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Kitty Hawk 1:35 SH-60b… What Aftermarket Parts Should I Get?


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One of my readers on the FSM Forum, Svt40 made a valid input and of course I never ignore valid input. The first thing I did today was add the wiring that goes from the pitch hub into the center fitting on the tail rotor. You can clearly see this wire in this image. This wire's hole would have been MUCH easier to drill had I realized I needed it BEFORE building the whole deal, but I persisted and got the holes drilled. I am NOT installing that finer loop wire that goes from the spider. The wire in question is the fatter one.

Screen-Shot-2022-01-12-at-2-23-00-PM.png

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Tail-Rotor-Add-Pipes.jp

It's interesting to note that the rotor has no actual hinging for the pitch control. There are two crossed carbon fiber beams that go from the tip of one blade all the way across the center to the tip of the opposite blade. The fiberglass blade sleeves slips over these beams. The beams act as torsion bars and will twist when pitch motion is introduced into the. The blades leading edge are titanium and there is an applied rubber de-ice boot on the leading edge also.

 

Svt40 also pointed out several other small details that I'm going to add. One is the ehad of the rotor indexer. The indexer positions the blades so they don't get damaged when the boom is folded. I put the motor shaft in, but his drawing also calls out for some head detail. I'd love to get a picture of it. My search today came up empty.

 

The other details are the removalable struts that secure the tail planes in their folded position and secure the boom itself. I will make these also. And I need to get some "remove before flight" tags.

This image shows the struts in position keeping the tail plane in the folded position. The picture also nicely shows the color line for the white/light gray bottom.

Screen-Shot-2022-01-12-at-2-25-13-PM.png

The strut goes from the movable hinge to the fixed hinge.

 

I put on the static probes, but they're really flimsy and I constantly was bending and unbending them. They needed to be on becasue it would be awful to try and install them on a painted model. In this image you can see the index motor shaft. The boom is almost done.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Tail-Boom-Almost-Done.j

Here's a fold test to prove that YOU DO NEED TO FOLD THE TAIL PLANES FOR THIS THING TO WORK. The instructions missed this entirely was a big and almost fatal omission.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Tail-Boom-Fold-Test.jpg

I kept breaking that rear antenna support. I fixed it at least three times and each time it was getting worse. I bit the bullet and made one out of soldered wire. Not exactly scale due to the round versus airfoil cross-section, but it ain't gonna break.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Stronger-Antenna-Suppor

We're really closing in to the day when I break out the masking tape and airbrush and start painting this model. All in all, it's one of the most challenging and complex plastic aircraft kits I've ever built. I knew it would be a challenge, but the addition of the ResKits really upped the ante. Some of the challenges were my own doing in fixing my mistakes. Others were just in the nature of the beast.

 

Any ideas for a carrier deck base for this model? I'm sure there are 1:32 bases. Would they work for 1:35.

 

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Catching up on the posts and this is great!

 

Your post from Saturday with paint schemes is awesome, the first pic of the HSL-44 bird (HP456) is one of my helicopters.  I flew it a long time ago.  It's not actually monochromatic, the underbelly is the light greay and the rest is the ghost grey.  (the paint scheme further down with the dark grey on the dog house and engine section wasn't something I saw in my time in the fleet. I've started my build and have the cockpit done.  I'll sahre a pic or two.

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Thanks to all. It's so cool that guys that read this thread have actual experience with the real thing which I then get vicariously. I'm going to build my own base since I want it to be a hangar deck surface since the engine's opened up for service, and I will surround it with Reebok Naval Maintenance crew. I can 3D print the tie downs once I find out their dimensions.

 

Svt40 posted in the FSM Forum thread a great shot of the tail rotor without the housing clearly showing the index motor and its head engaged into the crown at the rotor rear. I used the tail rotor image to create a index motor head. I didn't go the full route with the roller and pin, but it's shaped so it fits the crown on the tail rotor rear. I was wondering why that part was shaped that way... now I know. (and so do all of you). Looking at this close up, it's still a bit big and I can reduce it.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Index-Motor-Head.jpg

We're at the stage of the model that's equivalent to the punchlist phase of building a new house. The last little bits and pieces take an iordinately long time. Another thought I have is just how much more complicated the helicopter became when they turned the Blackhawk into the Seahawk. All the folding stuff adds mechanical complexity AND sensors to ensure that the flight crews knows everything is in the right place. Blackhawks don't need a blade indexing motor.

 

I started cobbling together the tail plane lock bars. They attach to the hinge point on the tail plane and clamp to the edge of the center section. I added doublers to some styrene stock that I'll shape to make the contours more like the real ones. They have to dry overnight since when I tried to shape them before they were fully dry, they didn't like it.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Tail-Plane-Lock-Begin.j

I also had to add back a hinge point so it would have something to hold onto. The kit's part disintegrated when I had to rip off the already-glued tail panels.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Hinge-Eye-Repair.jpg

I started painting stuff! This is a milestone. I painted the tires rubber black which finished the smaller tail wheels. 

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Wheel-Painting.jpg

remember I made some round masks for the small wheel hubs a while ago when I painted them white.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Tail-Wheel-Painted.jpg

But for the large main wheels I didn't paint and mask the hubs first. The tie-down ring protrudes from the wheel and I didn't want to break it by masking on top. In this case, using the same dividers with one leg sharpened to a chisel edge, I cut the circles, but used the piece with the holes.

 

I then sprayed them a base coat of lacquer, in this case some Tamiya silver, and I go back and paint the while. The lacquer acts as a barrier and prevents the black from leaking through. I always put on DullCoat when I'm going to change colors and don't want any blending.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Main-Wheel-Hub-1st-Coat

The last things I painted was the exhaust chutes. I first shot the turbine outlet some dark iron and then went back and did the whole area with flat black taking car to not overcoat the previously shot dark iron.

This is flash shot (which I rarely use) that lights up the innards.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Exhaust-Painting.jpg

And here's a non-flash shot showing the whole area. This will be masked to the proper outlines as needed. The last thing I did was shoot this paint with DullCoat to seal the black and make good base for the body colors. BTW: that chute where you can see a little bare color is the APU's exhaust which would be in that part of the overhead.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Exhaust-Paint.jpg

I have to write a real punchlist to ensure that I don't miss anything. It's a relief that all the ResKit work is now complete and reasonably successful. I still have to solder together the rear view mirror brackets, which I'm doing tomorrow.

 

I also glued on the big radome on the bottom since it was time.

 

Found out the size of the tie down cups: 9.81" diameter so I drew them on SketchUp and now they're all set up for printing. Reedoak wants $5.50USD for 14 plus a lot of overseas shipping costs, so at least double that.

I'm able to print this many,

1076025378_ScreenShot2022-01-13at7_37_40PM.thumb.png.d3a69e4cca0007f181957e1a93eaa43c.png

 

For $0.25 worth of resin. Now I just have to figure out how to build the rest of the hangar deck...

 

Edited by Trainman 2001
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Question for you.  The kit came with all HSLWINGPAC decals (west coast squadrons).  I was in HSL-44 and wanted to reflect that squadron on the markings.  My thought was to task a masking sheet and lay on top of the HSL-45 decal and cut out HSL-44 and then use dark grey to spary the squadron number on.  (and HP on the tail corosponding to the squadron).  Do you have any thoughts or recommendations?

 

Here is my progress so far.  You have been a great inspiration:

all.jpg

cockpit.jpg

sensor station.jpg

SSO 2.jpg

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What about drawing and printing a new set of numbers. As long as the lettering isn't white, you can get nice work on an inkjet printer. I can do this… I can scan the decals and then redraw the corrected on directly over the original.

 

I also am drawing a US Navy wheel chock set and the base itself which will duplicate the surface of a hangar deck. The models is a scale 60 feet long so the base is going to be 30" by almost 14" with 60 tie down pucks. Reedoak wanted $5.50 USD for 14 pucks plus shipping from Europe. It would probably be $50 just for the tie downs. It took me 20 minutes to draw them after I found the drawing on Google and the run of 20 will cost $0.25 worth of resin. I'll print 60 for about $1.00. BTW: with the 3D work that I've sold over the last two years, the printer is paid for more than once, so any work I do is a direct cost savings to me.

 

Here's my hangar floor design. I eyeballed the plate and tie down spacing. I looking at a series of hangar deck images, it looks like the plates are 8' wide and the tie downs look like they're 2' off the seams and about 4' apart. Does anyone know the actual dimensions. I making it on a bias so it's more interesting.

SH-60-B-Base-Diagram.png

I'm also drawing a set of 1:35 Naval wheel chocks. It looks like the only sizes commercially available are 1:32, 48 and 72. Now they'll be 1:35s also.

SH-60-B-Base-Chocks-draw.png

In the shop I did some stuff also. Got the tail plane clamps done. One of my fabricated clamps worked okay, but the other fell apart during shaping. I chose a different approach making it out of a solid piece. However, as you can see they're not exactly the same. They're on the underside of the tail and difficult to view. I'm calling them done. I also replaced the missing hinge loops on the tail planes that were wrecked when breaking the joints.

SH-60B_Fusealage_Tail_Plane_Clamps_2.jpg

I touched up the wheel paint and the rear landing gear. I then went to work making a set of metal rear-view mirror frames. It took a couple of iterations, but got them built.

 

These small jobs are made very doable with the resistance soldering unit AND the MicroMark ceramic soldering pad that lets you stick the parts into the surface and hold everything still with T-pins. The metal is more scale in appearance than the plastic and a whole lot stronger.

SH-60B_Fusealage_Metal_MIrror_Frame.jpg

Here's the right side one being fitted.

SH-60B_Fusealage_Metal_Frame_Fit.jpg

And the left side...

SH-60B_Fusealage_Metal_Frame_Lft.jpg

And with the mirror housing installed.

SH-60B_Fusealage_Mirrors.jpg

There is a slight problem. When looking straight ahead the left side is hanging lower than the right. Fixing that (if I fix it) will have to wait until Monday.

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I may have saved you the trouble. Here's the modified decals to HL-44. All you have to do it print them out. There is some pixelation due to the scanning, but at the decal's scale, shouldn't be too noticeable. To get rid of it, I'd have to redraw all the lettering in a vector drawing program that doesn't pixelate. The second set from the left originally had white drop shadows. They won't print on an inkjet, and using white decal paper won't work either unless you do some fancy trimming with a #11 blade. All the rest should print fine.

 

HSL-44 Decals.jpg

Edited by Trainman 2001
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I Redid the left side mirror frame. It's still not perfect, but it's better. It really doesn't take very long to bend and solder a new one togeher. 

Painting has officially begun today with the masking of the exhaust channels. This was a finicky masking job because of curves and concave faces. After masking I coated the edges with clean to better seal them.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Masking-the-Exhaust.jpg

I was tired of bending and un-bending the static discharge probes and scrapped them and replaced them with 0.012" guitar string (I think it's a B string since I use very like gauge strings). They're tough as nails... well actually tougher than nails since piano wires is harder than most nails. And they're very sharp and will getcha!

SH-60-B-Fuselage-New-Static-Probes.jpg

I broke my last micro drill, but 20 more are arriving shortly from Drill Bits Unlimited.

I mixed up a very light gray, almost white for the bottom color and air brushed all the bottom facing things including the undersides of the horizontal stab. This all has to be masked and that will probably happen on Wednesday.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Bottom-Color-On.jpg

I then I find these on the HF sprue. Looks kinda like the support struts to hold the horizontal stabs in the folded position. Too late. That boat has left the dock. I tried to remove the homemade ones, but they were just too well glued and I didn't want to risk any damage. It's part HE33 and is on the Seahawk-only sprue. There was no mention in the instructions or any information about folding the stab at all. If you're following along with me and plan on building this model, now you know. There are parts to fold the stab, but they just don't tell you. Now you've been told.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Part-HD33.jpg

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Thanks and you're welcome. Gino… you crack me up! You're doing the same cut and past job as I'm doing to post to four forums simultaneously. i think they're all different audiences… at least (with the exception of you) they are.

 

Short session today. Paint masking is well underway. I decided, because of the way the side and bottom colors interact, especially around the sponsons and radome, that I would have to mask them carefully. There's a nice seam line running down the fuselage length to demarcate the bottom and side colors.

 

To mask the dome I measured it's diameter, cut it in half, set the calipers and cut the circle. I've described this before when masking the wheel hubs. This was easier since it's easier to use the dividers as a circle cutter on bigger diameters. I have one point sharpened to a cutting chisel in the direction of the cut.

 

To mask the lower edge, again, measured its diameter, cut it in half and used that setting. I got a really accurate mask this way.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Bottom-Mask-1.jpg

As seen in this image, the nose has a very specific curve also a circular shape so that too would get the dividers treatment.

Screen_Shot_2022-01-07_at_12.13.27_PM.pn

And here's how I did it. In the above it also seems to show that the gear legs are bottom color. Is that correct?

SH-60B_Fuselage_Bottom_Mask_2.jpg

And then I got going on the rest using a combination of 3M Blue Tape and three thicknesses of Tamiya. I absolutely love Tamiya tape, but it's more expensive than the 3M so I use them selectively with the 3M covering bigger areas. The curves had to be 3M due to the width I had.

SH-60B_Fuselage_Bottom_Mask_3.jpg

I still have to mask the sponsons on the opposite side and then I'll be ready to shoot some gray base color. I don't think the bottom of the personnel hoist is bottom color. None of my diagrams show that. 

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I'm still trying to figure out what configuration I'm going to use. In some of the wild schemes I have to do more work on the exhaust black areas. And it would require more masking... ugh!

I did paint today! I laid on all the FS36320 Dark Ghost Grey using the Mission Models paint (which I like a lot) thinned a bit with some A-K interactive thinner. They seem to be compatible.

Started with the tail after finishing the masking of the bottom color areas.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Tail-Paint.jpg

I believe that the fold machinery is body color and not zine chromate. If it's zine, I can do that too.

Did the tail rotor. After I took the pic I used some Dullcoat on selected areas that are going to be painted black. The black ares are the elastomer boot at the blade base and the de-ice book that goes partially out on the leading edge from the root.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Tail-Rotor-Paint.jpg

And then I painted the main part. I had to go back and shoot some minor light spots, but all in all it painted really well. Dries quickly too, but I'm giving it overnight to make it better for further masking. Right now my edges are going to be pretty hard. If I wanted soft edges I would have stood the tape off the surface a bit. Because of all the stuff sticking out, doing a freehand job wouldn't have worked. The overspray would have hit parts that were supposed to remain the other color. The same goes for the darker top color getting all over the tops of the sponsons, hoists, etc.

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Body-Color-Paint.jpg

I like it alredy now that it's monochromatic. I'm really not all that excited about doing all the additional color work and masking required for the flashy decal schemes. I'm almost ready to just make it a ultilitarian bird. Having readers that have actually FLOWN THE REAL THING adds to my challenge.

Stay tuned.

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I bit the bullet and painted the top darker color (Tamiya XF-53) freehand and was satisfied with it. I held the gun at angles that would let the edges drift around the curves without fouling any protrusions getting oversprayed. 

SH-60-B-Paint-Top-Color-2.jpg

SH-60-B-Paint-Top-Color.jpg

While this was drying I drilled (my new supply of 0.0125 arrived) the rotor blades to accept the lead wire from the nitrogen leak sensor. I thought they were from the nitrogen leak sensor, but was showed the error of my ways. The leak detector is the plunger that sticking out from the trailing edge. It doesn't report remotely, but shows a white indicator that's easily seen. The real blades are hollow filled with nitrogen. If there's a crack, the nitrogen leaks out, the sensor notes this and alerts the crew that the blades is no longer flyable. This lead is the last wire to tie into the hub along with all the other wires and pipes. It was easy doing this when they weren't on the model.

SH-60-B-Main-Rotor-Leak-Leads.jpg

I also painted the exterior dark parts of the engine hatch and then, after it was dry, put textured black graphic arts tape to simulate the anti-slip tape on the prototype. This door will be open.

SH-60-B-Engine-Hatch.jpg

 

I decided on the paint scheme. It requires the entire tail, top and bottom and boom to be gloss black. It also angles onto the fuselage in front of the hinge. At this time I got a nasty shock. The Mission paint has lousy adhesion compared to Tamiya. I tried to mask the de-ice boots on the tail rotor blades and promptly pulled the gray paint off the resin. I touched it up and then had to paint them by hand...ugh!

I thought the paint lifting was limited to resin parts, but then it did the same thing on the boom which was styrene. In other words, Mission paint pulls off. In the future I will have to spray Tamiya primer first and that's aerosol so I'd have to do it outside, which I can't do in winter temperaturs.

 

Here's the version I'm going with. I like that it doesn't have the lo-viz insignia. Since you have to overcoat the whole deal with gloss so the decals work, the gloss black tail works.  There's more flat black over the exhaust on the roof, but that would mean masking. And masking right now could be a problem. I'm going to leave that bit of black off.

SH-60B_Seahawks_Color.jpg

I sprayed the tail boom completely with gloss black and then that little bit of the main fuselage. I freehand painted it. It's not great and I back-painted with body color to get it better, but as you'll notice if you look closely at the color sheet, there's a white line decal that demarcates the black and that will hide any unsteadyness.

SH-60B_Paint_Tail_Boom_Black.jpg

And here's that tail bit.

SH-60B_Paint_Black_Trim.jpg

I then took the gun in hand and attempted to fuzzy up the bottom color edges. I was taking a helluva risk doing this, but it didn't ruin anything. I'm not sure I like the result, but it did soften the edges a bit.

SH-60B_Paint_Bottom_Softing.jpg

SH-60B_Paint_Bottom_Soft_2.jpg

Here's the tail rotor with the detail painting, but not totally done. I still have to back paint the de-ice boots to get the line a little cleaner. My freehand painting hands are NOT steady! I wish I could have masked,  but it would have made a bigger mess.

SH-60-B-Tail-Rotor-Detail-Paint-WIP.jpg

That brings us up to date.... happy weekend.

Edited by Trainman 2001
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Happy Monday!

I'm at the stage where waiting for paint to dry is the number one activity. I sprayed Allclad Aqua Gloss as the gloss coat. It's water-based and has no odor. It takes a number of hours to be safe do decaling. I'm champing at the bit to start doing decals, but have to hold off until the finish is all fixed.

SH-60-B-Paint-Gloss-Coat.jpg

I finished touching up the tail rotor, fixed a blemish on the tail boom and went back and touched up damages to the body color. That touch up necessitated doing a deep clean of my airbrush in the ultrasonic.

While all this was drying I built the load outs. I'm adding one towed sonar and two torpedoes. The torpedoes had ridiculous propellers; a series of tiny, bent PE that had to be glued on is a radial array. It was a bit of struggle and, while necessary, i'm not a big PE fan for PE's sake.

SH-60-B-Torpedo-Fins-WIP.jpg

Here are both of them complete ready for paint.

SH-60-B-Torpedoes-Built.jpg

The torpedoes have a three-color paint scheme: props and tail = red, back = silver, middle = O.D, and nose Yellow-orange. I shot the tail with Tamiya rattle can silver.

SH-60-B-Torpedo-First-Coat.jpg

I also shot the main rotor blades with Tamiya White Primer to maine the Misison Paint adhesion problem. I then sprayed more clear on the areas when I re-shot the body color to fix some discolored areas.

SH-60-B-Paint-Touch-Up-Comp.jpg

When this is fully cured tomorrow, I believe that I can actually start decaling next session. I have to add the mirrors in the rear-view mirrors, paint the outer ends of the sonobuoys in the array. I did remove the masking in the exhaust duct and it came out okay. I can't remove any masking on the glazing until all the decals and any panel accent work is done, and the flat coat is applied. The end is near. I also have to mount the blades and those fold clamps... can't forget that. When the flat is done, the last thing to do is add the marker lights.

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You're very welcome.

 

It makes me very happy when folks are following closely. Posting this stuff takes some effort and it's good that it doesn't go to waste.

Short session made even shorter, which I'll explain later.

 

Painted the fold joint details and masked and painted the two torpedoes. 

SH-60-B-Fuselage-Fold-Paint.jpg

The torps came out nicely and still need the prop areas to be painted red and a decal to be put on. The plans call for the warhead to be yellow-orange.

SH-60-B-Torpedo-Paint.jpg

I was all set to start adding decals to the tail boom now that the fold area was finished and then I noticed that I had OVERSPRAYED YELLOW-ORANGE ALL OVER THE GLOSS BLACK. it seems that I was holding the torpedoes in proximity to the work area and made a slight mess. I then had to go back and re-shoot the black and that killed the decal session.

 

I did get the first coat of body color on the tops of the main rotors. Tomorrow I'll do the bottom and that will get them ready for assembly.

SH-60-B-Main-Rotor-Paint-1st-coat.jpg

Tomorrow, decaling will officially commence. I glued back on that fussy antenna that kept getting knocked off. This time with very stout piece guitar B string.

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Almost everything that can be painted is. The decaling began in earnest and is basically finished. The aircraft didn't have as many stencils as other models I've built. I use MicroSet first, put down the decal and the MicroSol. I may add more MircroSol if more shriveling is needed.

 

I started on the starboard side, did the same side of the tail boom, did the port side and then port side boom. I've complained about the instructions, but the decals are excellent. They're thin, have nice narrow margins, didn't tear, laid down well with solvent, have good color registration and opacity.

SH-60-B-Decals-Strb-SIde.jpg

Because of the folded tail, I had to slide the HSL decal under the folded wing and get it into position. It goes down parallel to the little vertical stab that sticks out the back and that's completely behind the folded horizontal stab.

SH-60-B-Decals-Tail-Rt-Side.jpg

I did the same routine on the ports side, then I decaled the torpedo and towed sonar. There's only enough decals for one torpedo which makes no sense to me.

SH-60-B-Decals-Port-Side.jpg

And the I added the missing radome under the nose. I thought the FLIR was an option for this part misreading the instructions. It was pointed out to me that it is essential. I traced the part and scraped off the many layers of paint so the solvent cement could do its job. I now have to go back and airbrush the blend of body and bottom color. There's one decal that goes on the front of the dome. And then all the painting will be done! Well actually, I still have to prepare the blade stowage racks and paint them, and put on all the marker lights and missile warning sensors. Can't forget those. The tail sensors are buried deep in the space protected by the folded wings.

SH-60-B-Missing-Radar-Added.jpg

The main rotor blades are fully painted also. 

 

I'm going to do some very conservative weathering including some panel accenting. Then I'll give it an overall flat finish (except the glossy tail, which remains so.) And do final assembly. I still have to order the figures from Reedoak and do the base work. We're almost done.

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Thanks Gino!

 

I started today with the best of intentions to finish up more of the model and get the blades mounted on the hub. I decided to reinforce the flimsy pins that hold the plastic blade knuckle to the hub swivel by drilling and pinning with 0.032" phos-bronze. After drilling I attempted to hold the two parts of the blade knuckle with a clamping tweezers. Before I could get the glue near the joint the small mating part snapped out the tweezers with the wire attached. The wire hit the floor and the part.... well... the part went into the atlernate universe. I swept the entire freaking shop and examined every flat surface, but it was gone, gone, gone. (BTW: Great old Everyly Brothers song from the mid 60s).

 

So there's three parts when I need four. And I really need that part! 

SH-60-B-Blade-Clamp-Missing.jpg

So I photographed the part from four directions, measured the critical dimensions with the digital calipers and drew a diagram, and then drew it in SketchUp. I put it into the slicer and will print it tomorrow. It will print in a little over an hour.

Clama-New-Diag.jpg

Here's the drawing.

Screen-Shot-2022-01-27-at-7-39-18-PM.png

Here's the array of many parts on the slicer.

Screen-Shot-2022-01-27-at-7-58-39-PM.png

Why make one when I can make a bunch. Since they're all the same height, the print time does not change and the total resin use is $0.29. It's really great to know that in some cases, even in desparation, I can still create parts when I need them. This really is only reasonable with small, east-to-visualize parts. If I screwed up one half of the fuselage, that would be a different matter.

 

I did get one other thing done and that was painting the ends of the sonobuoy dispenser. This view is after painting the NATO black, but BEFORE, back painting to fix all the parts that shouldn't be black. A little touch up with body color and it will be perfect!

SH-60B_Sonabuoy_Paint_Start.jpg

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Took your advice and built the fuel tank. It will go on one rack and the torpedo on the other. 

 

Today was a milestone day with the panel accenting, flat coat and unveiling of the glazing. I got a got set of prints, but they're too thin. I got the profile dead on, but the depth needed some shimming.

SH-60-B-Blade-Parts-Print.jpg

Here's the comparison to the original

SH-60-B-Replacement-Part.jpg

After fitting it on the hub and blade I found that it was about 0.040" too thin and used some styrene CA'd in place to do the job. It all fit nicely.

SH-60-B-Replacement-Part-Shim.jpg

It all fit nicely until, both eyes fractured when I put a little bit too much downward pressure when fitting the hub on the craft and trying to determine how much droop the back two blades will have to have. I will epoxy the blade without the full eyes and then use some Bondic to reconfigure the contours.

SH-60-B-Broken-Eyes.jpg

I used the Tamiya Black Panel Accent to highlight all the doors, seams and compartments this machine has. It looks pretty awful when you first put this stuff on. You have to let it dry before removing the excess.

SH-60-B-Lft-Accents.jpg

The bottom had a lot of places.

SH-60B_Bottom_Accents.jpg

I use the traditional Q-tip lightly dampened with low odor mineral spirits. I was annoyed that the mission paint dissolved in the mineral spirits. That's not supposed to happen. Tamiya paint DOES NOT. Also on the bottom, some of gloss coat was not sturdy enough and the accent leaked into the flat paint underneath making clean removal of the excess difficult.
 

But, with all of that, the final results after shooting with Tamiya clear flat boosted with a bit more flat base, came out pretty nicel

SH-60B_Flat_Coat_Bottom.jpg

There will be more dirtying the bottom with pastels since even on clean Seahawks there enough stuff being discharged from various vents to make things interesting.

SH-60B_Flat_Coat_Rt.jpg

I actually almost blew by getting all set up to spray the flat only to realize I didn't do any of the panel acccenting. You can't do that on a flat finish. It makes a mess.

After the flat dried it was time for the "great unveiling". I took the tape off all the glazing. I was worried that the canopy cement might not have enough grip to resist the pull of the masking tape and I hate when my worries come true. The first window I de-masked popped out. it was the window in the sliding cabin door so I was able to put it back carefully using solvent cement. All the other windows de-masked without problem except for the co-pilots door. The tape was too tight, especially where I sealed the edges with clear gloss.

 

That window got damaged. All the others are perfect. I put on several coats of Pledge with Future floor wax and hope it will be okay. There are two other sets of cockpit doors, but they are not for the SH-60B. The "B's" window has a curved notch taken out of it, while the others are straight. If this window is too damaged, I'll make one of those work.

Here's the glazing exposed. It's nice to see the engine again. I missed seeing it.

SH-60-B-Glazing-Exposed-Rt.jpg

 

SH-60B_Glazing_Exposed.jpg

I did a few more punchlist items. I filled the hollow rear-view mirror housings with Bondic and then painted them with Molotow Chrome. Decanting the marker was one of the smartest things I've done in a while. It's really slick to be able to brush the paint where you want it. The felt tips work good for the first application, but make a mess if you have to go back and add more. I also used the same to paint the oleo strut on the main gear. There's still some more tiny paint jobs that need doing and that will wait until Monday.

SH-60B_Review_Mirrors.jpg

Above the oleo strut is an elastomer bellows. That will be painted rubber black.

SH-60B_Main_Strut_Oleo.jpg

 

I also did the back painting on the sonabuoy noses and they look good now.

SH-60-B-Sonobuoys-Done.jpg

 

The model proper will be done some time next week. The base and figures are still out there. 

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Thank you!

Input from readers caused me more work. It was one of those two-steps back and one forward.

 

I tried to save the damaged door window, but it was a mess. The other two door windows in the kit were for other version of the Sikorsky bird inlcuding the Blackhawk and their cockpit door windows varied slightly in configuration. I woke up thinking about this and decided to go for it. The model's coming out too good to let that crappy window detract from it. 

 

I filed and sanded the replacement and got it to fit reasonably well.

SH-60-B-New-Door-Window.jpg

I installed it without mess up, repainted the door's interior and did some trim painting around the outside. This took quite a while.

 

I then repainted the landing gear shock strut to do it like it's supposed to be. Still needs just bit of tending loving care.

SH-60B_Landing_Gear_Paint.jpg

Here's the fixed door and the towed sonar rear portion freehand. No decals for that. I had to blend Tamiya yellow and white to get to the lighter yellow.

SH-60-B-New-Door-and-Towed-Sonar.jpg

And I'm repainting the sonobuoy bays. The inside is tan, and the holes are completely black as I could see looking more closely to some photos. I didn't finish this job today. I got the tan done and most of the black. I will have to back paint the body color next session.

SH-60B_Sonobuoy_Redux.jpg

The main struts need some brake lines. I should add them since I added all those tubes on the rotor head.

Till next time...

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One of my readers in one of the other forums in which I post this thread is an actual Seahawk pilot and has been feeding me real information about details on the machine that are not easy to find. And I incorporate everything he says. Yesterday he showed me the colors of the sonobuoy dispenser, the tail of the MAD and the brake lines.

 

I put in the brake lines. I used magnet wire and diameters of Albion tubing to make a faux fitting. I made a strap clamp out of wine bottle foil. This stuff works great, but you first must remove any printing or coating on it with acetone. The coating prevents good gluing.

SH-60-B-Brake-Piping.jpg

I realize that is not the kind of clamp they actually use, but the kind they use is really hard to model.

 

i then finished all the painting on the sonobuoy rack and it looks much better. I also painted the break line leaving the brass natural metal since the actual junction is natural metal also.

SH-60-B-Sonobuoy-Finished.jpg

Lastly, I stripped the decal off the airbrake on the MAD (magnetic anolmaly detector) which I have been erroneaously calling a towed sonar device, and painted it flat white to simulate the styrofoam that they are now made of. I will paint the aluminum pad that holds it on tomorrow. The older version had the painted tail feathers. The upgraded version has a styrofoam airbrake that is basic white.

SH-60-B-MAD-Corrected.jpg

That brings us up to date. I need details of the engine bay cover latch. I'm going to mount both the bay door and the cockpit door with bent wires. We're getting closer to the end each day. I still have the running lights to install, do the powder weathering, and then mount the blades and the tail boom. I have to paint and install the main rotor folding in clamps. And it will be done.

 

Meanwhile, if y'all are interested in ship stuff, I've started another thread on this site in the building of the missing interior for the new Takom 1:72 USS Missouri 16" main turret. The model's cool, but has nothing but the exterior shell. I'm drawing and will 3D print all of the interior apparatus down to the first projectile deck. I've finished the main guns yesterday, and starting working on the below turret decks. 

Here's the guns...

Mo-Gun-Final-Render.jpg

Here's the link to the thread.

https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/p/190013/2187110.aspx#2187110

Bis Morgan... (see you tomorrow.)

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