Hajo L.

And also finished (see my Mi-8 thread in the helo-forum ;) ): Looking really good in my eyes! HAJO

.......aaaand finished! Resume: A great kit, excellent fitting, had not a single problem with the parts. Only thing you need to be careful with are the rotor-blades: They have small, 1mm nuts to attach them to the head. I had to learn the hard way that these small bolt sbreak very easily. The fitting however has been so good that it may be better to not use glue when attaching the blades, so they won´t break and can be removed for storage and transport. The color schme I used is fictional and matches perfect with my older Italeri Mi-24. HAJO

I´m currently building the Airfix AC-130 and will post some pictures later. The kit is not very good... Try to get hold of an Italeri or ESCI/AMT kit. HAJO

The sniper rifle is scratched from a Preiser K98 rifle, with some heated sprue for scope and barrel. HAJO

And the helicopter as it looks right now, still misses the rotors, but otherwise he´s just fine. Can you spot the decal I had to exchange? HAJO

I will add a couple of pictures of my build and transform this thread into a "In-Progress"-thread, hope you don´t mind. Cocpit assembled, pilots have taken a seat: The doorgunners are already on their positions: Hull assembled, I never had a single problem with the kit during this build, excellent fitting! The first layer, a dark sand: And the finished camoflage, the parts where decals will be appliead are already coated with future: HAJO

Some update on the progress: As you can see, I already applied the decals. They went on pretty smooth, but later on I had a terrible mishap: When I was applying matt gloss again they started reacting with the thinner! I had to repair one by adding a number from a different sheet, and seal all others with future. The pictures were made before the mishap, I will provide more during the next days. HAJO

Have a drink and wait until the shaking of your hand stops... Sorry, that´s the only advice I can give. Plus, that extensive weathering in the end will cure all small problems that might have occured during painting. HAJO

Thank you, guys! I´m really proud of this one! HAJO

There were even reports of some of them surrendering to an UAV.... HAJO

Thanks a lot! Very helpful! HAJO

Does anyone knows what colours the warheads of a white phosphorus ("Willi Pete") ZUNI-missile are? HAJO

Yeah, Operation Flashpoint! I love this game, nearly 10 years old but still an excellent game-play. HAJO

Could have changed over the last years, I totally forgot to mention that my experience is already over 12 years old. ;) We were still using Leopard 1A5s then. And maybe we talk about the same thing, but with a different understanding: My idea was that you said that "all" training would be done in Munster. Well, at least we got our life-firing and a lot of handling-practice while beeing deployed to Munster. But we got our basic training on the tank and the gun systems like "where and how to start and run-up the electronics", "how to check the hydraulic system", "general aiming training" in o

Are you sure about the "all german tank crews are trained at Munster"-thing? Because when I was in the Bundeswehr, only our drivers and the commanders (NCOs and COs) had enjoyed training/driving school at Munster, while guys like me (gunner) and the loaders were trained in their home units. We only went to Munster when we were doing exercises on the firing range or spent the weekend on their range to practice. HAJO

Well, I usually already paint the edges dark or at least in a dark grey, but the mix of white glue with black colour is a great idea! HAJO

And the paint has not finally dried, but looking good so far. I even could have used a more darker grey... But I´ll leave it this way. HAJO

Oh dear, my "usual" problem... I always try to paint my canopies free-hand, and on most occasions it works. Sometimes it doesn´t work... HAJO

Some update, I haven´t made much on the model during the last week except for painting the green part of the camoflage. I used Revells 65. And dryfitting the canopy, still need to remove the sprues: HAJO

Jan, do all GS-models have the new blades or are there some still using the old ones? HAJO

I think the lizzard-camo is still in use and will be applied to the helos when they undergo a bigger phase of maintenance of upgrade.

Good point! But I just read on that page that the new filters are making some problems since they have to be fitted to each engine individually, which means you can´t replace the filters of one A/C with the ones of another. So it will depend on the future aquisition of complete new engines if they will introduce the filters to the GS-fleet. http://www.bw-flyer.de/neu/helikopter/ch53/ch53gs.htm HAJO

A short look on my current build, a CH-53GS of the german army (Heeresflieger). The kit is the HH-53C by Italeri, the kit is OK, but not as good as the airfix-kit. The resin parts are made by RTM (Ralf Trepkowski Modellbau) and are quite good. Some of the sensor stuff had to be scratchbuilt. I will paint it in the single tone oliv-green camo: HAJO

This is my RQ-1B, 1/72 scale. I finished it a two-tone-camo, I thought the simple grey was a bit boring. :) The kit is nice, if you don´t waste time you can asemble it within an hour. Be careful with th enose weight! I added a bit too much to prevent a tail-sitter and now the thin main gear can hardly carry the "heavy" model. I even used some thin sprue to reinforce the gear. If I get a job with a nice bureau and a ceiling fan, I will build an second one and attach it there to circle around my desk. :D HAJO

Here I´m showing you the Super Puma in "Bundesgrenzschutz" (BGS) (Federal Border Police) markings, the kit is from Italeri in 1/72 scale. The building process went without problems, only negative factor was that this helicopter, which is used bei the BGS for transport and VIP-shuttle, came without any details nor seats for the cargo-room. I didn´t had any motivation to scratchbuild any seats, so I left it quite empty. Another problem were the decals and their placement. Usually I´m a big fan of the Italeri-philosophy of providing only the most important decals for each version, but he