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10 minutes ago, Steven H. McLain said:

I would buy at least one set in 1/48 scale.  I have several ESCI Bell Jet Rangers.  Nice model.  The hard part is getting other decals, specifically law enforcement and fire/EMS.

True. I am going to have these specially made.

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Don't forget that the non-modeler won't see many of the things we tend to be bothered about.They're just happy that you built a model of their aircraft. As long as there aren't really big errors (choose your own definition for that term) I'd let it go. As long as the paint and decal work looks good, they'll definitely be thankful for what you've done for them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Those are actually OH-58A+ “RAID” birds.  They were up-engined with the C20 and have slightly longer span TR (Tail Rotor) blades.

 The panels on the RAID birds had additional radios for communicating with law enforcement.  Most of them were given to NG units, but I have seen some in “Active” Army units with them.  The structure on top of the panel was for, I believe, a Radar Altimeter, additionally they had two MFD on each side of he panel, used to display the FLIR images, and some had a FLIR display in the back seat on the LH side with the tech running it on the RH side.  The 58C panel was larger and squarer.

 The 58C had the IR stacks.  Although I have seen (and have pictures of) 58C’s with the curved stack, and 58A+ (not RAID) with the IR stack.

 The intake on the Revell kit is not correct for production OH-58/CH-136 AC.  It represents the early 206A, and the 1st couple of OH-58A’s and OH-58B’s delivered.  The second airframe and the prototypes had the “clean open” intake, the production birds have a vane.  If you want to do an accurate 58/136 you’re going to have to remove the fairing on the TR (Tail rotor) Gearbox, none of the 58/136 had a coved TR GB.  That and do the Tip Caps on the 58/136 blade.  The TR Drive shaft cover found on the A, A+, C, C+ and D extended to just about the TR GC, the 136  cover was a little shorter, stopping just in front of the vertical fin.

And while we’re at it the 58/136 doors and windows are different from the 206.  The 206 door frames are a lot heavier and the 58 doors only have two pop outs for air ventilation.  I could pick up a 58 door with two fingers, the 206 door took both hands.

N269FB (above) is possibly an DC NG bird.  They had slide down windows that were added on the outside of the 58A doors.  Other units may have adopted those, but I only have shots of DC NG birds with that mod.

And lets not forget the military birds did not have fairing on the skid cross tubes…

 You could start with one of the Italari 58 kits, although I think it is actually an Agusta 206A.  It lacks the swept tip caps, but it’s a good start.  Or if you’re a real masochist, back build a 1/35th 58A out of the  MRC 58D.  I helped them with info and structural pieces parts stuff for the 58D.

 

- Bryan

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At least the MR blades might be easy, they're NACA 0012.5 symmetrical airfoils with modified (dropped) leading edges.  Essentially the same as the UH-1H.  So take a 1/48 UH-1H and center cut the blades and splice them together so they end up with a 13.009" (from the -20) (1.08') chord, and sand them to profile.  Max thickness is 1.47" (without paint) where the blade skin overlaps the leading edge cap.  See attached shots.

 

Alternatively, the 58D has a chord of 13.03" on the inboard part of the blade, although I'm not sure what the airfoil number is.  So a set of 4 1/35 58D blades will go a long way in making two OH-58A/C blades, although they will be about 1 scale inch short.  At 0.025" I think you can probably ignore that...

 

The dims are just for the constant chord areas of the blades, not the blade root around the doubles or the tapered tips on the 58D.  You will also need to make the 58A/C Tip Caps.

 

OH-58A/C TR Dia is 5' 2" with a chord of .4375'

 

Everyone hated the 58A TR, myself included.  The 206B-III 's I flew had 2" added to the span and were better overall, especially in a heavy crosswind in high OGE sling work, on the order of 150' - 200'

 

Blade twist for the 58A/C is on the order of -10.6 degrees at the tip, and a Hub Pre-Cone of 2 1/4 degrees.  The 58A/C has a bit of blade droop.  The transmission is tilted (if memory servers) just slightly fwd and to the left - about 1 1/2 degrees fwd, and around 1/2 degree left.

 

The 58D TR blades were Dia: 5' 5" with a 6.3" chord. 

 

I'm considering doing the same with the 1/35 58D.  And while I have the structural drawings, it's still a fair amount of work.  The biggest issue may be the engine, the T63-A-700 in the 58A and T63-A-720 in the 58C are physically smaller than the T703-AD-700 in the 58D, and the 58A engine is slightly smaller than the 58C engine.

 

- Bryan

0012Mod_206_MR_Blade.jpg

0012Mod_206_MR_Blade_Upper.jpg

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Not that this helps, but reminded me of a funny story, only because nobody got hurt. Back when I a firefighter in Fairfax County, Virginia. The police had two bell rangers that were stationed at our fire academy. One day, they got a call, and the helo's were on large dollies so they could be pushed in and out of the hanger with ease. (never did figure out how they got them onto those things) Anyway, in their rush to get airborne, they forgot to unhook the power cables before take off, well, you can guess what happened next. So Fairfax went from two rangers too just one, after doing a flop right outside the hanger. Good thing the fire academy was 50 meters away.

 

Anyway, sorry, this does not help, just one of those flashes of memory from an era long since passed. I hope you figure out how to recreate the birds though, I am certain those guys would be beyond thrilled to see their birds recreated in scale, and the kits would be placed into one of their glass displays for all visitors to see, be nice having a card with your name to go along with it.

 

Good luck, and please update us when you get the build going!

 

Anthony

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10 hours ago, BWDenver said:

What's fascinating is my EX wife, AKA ThEx, was a flight nurse on those birds!

 

  

Sorry Brain, but the birds that he is building, or the ones in Fairfax? If Fairfax, do you remember when they flopped it, and if they finally have a replacement?

 

When I worked for Lo-jack, I did an alarm/tracker for one of the pilots of the Park Police in Alexandria if memory serves, they had some variant of the UH-1, he gave me a lapel pin, which was really cool, but I was young back then and lost it along the way.

 

While I love jets, helos are more of a passion for me, they have so much more going on and don't fly, the just beat the air into submission!

 

Anthony

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On 3/21/2019 at 8:35 PM, DonSS3 said:

As long as the paint and decal work looks good, they'll definitely be thankful for what you've done for them. 

I second that. Most of the wood carving desk top versions, come nowhere even close to resembling an accurate airframe, yet many pilots seem thrilled to have those. The fact that an individual was willing to take the time and commission one for them, I am certain they will be beyond the moon thrilled at the end result.

 

If you feel the need to disclaimer the fact that is isn't a perfect match, again, dollars ti donuts, they won't care one bit.

 

This thread/build has me goofy in anticipation, no pressure though, just make sure its perfect! J/k.......

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Nope, the Fairfaix birds.  The police birds partnered with Fairfax hospital in an air ambulance program.  The police crews tolerated the nurses, barley.  About two years after they were flying on the 206B-III Fairfax Hospital partnered with Air Methods and they based a 412 on a roof top pad at Fairfax hospital, by that time ThEx was the Chief Flt Nurse.

Around 1989 I made the mistake of talking to the AVN author Bob Door.  And also made the mistake of leaving some shots with him.  They were sent off the World Air Power Journal, with out telling me first.  And when the article came out I about blew a fuse, it was absolute rubbish, and most of it was "quoted" as my words....  In any event, he went out to the heliport to do an article.  The first evening he showed up with a Mercedes with the license plate “Kil Migs”  the police ragged on him behind his back, “Here comes the mig killer”.  The first night, he didn’t bring any food with him.  The crews shared their foo.  The second night he showed up and expected to get fed again.   And he went hungry.

 

I started flying the OH-58A out of Carson in the late ‘70’s.   I operated from Ft Sill to the West Coast, Wyoming to the southern border.  The airfield at Carson was at a tad under 5900’.  Some of the maneuver areas were at 7000, and ops at Camp Hale were at 9200’.  And on occasion took one up to around 18,500’.  The 58A was, in a word, a challenge to fly at those altitudes.  On more than on occasion she tried to bite me in the mountains...

Still loved flying the bird, and the 206B-III.

-Bryan

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8 hours ago, BWDenver said:

Nope, the Fairfaix birds. 

Cool, a lot of insight to my own back yard. At some point in time, if I remember correctly, they changed their flight program, and the pilots went off to be trained as paramedics, only a bit higher level than the guys in the meat wagon. We used to just call them supermen, since they could fly and save lives. This allowed them to become more independent I guess, and they would often take an EMT along while transporting the patient to the hospital. Again, my memory not being what it was, I think this was the early 90's. I never got a ride, but always wanted one.

 

I can't image what the ride would feel like at those altitudes, scary comes to mind. The only helo's I have been in are Black Hawks (capitalized out of respect) when I was on active duty. The pilots flew very low and very fast, awesome ride!

 

Thanks for sharing the memories, wonder where the "mig killer" is today? 👀

 

Anthony

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3 hours ago, Floyd S. Werner, Jr. said:

He died a little over a year ago 

Sorry to hear that, sounds like you knew him as well. Is there anyone that you don't know on ARC, britmodeller and IPMS? By the way, my membership papers/package from IPMS are in the mail, then I can annoy you on three forums and ebay! Lucky guy you are.

 

Anthony

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There's love for it just no one wants to produce anything that far back. I agree backdating the Academy 58D is your best bet.


Here are a few slides to share out of my collection of early Army 58As.

 

OH-58 70-15098 at Lakehurst Municipal, NJ September 1973 in MERDC. Photo by Bruce R. Trombecky of Willingboro, NJ.

PICT0091.JPG

 

OH-58A 71-20345 June 1974 in MERDC camouflage paint scheme. Photo by Jeuny Liang.

PICT0092.JPG

 

Camp Atterbury Indiana April 1974

 

PICT0096.JPG

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