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I've realized there is no just general place to talk about the GB. Now there is, if you have something directed at all participants, or just have something neat related to the GB that doesn't seem to fit elsewhere go ahead and post it here.

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Ok, now that I have this topic...

Very happy to see that seven have already gotten under way and one is already done. :jaw-dropping:

I'm starting to think that Mr Phantom has a closet full of F-4s all built up and painted so he just has to slap the appropriate decals on. You are one fast model building dude. :salute:

I have not gotten underway as I've had family visiting for the holidays. Hopefully I'll get the time to get a good look at everyones stuff tonight and maybe get a start on my own.

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I'm starting to think that Mr Phantom has a closet full of F-4s all built up and painted so he just has to slap the appropriate decals on. You are one fast model building dude. :salute:

Don't salute me, I was a Sergeant and worked for a living!!!

To be honest I know I build a little faster then most. Have no idea why this is. Guess I settle for close enough more then everyone else.

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I just bought this kit off ebay ;

KGrHqIOKiwE6Znq0wBOrvn21DWQ60_12.jpg

It was a little expensive at $50.00 but what the heck !

The Ski equipped R4D-5 (C-47) operated closer to my neck of the woods , Not that Sydney is really all that close to the South Pole but it's something from the Antarctic region for the Group Build .

John .

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Neat, I didn't know a 1/72 kit had been made with those markings. I have thought about getting the Minicraft kit and scaling up the decals for the Italeri C-47. Do you think you could get a better photo or scan of the painting / decal instructions and decals?

Australia / New Zealand are pretty active in the Antarctic, you should be able to find a few "local" options if you want. Most of those I have run across have pretty simple markings that can be scrounged from spare decals or painted.

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The pic I posted of the R4D-5 South Pole C-47 is the image from ebay .

I should have been more specific about the kit as I just bought it a few minutes before posting my score .

The kit should arrive in about two weeks , I've bought items from the seller before and he mails kits and decals the next day .

I will be happy to post in-box pic of the sprues , Decals and Instructions as soon as the kit arrives .

I did do a bit of a search for local Aircraft that operated in Antarctica and saw some 1/48 decals for an Australian C-47 ;

http://www.southernskymodels.com.au/DouglasC-47DakotaANARE1961-2105.html

This is what lead me to ebay eventually and I settled on the U.S Navy R4D-5

There was also mention of the CASA 212-400 Aircraft on the net. Looking around for a 1/72 scale version I only saw a Vacuform kit with USCG markings on modelingmadness web site , it was a company that I have never heard of before . Anyway I've only had a little look on the net so far in regards to Australian Aircraft used in the Antarctic , so I'll keep looking around and see what I can find .

John .

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I assumed you already had the kit in your hands. There is no rush as I doubt I'd do the C-47 for this GB. It would be helpful for the future though.

Looks like they plan on doing those Australian DC-3 decals in 1/72 too.

There are some Australian / Antarctic aircraft photos in here.

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/history

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Aaron, thank's for the link to those Australian Aircraft used in the Antarctic .

I noticed a DHC-2 Beaver in amongst the aircraft pic's ;

http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/antarctic-images/photo-gallery/transport

As it happens I've had a Hobbycraft Beaver in the stash for a couple of years now and the box art shows the DHC-2 with U.S. Army markings for Alaska with floats fitted .

DHC-2Beaverpic1.jpg

Silly me , I've been looking at the box these past few day's and only now did decide to cut open the plastic bag and look at the instructions and sprue's , that I noticed the kit comes with skis as well ;

DHC-2Beaverpic2.jpg

The attachment pionts for the skis look a little vauge ;

DHC-2Beaverpic3.jpg

Hopfully it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out . I have lot's of Australian insignia's in the decal stash and the overall color appears to be a Orange/Yellow scheme , which I can have a go at mixing together .

I'll just do a OOB build and not worry about cutting open any fuselage doors , should be fun .

John .

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The Esci 1/72 South Pole R4D-5 just arrived at the front door .

SouthPoleR4D-5spruepic1.jpg

The Esci kit has a lot more interior detail than Italeri's C-47 kit , so I'm quite impressed .

Here's a pic of the landing gear skis and under fuselage rockets ;

SouthPoleR4D-5spruepic2.jpg

SouthPoleR4D-5Decalinstructions2.jpg

Decals ;

SouthPoleR4D-5Decals.jpg

SouthPoleR4D-5Decalinstructions1.jpg

John .

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I have lot's of Australian insignia's in the decal stash and the overall color appears to be a Orange/Yellow scheme , which I can have a go at mixing together .

I'll just do a OOB build and not worry about cutting open any fuselage doors , should be fun .

John .

Hi John. Maxdecals have a sheet on Arctic/Antarctic beavers in 1/72. I think it is out-of-production at the moment but maybe there are some to be had on ebay or some shops may still have it in stock.

LD.

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The OH-6 is a cool little helicopter , sorry I don't have any additional info on the Antarctic version Ray .

I did see on ebay another of those 1/72 Douglas R4D-5 South Pole Pioneer kits ; If anyone is interested here's the link ...

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=Douglas+R4D-5+South+Pole&_sacat=0&_odkw=Douglas+R4D-6&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

On another note , I found some 1/72 decals in my stash for a RF-101G/H Voodoo based at Elmendorf AFB Alaska .

I went searching around the net for one of those 1/72 Airwaves RF-101G/H resin nose conversions for the Hasegawa RF-101C kit but i've had no luck so far tracking one down . If anyone knows of one that is available , I would be most grateful if you could let me know .

John .

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While searching around the internet looking for info on my current and future Arctic/Antarctic builds , I stumbled across this site , which for those of us who are rotorheads I thought this might make an interesting build ;

If you scroll half way down the page you will see a CH-54 Skycrane recovering a PBY-5 Catalina .

http://www.alaskaairmuseum.org/flightline/outside.php

Here's a link to some excellent walk around pic's of a ski equipped Skycrane with additional external fuel tanks fitted ;

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/sal_provenzano/ch-54b_wheel-skiis/index.php?Page=1

I have a stack of Revell CH-54 Skycranes in the stash which could make for an interesting addition if I could scratch build some of those skis and the external fuel tank looks similar to whats in the Fujimi SH-3D/H Seaking kits .

John .

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Thanks for posting the R4D kit contents, looks like there is a fair amount of extra bits to make hunting one of these down worth while vs just using another kit.

The CH-54 is interesting, I don't think I've ever seen one with skis. I've got lots of photos of firefighting Skycranes if you need detail pics. Not much difference from the CH-54 since the firefighting equipment is just a cargo module.

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I remember reading somewhere a while back that Revell made two major errors with their Skycrane kit .

One is the tail pylon should be more squared at the trailing edge and I think it should have seperate , exposed drive shaft going up to tail rotor ?

Also the rear cabin section where that half round clear piece for the whinch operator is positioned is suppose to have a bigger cabin across the rear of the cockpit .

It would be really great to see pic's of those two Skycrane sections , it would give me a much better idea of where to cut the tail pylon and what the rear cabin actually looks like .

John .

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I found a picture in one of my Helicopter reference books , "Illustrated History of Helicopters -Michael Heatley " of a ski equipped Skycrane .

CH-54Skycranewithskis.jpg

The Air Filter boxes could be challenging to scratch build , not so much the box but producing those little vents on the sides and top of the filter box .

On another note , I'm constantly surprised about finding more info on aircraft that was stationed at Elmendorf AFB Alaska and the number of stalled builds in my kit collection that would be suitable additions to park in the background behind current builds .

Another picture from a reference book , "Fighters of the United States Air Force" is this Elmendorf F-84F ;

F-84FElmendorf.jpg

There's an old partly completed 1/72 Airfix F-84F Thunderstreak under the bench which I think will suit as a background aircraft . I also found some decals in the stash for a F-15A Elmendorf Eagle .

John.

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Revell also got the shape of the nose wrong. I'll go through my photos and see what I can come up with for the areas you mentioned. I know I've got some showing the engines, and the tail rotor so the tail rotor drive shaft should be in there too. As I recall it is exposed, but I don't think revell got this so much wrong as just molded the detail in which makes it look like it is enclosed. I started a Skycrane a few years ago but it became a huge amount of work to really do it justice. not so much errors in the kit as much as there is a lot of open working mechanical stuff up top that can be detailed out to make the most of the model.

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I remember reading somewhere a while back that Revell made two major errors with their Skycrane kit .

One is the tail pylon should be more squared at the trailing edge and I think it should have seperate , exposed drive shaft going up to tail rotor ?

Also the rear cabin section where that half round clear piece for the whinch operator is positioned is suppose to have a bigger cabin across the rear of the cockpit .

It would be really great to see pic's of those two Skycrane sections , it would give me a much better idea of where to cut the tail pylon and what the rear cabin actually looks like .

John .

John,

So you want a Skycrane ref or two. I think I might be able to help there. These are from PIMA and Ft. Rucker.

Ray

HERE is the complete set.

PICT4690.JPG

PICT4695.JPG

PICT4696.JPG

PICT4697.JPG

PICT4680.JPG

PICT4683.JPG

PICT4169.JPG

PICT4171.JPG

PICT4183.JPG

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Thank's for posting the Skycrane pic's Ray .

It doesn't appear that it would be too difficult to modify the rear cabin section , there also appears to be some type extra filter / exhaust that sits under the filter boxes ?

I can see what Aaron ment about how Revell molded the drive shaft into the tail fin rather than leaving it exposed . That as well may not be too difficult to correct.

So I gues I could just concentrate on the three main issue's , 1-rear cabin , 2-exposed tail rotor drive shaft and 3- scratch build some skis .

A rotor fold would be great as well but i've tried a few times before with rotor folds in 172 scale and haven't been able to get the little hinge mechanism on the rotor blades looking accurate .

Revell's Skycrane cockpit looks similar to what Lindberg offer with their HH-3E , in that the crappy seats are similar , the instrument panel has no shroud over it and no cylic sticks or control sticks or foot pedals . Revells latest boxing of the kit does include a decal for the instrument panel , I suppose that's something .

Anyway the pic's and link you posted Ray will be a tremendous help , all in all it doesn't look like much more work to do than i've already done on the Lindberg / Starfix H-3 builds . So I'll give it a go .

John .

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Well I was able to snag an R4D off of ebay, $39 including shipping which seems like a decent price. Thanks again for posting the kit contents, I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't know about all the extra goodies it includes.

I may be out of touch for a bit, the movers are coming on Wednesday, so not sure how long I will be without internet access, maybe a few days, but could be up to a couple of weeks. On the plus side I'm goin to have a greatly improved modeling area once I get it set up. I'll finally have the space to build and display some of my larger kits.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well the move hasn't gone as smoothly as hoped. One thing after another, but finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. Should be getting moved in sometime this week, then no more living out of a duffel bag, regular internet access and best of all I'll be able to set up the model bench again.

Glad to see you all have been behaving yourselves. :)

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