day... :D HAJO

Italeri: Raised details/panellines, but good fit and better looking shape Esci: Better interiour (if you have a Gunship), recessed panellines, weird looking shape of the wings (outer engine pylons are higher than the inner ones!), clear parts for the cockpit are molded as a big, single peace to cover the whole front section which sucks if you don´t want to use a lot of putty. HAJO

I built one some years ago, maybe my pictures will help: http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Fea1..._Lippke/00.shtm HAJO

Hmm, check yourself: Italeri kit: Revell kit: HAJO

Me! But I can´t promise anything, I´m currently applying for jobs, will therefor most likely have to move and also will become father (first time) at the end of july. HAJO

Are you going to brush-paint or to spray-paint? HAJO

I like the sharkmouth! Unfortunately the only pictures I currently have here on my computer are those of a Flightsimulator repaint a friend of mine did for me: I think I have some pictures of the real thing at my computer at home... HAJO

Toilet paper? If you want less "texture", use a kleenex. A sample, done in 1/72, with TP: HAJO

No, the model is not similar to the heller kit, I have the AS532 of Heller and it looks quite different. And I used the "old" green scheme for a purpose, I just find it nicer than the new blue one. HAJO