All photos © 2004 John Gosselin
Update: 14 November 2004
Assembly:
I completed the main rotor assembly. I added some extra detail from pictures in the Belcher instructions, and from pictures I'd been sent. The resin blades were well-shaped, but had a few small bubbles in places and needed some putty. Otherwise, the Belcher resin in this kit was flawless and high quality. Rather than use metal tube, I used styrene rod for the main drive shaft, and smaller diameter rod for the little arms. I sprayed the assembly with Testors flat white in a can and gave a dark gray sludge wash. I first sprayed the tips of the blades with Tamiya flat yellow, then makes and sprayed the whole thing with Tamiya flat black.
I did the tailrotor as well. I sprayed flat white, then masked it off and sprayed flat black. Then I did some tedious little masking and sprayed the red. Is it just me, or does red make a huge mess of everything when you airbrush it?
I also finalized some details for the guns. I added the handles for the removable barrels on the C-6 (M240 or FN GPMG) and finally made the mounts for the guns. I used the base from the Italeri minigun mounts for the Twin Huey, but only the parts that connect to the fuselage. The base of the post is a piece of rounded sprue, and the actual mount that connects to the gun is a rudder pedal from my He 111 kit. I added some PE bits from my spares: little rings on the mount, a metal frame to hold the ammo box, and fabric bags to catch the spent shell casings that I carved from sprue. (I hadn't added those yet for this picture)
I also, at this stage, finished the interior. I added a few more "telephone" type cords, added in the last of the seating with PE belts, glued the fire extinguisher in place (it had long since fallen out) and made an ELT out of carved resin painted orange.
Now all that remains is to combine all these elements and...
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