andrew.deboer Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Built out of the box so far, with windshield wipers to be scratched from wire and strip. Color is not the correct shade of helo drab, but this kit was started in late 2001 and I just didn't want to lose inertia by stripping and repainting. Open doors and seats yet to be added, and other misc. details. Twobobs decals rock. This is a mix of markings from two different aircraft, sharkmouth and eagle head. Couldn't resist. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest LITTLE BIRD 117 Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Nice helo,you should check out Cobrahistorians 1/32 ah-64.Good job and good luck with instaling the seats! LB117 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Longbow Mech Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Now that is a great looking bird. I love the mix of decals. I think the helo drab color is not bad at all. I am use to seeing off color birds every day here at Rucker. The paint color you chose makes it look weathered. It does not take long for carc paint to start to fade. I am building the same kit right now and I still have a good ways to go. Happy modeling Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MaRiO FDZ Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 WOW.... Amazing work on that longbow, specially on the details like the thinguies hanging on the Engines and Hinges and stuff Take Care Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cobrahistorian Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Andrew, I'll second what LM just said. We've got birds out at Hanchey that are so faded, they're practically lime green! Well, maybe not THAT bad, but CARC fades REALLY easily. I've been spoiled, I've pretty much been flying the nice new ones! Jon Quote Link to post Share on other sites
doctorpepper Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Andrew, that looks fantastic. thanks again for sending me those decals! David Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andrew.deboer Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 You're most welcome, David! You certainly wasted no time with your Academy bird and it turned out nice. Thanks for the comments, everyone. There are still a few more things to add on this: tail whip antenna, seats, canopy doors, wipers, one piece of glass in the nose turret, any number of tiny paint details... I'm a little conflicted about the wires on the rotor head - they seem to be missing from most Apaches and they're quite overscale. I also didn't apply the wing walkways - are these in black on all Apaches? They are very hard to spot in many photos. I tried to do the det cord on the canopies but it was a disaster; I sprayed some gray on decal sheet and tried to cut it into thin strips and apply it, and it worked OK for a while, but I ended up stripping it all off. Not even enough, square corners instead of radiused, and the paint was chipped off in places. I'm still figuring out how to do that for this and my upcoming AH-64A, which will be an inflight Task Force Normandy example. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Koen L Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Got a question about the Longbow radar if you don't mind, why is it partially grey? On all the D's I've seen in real life it just seemed a lighter shade of OD but I've never seen any that were partially painted grey. There's another model in the gallery here on ARC that has it grey as well so was just wondering. Thanks, Koen Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andrew.deboer Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 Hallo Koen, The grey section of the Longbow housing is the dielectric part where the radar actually emits from. I've seen green and grey for this part; if it's like other radomes, it is molded in the proper color of plastic and is not painted, and changes color over its lifetime. If I do a Dutch Longbow, it will have a green radome. Got a question about the Longbow radar if you don't mind, why is it partially grey? On all the D's I've seen in real life it just seemed a lighter shade of OD but I've never seen any that were partially painted grey. There's another model in the gallery here on ARC that has it grey as well so was just wondering.Thanks, Koen Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cobrahistorian Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Andrew, As I said, nice lookin Longbow! To address your questions, the wiring harnesses that come with the kit are for a US AH-64A. As Alby and I found out, the Israeli Alphas have the current AH-64D wiring setup. The wing walkways are non-skid material. I've seen a few black ones, but all three that I've flown were just overpainted with Helo Drab. The emitter end of the radome varies quite a bit in color. Here's a shot where the under-color is a bright green that has worn through. The aft end of the radome is painted CARC Helo Drab just like the rest of the helicopter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andrew.deboer Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 Thanks for your comments, and for the education. In photos of the "D"'s hub, I had noticed the row of brackets that stick up where the wire ran on the "A", so I'm thinking some thin plastic or brass bits with a hole drilled close to the end would replicate that detail OK. The main and tail rotor hubs both scream out for some fine wires, and as your photo shows, there's plenty of detail that can be added with paint. Gotta get this done so I can start modifying my "A" landing gears to the unloaded extension... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Koen L Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Hallo Koen,The grey section of the Longbow housing is the dielectric part where the radar actually emits from. I've seen green and grey for this part; if it's like other radomes, it is molded in the proper color of plastic and is not painted, and changes color over its lifetime. If I do a Dutch Longbow, it will have a green radome. Andrew, If you ever do a Dutch one don't add the radar at all as we don't have any (YET)! Was just talking about the various English, American and Israeli ones I've seen as well as pictures on airliners.net for instance. Koen Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Longbow Mech Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 If you build another longbow keep in mind that the circuit breaker is no longer in the upper left window in the pilot station. The breaker panel is now behind the pilot seat and is very hard to get to even when we do maint. on them here at Rucker. Just ask cobrahistorian how hard it is to get to them in flight :lol: Great looking model. Can not wait to see your alpha model. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cobrahistorian Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Koen, You guys do have the radars, they just arent installed anymore! The radar is an incredible piece of technology, but completely useless in a counter-insurgency conflict. Can't pick up people with RPGs with a radar system! Removing the radar system doesn't degrade avionics performance and actually increases aircraft performance by removing a good 700lbs of dead weight. I haven't flown a radar bird yet. I'm looking forward to the extra power of the 701C engine, but that gigantic cheese wheel sitting above me's gotta mess with the aircraft's CG. Jon Quote Link to post Share on other sites
andrew.deboer Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 Thanks for the heads-up on the breaker panel. Sounds like I need to reach in there with my tweezers and break that panel out. Is the seat color at all consistent? I'm thinking I saw black sheepskin covers once, but what would make the most sense? My rationale on the radome color was nothing but variety - the Hasegawa kit does come with the cover plate for the radome attach point, so maybe I'll make it easy on myself if I do a Dutch machine. Below is my system for enabling the radome to stay put while the rotor moves freely. This is a weak point with the Hasegawa kit; they just have you glue the radome right to the rotor hub. My model has a brass rod implanted in the main rotor mast as a shaft. The rotor has a brass tube at its' center as a sleeve bearing, and the radome has another tube that allows it to seat on the shaft. The photo below shows this. I slide the rotor onto the shaft, then stick the radome on. The rotor turns freely, but the slight kink in the rod toward the top keeps the radome from turning unless I turn it by hand. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Longbow Mech Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Man if you could only see the real thing. This is very close to the real thing. A what we call a torque tube runs through the main rotor head down the inside of the main mast and into the transmission deck. I can not get into any more detail for many security reasons, but that is a wonderful idea. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
doctorpepper Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 IMHO, this is one area that the italeri kit is better than the Hasegawa one - it has the silver torque tube, which is quite noticeable externally, and also the italeri kit allows you to find a way to make the rotors spin without the radar moving (i stick a wire in from the radar bit, also allows me to remove the rotor blades for transport) Longbow Mech, and Jon - which a/c Lots do you guys mainly work on? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Koen L Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 Koen,You guys do have the radars, they just arent installed anymore! The radar is an incredible piece of technology, but completely useless in a counter-insurgency conflict. Can't pick up people with RPGs with a radar system! Removing the radar system doesn't degrade avionics performance and actually increases aircraft performance by removing a good 700lbs of dead weight. I haven't flown a radar bird yet. I'm looking forward to the extra power of the 701C engine, but that gigantic cheese wheel sitting above me's gotta mess with the aircraft's CG. Jon No we bought them without radars though they were built so that radars COULD be purchased and installed later. We just haven't bought them yet as they didn't fit into the budget and since we prefered to buy the wingtip mounted AMASE (Apache Modular Aircraft Survivability Equipment) for self-defense first. (More about AMASE here: http://www.terma.com/index.dsp?page=524# ) The FCR systems are still on the Air Force's wishlist though but so are a lot of other things. Koen Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cobrahistorian Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 (edited) Koen, I stand corrected! I could have sworn I saw one of the Dutch birds with a radar on it, but I think they made the right move in getting the AMASE pods instead. Masterful engineering working it into the existing system! Our CMWS is just being fielded and it finally gives us some decent ASE capability. Dr. Pepper, We've got Lots 6&8 at Hanchey, pretty much the pinnacle of Block 1 and Block 2 aircraft so far. Block 1 covers lots 1-6 and Block 2 is Lot 7 onwards. Realize though that Lot number talks about software, so a bird that came in as a Lot 1 would most likely be flying as a Lot 6 now. I've been lucky so far, I've only flown Lot 8 birds. That may change in the morning, but we're getting more and more new birds out there, so who knows! As far as the "torque tube" are you talking about the static mast? The torque tube itself isn't visible on the aircraft. Jon Edited August 24, 2006 by Cobrahistorian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Longbow Mech Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Jon pretty much sumed it all up with the lots and yes the torque tube is not visible from the outside. If you can put your hand on a copy of Apache news 2006 magazine it talks about the new Block 3 birds that are coming out. They have updated avioncs and new -701D engines where as the FCR birds now have -701C engines. I think you can read Apache news 2006 online, I have a copy of the magazine here at home. Slim chance we will see the new Block 3 for at least a couple years. Us getting the new MTADS is still way down the road. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aggressor Supporter Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 I like this Apache very much. Very nice clean-looking build there with the shark's mouth! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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