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I can't believe this started a year ago, and I'm still not finished.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I started building a 1/35 Scale Academy MH-60L DAP for the Special Forces Group Build, thinking that 6 months would be MORE than enough time for me to complete a single model. Fast forward 12 months and I'm making headway, but am nowhere near finished building. Along the way, I have taken my first real stab at scratch building, kit-bashed some figures, and (most importantly) bought an Opti-visor and managed to avoid the compulsion to go back and re-do everything I had built before I bought the Opti-visor. I'm looking forward to improving my scratch-building skills, my figure painting, and am glad that I finally took the plunge and got my eyes a sorely needed boost. I'll try to bring you all up to speed, and provide some photographic proof that I am actually building this kit: I started out with the following: The 1/35 scale academy A(M)H-60l DAP, the Cobra Company UH-60 correction set, and the MH-60l conversion, their terrific stencil and decal sets, as well as the M-230 chain gun. I also have the Trumpeter Chinook Crew (PLEASE, Somebody come out with a better helmet before I finish this build!) some Trumpeter M-4 cqb and M-4s, Eduard MH-60 interior and UH-60 exterior kits, as well as the UH-1 weapons set for the ammo belts. Here's what I've accomplished in the past 12 months

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I started out with the cockpit using a combination of Eduard and CC bits to make it look the part

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Next I reconfigured the Ammo box for the M134 mini-guns according to information I found on the internet from previous builds

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The rear of the ceiling needed to be busied up, so I copied plans that "Intruder Bass" provided in a previous build-a significant improvement over the kit offering!

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Here's the new roof attached to the kit roof, busied up and dirtied up. The M4s are Trumpeter, and the Coke came from a sheet of printed material I had on hand, cut to size, and fitted around a piece of styrene cut to size. The levers on the overhead console are from Eduard's UH-60l interior kit. The Black boxes are the M230 gun control system from Cobra Company's M-230 chain gun.

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Here's a better look at one of the M4s, the Coca Cola, and the scratch built cargo holder, based on a photo I found on the internet.

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The rescue hoist control is scratch built based on pics and operators manuals I found online-I actually think it came out pretty good!

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Here's a look into the aft of the cabin. The tie-downs are from the Eduard interior set, the auxiliary fuel tanks have been detailed and the non-skid tape is pactra 1/16 (I think) trim tape painted model master black and laid down to look the part.

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Here's a look forward into the cockpit, which now has seats, some weathering, and a roll of duct tape on the co-pilot's seat.

I'll post more tomorrow night. It's getting late, and this old man needs his beauty sleep. Hope you enjoy. Until tomorrow night!

Marc

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Nice, looking hawk my friend! Looking forward to seeing more. I especially like the m-4's on the ceiling and your hoist control assembly. Do you still have those pics showing the rifles stored up high and the hoist control? If so, will you post them? I for one would like to see them!

Great job so far!

Tim

Edited by hawkwrench
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Wow... You are off to a great start. Don't forget a layer of dust on the glareshield and the ubiquitous green three ring binder (which I assume is the aircraft log book). I know a lot of special ops guys sprayed their M4's with tan / brown, not sure if that was a standard practice for the 160th flight crews or just the guys on the ground. Regardless, I really like the ceiling mounted M4's. Never seen that before.

Looking forward to more updates!

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Here's some more pics of what I've cobbled together so far:

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Here's the interior with the chain gun ammo can, the mini gun ammo cans, and an igloo cooler, complements of the DEF models cooler set. I also used several water and soda bottles from that set to busy up the cabin.

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Here is another look at the cabin. The hold -downs on the auxiliary fuel tanks are. Trim tape painted with hardware from the MH-60g interior set from Eduard. I've also started to add some stowage here and there..

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Here's a peek inside the cabin after I buttoned up the fusalage. Much CA gel and sanding followed...

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Here is the other side of the cabin with 2 of the 4. Figures that will occupy the completed bird. The NVGS are Live Resin, the figures are a combination of Trumpeter Logistics crew and Chinook crew bits. The head on the seatd figure is from a Verlinden set with the helmet scratch- built. The mics are also scratch built from wire and bits of styrene (tThank you Opti-visor!).

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Here's the tail with Edurard exterior bits, and micro mesh added where appropriate.

More to come later as time permits. Thanks for looking,

Marc

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This brings the build up to date (now I can get back to building,)

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Here's progress on the cockpit area-I cut the doors out as most of the DAP photos I have seen have the doors removed. It also provides a better view of the interior.

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There are some fairly substantial gaps in the nose that will need to be buttoned up with styrene before the " glass" goes on.

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The same for the co-pilot's side.

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Here's the AN/AAQ-16d AESOP I put together. I cut the academy kit one in half, added styrene in between, sanded to shape and added AFV reflective lenses from their Stryker lens set.

More pics after I build more!

Marc

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My understanding is that the DAP don't typically carry more than a crew of 4. I have heard that the Mike version of the DAP has gunners seats again, but I was not able to find any photos of a Lima DAP with seats for anybody other than the pilot and the copilot.

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Sure would have liked to have one for this project.

Chris M

=141397350&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]My link

Chris:

Aren't the Mikes being fitted with the new AN/ZSQ-2(v1) FLIR units? I think I've even seen some Lima birds with this on the nose in place of the AESOP I cobbled together. I used my Mk II. eyeball guesstimator for dimensions and lens placement. Anything resembling accuracy on the FLIR model is coincidental.

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The designator is correct. Both the MH-47G and the MH-60M share the same new FLIR, even the H-6's use the new attack version. The 47 and the 60 use the assault version while the LB's use the attack version.

Tim

Edited by hawkwrench
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey all:

Progress continues-I've been applying bits and Eduard exterior details to the skin to bring the exterior up to snuff. I'm also going to re-do the rivets a-la Jorge Oppenheimer's superb DAP bird that appeared here a few months ago-for anybody looking to build a 160 SOAR (A) blackhawk, his work is beautiful! More pics to come tonight.

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Happy Monday:

I've added as much of the Eduard exterior parts as I care to, added the refueling boom, and have a few new pics to share. Next up: rivets-lots and lots of rivets. After that, I am going to tackle the LASS wings using pieces of the ESSS wings included in the kit. I would still welcome dimensions, drawings and/or data on these new wings cuz right now I'm going off dimensions I've guesstimated based on photos I've found on the 'net. Enjoy the pics-until next time!

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Edited by Newf36
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  • 2 weeks later...

It's been 2 weeks and a day since my last post. Since then I have applied a LIBERAL coating of HO scale rivets from MicroMark. Here are a few pics to bring everyone up to date.

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Up next: primer, and building the LASS wings. I'll be using the ESSS wings supplied in the kit as a starting point. I am fully expecting a spectacular resin and/or 3-d printed version of these to become available about 10 minutes after I show you all how I built them (welcome to my life) . Enjoy the photos-I'll post pics of the wings and detail the building process once I'm done ( or have failed miserably, whichever comes first😛)!!

Marc

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Can you post the link to IntruderBass's ceiling plans, please?

Your MH-60 is coming along beautifully. I only wish my future MH-60M build would look as good as yours!

Tim

Tim:

I did a few searches and no luck on finding the roof plan. I'll check my pile o'references when I get home tonight.

Marc

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Hi

great work so far. By not doing the ESSS you reduce the chance of an aftermarket set to come out.... :rofl:

did you fill all holes before implementing the raised rivets ?

in any case nice job

Norbert

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Your probably right. LOL Oh by the way great work so far

Floyd

Well if anybody you know :whistle: has something in the works, I'm pretty confident I'll be grabbing everything I need to build a Mike DAP-certainly wouldn't mind not having to build these buggers from scratch again. I would imagine, I wouldn't be alone either- this would give you a great excuse to make you Nightstalkers decals into a trilogy (ALL good things come in threes, it's the law)...

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Your probably right. LOL Oh by the way great work so far

Floyd

Well if anybody you know :whistle: has something in the works, I'm pretty confident I'll be grabbing everything I need to build a Mike DAP-certainly wouldn't mind not having to build these buggers from scratch again. I would imagine, I wouldn't be alone either- this would give you a great excuse to make your Nightstalkers decals into a trilogy (ALL good things come in threes, it's the law)...

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Hi

great work so far. By not doing the ESSS you reduce the chance of an aftermarket set to come out.... :rofl:/>

did you fill all holes before implementing the raised rivets ?

in any case nice job

Norbert

Thanks Norbert! Rest assured I pose zero threat to the fortunes of anybody who make AM parts. My lack of skill may actually encourage somebody to make the wings after they see what I come up with...

As far as the existing rivets go, Based on how minute they were, I didn't feet that filling them in would be necessary. We'll see if that calculated risk was ill-advised when I put the primer on.

Marc

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