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No photo updates right now, but I spent the weekend cleaning up massive amounts of flash on this kit. Some parts have more flash than actual part!

The seats are all painted and I made my first stab at adding some tape seat belts. They couldn't be much simpler, but, at least it adds a little something to the cockpit.

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That sounds like the tail boom on my R-4, it was more like carving plastic by numbers than clean up. :worship:

Good luck with the clean up, the customs UH-60s are nice looking helos so looking forward to seeing your progress.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some quick pictures from the build. The interior is done. I just need to touch up a little and add some color to the axe on the rear bulkhead. This is also my first attempt at tape harnesses. They don't look like much, but it adds something to a boring interior.

After that, things get nerve wracking. Putting the two halves of the helo together just looks terrible. Seams everywhere, weak, soft plastic, and clear pieces that just look crummy.

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Nice start!!! Looking forward to see some progress.

Primož

Haha, demanding, are we!

Actually you got me off of my butt to lay down a coat of light grey on the interior sections. The pin marks are horrendous, but fortunately they will be next to impossible to see once everything is buttoned up.

I'm sure that my excitement at seeing large pieces ready to go together will lead to some serious assembly this weekend.

Cheers

- E

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Haha, demanding, are we!

Actually you got me off of my butt to lay down a coat of light grey on the interior sections. The pin marks are horrendous, but fortunately they will be next to impossible to see once everything is buttoned up.

I'm sure that my excitement at seeing large pieces ready to go together will lead to some serious assembly this weekend.

Cheers

- E

:) :rofl: :D

Primož

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Well, I was quite lame building this weekend. The paint took a bit to set, and then, to avoid having masking pull up paint, I hit it with a spray of dullcoat. Now, once that cures, I'll actually be able to do the last bit of painting on the interior and put that sucker together!

Of course, then I get to attempt to deal with some of the worst seams that I've ever seen. It might actually be easier to smooth things out with full sheets of plastic, rather than putty and sanding!

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  • 2 weeks later...

And now, the unveiling of what I am sure will drive me batty for the next week. Seams Seams Seams!!

I don't mind the seam/step at the base of the interior - that will be covered up by putting the doors on. Some of the worst of the seams will be covered by the engine inlets, but... WOW. It's great how the plastic is shaped to create a little ridge where it meets the next piece!

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No photo updates right now, but I spent the weekend cleaning up massive amounts of flash on this kit. Some parts have more flash than actual part!

The seats are all painted and I made my first stab at adding some tape seat belts. They couldn't be much simpler, but, at least it adds a little something to the cockpit.

HEY! I'm working on one of these too!

Be careful. The kick windows in the nose on mine don't fit.

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HEY! I'm working on one of these too!

Be careful. The kick windows in the nose on mine don't fit.

Amazingly, those windows fit PERFECTLY. I do not understand how that happened.

This putty monster is coming along, and I'm excited to start masking off the interior to give it a coat of gloss black. It should be ready for that in a week or two, so long as I don't get side tracked!

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Amazingly, those windows fit PERFECTLY. I do not understand how that happened.

This putty monster is coming along, and I'm excited to start masking off the interior to give it a coat of gloss black. It should be ready for that in a week or two, so long as I don't get side tracked!

Mine are too small in 2 dimensions, so they can't be installed from the outside. Luckily, I discovered it before I joined the fuselage halves.

What did you (will you) use glue-wise to install the windows? I'm having trouble getting mine (mostly the main cabin and cockpit door windows) to stay installed.

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Mine are too small in 2 dimensions, so they can't be installed from the outside. Luckily, I discovered it before I joined the fuselage halves.

What did you (will you) use glue-wise to install the windows? I'm having trouble getting mine (mostly the main cabin and cockpit door windows) to stay installed.

Kelley -

I'm not entirely sure if this will come back to bite me, but here's what I did with the cockpit door and kick windows: I taped them off (including leaving a space for the spar that runs through the kick windows) ENTIRELY, then used a very sharp Exacto knife to trim the tape to exactly fit the edge of the window. With the cockpit windows, I did the same thing, but without leaving any space to be covered with paint.

I then touched just a bit of Testor's liquid cement on the veerrrryy inside part of the holes for the clear pieces. The cockpit door windows took some fiddling, and I can't say that I'm not nervous to take that tape off. The kick windows slid into place, perfectly flush with the fuselage. This is the FIRST piece that I've glued in place that has done this with the kid. I think my next build will be something Tamiya from WWII...

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Sorry its fighting you so hard, but it does look like you are making it come around to see your way of thinking. ^_^

Coming together. Some reason the boom seams always annoy me to work with on helis.

I don't find the work that bad, but do find it annoying that they have to be done at all. Most helicopters could be seam free on the top if the usual (driveshaft?) hump on the tail and engine dog house were seperate pieces. They would go right over 90% of the top seams.

Edited by Aaronw
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So a quick, non-picture update:

The seams are.... dealt with? I have a feeling that it' just going to be nasty, no matter what I do. The plastic is just too weak to be able to sand much of anything. It's already broken the glue joints a few times, and is just becoming frustrating. The tail boom seams shouldn't be an issue - it's the ones over and under the cabin. Grrrr.

My last real gripe with this kit - the parts are just not sized properly. Part of the main wheel struts are just too short, and not designed to properly fit together, unless you sand off some of the join areas, and are then prepared to go in with filler. I'm nervous to do the filler part - it's just so weak. Who knows what will happen when I drop wheels on it...

The rotors went together without much of a problem, save for some very thin pieces biting the dust. I may fix that later. I just don't have the patience with the kit at the moment for that kind of tiny detail work.

Speaking of tiny detail work, I'm preparing for one bit of that - the searchlight. They handily provide you with a nice little searchlight that is actually quite nice looking - until you realize that there is no location to mount said searchlight on the kit. None. It just doesn't exist. So, since I have to make a very small platform on the left side. Then, since at this point, I've given up on so many frustrating parts of this kit, I'm going to add some thin wire to the back of the light, connecting to the platform, to make believe that this represents the real aircraft.

Despite all of this whining, I am VERY excited to get this baby ready for paint and decaling. Those may be famous last words, but the old Black and Gold Customs scheme looks good. Now if only I could glue more than 2 fragile pieces on it per day...

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So a quick, non-picture update:

The seams are.... dealt with? I have a feeling that it' just going to be nasty, no matter what I do. The plastic is just too weak to be able to sand much of anything. It's already broken the glue joints a few times, and is just becoming frustrating. The tail boom seams shouldn't be an issue - it's the ones over and under the cabin. Grrrr.

If superglue does not take care of it, sometimes you can make a patch from thin styrene sheet. Then just feather the edges or make the edges a panel line.
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If superglue does not take care of it, sometimes you can make a patch from thin styrene sheet. Then just feather the edges or make the edges a panel line.

I'm pretty sure that I was able to make the seams look presentable. I just laid down a coat of gloss black on the top half and front of the helo, and It's looking darn good, if I do say so! It's really nice to watch all of the putty disappear and look nice. Once it dries, tomorrow I should be able to hit the bottom half and the doors. For such a bizarrely constructed kit, it's starting to come together.

This sucker is a great demonstration as to why this hobby requires patience!

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Well, here it it all is, with a nice coat of gloss coat, ready to be decalled. The gold paint was just laid down, an a touch of clean-up will be required (and the wheels still need to be brush-painted in flat black). Enjoy the pics!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I'm SO close! The flat coat for the rotors is drying on the topside, then one quick coat for the underside, and then we are DONE!

The decals were a challenge. It's a good thing that I saved tthe set from my first go around on this kit. Some of the curves are just tough to get the decals to sit right on, even with MicroSol.

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Glad to see you stuck with this one despite all the issues with the kit. Looks like you got them all tamed it pretty well. A kit that just falls together is a real pleasure but I know for myself I really enjoy it when I can get a kit that fought me the whole way to look nice by the end.

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Glad to see you stuck with this one despite all the issues with the kit. Looks like you got them all tamed it pretty well. A kit that just falls together is a real pleasure but I know for myself I really enjoy it when I can get a kit that fought me the whole way to look nice by the end.

Thanks for the encouragement! It definitely helped to have a deadline and people keeping me on top of it. Here goes:

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