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What's out there for a USN TH-57 in 1/48?


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Best kit to use, any aftermarket necessary or available?

Thanks

Jonah

Jonah,

Great question. I am looking at both the ERTL/Esci kit and the Testors kit. the Testors bird comes with the civilian windows while the ERTL/ESCI bird does not. I'd say the Testors kit is the best starting point in 48th of these two. I'm not aware of any others out there but someone else may have more insight. The kit looks pretty basic, so I'm sure you'd want to dress it up. HTH.

Ray

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Hi Jonah & Ray,

Although I am no fan of the Heller/ Testors- JetRanger, the windows are indeed the bigger civil style ones as on the TH-57. The landing gear is of the low type but it has landing gear- fairings that are not on the TH-57 afaik. Shape wise I have always preferred the Esci- 206 but the current Italeri version has the small Kiowa windows. Whirlybits from UK had a conversion kit with the civil style doors and tail rotor driveshaft cover but I have not seen it around lately.

HTH

:cheers:

Gertjan

Edited by GeejeeZ
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Hi Jonah & Ray,

Although I am no fan of the Heller/ Testors- JetRanger, the windows are indeed the bigger civil style ones as on the TH-57. The landing gear is of the low type but it has landing gear- fairings that are not on the TH-57 afaik. Shape wise I have always preferred the Esci- 206 but the current Italeri version has the small Kiowa windows. Whirlybits from UK had a conversion kit with the civil style doors and tail rotor driveshaft cover but I have not seen it around lately.

HTH

:cheers:/>

Gertjan

Italeri will release the Esci (A)B-206 Jet Ranger with civilian doors/windows later this year as Carabinieri special boxing

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Sounds like that's the kit to wait for then?

Thanks

Jonah

I would think so. The kit (the earlier releases by Italeri and Esci) afaik always included the 3 different landing gear types, so I would expect the low gear in the upcoming release as well.

Edited by GeejeeZ
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  • 2 years later...
On ‎3‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 6:17 PM, Gator52 said:

Sounds like that's the kit to wait for then?

Thanks

Jonah

Jonah, I just scored the old ESCI 1:48 AB-206 boxing with floats & lo/hi skids from evilBay.  Kit hasn't arrived yet, but I will let you know the contents when it does.  BTW, have you been able to locate any decal markings for TH-57C Searangers yet?  It looks like I will have to scrounge on this project for my son. Shouldn't be too bad, I have most everything.  Just the small TH-57C & BuNo on the tail will be difficult. BTW locating the CE/BM masks are still a pipe dream for me. R/ Dutch

Edited by Dutch
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Saw a -57 fly over just the other day.  

 

I seem to remember that there are some differences with the chin bubbles vs the 206/67.  I noticed it at an airshow, Ray was there.  Tuscaloosa.  I don't have my external HD hooked up to look at the pics.  But, I think the chin bubbles are bulged out a little.

 

That being said, I don't know if it would even be an issue in 1/48th.  YMMV.

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Thanks Ray.  From a very quick run through, there are a few things that stand out.  Namely, the number of seats in the back.  The TH-67 has one seat in the rear.  I think that having three seats in the back is pretty optimistic, since these guys are not making the full power that the C20 makes.  

Ray's pics show the bulged bubbles I was thinking about.  But, I was looking on google, and then Ray put up these pics that just cemented it.  There are two Pitot tubes on the nose, and MUCH better instruments.  Basically, they are mirrored in the -57, while they dang sure aren't in the -67.

I'm still looking at pics of what is the scoop behind the baggage door, left side.  The -67 doesn't have that.  (but, apparently they both have A/C, which is NICE).

 

The chin bubbles on the -67's are rounded more than the -57, and don't bulge out.  They are also much larger and go back towards the door more than the -67 does.  It's interesting.

 

Good stuff!  Let's keep the info going.

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From Sam Boyer, the Bell test pilot who flew the 67 program.:

"There were three versions of the 67, VFR, certified two pilot IFR and an NVG combat skill version. All had crash worthy seats, all had air con. 

The Tuscaloosa TH-57 is closest to the IFR version o the 67 according to Sam.

    Ray

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I would love for someone to produce a 1/35 Jet Ranger/Creek!!!

The Testors kit is the only one available and it's pretty rough. 

But then again maybe someone could scratchbuild a top engine/hydraulic deck and copy it in resin to use on the 1/35 Kiowa. 

 

Tim

 

 

Edited by hawkwrench
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Gorgeous pics Rotorwash!  ESCI kit arrived yesterday PM. I will post pics of parts trees shortly.It looks like the civilian AB-206 kit will do nicely.  I see what you mean about the bulged lower nose plexiglas.  I may have to vacuform new ones, or just let it go.   

Edited by Dutch
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Okay, I took pictures, but can't figure out how to shrink them down below the 110 Kb size limit, so I found some pictures from an Argentinian website. As you can see, you get two types of skids and floats, plus skis for the thin skids.  You also get two variation of tail boom, the civilian enclosed tail rotor shaft, and the military exposed tail rotor shaft.  The interior is pure civilian with forward bulkhead and three "individual cushion" bench seat.  The windshield is one piece and the complete under nose area is one piece clear plastic, with flat underside, so definitely NO bulge.  Hmm, it may be possible to vacuform a bulged canopy from the existing one.

 

esci-48-scale-ab-206-jetranger_1_173f91132cf4fdb3be08b62b8f1733dd.jpg.abc2f9c86aff81fc9021191dd2cb6557.jpg

Edited by Dutch
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14 hours ago, Dutch said:

Okay, I took pictures, but can't figure out how to shrink them down below the 110 Kb size limit, so I found some pictures from an Argentinian website. As you can see, you get two types of skids and floats, plus skis for the thin skids.  You also get two variation of tail boom, the civilian enclosed tail rotor shaft, and the military exposed tail rotor shaft.  The interior is pure civilian with forward bulkhead and three "individual cushion" bench seat.  The windshield is one piece and the complete under nose area is one piece clear plastic, with flat underside, so definitely NO bulge.  Hmm, it may be possible to vacuform a bulged canopy from the existing one.

Here you go, Dutch.  Just "copy image" and the paste it here like this.

   Ray

 

ab206esci_07.jpg

 

ab206esci_08.jpg

 

ab206esci_09.jpg

 

ab206esci_11.jpg

 

 

 

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Thanks Ray.  But I was talking about uploading my own pics from my smartphone, which are all over 3 MB each.  Anyway, those pics do show the gist.  

 

Scott, you can pretty much see that the upper most clear part has a completely flat top edge, which is the bottom edge of the plexiglas, just underneath the rudder pedals.  Flat! I suppose it could be built up with a few layers of plasticard, sanded to shape and then a vacuform clear copy made.

 

The interior is almost spot on.  Just have to add seatbelts to the back seats, seat belt rollers on the back of the fwd bulkhead, black comms box, and first aid kit.

Edited by Dutch
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2 hours ago, Dutch said:

Thanks Ray.  But I was taking about uploading my own pics from my smartphone, which are all over 3 MB each.  Anyway, those pics do show the gist.  

 

Scott, you can pretty much see that the upper most clear part has a completely flat top edge, which is the bottom edge of the plexiglas, just underneath the rudder pedals.  Flat! I suppose it could be built up with a few layers of plasticard, sanded to shape and then a vacuform clear copy made.

 

The interior so almost spot on.  Just have to add seatbelts to the back seats, seat belt rollers on the back of the fwd bulkhead, black comms box, and first aid kit.

You can post your originals to Facebook, Dutch, and then just copy them into the thread like i did the ones above.

   Ray

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Hi Dutch, I was referring to the flat landing skids. I think they’re meant to resemble the pop up flotation skids that are sometimes seen, especially on the Hellenic Army -206’s. Would be good to know how they look before I fork out a small fortune for one of these elusive kits.

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