Hughes TH-55 Osage

[BWDenver]

This looks like Texas....

[BWDenver]

18 minutes ago, Whirlybird said:

Didn't work for me either,...I thought it was just me, or my computer.

Rob, did you have a definitive length on the TH 55 tail boom when you calculated the 1/32 AMP kit error in tail boom length?

Sorry guys, I can't find the page either.  I'll try to find it when I get back...

[BWDenver]

On 9/2/2025 at 1:46 PM, Whirlybird said:

Got a few "in progress" pictures.....

Lengthened the skids 3/8" .

 

 

The belt drive and clutch is a fragile piece, the kit PE belt is too stiff so tape works better.

The belt assembly won't fit the shroud so I had to cut the bottom of the shroud off.

Irony is you can't see it anyway once installed.

You're missing the other 7 belts....

 

Yeah that was sas....  ;~}

[Whirlybird]

29 minutes ago, BWDenver said:

You're missing the other 7 belts....

 

Yeah that was sas....  ;~}

 

I blame AMP  : ) 

 

There is a PE belt that looks like it is engraved with multiple belts, but good luck bending it around the fragile pulleys.

Parts 10C and 11C are both halves of what looks like a great alternative plastic multi belt drive...but only 2/8 of an inch of it are on the sprue.

If you are lucky, sprue tree C and clear parts sprue F did not fall victim to bad molding like mine.

Think it is called a "short shot" in plastic molding.

Same for parts 6C thru 8C .....but they are ridiculously small to begin with, and it will be better to use brass wire.

 

Clear sprue tree F has tiny blobs for parts 1 F , which are R & L nav lights.

Part 5 F is supposed to go on the tail rotor gearing, no idea what it is because there is only a tiny remnant of it on the tree.

 

I have read AMP (and other kit companies like Special Hobby) have great customer service but I don't want to deal with writing Ukraine and the new tariffs on shipping kits etc.

and there is no address to write to on the instruction sheet or box.

 

It's enough to make me want to ditch the 1/32 and proceed to 1/48.

 

Edited September 4, 2025 by Whirlybird

[Rob Mignard]

1 hour ago, Whirlybird said:

Didn't work for me either,...I thought it was just me, or my computer.

Rob, did you have a definitive length on the TH 55 tail boom when you calculated the 1/32 AMP kit error in tail boom length?

I used the dimensions from the -10 drawings then scaled the photo I provided earlier. I did that when I first got the kit. Also, I was already aware of the dimensional differences between the TH-55 and the Hughes/Schweizer 300C (having flown both) so it was an obvious guess that they looked at a C but put a TH-55 vertical stabilizer on it. I mentioned, I’m loathe to use drawings without confirming with photos. I work back and forth with the photos and drawings to get as close as I can. It works well for me; your milage may vary.

Mig

[Whirlybird]

43 minutes ago, Rob Mignard said:

I used the dimensions from the -10 drawings then scaled the photo I provided earlier. I did that when I first got the kit. Also, I was already aware of the dimensional differences between the TH-55 and the Hughes/Schweizer 300C (having flown both) so it was an obvious guess that they looked at a C but put a TH-55 vertical stabilizer on it. I mentioned, I’m loathe to use drawings without confirming with photos. I work back and forth with the photos and drawings to get as close as I can. It works well for me; your milage may vary.

Mig

Ok. Good to know.

[Rob Mignard]

If you can find a copy of the May/June 2024 Finescale Modeler, Bob Steinbrunn has a good article on his build of the AMP kit. He’s got some great detailing ideas.

 

Mig

[Whirlybird]

12 hours ago, Rob Mignard said:

If you can find a copy of the May/June 2024 Finescale Modeler, Bob Steinbrunn has a good article on his build of the AMP kit. He’s got some great detailing ideas.

 

Mig

Thanks. Will do.

[Whirlybird]

Ok guys, just spoke with the curator of the Army Transportation Museum at Ft. Eustis.

They're going to let me put a tape measure on their TH-55. (it's on ground level, not suspended...I checked that).

Still curious about the tail boom. Like to know before I cut it up or start a 1/48 version.

 

If any of you want a dimension or picture let me know.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2025 by Whirlybird

[Rob Mignard]

If you could post the dimensions and photos that would be great!

[Whirlybird]

18 minutes ago, Rob Mignard said:

If you could post the dimensions and photos that would be great!

 

Will do.

Probably won't be this week though.

 

[Whirlybird]

On 9/4/2025 at 1:12 AM, Rob Mignard said:

If you can find a copy of the May/June 2024 Finescale Modeler, Bob Steinbrunn has a good article on his build of the AMP kit. He’s got some great detailing ideas.

 

Mig

 

Edited September 8, 2025 by Whirlybird

[Whirlybird]

Bob Steinbrunn's build in the May/June 2024 Finescale Modeler has a lot of super detailing which I'll summarize:

 

COCKPIT

-heater outlets on floor

-inertial reels above seats

-Eduard PE belts from the AH-1G cobra (no.33289)

-radio rack

-Fuel shutoff, mixture control, landing light and microphone switches 

-doors were removed from door frame by drilling LOTS of holes around the inside of the door frame

ENGINE

-push rods

-spark plug wiring

-oil filler tube and dipstick handle

FUELTANK

-filler cap

-vent pipe

-fuel gauge wires

SKIDS

- ground handling brackets on skids

- R& L position lights

-added bottom anti-collision light

TAIL BOOM

-corrected the top anti-collision light (made it smaller) with a "black out" on the front to keep light out of cockpit

-UHF antenna on bottom of tail boom

-thinner tail skid/stinger than the thick kit part

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2025 by Whirlybird

[11bee]

Great info, thanks for posting! 

[BWDenver]

On 9/3/2025 at 8:48 PM, Whirlybird said:

 

I blame AMP  : ) 

 

There is a PE belt that looks like it is engraved with multiple belts, but good luck bending it around the fragile pulleys.

 

 

 

 

Agreed!  A hint would be to drop the PE into a skillet and heat it up to anneal the parts to make them easier to bend.

 

Great summary on the article by Bob Steinbrunn's on what he did to build the bird.

 

Bryan

[BWDenver]

On 9/3/2025 at 9:54 PM, Rob Mignard said:

 I’m loathe to use drawings without confirming with photos. I work back and forth with the photos and drawings to get as close as I can. It works well for me; your milage may vary.

Mig

Your approach to the kit are great.  And highlights the difficulties making an accurate representation of the TH-55A.

 

It's a shame this little doodle bug of a helo had an enormous impact on Army pilots till it was replaced by the TH-67/206 BIII, but has been largely ignored.  The core of the problem is that AMP released the kit, with likely no access to a real TH-55A.

 

Although even US based companies have dropped the ball on kits.  The Monogram F-8 was released with a Martin-Baker Mk.GRU7 seat out of their EA-6B kit.

[JohnEB]

Helicopters have always been the stepchild of model kit manufacturers....though the recent 1:35 kits have come a long way to rectify that. 

 

Even major/historic types are underrepresented in some scales or available only unlimited edition or hard to find kits. Come on..how many Phantom and Bf-109 kits are out there versus the H-19, Huey, Sea King, Chinook, or Mi-8?

 

 

Another problem is the nature of the beast, since they are not streamlined, there are a lot of visible details... which is great if you're an expert builder.(like we see here) but difficult for companies to accurately model. The TH-55 is a great example. There is no way they can model something with the level of detail expert builders desire.

 

And as an aside, with my limited skills, I know I'm not going to do the kit justice, so why buy a $60 kit (plus $60 for PE parts, and another $30 for decals and $20 for paint) if it's going to look sub par when finished?

Perhaps my only recourse is to avoid shows, sites like this and magazines, so I'm not comparing it to builds by experts. 😁

 

 

[Whirlybird]

23 hours ago, JohnEB said:

Helicopters have always been the stepchild of model kit manufacturers....though the recent 1:35 kits have come a long way to rectify that. 

 

Even major/historic types are underrepresented in some scales or available only unlimited edition or hard to find kits. Come on..how many Phantom and Bf-109 kits are out there versus the H-19, Huey, Sea King, Chinook, or Mi-8?

 

 

Another problem is the nature of the beast, since they are not streamlined, there are a lot of visible details... which is great if you're an expert builder.(like we see here) but difficult for companies to accurately model. The TH-55 is a great example. There is no way they can model something with the level of detail expert builders desire.

 

And as an aside, with my limited skills, I know I'm not going to do the kit justice, so why buy a $60 kit (plus $60 for PE parts, and another $30 for decals and $20 for paint) if it's going to look sub par when finished?

Perhaps my only recourse is to avoid shows, sites like this and magazines, so I'm not comparing it to builds by experts. 😁

 

 

"And as an aside, with my limited skills, I know I'm not going to do the kit justice"

 

John, I started building "out of the box" to avoid spending the money that was needed to make a marginal kit better as far as the detail - or lack thereof.

Building out of the box lightens up the stress, allows you to focus on the basic skills and sure makes the build go quicker.

There are many judges that will ignore all the aftermarket detail and focus on the basics.

 

"Perhaps my only recourse is to avoid shows, sites like this and magazines, so I'm not comparing it to builds by experts."

Some shows include an out of the box category, so you don't have to be an expert and actually participate and do well.

 

I understand that these shows are intimidating, I get intimidated every time I go to a show by the level of craftsmanship.

When I go to a show and see something amazing, I often try and find out how the builder did it.

When I see something that is incredible - rather than be intimidated, I try and see it as a useful example so when I'm up against a challenge and feel that it can't be done, - I have something to remind myself that yes it can.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2025 by Whirlybird

[BWDenver]

On 9/11/2025 at 8:59 PM, JohnEB said:

And as an aside, with my limited skills, I know I'm not going to do the kit justice, so why buy a $60 kit (plus $60 for PE parts, and another $30 for decals and $20 for paint) if it's going to look sub par when finished?

 

 

I've seen examples of people who go way overboard on detail, and at some point, it becomes a challenge just to finish the bloody kit.  They lose interest and start taking short cuts.

 

If you want to go to an IPMS Nats and come away with a trophy, build a 1/48 Biplane - Out of the Box.  The Bipe guys don't do out of the box.  I did just that at the '87 DC Nats and got a trophy with a 1/48 Type O Pete.

 

If you want to build the TH-55 out of the box, go ahead and do it.  For those of us that have flown it, that may not be an option, because we have a physical connection to the Mattel Messerschmitt.

 

Concentrate on doing each part flawlessly and increasing your building skill.  You would be amazed at how many folks go overboard on a built, only to screw up a basic item, like the tail planes out of kilter, or a landing gear not sitting correctly with the other.

 

Most judges that are worth their salt, look at fit and finish first.

 

And at the end of the day you will have a nice dust collector for your shelf.

[Floyd S. Werner, Jr.]

Build for you.  Noone else.  No contest, no Facebook likes.  Build what you like, how you like it.  Try to learn something new each build but above all, Remember- Modeling is fun!

[Tank]

1 hour ago, Floyd S. Werner, Jr. said:

Build for you.  Noone else.  No contest, no Facebook likes.  Build what you like, how you like it.  Try to learn something new each build but above all, Remember- Modeling is fun!

💯

[Whirlybird]

Just in this afternoon.

Takes care of that detail.

 

 

 

 

[BWDenver]

Very nice!

 

[Whirlybird]

Thanks.

 

I'm going to put this build on hold while until I get to Ft. Eustis to look at the real thing.

Got several projects going on in the meantime to keep me busy.

[BWDenver]

Just got some rather interesting information.  In the 1971-1972 time frame the pilots in the TH-55A encountered Carbon Monoxide issues due to rust through on the muffler, which may be why they were lacking from the birds I flew in early '73.