PhantomMJI

That's great news! I can now take my time to properly finish this build and post the results in this thread as I complete the build. Have fun modeling! Mike

I will be missing the finish line for this GB ☹️. Between work projects that ramped up and some unexpected but very much enjoyed volunteer opportunities in May for the workup to the 2026 World Cup matches starting this week, my model time evaporated to slightly above idle. That said, my UH-1N will get finished this summer as time allows. Thanks to Roland and Col. for shepherding a very enjoyable Group Build. For the record, here's my Huey after the overall primer coat as it looks this morning. I will inspect it later to see if it is ready for the first topcoat of paint or if some areas still need a little repair. With the GB finishing today, does this GB get locked down? As I do plan on finishing this sometime this summer, it would be nice to post the completed build in this thread as closure in case someone in the future finds this thread when building a UH-1N? Thanks also to everyone who entered this GB, so many of the builds have inspired me! Have fun modeling! Mike

The Huey fuselage is now cleaned up, seams filled (I hope!) and all parts added that I want to get painted while attached. Next step is the overall primer coat to see if I missed anything. Have fun modeling! Mike

Continuing my work on different subassemblies for the Huey, I just about finished up the mods to the landing skids. They are also painted in the final colors and will be ready to glue to the underside as one of the final steps. I may add some antiskid coatings to the top surface of the skids before gluing them to the fuselage but that is still to be decided. Here's how they look assembled and painted. I set the incomplete fuselage to get an idea on how the skids might look. I'm happy with them so now they will be set aside until later. Have fun modeling! Mike

Good catch Roland! Actually, the boots have been painted light grey and given a semi-matte finish. After I took the initial photo of the unpainted resin figures, the first step I did was give the figures an overall coat of pink primer. So I sort of forgot what the original figures looked like. I had not noticed that the painted boots looked almost the same color as the original unpainted figures. After looking at photos of both explorers/workers and also tourists in the Antarctic, I saw the ski boots looking shoes pop up in several photos. Here's an example of one of the photos I found on line. The figure on the left is a good example of what I was going for. I thought that the slightly shiny gray color would be a good contrast to the dark pants. I just might rethink my choice of color for the boots! Have fun modeling! Mike

When I first started this entry in the GB, I had wanted to place the (when) finished Huey on a base. Shortly after I started working on the base as seen in some earlier photos in this thread, I came across a set of polar explorer figures in 1/72. I couldn't resist adding one or two to the the build when finished. Here's the set of resin figures from Black Dog that I picked up from Hannants. Over the past few months I have been using a few minutes free time to slowly paint them so I wouldn't have to rush the painting at the last minute. I now have the figures painted enough to be acceptable. My plan is to still add one or possibly two of these figures to the completed base and UH-1N when finished to give it a sense of scale. I'll probably decide on which figure to use after I see which one (or two) look best standing by the Huey. Have fun modeling! Mike

Here's a quick update on my Huey build. I am starting to add details to the exterior. One of the main additions was getting the back end which contains the exhausts added. It fit meh so more seam filling is required. The top transmission housing is now looking fairly ok as you can see how it looks now in these photos. On to removing more of those pesky seams! Have fun modeling! Mike

Ever since I first saw a photo of the North American Eagle land speed vehicle decades ago, I have wanted to build one. I am a big fan of the F-104 and felt this would be a really unusual variant to be on the shelf with my other F-104s. I had originally intended to scratchbuild one using a Starfighter kit as a base, but the project never started as I didn't have the references. I am definitely a happy camper with news of this release! Have fun modeling! Mike

Thanks Roland, Col.! I especially like the advice that one should create a model that you are happy with rather than chase a deadline. That's my mantra for the rest of this build even if I risk missing the deadline! As I am working on getting the basic fuselage in order, I continue to work on different sub-assemblies whenever I need to set the main part of the build aside to dry or glue to set. One of these sun-assemblies is the rotor blades which have an interesting black/white stripe pattern. I finished these up earlier this week and have set them aside until they need to be added. Here's how the blades look: The undersides of the blades are black. Now it's back to fixing the seams on the fuselage later today. Have fun modeling! Mike

Outstanding build, Julian! Your model clicks all the boxes for me - a 1/72 Phantom build in both a colorful and test markings. I plan on using your build as inspiration when I get around to building a Phantom in these markings (I already have the decal sheet). Have fun modeling! Mike

This week was a classic case of 1 step forward and two steps backward! I had glued in the transmission/engine housing (or whatever it is called) on top of the Huey fuselage. When I glued that subsection on to the top of the Huey, I used tape to hold it down to the fuselage as the fit was only fair. When I removed the tape , it did look decent until I tried to dry fit the rotor mast and found that one side hit the mast while there was a hefty gap on the other side. I either glued it on top with a slight yaw and didn’t notice or when I used tape to hold the pieces together the entire upper piece became skewed at the front (most likely). So I broke off the top housing and repositioned it and now it is centered. It was not a clean break when I removed it so I have more repair work to do before I can move on with the build. Here’s how it looks after reglueing and after a hefty application of super glue and MR Surfacer 500 to fill in the new gaps. I will end up removing most of the panel lines in this area but that is a small price to pay to get it looking more aligned. This definitely puts me behind a bit but once I saw the alignment problem with the upper housing, I couldn't unsee it! Have fun modeling! Mike

While I am slogging through cleaning up the gaps and seams on the Huey fuselage, I have been working on a few related subprojects for this build. When I decided to build the NSF UH-1N, I gathered some reference photos. As most of these were taken with the Huey in its natural environment, I decided that my finished model should sit on a small snow covered base. I have never made a snow covered base before, so another new modeling experience. Here's an update on my attempt at a base. I had some scraps of wood that I saved from a wood coating project at a company that I had worked at years ago. (anyone remember Eastman Kodak?) I stained the edges of this wood piece followed by epoxying a few scrap pieces of plastic to give some variation to the surface. On a few of the reference photos I found the Antarctic surface was quite flat but there were occasional small drifts or ridges scattered around. the plastic pieces will hopefully break up the surface so that it is not totally flat. This was followed by first spreading on a layer of AK Terrains Neutral Earth to give it an even overall light color followed by several thin layers of AK Terrains Snow paste. I also added some spot applications of AK Snow Sprinkles for some visual texture. The base is now almost ready for the helicopter! I am also planning on adding one, maybe two, figures but that will come in a later post when their painting is closer to being finished. Have fun modeling! Mike

Roland, you definitely speak as a man with experience in these matters! 😄 I think I came close to snapping the skids several times while I was trying to remove the mold seams. I did break of two of the supports for the upper rod/steps while trying to mask off the skids for the combo red/white scheme. When I have the two supports fixed and the paint touched up, I will post a photo of the finished skids. Thanks Col.! I am happy with the way the skids mods are looking at this stage. I will breath a sigh of relief when they are painted and set aside until the end of the build.

I focused on the landing skids for the last few days. Here’s a photo of a Huey I am building and you can see the double step on the UH-1N’s skid though mine will have a different color scheme for the skids. I tried to scratch build the support pieces for the upper step but couldn’t figure out how to replicate it in 1/72. So I came up with a workaround. I think I can mock up the supports that are not exact replicas but the upper rod will still have the look that I want. Here’s the small parts for completing the skids with an upper and lower rod. Here the supports for the upper part glued into place. I first thought that I could simply glue a styrene rod to the kit’s curved part of the skit but that would locate the upper pole under the bottom of the Huey when everything was assembled or just about touching the bottom skid if it was glued lower. I guesstimated that making some supports like you see in this photo would get the upper rod visually looking like it was where it was supposed to be. Here’s the entire skid assembled. The upper rods are not glued on in this photo. I want to paint them separate as the skids for the registration number I am building only had the bottom skid in red along with a little bit of the vertical supports. By leaving the upper rods off, it should be easier to mask off the white without the upper rod getting in the way. Or so I am telling myself! Have fun modeling! Mike

The UH-1N finally is starting to look like a helicopter! Having to add the two sides, a top and the cabin with a somewhat floating ceiling that is only attached at one end proved to be a bit more challenging than I expected. I now have more seam filling than I would like but at least it now has the proper form. Have fun modeling! Mike