MH-60G Pave Hawk

[Adam Baker]

Ok, started putting the camo down. So far Im not sure whether I like it or not, but its progress.

Its kinda splotchy right now b/c I decided to go w/ the #1 tip in my VL, so the paint is really thin, and I had the pressure down to about 10 or 12psi. So Im going to have to go back at least once more, probably twice, to get it all filled in solid. Altho it might look a little better w/ some of it being splotchy, b/c Im wanting a bit of a faded out look.

Here are the pic's I just took (sorry for the quality, had problems getting decent pic's to come out).

Im also not sure about the coverage, as far as the amount covered w/ the earth tone. I didnt want to go too far w/ it, but Im not sure whether Ive done enough.

[Adam Baker]

Ok, went over the camo a second time, and it looks a lot better.

Ive ordered 2 bottles of the Pro Modeller washes, to use on this. Got the Dark Grey & the Black. Going to let this thing sit for a week, and by then the washes should be here.

Edited October 25, 2008 by Adam Baker

[Rocat]

nice progress, paintjob is looking good!

[doupnik]

Looking really nice. I like your choice of the desert paint scheme.

mason

[Adam Baker]

Ok, time for another update.

Didnt get a whole lot done this weekend, but I did make progress. Spent most of yesterday feeling weird b/c I got my eyes dilated at the optometrist & it left me feeling a little off for most of the day, and then last night I had trouble getting motivated to do much.

About all I got done last night, was some masking to do some painting. I realized I needed to paint the black boot on the tail, the dome on the nose and one of hte antennas on the top.

This is what it looked like after I got the masking done.

And the painting came out really good. Dont mind the glimmer, for some reason I ended up w/ specs all over the model from the paint I used to paint the rotor head & the tail rotor, even tho the helicopter wasnt inside the paint booth when I painted the other parts. But it wont be a problem once its cleared, washed & then flatted.

Also painted the main rotor & the tail rotor, like I mentioned above, and then I decided to assemble it and see how it looks. I also pulled the styrofoam blocks out of the windows & doors and it looks like they did an awesome job closing up the openings, I had no overspray inside the cabin at all.

I did have to recover from a minor disaster tonight. I was hand painting the engine intakes using thinned paint, to help cut down on brush strokes. While doing the port intake, I was painting the inside of the intake black, and it made its way down to the gap between the intake & the engine cover, and leaked out, and I didnt notice it and stuck my finger in the paint, smearing it all over the engine cover. Thankfully I was able to clean it up using a Q-tip & some enamel thinner. Thank god the Tamiya paint is a lacquer, otherwise the paint job would have been screwed.

[rotorwash]

Came to this one kinda late. That is one Beautiful build! Can't wait to see her finished.

Ray

[Avus]

Sweet!

I missed some updates, but the current status is great.

[doupnik]

Looking really nice! Can't wait to see it get a little dirty.

Great work!

mason

[Adam Baker]

Thanks guys. Im hoping to get the gloss coat down tonight as soon as I get home. Depending how it looks, I may try to start decaling tonight, but I dont want to rush it, so I'll probably start the decals & the wash on Sat. Im going to do the wash over the gloss coat, and see how it looks once Ive put the flat coat down. If I want it dirtier, I'll put another coat down ovet the flat coat.

[Guilherme Kosciuv]

awesome paint job!!! :)

[marine4 ever]

Back from a photography trip and you have flown through this build Adam! looks marvelous.

semper fi

Dan

[marek_1101]

I have Academy helicopter MH-60, without decals. Is it possible to get (e-shop) any decals for this model? Maybe someone of you have not needed decals?

Cheers Marek

[Adam Baker]

I cant help unfortunately. I just started applying the decals I have to my model. I'd try contacting MRC/Academy and see if they can either replace them or sell you a set.

[let_models]

Well, I finally got around to starting on this one tonight. Ive kinda gotten burnt out a little bit on my '53 build, especially w/ the fact that I honestly doubt its going to be done before the Jan 1 deadline, but thats another story.

Pulled the Pave Hawk out, and just started going through it. This one is going to be done pretty much OOB. I dont plan on doing any of the stuff to this, that Im trying w/ the '53. Probably do a few fixes here & there that will just generally make the completed model look better, but thats about it. No major hacking on the model, or anything like that.

Here are some pic's I took a little while ago, just pretty much dry fitting parts together. Discovered several fit issues that are going to have to be solved. The main issue being the fitment of the interior floor pan. It just doesnt fit well at all, all the way around. Ive taken note of several things that Avus has done in his build, that Im going to try doing w/ mine.

However, the biggest issue w/ the floor that Ive discovered, is it seems that the tub where the belly hook is located, seems to be too deep. Its causing the floor pan to be pushed upwards, preventing it from lining up w/ the troop doors at all. As it stands right now, Im almost definitely going to have to shave some material off that tub, just to get the floor to sit on its alignment tabs, and get it aligned w/ the doors.

Just things dry fitted together

In this shot, if you look at the rear bulk head, you can see htat it doesnt match the contours of the fuselage. I saw that Avus built up the fuselage, to make it work, I think Im going to attempt the same thing.

Here's a shot looking at the backside of the rear bulkhead, showing the fit problem

And then the problem w/ the floor not matching w/ the rear troop doors.

Port Side

Starboard side

The port side seems to be the one that has the bigger fit issue at the moment. Almost like the floor pan isnt sitting level. And at this point, it wouldnt surprise me much if its in fact, not sitting level.

Ive also noticed that the interior roof panel doesnt match very well where the upper control panel is located. Not sure what Im going to do about that, but I'd imagine I'll add material, similar to how Avus "massaged" his parts to make them fit.

___________________________

Hello,

Very nice built and good paint jobs so far!

I have a question for you: did this kit come with the miniguns? I saw the "starboard side" picture:

look like a minigun suport on the door? if yes how many? and how the quality of the guns? on the 1:48 scale

the miniguns was little small...can you show some picture after you painted on the guns?

please let me know!, thank you!

Let models,

Edited November 9, 2008 by let_models

[Adam Baker]

Yup, 2 mini guns for the windows, and what I think are 2 50 cal's for the troop doors.

Ive made a little more progress on this build, but I'm at an impasse at the moment. The decal sheet for this thing SUCKS!!! I don't know about other kits, but this one is terrible. Its so out of register that every decal on the sheet is affected by it. Every decal Ive put down on this thing so far has fought me like crazy, w/ most of them coming apart or loosing the bottom edge of the decal where its not printed on the carrier film.

Right now I'm trying to decide what I want to do. I guess Ive got 3 options. 1) Live w/ it and just work through it w/ the decals as they are, 2) Coat the decal sheet w/ something to help hold the decals together, or 3) try to get a replacement sheet from Academy. At this point I'm thinking 1 or 2 is the most likely option. I'm too close to getting this POS done to want to wait to try replacing the sheet.

[Avus]

As far as I understood your sheet isn't printed correctly: the markings are a little off-set the carrier.

Sadly this happens!

Right now I'm trying to decide what I want to do. I guess Ive got 3 options.

1) Live w/ it and just work through it w/ the decals as they are

2) Coat the decal sheet w/ something to help hold the decals together

3) try to get a replacement sheet from Academy.

Actually there could be another solution: since the stencils are black you could scan the sheet in high resolution (1200 dpi) and print it with a laser printer on a clear decal sheet.

But maybe you should try number 2 first. Microscale has a specific liquid for that, but I don't remember the name. You can brush or spray it on the sheet.

I noticed only now that you installed the .50cal mounts. I hope it's not too late, but those mounts are as good as never used in the field and mainly not on the side with the hoist since it would hinder the rescue operations.

Edited November 10, 2008 by Avus

[Adam Baker]

Well, I found a can of Testors Decal Bonder that I got when my parents bought me the Testors Decal Maker kit. I sprayed that on the decals, and it seems to be working decent, I got a few decals on w/ it and they didnt come apart. Unfortunately I didnt get to work on it this weekend b/c I threw my back out.

As for the gun mounts, it was just sitting in place in the pic's above, they havent been glued in yet so thats not a problem.

[Adam Baker]

Ok, progress to show.

Spent the last few days working on these horrible decals. I have to honestly say that I think these are the worst & hardest decals Ive ever applied, and that says quite a bit. Last year I built between 15 & 20 Nascar models, and quite a few of those had some pretty bad decals, but nowhere near as bad as this thing.

I ended up coating the decals w/ Testors Decal Bonder, which helped keeping them from breaking up, but it made the decals a fair bit thicker, so they were harder to work w/, and it also meant that i had to trim the decal sheet as close as possible to the decal, so I had less to work w/, so I ended up scrapping quite a few decals. Several of the larger decals also gave me problems w/ silvering, when the decal woudlnt lay down correctly. I ended up having to go back over every decal after it was put down, w/ some solvaset to help snug them down in place. Ive still got a few decals left to put on, but Ive pretty much said screw it and called the decals done. All I have left to do at this point, is the main & tail rotors. But both arent done being painted. Ive gotta go back & recoat the main rotor blades w/ the gloss clear, and I still have to paint the blades on the tail rotor, and then clear coat it.

Tomorrow when I get home from work, I'll be putting down the Pro-Modeller Dark wash.

Anywhere, here are the pic's I just took.

Edited November 11, 2008 by Adam Baker

[Adam Baker]

More progress, thankfully been able to get a fair bit done lately.

Last nights job was putting down the Pro Modeller Wash, and I have to say so far, Im extremely happy w/ it. I started w/ the Dark Grey wash, but Im thinking about going over it again w/ the black wash. I did do the underside of the horizontal tail w/ the black, and was impressed w/ the look, so it might get done to the whole thing. Once I get it all done, and flat coat it, Im probably going to lay down some black down either side of the tail, where the exhaust I assume would stain the sides.

Wash layed down & drying

After I started cleaning it back off.

[charles]

brilliant!!

[Avus]

Sweet!

Looks great after decaling and washing.

[Adam Baker]

Ok, we're coming down the home stretch.

I went back over the model last night w/ the Pro Modeller Black wash, and I think it looks a lot better w/ the black, than it did w/ the dark grey.

After that I flat coated the whole thing, and then started pulling the tape off the windows. unfortunately the windows are all kinda fogged up. Looks like the tape I used either left a residue, or possibly reacted w/ the future on the windows. So now I have to figure out what to do.

In these 2 shots you can see how the windows are kinda fogged up. Any suggestions on how to fix it? Im thinkign about using some Windex to try removing the Future, in hopes that will fix it.

[Avus]

Holy Moly!

Despite the foggy glass it looks great! The more so if you consider it's out of the box.

As for removing the foggy effect I'm sorry I can't help you since I never used Future (it's impossible to find here!).

[Adam Baker]

I got told by a friend of mine I oughta leave the fog on the window, make it look more realistic, but Im not so sure of that. I'd imagine of all the places on the bird, the windscreen should probably be the cleanest place. Ive had it suggested to use a little vinegar or Goo Gone on a q tip. Probably try those tomorrow night when I get home from work.

[marine4 ever]

adam whats on the windscreen? is it glue from the tape or is it the actual future? if it's glue from tape goo gone is the way to go i use it all the time with great results it cleans up the glass nicely.

Semper fi

Dan

P.S. looks fantastic by the way.