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I've made a start on my New York ANG HH-3E

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I cut open the side cabin door and then glued some plastic strip around the opening to make up for the saw cut and filing .

I have some scans from the internet showing the equipment rack behind the cockpit bulkhead wall , so I thought I would add one to my build

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Revell don't supply any cyclic or collective sticks for the cockpit , so I scrounged some from the spares box along with a better console panel as well as some better foot pedals

Next I started to file out some plastic sheet I cut to size for the equipment rack

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Here's a test fit of the cockpit floor/bulkhead , equipment rack and cabin floor - cut from a plastic CD case

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Next I'll airbrush the interior pieces with some dark gull gray and make up some cabin/troop seats

Helo 53

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You are starting to get quite the collection of HH-3's. Is this the first you've done from the Revell kit? I know several of the others were built from the Lindberg kit. Curious how they compare.

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Hi Aaron ;

I recently bought several of the Revell HH-3E kits and I paid ridiculous prices for them .

I guess overall their slightly better than the Lindberg offering but only slightly .

here's a scan of Revell's instruction sheet ;

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RevellHH-3Einstructionsheet2_zps6a8bb0f4.jpg

In most regards there is not much difference between the Revell and Lindberg kits . It's probably externally with a better shaped

nose and more rivet detail is where the main difference is.

It's disappointing about the lack of cockpit detail and oddly enough , this is where the 'awefull' Starfix HH-3E kit can offer some help

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There's a much larger and better cockpit console from the Starfix kit along with some foot pedals and cyclic sticks . The collective sticks came from a Revell Huey kit . I also like the seperate turbine intake pieces Starfix have and I'm thinking of drilling out the molded on ones on the Revell kit . You still have to scrounge up and engine intake shield from a Seaking kit (Airfix) . You also need to find an external rescue hoist . So I guess the only real difference between the Lindberg and Revell kits is the obscene price for the Revell kits .

I spent most of the morning trying to figure out what else to add to the rear cabin along with the seats and I found some stretchers and some resin duffle bags and bed rolls/blankets to put in the rear

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The troop seat bases are from some Revell Huey kits and the seat backs I'll make from masking tape .

Helo 53

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Thanks, I scored a bunch of Fujimi Seakings pretty cheap a few years back with the idea some would go into sprucing up the Lindberg kit. Sounds like there is no reason for me to look for a Revell kit then, as its few better points would be corrected with parts from the Fujimi anyway. I still can't believe with all the Seaking kits out there nobody has stepped up to offer the HH-3E/F. :deadhorse1:

Thanks, looking forward to seeing another HH-3 from you.

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Here's some more WIP pic's on the HH-3E build

The backs for the cabin seats are quite basic , I just glued four pieces of .75mm plastic rod to make a frame

and the I cut 1mm strips from some tamiya masking tape to lay over the frame

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Once I have covered the frame both vertically and horizontally , I cut another piece to lay over the strips

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It's a little basic like I said but does the job anyway .

Here's how the fuselage insides look just before I glue the halves together ;

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I decided to go with a flat black cockpit section

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I added some stretchers and blankets to make things look a little busy

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I'm happy with the interior , I'll glue the fuselage together next .

Helo 53

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I forgot to add this pic

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The console , cyclic sticks and foot pedals came from the crappy Starfix HH-3E kit . There's not a great deal of detail

on the console but it's much better than the one in the Revell kit .

Helo 53

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The fuselage joined up nicely , much to my relief ;

HH-3Ebuildpic16_zps283d9a8e.jpg

There is a slight issue with the main landing gear and how it sits in the sponson

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It sits a little skewed . so I'm thinking of filling the small recesses on the main sponson and re-drill new

holes so the strut doesn't angle inwards

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Looking at pic's of the NY ANG HH-3E in my reference book shows a shorter external fuel tank than the standard ones seen during the 60's and 70's era HH-3E

HH-3Ebuildpic20_zpse0128841.jpg

searching through my stash of kits , all I could find so far are some fuel tanks from a hasegawa F-4E kit

HH-3Ebuildpic21_zps857ce9e1.jpg

Length wise they look okay but I'm not sure if they might appear a little skinny in diameter ?

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Only a small update today on the HH-3E .

The fit of the sponsons to the fuselage was woefull , to say the least

I had to add some plastic strip to the bottom edge as the gap was quite big.

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The sponson nearest my arm has the plastic strip fitted andeverything sits nicely , the other one without the strip

angle's down quite noticable

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Both sponsons fixed and she sits nicely now

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I also filed flat and drilled out the molded on engine intakes and I'll use the spare ones from the Starfix HH-3E kit .

The cockpit canopy fits quite well and I dipped it in some future and it's now drying ready to fit tomorrow .

I'm getting close to masking and the painting ; Finally .

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I was curious about a couple of things after reading through Squadron Signal's H-3 Sea King in action book .

There's a couple of section devoted to the CH/HH-3 Jolly Green Giant helicopter .

They mention about the USAF loaning a CH-3E to the Navy to use for Drone and Missile recovery operating fro NAS Point Mugu ,

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Is this a Naval Reserve squadron/unit ?

I snapped up some decals off ebay for the very same CH-3E

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Another question relates to the first pic I posted regarding the HH-3E being used during Desert Storm ;

Squadron suggest that the 71st SOS is a Air Force Reserve unit at Davis-Monthan AFB . Is this correct ?

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Would both or either of these two Helo's be classified as 'National Reserve' aircraft .

Back to my build , just before I glued the canopy on this morning I suddenly remembered about a small light that

is housed in the nose section . So I drilled out and used a spare light from a italeri H-34 kit

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I should be able to start masking later tonight and then start some painting tomorrow .......'ýippee'

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A minor issue has come up regarding the main rotors .

Revell have the rotors going in the correct direction so tht's not the issue .

It's the two center hub pieces which seem to have me a little confused

HH-3Erotorhub1_zps75639a19.jpg

When I compare Revells green rotor hub pieces to the Lindberg white hub parts I can't help that feel perhaps Revell have their two

pieces back to front . When I look at Revells instructions , there a 5 small lugs (part 27)which end up pointing downwards when you fit the whole

rotor assembly onto the helo

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Lindberg have their small lugs (part 15) pointing up to fit under the top rotor cap

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As I say It's only a minor issue but Revell have different size raised sections on the two hub pieces which make the rotor blades fit a certain way

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I think I'll copy the Lindberg HH-3E way .

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Just a quick update ;

I sprayed the mid green , Gunze (FS.34102) colour first and once dry I like to use Blu-Tack rolled into strips of spaghetti

to make the camouflage patten

HH-3Ebuildpic27_zps0b0ab134.jpg

I then cut small pieces of masking tape to cover the inside area which I want to leave mid green and airbrush the rest of the helicopter with green (FS.34092)

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First thing tomorrow I'll do the same process and cover the darker green area's and spray some gray FS.36081

Hopfully I'll be looking at finishing this build by Friday .

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WOW , that's a sharp looking F-4G Spectre ... :thumbsup:

Sadly I'm not overlly excited about my efforts with the euro one scheme .

Everything seemed to look okay while masking but now I have removed all the masks , she doesn't quite look

like the camo patten specs I was using as a guide

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Perhaps I should have looked more closer at the photo's in the reference book I had in the begining

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There appears to be more grey on the real life bird , mine seems to have a lot more light green .

I guess it will have to do , I've airbrushed the euro one scheme before on other builds and have been quite happy with the results .

I just expected a bit better from myself :(

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Those paint Tech Orders were subject to interpretation by the paint shop. I believe they are more of a guide so depending on with paint shop did the repaint would depend on how much they followed the order. I used to work on Mirages in the RAAF and in a SQN of 28 jets no 2 were identical in camouflage schemes.

So I would not fuss too much about it.

Your progress is looking great BTW!

Edited by Trojan Thunder
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Hi Ray ;

Thank's for the encouragment .

I did notice a few times that the patten didn't line up when going from the side of the fuselage to underneath when I looked closely at the spec diagram.

But I did make a couple of small errors here and there myself . However I won't fret too much I suppose , especially hearing from someone like yourself with first hand knowlage of varying camo schemes between similar aircraft . Once all the masks are removed from the canopy and windows later on it may not be so noticable about my slightly alternate camo scheme ..... I hope !

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I forgot I had this link pasted in my browser ;

http://yolo.net/~jeaton/Helicopters/hh3/hh3.htm

I fellow modeller over at FSM posted in the helicopter section some time ago and looking at this particular HH-3E , there appears to be

a lot more green than grey . So I'm feeling a little more confident mine is not a total screw-up .

Great walk around pic's none the less .

Edited by Helo 53
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Thank's tiger331 ,

After looking at photo's of the CH-3E/HH-3E over at airlinners.net , I've suddenly realised that the colour grey I was using was too dark

So I have decided to start again with the painting.

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I have started over spraying with Gunze H-305 (FS36118) , I mistakenly used H-301 (FS36081) which I believe was unique for F-4 Phantoms .

Only a minor set back but I'll endevour to do a better job matching the camouflage patten to what's in my reference book this time around.

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