drt786 Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 AH-6J “Barber 51” | Kitty Hawk | 1:35 This took nearly 6 months of on-and-off building, with lots of aftermarket and scratchbuilding going in. Aside from the kit, we had Werner's Wings downturned exhaust, AH-6 upgrade kit, FLIR, and decals. From Black Ops Models we had the rocket pods and M134 barrels. From Red Fox we have the 3D decals for the cockpit. Reedoak helmets and flight gear. Live resin flight controls that added a lot more detail compared to the kit parts. Tonnes of decals and 3D parts from Anyz to detail the cockpit switches, avionics/weapons/FLIR wiring, etc. lots of scratch building in the avionics and engine area that are hardly visible, including electronics wiring, engine pigtails, pumps and control levers for the engine bay. Solder balls for the rivets. Many thanks to this discussion board for providing an incredible collection of references, especially the AH-6 and Operation Gothic Serpent pinned threads. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Eastern Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Aha, again someone use images of the real chopper and disguise them for the images of the model. LOL. Seriously, absolutely amazing build! Very nice paintwork. I suppose the kit itself is super detailed. I hope you faced no problems while assembling the parts. Cheers and happy modeling! Alexander Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Loach Driver Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Excellent model. The weathering looks spot-on. LD. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
drt786 Posted June 25 Author Share Posted June 25 (edited) 21 minutes ago, Loach Driver said: Excellent model. The weathering looks spot-on. LD. Thank you LD - your heavy lifting in the references threads went a long way in helping make it as accurate as I could. Many thanks! 1 hour ago, Eastern said: Aha, again someone use images of the real chopper and disguise them for the images of the model. LOL. Seriously, absolutely amazing build! Very nice paintwork. I suppose the kit itself is super detailed. I hope you faced no problems while assembling the parts. Cheers and happy modeling! Alexander The kit itself was missing a lot of details - mainly in the avionics, rear compartment, and engine bay. The Werners Wings resin parts and a fair amount of scratchbuilding helped. Fit-wise the canopy seems to be an infamous part of the kit and my copy was no difference. The instrument panel/canopy interference was terrible and one of the fuselage halves was badly warped, so the canopy was truly a painful experience! Other than that it went together pretty OK. Edited June 25 by drt786 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tank Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Congrats, she is a beautiful build. 👍👍 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rotorman Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 spectacular build. Truly beautiful work Quote Link to post Share on other sites
usmcski6502 Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Fantastic execution of a not-so-easy kit and paintscheme! Probably the best scale Little Bird I’ve seen, Bravo! Semper, Ski Quote Link to post Share on other sites
oortiz10 Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Wow. Seriously. Wow. -O Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MattP Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 Simply STUNNING.... Thank you for sharing your ART!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 Nice work. Major points awarded for using solder balls to replace the crappy divots on the KH kit. I went that route on my UH-60L build but gave up and finished using Archer rivet decals. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Newtonk Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 It's the small details, too... Like the smoke coloured canopy above the seats. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
drt786 Posted June 26 Author Share Posted June 26 Thank you for the very kind comments! 9 hours ago, 11bee said: Nice work. Major points awarded for using solder balls to replace the crappy divots on the KH kit. I went that route on my UH-60L build but gave up and finished using Archer rivet decals. I bought enough rivets to go onto the SH-60b sitting in the stash, but seriously dread the idea of riveting that much more square footage compared to the little bird! 24 minutes ago, Newtonk said: It's the small details, too... Like the smoke coloured canopy above the seats. The details were really the most fun part. Sadly most are not visible in these pictures, but the avionics compartment and engine bay were a tonne of fun to detail up and add scratch items to. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 Wow! Didn’t even notice the MP-5 (apparently some 160th crew called them “Skinny Poppers”) and the body armor. Fantastic attention to detail. Where did you get those bits from? This is my kind of build. Figured after my AH-6C, I was done with Littlebirds but I’m starting to get the bug again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hooker169 Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 Holy smokes, that's the nicest little bird I've ever seen! Well done, Bud! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GeejeeZ Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 Magnificent, can't stop going through the inmages again and again!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
drt786 Posted June 27 Author Share Posted June 27 (edited) 17 hours ago, 11bee said: Wow! Didn’t even notice the MP-5 (apparently some 160th crew called them “Skinny Poppers”) and the body armor. Fantastic attention to detail. Where did you get those bits from? This is my kind of build. Figured after my AH-6C, I was done with Littlebirds but I’m starting to get the bug again. SSR models do the 1/35 MP5s. It's long been my favourite looking small arms so couldn't pass on the opportunity to stick one into the cockpit. Couldn't find any conclusive references on how the MP5s were mounted/stored in the cockpit, but assumed that some sort of strap or clamp on the door pillar would make most sense. Call it artistic licence I guess! I've only just finished this one but am warming to the idea of eventually doing a current-spec MH-6 with the plank mounted MG, that looks pretty cool. Edited June 27 by drt786 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Drifterdon Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 Fan-friggin-tastic! Simply one of the best Little Bird builds I've ever seen. Congrats. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
11bee Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 8 hours ago, drt786 said: I've only just finished this one but am warming to the idea of eventually doing a current-spec MH-6 with the plank mounted MG, that looks pretty cool. I’ve got a pic somewhere of a current-spec H-6M (can’t recall of it’s an A or an M) with CMWS sensors mounted. I’ll try to dig it up and post it. Love the pintle mounted -240s on the planks. It’s amazing how much crap that little beast can carry. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
YF65_CH53E Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 Just a beautiful Little Bird!! Feel like I am right back off the coast of Mogadishu. They came out to the USS Peleliu a bunch of times when I was there in 1993 and 1994. Semper Torque! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
salvador001 Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 Just a perfect build, best LB ive seen so far. Love it! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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