MRC 1/48 H-34 Choctaw

[smokeriderdon]

OK, I was thinking (I know, dangerous and I shouldnt do it unsupervised, but here we are) I should be done with the Lightning in a few days. That leaves plenty of time to do another. And as was pointed out elsewhere, there are precious few rotary wing entries. I havent done a copter in a while, and this one was sitting in que. Soooo, why not? Hopefully I can get it done by the end of Aug. Worth a try, IF the boss man doesnt mind.

It will be OOB, though I intend to detail the engine. Thats my thought. We will see. I may be biting off more than I can chew with that part. I have never done a Navy chopper, so this will be a first for me.

Just the intro blurb from Wikipedia:

The Sikorsky H-34 (company designation S-58) is a piston-engined military helicopter originally designed by American aircraft manufacturer Sikorsky as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft for the United States Navy. It has seen extended use when adapted to turbine power by the British licensee as the Westland Wessex and Sikorsky as the later S-58T.

H-34s served, mostly as medium transports, on every continent with the armed forces of 25 countries. It saw combat in Algeria, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and throughout Southeast Asia. Other uses included saving flood victims, recovering astronauts, fighting fires, and carrying presidents. It was the last piston-engined helicopter to be operated by the United States Marine Corps, having been replaced by turbine-powered types such as the UH-1 Huey and CH-46 Sea Knight. A total of 2,108 H-34s were manufactured between 1953 and 1970.

[DRUMS01]

This looks like a real nice kit.

I will be watching this one for sure.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Love helicopters, awesome choice

[SkyPainter303]

I love this chopper. Have fun with this one.

[pourquoi61]

Very nice, I am glad to see another helicopter making it to the start line.

[smokeriderdon]

Its taking me a little longer to wrap up the Lightning. More likely to start this towards the end of next week. I did get some tubing and stuff for detailing the engine.

[smokeriderdon]

OK, so the Lightning is done, so I will have real updates for this baby here soon.

[pourquoi61]

I will be watching this one.

[smokeriderdon]

OK, got this one under way a bit. The cockpit is done. Still in front and back units. Not going to put them together until I have everything else done and it has to go in place. Learned that lesson a long time ago. When something is in units like that, hold off gluing them until you are at the last possible step to do so. If you are off even a little, you have to go back and take stuff apart trying to figure out what you did wrong.



Started working on the engine. Can you say tedious much???? LOL

[NormanD]

It's a great kit, will be watching your build with interest.

[smokeriderdon]

It's a great kit, will be watching your build with interest.

I am guessing you have built it. Anything I need to watch out for?

[NormanD]

Read and follow the instructions carefully, due to other variations of the kit, it's easy to cut or drill out the wrong part, some of the parts being cut from the sprue can be a bit brittle, there are no collectives for the cockpit, so scratch built mine, other that just take your time, it builds into a cracking model

[smokeriderdon]

I am noticing the instructions arent as clear as one would hope either. LOL This is definitely a kit for an experienced builder.

[pourquoi61]

That will be you then.

[smokeriderdon]

Just one pic. Engine finished. Added some wiring and the black gasket. Never done this before. I am sure it is not in scale, but it added to the sparse compartment.

[smokeriderdon]

OK, so a bulkier update. Let me start with this. If you build this kit, the instructions are NOT good. Placement of parts is vague as to exactly how they should go (I had to break the exhausts off and reattach them. Not fun with the extra stuff on there) and their suggested order of assembly is REALLY a suggestion. A bad one IMO. Here is the worst culprit:



So, the red arrows are the way the instructions whould have you do it. The blue is the way that makes sense. You cant get the cockpit on there right without the walls being on. Just not gonna happen. Not sure what they were thinking there. Again I say, this one is for experienced builders for this reason alone.







Also, if you look, you will see the direction would have you place the supports on the rotor trans first, then attach it. Well, you are NOT going to get the angle right on the legs if you do that. Unless you are lucky. I put some blue tack on the bottom, stuck it to the flooring part and used good old Testors glue to attach them. That way I had plenty of time to adjust them and still get a good join when the glue set.





Once set, I pulled it, painted it and super glued it in. Heres hoping I got it straight enough.

Got everything set, then put the windows in and joined the main fuselage halves. Had to go back and sand a lot as the gaps were unacceptable. Another case of not sure if that was my bad or the kit. Either way, its together.





Not much to go before painting starts.

[smokeriderdon]

OK, so I managed to somehow not take but two pics in the process of putting all the PE on and painting her. But here they are. The red-orange has gone on, at least the first round of it. Have to go back to it as it does NOT cover the darker color well at all.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Some great progress and scratchwork
No way that cockpit and internals are that detailed oob without your work
I am loving the wiring stuff on the rhs nose area to the engine

[smokeriderdon]

Some great progress and scratchwork
No way that cockpit and internals are that detailed oob without your work
I am loving the wiring stuff on the rhs nose area to the engine

Thank you kindly sir. The engine area just looked too damn empty without doing something. I could have modeled it closed, but figured what the hell. LOL

[Twokidsnosleep]

Some great progress and scratchwork
No way that cockpit and internals are that detailed oob without your work
I am loving the wiring stuff on the rhs nose area to the engine

Thank you kindly sir. The engine area just looked too damn empty without doing something. I could have modeled it closed, but figured what the hell. LOL

Good for you, it looks awesome

[smokeriderdon]

Good for you, it looks awesome

thank you sir!

Just a few pics. First is red/orange sprayed but before any weathering. Then my attempts to get pics of the interior. LOL And finally, the port side all done with decals. Still have the rotors, rescue winch, antennae and other small stuff to do.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looks great indeed, the red/orange is bang on

Something about making helicopters, they turn into such cool models...same with motorcycles
I have the Hasegawa Sea King and I want to make it into “old 66” that rescues the Apollo capsule

[smokeriderdon]

Looks great indeed, the red/orange is bang on

Something about making helicopters, they turn into such cool models...same with motorcycles
I have the Hasegawa Sea King and I want to make it into “old 66” that rescues the Apollo capsule

Yeah, it turned out perfect from the bottle. I was wavering between that and the neon red. I picked the right one thankfully. LOL

And as my father was a flight mech on Hueys and CH-3s and 53s, I do have an affinity for choppers. I just havent been doing many of them. Which i will certainly rectify. And I definitely want to see that project! That would be awesome!

[smokeriderdon]

OK, last update before final reveal. The chopper itself is done. Just need to do a bit of weathering over the decals and the like. The rotors are all thats left.

While finishing up the decals, I noticed the top of the tail was pictured as being blue. So I broke out the French Blue, masked and sprayed.



the last of the decals on



Finished with all the bits on and painted.

[smokeriderdon]

Its all done!!!! Its in the reveal threads.

[pourquoi61]

Great work and the red/orange looks fantastic.