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The OH-6D, as mentioned previously, had the five blade rotor system of the Hughes 500D which replaced the original four blade OH-6A rotor system and this presents a problem. If you decide to build this version of the OH-6 in 1/48th scale, then your donor kit will have the five blade rotor head. In 1/72nd scale the Italeri OH-6A has five rotor blades but only the four blade head, so you will need the correct component from the Italeri AH-6A Nightfox kit. I came about my five bladed head by accident, literally! I had a 1/72 Hughes MD500 Defender adorning my mantlepiece until the middle of last year, when my folks paid a visit. The model was accidently knocked over and damaged beyond repair. It would prove a good source of spare parts though. The rotors were OK with only one breaking away at the hub.

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I stripped the paint in just half an hour using a foam oven cleaner. Simply spray it on from an aerosol can, stick the parts in a plastic bag and, after half an hour, wash off the parts with water. Almost all of the original paint is removed. The next job is to wash the parts in washing-up liquid and then stick the broken blade back on. Getting the alignment of the blades correct is very important and difficult given how small the rotor hub is. Patience pays off here. Reconstruction should happen tomorrow along with a new, scratchbuilt tail rotor.

LD.

Edited by Loach Driver
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Great work LD. It really shows that you have good modeling skills if you can do such a nice job in such a small scale.

Jake

Thanks, Jake. My modelling skills are open to debate. This is only my second build after a ten year lay-off from the hobby so it is a chance to experiment with a few techniques and regain some skills. Hopefully this model will turn out OK.

Here are some useful references if anyone wants to attempt this particular version of the H-6.

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(Apologies for the shaky camera-work).

'Loach' is an excellent book and has the only photo I have of the OH-6D. 'War Machine' has the colour-side view posted earlier.

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'The McDonnel Douglas OH-6A Helicopter' by Donald J. Porter has a good description of the systems fitted to the OH-6D. This book is out of print but can probably be found on ebay or Alibris. 'Hughes 500 Family' from Maurizio Di Terlizzi is another useful book with the most accurate set of 1/72 scale plans ever published. It has a couple of articles on building the 500 in various scales.

LD.

Edited by Loach Driver
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Just a quick up-date on a little progress made today. I scratchbuilt a new tail rotor from Evergreen plastic card and rod. I felt the tail rotor in the kit was probably incorrect for the version I am building. The first tail rotor fitted to the OH-6A (the real thing) was made from plastic and was of a relatively small cord. It wasn't the most effective tail rotor and the OH-6A was prone to a phenomenon refered to as the 'Hughes Spin', basically a loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE). After their return from Vietnam, a new metal tail rotor was designed (by Frank Robinson, of R22 and R44 fame) and fitted and this solved the problem. The OH-6D was fitted with the five blade Hughes 500D main rotor so, to counteract the increased torque from the more powerful engine and increased span main rotor, I reckon it is logical that the original tail rotor and TR gear box would be replaced by that from a 500D, which has a tail rotor of increased chord and diameter. The tail rotor in the kit has a toy-like 'polycap' fitting to fit easily onto the tail rotor drive shaft and I don't think it looks quite right. My new tail rotor will simply be tacked on to the tail rotor drive shaft at the very end of construction. I didn't manage to get the two blades in perfect alignment but it is barely noticeable and will be OK when painted up.

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Incidently, the lessons learned from researching the 'Hughes Spin' problems were put to good use by Frank Robinson when he built the R22 and R44. The R44 has phenomenal tail rotor authority when compared with the Bell 206B and even the OH-6A and Hughes 500C and it is quite difficult (but not impossible) to develop LTE in the R44.

LD.

Edited by Loach Driver
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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been very busy with the day job recently but managed to get a little work done on the OH-6D. The interior as supplied in the kit has been assembled and filler has been applied to fill a few small gaps. All the interior additions have been scratch-built, including a map holder, fire extinguisher, central radio console and seat belts (from masking tape) with inertia reels. All items not included in the kit have been built from scratch with no photoetch being used. As soon as the filler has dried everthing will be brought together. Photos of the interior will follow soon (hopefully).

LD.

Edited by Loach Driver
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Here is my repaired main rotor (bottom) with another rotor made more recently (top).

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The top rotor was made using a compass to evenly space out the rotors. When I compared my earlier effort with it I discovered that the angle between each rotor blade was not quite right. It isn't too noticeable though. The blades aren't in the same plane of rotation either but when I add a little droop it should improve things.

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Here are some of my additions to the interior. Starting from the right, there is a fire extinguisher on top of the clothes peg. It is made from plastic rod and wire. Propped against the peg is the instrument panel with an additional box added and wired up at the rear. The left peg is holding the cockpit assembly. Starting from the top are two small squares of plastic card. These are covering a pair of sink marks found at the top of the bulkhead. The Italeri OH-6A mould is getting a little old and a few sink marks are creeping in on the latest re-release. The two squares will be dry-brushed to add a little interest when everything is painted. Beside the top corners of the upper piece of plastic card I drilled small holes for some radio/intercom leads that will be made from wire and added after painting. Midway down the bulkhead is a map holder. This was made from a small section of plastic channel from Evergreen with a plastic card base. Now all I need is a 1/72 map to slip inside it! Between the base for the two seats is the pilot's collective lever. This is Kit Part 7 with the top section cut off. I added some plastic card to the side of this part to thicken it out a bit and reflect this area more accurately, which has the circuit breaker panel on it. On the floor below the collective is a section of plastic strut to represent the central console which usually contains the switches for the radios and armament. I drilled a few holes in the top of this piece of strut and when it is painted black, I will add some very short lengths of white pre-coloured wire to represent the various swithes and knobs in this area. I'm not sure if this will actually work but it sounds like it might. Time will tell.

LD.

Edited by Loach Driver
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  • 1 month later...

It's over a month since the last update and unfortunately there is only a small bit of progress. Work, holidays and a minor illness slowed things down but the OH-6D is up and running again.

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I added the pair of cyclics and tailrotor pedals. The pedals were added as per the instructions. Kit Part No. 10 is the mounting for the cyclics. It doesn't resemble the way the cyclics are fitted in the real helicopter though. The cyclics are both attached to a control bar that runs under the central instrument panel and the movement of the cyclic is fed into a single set of control runs that route up the forward bulkhead to the swashplate and control rods attached to the rotor head. I represented the bar with a small section of plastic rod (in white, running between the base of the two cyclics). The cyclics were tacked on to the ends of the plastic rod with glue. The join was then reinforced with a drop of superglue, as were the tailrotor pedals. The sight for the MMS will be test-fitted to the instrument panel next. Once the instrument panel and central radio and weapons panel are finalised, I will start painting the whole cockpit. Once that is done, things should move along nicely.

LD.

Edited by Loach Driver
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Loach Driver,

Two words AWE SOME! Man, I love the loach and you are doing this one up right. I can't wait to see how she turns out. Do you happen to know if there is a 1/72 kit that could be built as a 160th armed Little Bird?

Ray

Thanks Ray, I hope it turns out OK too.

For a Little Bird, Italeri have their "AH-6A Nightfox" kit in 1/72, Kit No. 017. One of the decal options is for a 160th machine but the armament option doesn't look like anything the 160th ever flew. The skids in the kit are the tall type while the 160th flies with short skids. The short skids can be borrowed from their OH-6A kit. The next question is, which version do you want to build - the AH-6J or the new AH-6M? The AH-6J is the closest version to the one that comes in the kit. The armament mounting will have to be sratchbuilt with the rocket pods and miniguns coming from various Italeri kits. The AH-6J was also armed with Hellfire missiles and a .50 Cal machine gun. The AH-6M will need a scratchbuilt six-blade rotor head, four-blade tail rotor and modified tail-fin and beefed-up skids. AZ Models from the Czech Republic have a 1/72 MD500 Defender out sometime later this year so this might be an even better starting point, though it will be more expensive. The Italeri Nightfox kit is no longer in production and is getting hard to find. Tamiya also produced it for a while and Bilek released this kit in their range last year as well. There are a couple of options when it comes to building 160th Little Birds. They test-flew a few bubble-nosed NOTAR conversions that were armed and also fitted with the transport planks. These are also on my list of interesting H-6 versions that I would like to build. Hope this helps.

LD.

Edited by Loach Driver
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Another brief update. I did a little more tinkering with the instrument panel.

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I added another small instrument to the top of the instrument panel cowling in front of the pilot's position. This was made from a short section of plastic rod.

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I wired it up at the rear. I also added two small squares of plastic card to modify the instrument panel further. I think I have added as much as I can to the instrument binnacle. There isn't too much more space left!

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Here is the whole assembly on its side. The only item left to add is the co-pilot's sight for the Mast Mounted Sight (MMS). That should go on this weekend. Even though it won't be seen on the finished model, I might do a little experiment and add some avionics to the rear compartment, just for fun. Just like the OH-58D, the OH-6D would have had a few electronic boxes in the rear cabin. Hence the solid rear doors with the ventilation grilles. I will use Floyd's OH-58D book to give me an idea of what might have been fitted in the rear. There might be a further update this weekend.

LD.

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Ok, ok I'm not buying it!

This is a 1/35 helo and you're telling us it's 1/72!

Nobody can build such tiny details!

Just kidding! Great work!

Looking forward to see more progess!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Arkhunter2002 and Avus, thanks for the feedback on this build.

I have almost completed painting the interior and I am happy enough with how it has turned out so far. I have hit one small problem with the central console so it needs a little modification before it is fully painted and added to the 'pit. The seats are painted as well and are just waiting for some home-made seatbelts. I hope to have some photos ready for the weekend. Thanks.

LD.

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Here is the cockpit sub-assembly painted and nearing completion. I thought I would have this finished by now but I hit a small problem with the central control panel.

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As stated earlier, I was going to detail this panel (the unpainted item on the right) with white wire to represent the switches on this panel. The wire was very difficult to install into the pre-drilled holes and were almost invisible. They wouldn't be visible through the door glazing when fitted so I sanded down the panel and added some punched discs of thin plastic card and a single piece of wire for the armament switch. The discs will represent a few more instrument dial faces.

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The interior of the OH-6D was NVG-compatible so I painted the cockpit in tyre black. I felt that a straight black colour would be too sharp and would not resemble how the interior actually looked. I dry-brushed the pilot's bulkhead with dark grey to add a bit of contrast. I weathered the floor around the pedals with dry-brushed light grey to show some use. The grips of the cyclics and collectives were painted flat black though this is barely noticeable. The seats are painted in olive drab and again were lightly drybrushed with light grey to add a bit of wear and tear. I didn't paint the rear compartment as it won't be visible when the fuselage halves come together.

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I wasn't quite sure how to paint the detail on the instrument panel. It was first painted tyre black as well, then I drybrushed the dials with light grey to add contrast for the gloss black paint added to the dial faces. I studied a photo on page 22 of 'Loach' which shows an NVG instrument panel. It is faded black with the dial faces in a 'darker' black. I loaded a fine paint brush with a drop of thick gloss black paint and touched this onto each individual intrument dial and this gave me the effect I was looking for. Trying to add calibration details onto the face of each dial is beyond me and probably won't be seen anyway. The fire extinguisher needs to have its paint touched up a little. The co-pilot's sight is also on the right of the instrument panel ready to be added. The central panel is lower right in the photo above and once this is painted everything should be brought together to finish the pit, along with some seatbelts.

LD.

Edited by Loach Driver
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Here is a tiny update. The skids from the kit need to be modified a little to represent an OH-6D. The little step on the forward skid leg is not present on the OH-6D so they came off. The fairings near where the skids attach to the fuselage also have some sink marks and needed a little filler. I then painted the skids with Humbrol Olive Drab. The navigation lights that are normally on the fuselage behind the rear doors are not fitted to the D but are replaced instead by navigation lights on the tips of the skids. I added a drop of gloss red and green paint to the respective skid tip to represent these lights.

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I was also working on the main and tail rotors and managed to break the repaired main rotor and one half of the tail rotor off :thumbsup: , so these are being fixed again. Seatbelts are also being added to the cockpit so this should finally be finished soon. Thanks for looking in.

LD.

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Very very cool LD.

I am enjoying this build. You are amazing in that you have been able to cram all that great detail into a small cockpit.

Great work indeed, this is going to look fantastic when finished! Dont worry about those breakages....it comes with the territory...as frustrating as it is.

Cheers

Anthony

Edited by Anthony in NZ
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  • 3 weeks later...

I have finally finished the cockpit. The rear compartment hasn't been painted as it won't be visible in the completed model.

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Much of the detail added to the instrument panel is guesswork but I'm pretty sure a sight of some kind was fitted for the co-pilot. With the cockpit painted in NVG-compatible black a lot of the added detail is hard to see. Some of the extra stuff I added include a fire extinguisher, seat belts made from thin strips of masking tape and some intercom leads made from fine wire. The wire was wound around a piece of Evergreen plastic rod and cut to size before being superglued into the bulkhead. The rotor blades have been repaired again so they are up for painting next. When they are done the fuselage halves should be closed up and it will finally begin to look like a helicopter.

LD.

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