Nigel Heath

It certainly is which is one reason do have a penchant for Japanese helicopters. No, it's not just you, I have also noticed that effect - I have no idea why it's happening. I am still using Photobucket for most of my photo hosting, maybe it's something to do with that. Continuing with the masking for the black areas around the engine exhausts I took my rough sketching on the tape and then stuck it on yet more grease proof paper, flipping it over I applied some 19mm tape as appropriate: Flipping it over again I peeled of the sketching then applied tapes matching the ones on the underside and then reapplied my sketching: The tight radii in the forward corner was best done with one of my punch sets: Then using a combination of scalpel and scissors cut out the rest of the mask: I hope you can see the logic in all of that. With that applied and all the other masking required for the black areas, I turned my attention to the rotors, the only thing I wanted to add to them was some fuse wire cabling which seams to be pretty random on the real machine: Here is good photo of what I was trying to achieve: With that done I first applied some grey Alclad to the rotors and after an inspection finding no issues applied some matt black: Unusually the rotors do appear to be just a monolithic black with the occasional stencil or label which I will try to add. Obviously I also applied the black to the main craft as well: With the masking removed this is how that looked: Looks a bit dead doesn't it? But that's where a panel line wash and some weathering should come to the rescue (hopefully). There are a few areas requiring brush touching up but a coat of Aqua Gloss and the decals should go on tomorrow. Bye for now, Nigel

Today I started my masking the dayglo red orange on the sponsons, the chunky Blu Tack sausages are there to avoid a hard edge / step in the subsequent paint coats: I was then able to apply the Mr Color Orange Yellow No 58: Then after deciding on what to have for dinner tonight I popped out for an hour or two to get the necessary shopping. By that time the yellow was nicely dried so I started on masking for the dark green underside. A special piece of custom masking was required round the tail doors, after a few attempts I got a shape that looked right: To ensure complete symmetry that was folded at the halfway point round some grease proof paper and scissored out: Here it is in place: So here is the finished masking for the green: The Blu tack blobs at the front are again to give a diffuse edge. Here is the green after application: Mr Color paints really are forgiving and lovely to work with. Within less than an hour it was dry enough to unmask, so let's see what I got: There don't appear to be any major disasters, a little of the green got past the masking here though: I cleaned the worst of that off the IPA and a cotton bud but it will require further retouching. I didn't think I'd get this far today but pleasingly was able to start on the masking for the black areas: So if I crack on with finishing that masking and get the black applied (also to the rotors which still need a bit of work) I should get a coat of gloss varnish on in the morning and then its decal time!! Bye for now, Nigel

That is most gracious of you Craig, thankyou.

Here's how it looked with the masking removed: The few bumps in the white paint were very gingerly sanded off and then the masking for the Insignia Yellow was applied: I don't think that I have mentioned that I have to get this build finished on Friday. It is my mum and dad's Diamond wedding anniversary on the second of June and it will occupy my entire weekend (hopefully in a good way). Feeling a bit under the cosh to get this completed would it be possible to have a one or two day extension to getting my finished photos in the gallery? With kindest and humblest request to @modelling minion and @Enzo Matrix. Thanks, Nigel

I'm pretty sure it would, possibly better with a gloss coat on first. I have often relied on white primer (mainly Alclad) as a final white finishing coat. Take my Gotha P60 for example: I am pleased to report a productive day today where all targets were met or exceeded. With the polished aluminum dry I masked all the wheels with 4.2mm discs of punched out tape: I would have used 4.0mm discs but the UMM punch set I have for that turns out to be rubbish. I returned one set before and I think I really ought to give them a call and try to get a better replacement. From past experience their customer care is quite good. The glaringly bad seem on the underside was on its way to being sorted with an application of Squadron White filler: Most of the rest of the seems were actually pretty good although the one at the front of the front pylon also needed some attention. The primer nicely highlighted these "solvent boil" pores which were sorted with an application of PPP: Before tea time the primer was dry so I applied a coat of matt white to all the white areas and then a coat of tyre black to the err... tyres: That was all left to dry while I made dinner. Dinner consisted of one of my favourite meals, a tuna, basil and sun dried tomato pizza (the tuna has to be the good stuff from a glass jar not from a tin) and I do like to add anchovies: I have been quite a busy boy today, before I mixed up the pizza dough in my bread maker I also made a new loaf of bread and a roll for lunch time tomorrow (well technically today at the time of writing): Next I made preparations for the so called Fluorescent Red Orange (FS 28913). I have the Mr Color Fluorescent Red and Orange but they don't seem to quite fit the bill so thought of mixing them, an empty jar was cleaned up in readiness and the lid sprayed with white primer: I first tried a 50 / 50 mix but that still looked too orange so I tried an experimental mix using some Tamiya clear red, I had no idea if they were compatible - it turns out they are not: The next experiment was to try some red food colouring, again not compatible: I did try adding some IPA thinking that might emulsify them together but it still didn't work. Then I had another one of those (occasional) Nigey brainwaves - why not just add some red paint? The Red Madder I used seemed to work a treat: Did you know that red madder was originally a red pigment extracted from the Common Madder plant? I'm pretty sure the Mr Hobby paints have never been near a Common Madder plant. Anyway, moving on, I then masked up the outer sides of the sponsons ready for the red / orange / madder (or just mad?) / dayglo / fluorescent concoction: Here is how that looked when applied Not forgetting the lid of my newly created jar of Nigey red / orange dayglo paint: I think after all that waffling the dayglo might be dry enough to unmask and then start on masking off the matt white. Bye for now, Nigel

Those mirrors look great, I think technically they are rear view mirrors rather than "wing" mirrors @wimbledon99 should know better 😜 . Great work on adapting the door surround decals.

Just the last few bits to add before primer. The grill I made has also gone missing so I had to cut out another and then glued it in place with Humbrol liquid poly. I also drilled out a 0.5mm hole for the formation light, just below the APU exhaust: Here is the remade blade aerial, although technically a sticky-out bit I thought it was squat and robust enough to be added now: I was just about to apply some white primer and in the nick of time remembered to airbrush the grey interior colour on all the glazing: That was soon dry and after an inspection, light bit of sanding here and there plus picking off the odd bit of fluff I applied the primer to the upper surfaces: Wet primer always looks terrible doesn't it? While that was drying I applied Alclad grey primer to the undercarriage parts and then when that was dry went in with AK polished aluminium, I also applied metal primer to the aerial posts followed by more white primer: It was the first time I had used the AK paint was highly impressed with it. By now the first application of primer was dry so I then primed the under surfaces: That revealed a glaringly obvious fault in the seem even while the primer was still wet. Ah well that is one of the main ideas of priming - to highlight any issues that need attention. I should be able to get some white top coat on later today and maybe mask for the Insignia Yellow and maybe get the dayglo orange-red applied to the sponsons. It's all getting quite exciting. Bye for now, Nigel

Next when trying to apply the first bit of cabin masking disaster strikes and this glazing pops out: Rats, double rats and mega rats, a most unwelcome development. I searched out my window replacement tool, slightly modified it and did what I probably should have done in the first place and roughened up the joining surfaces then mounted it up with a small blob of Blu Tack: Well the first attempt was a failure, it was a race against time of course but I managed to remove the 2k epoxy from the glazing before it completely cured. It was like a gynecological exercise I could have done without: Luckily after a second mix of epoxy I got a successful result: There was a little bit of glue on the window which I managed to remove with a Tamiya cotton bud and IPA. What a complete pain. Anyway continuing with the cabin window masking the folks at E-Z Masks reckon their rectangular strips of slightly intractable plastic masking can be used for the bubble windows. I don't know what kind of substances those guys have been smoking but this would never work in a million years - honestly can you imagine? I then had a bit of a worktop clear up, removing the long past its use by date masking tape and generally sorting things out, it was not a deep clean but good enough: My initial thoughts on masking the bubble windows was that some thin masking strips would get the job done, cut with my compass cutter: It turned out that they were way too big in diameter, something more like this looked much better: The windows are 6mm in diameter so times Pie equals about 19mm: At that point I ordered some clear coloured plastic cocktail sticks for the navigationation lights, liffe can be quite random at times don't you think: I was just looking for clear plain coloured cocktail sticks but they seem to belong to a lost age, shame that. My revised tape masking for the bubble windows worked a treat: I then went to retrieve the wide blade aerial for the roof but was dismayed to find it had vanished, hmmm not sure what's going on here, I did have a look over the carpet and remarkably did find the long lost foot rest: It's all bit annoying as I felt I had done a good job on making that. Anyway, I can always (wearily) make another one. The last job for today was to mask off the finely meshed off apertures, I only want a top coat on the mesh as past experience has shown that even the most finely applied coat of paint can lead to bridging over of the mesh: I will now have another look for that missing aerial and if not found make another one. Now I'm going to watch the new Brian Cox programme on the planets, it looks most interesting. Bye for now, Nigel

Despite my hopes of getting some primer applied today that sadly didn't happen - I've just been working more on the added details. I felt the aerial mast would look better with a more tapered profile so sanded it down accordingly: Next for the red light on the rear pylon I added a base punched out at 2mm with a 1.2mm hole: Here is a picture of what I was aiming at: Next the tie down loops on the sponsons which look like this: I made this out of 0.4mm brass rod soldered on to a loop like this: It's a bit overscale but I frankly couldn't make it any smaller with the tools to hand: In making the second loop I demonstrate what happens when too much solder is applied: I sorted that out by using some twisted tinned wire to wick out the excess solder: A tricky masking job around the engine intakes was tackled using a combination of 4.8mm punched discs of tape and Microscale liquid masking: In my experience a couple of more coats on that is probably a good idea. Next I think I'll mask up the cabin windows, hopefully the AM set will be up to the job. Bye for now, Nigel

A very tidily finished model, excellent work on the folded blades and weathering.

Here is the late night update, again shamelessly copying from the work of @modelling minion I started to make the fairings for the front aerials by shaping some 1.25mm rod: I'm sure MM won't mind but here is his photo I am mainly using for this: With a second one created this is how they looked attached: I have drilled them with 0.4mm holes which you can just about make out. Next another MM tribute, I drilled out some slots and holes for the aerial wire as indicated with the arrows here: For reference, here are MMs photos: My thinking is that aerodynamic oval Strutz would give the best representation of the aerial posts so I shaped some accordingly: Next the navigation lights, moulded in solid plastic on the kit but of course better made from some coloured clear material: The kit also has them quite overscale as is often the case: Before knifing and sanding them off I did make a dimensioned sketch but as I say these are far too big and smaller replacements will be required later: Here it is gone: The other side has also been sorted. Well that's about as far as I've got tonight. Still quite a bit more to do before any primer gets applied but I am hopeful that will happen in the light of morning and then get the first of the exterior top coats applied. Bye for now, Nigel

Me too!! Thanks for the kind words of encouragement.

Time for today's tea time update. With the fuselage together and canopy fitted a host of jobs require attention. The first was to colour some PPP grey with black pastel chalk and then fill some gaps around the canopy: There was some left over so I used that round the sponson joints and some of the seams around the transmission and engine covers. I have been around all the filled fuselage seams once and have identified a few areas requiring further work. To give some contrast I like to use Squadron White on top of the green: Next the flanges require removing from the front undercarriage leg and second main rotor shaft: Hobby Boss would have you mount the leg before fuselage close up, presumably to give a steerable front undercarriage but I think it is much better to leave off such things until much later in the build, plus it's a different colour and needs painting separately. I don't mind having a fixed, unsteerable set of front wheels. I then discovered this moulded in hole is not required on this model so initially filled it with some stretched sprue: Back to the front undercarriage, there aren't many parts left on the frames now but the wheels are still there. I like to sand a flat on the tyres where the gate was and then indent the middle of the flat area with a pin point as it makes location that much easier: I have also reprofiled the antirotation struts to more of a angular shape as per the reality: Adding the triangular holes to them would have been nice but I judged a step too far. Here is the front leg and wheels all cleaned up and ready for mounting for paint. The wheels are a very snug fit on the axles, it's probably worth masking them: Next the main legs, here also cleaned up and copper wire brake lines added along with corresponding 0.4mm holes drilled in the fuselage: The brake lines are quite a prominent feature and definitely worth adding: There then followed more grunt modelling work on further sorting out the seams, once that was done I reinstated the scribe lines, most done freehand but a Dymo tape guide was required for the one at the base of the tail door: On removing the tape I was surprised to find that it had pulled out some of the filler so a third application was applied: There are a few more jobs to do before I can apply some primer but not too many. Bye for now, Nigel

Wow, that looks exceptional. Very nice work with the folded rotors. The canopy masking is also excellent, I hope I can get mine looking half as good.

That is an extremely fine looking model. All Canadian's would be proud of that and as my grandad was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba I count myself in that number.

I would like to add that Craig has been an exemplary host, his words of encouragement have been most appreciated. And the technical guidance has been very good too. But please no more pokes with that nasty cattle prod.🐮 (that's supposed to be a cow face but you would hardly know it).

Before I close off the side door let's have a look what can be seen in there: The seat, as expected is just a barely glimpsed thing: But well worth the effort I think. The winch and cabling is there but difficult to photograph, in reality it is a little more obvious: I was quite pleased with how the first rib treatment came out but again difficult to get a good photo: And at least we have decent ceiling in there, not a gaping hole up into the front pylon. For the masking round the side door I made use of the cardboard template from earlier: With the aperture masked off a couple of foam blocks then filled the opening: Right, now I can start to sand all the filled seams. (But maybe that's a job for the morning). Bye for now, Nigel

Continuing with the the theme of closing up areas to prevent sanding dust / paint ingress I blocked off the oil tank slot with a combination of foam and tape: A fit check with the canopy revealed that my addition of the landing light assembly had created a foul condition, this was relieved by filing away some of the console floor area: With things almost ready for adding the canopy I thought I would take a shot of the cockpit before most of it's detail is lost forever: The last job was to retouch some of the matt black including a coat on the newly filed area (probably not strictly necessary but it pleased me to have it sorted): With everything ready I mixed up a batch of 5 minute epoxy and applied that the the more vertical surfaces of the canopy opening, then wriggled it into place (it is a well fitting piece). I then applied liquid poly to the horizontal joints. I tried clamping with some tape but in the end decided there was no substitute for human applied finger pressure. I worried over the thing for a good ten minutes until things seemed to have settled: Next I think I will block off the cabin door and then with pretty much all of the interior closed off get to work on sanding all the filled seams. Bye for now, Nigel

Not at all, your work looks excellent to my eye and it has given me ideas for a few more added details that I need to attend to.

I agree, it's always a worry bead that things won't come out as hoped, however this one has come up well after a liberal application of Micromesh: Often a coat of Klear is called for but seems unnecessary in this case. The first job on the now polished canopy was to drill a 0.4mm hole in the central paine for this rod probe thing: The next job was to get the canopy masked up using a combination of Anil's efforts, some of the aftermarket set and some made by me. Then I added a little rectangle of the clear green film (also kindly supplied by Anil) using Gator Grip: That is for these landing lights, blue on this example (others I have seen are clear): While that was drying I started on making the quite prominent blade aerial on the cabin roof using some fairly thick brass sheet: Here's how that looked after being cleaned up and temporarily fixed in a stitch drilled slot: Things were still drying on the canopy so I took this photo of the underside of the rear end before closing it up with the cargo doors and it disappears forever: Note the bit of structural Blu Tack in there. On the cargo doors I mainly used liquid cement rather than liquid poly to try to preserve the crisp shut lines, here taped up while drying: For the landing lights I mounted up some 2mm Little Cars lenses on a rectangle of black card: That assembly was then fixed in place using a generous dab of Gator Grip: One of the last jobs on the canopy was to drill some more 0.4mm holes for the rear view mirrors to mount into: I am mainly copying the excellent work by @modelling minion here as I haven't found a decent picture of the actual mirrors. I think the final job on the canopy was to drill out and shape these recesses that Hobby Boss missed: They were finished off with an application of Humbrol liquid poly to smooth things out and polish them up. The Gator Grip is still drying but once it is I will get the canopy fitted. Bye for now, Nigel

Ok, a bit more done before bed time. Whilst going round filling the seams I came across these bumps which are supposed to represent lamps: Well done to Hobby Boss for having a go but I think these will be better represented with some clear red painted sprue. With those bumps removed the whole seam could be filled: I filled up to the big gap on the underside: Some stretched sprue nicely sorted out the worst of that, I also removed the bumps here as I think they can be better represented: An application of Squadron Green will, I'm sure sort that out further. Now the canopy, first some reference shots on what I received it back from Anil: The first job is to remove the horrible moulded in wipers: But first I made a dimensioned sketch of what they looked like: The worst of the wipers were knifed off: Then using a new blade the remainder was azed off: That will now need polishing back to optical clarity with Micromesh, a job for the morning now. Bye for now, Nigel

The gap won't cause any serious issues, maybe a bit of stretched sprue to bridge the worst of it and then some Milliput I think. I intend that to be the last job I do today so it can all harden up overnight. From what I can work out the "Madonna's bra" on my machine should look like this, a conical mesh affair: I have an idea that they could be fabricated from some more superfine tea bag mesh. Could be tricky and I will have a further ponder on that concept. So, I think the truncated cones provided by the kit are meant to represent mesh over the engine intakes. Something like this: Well maybe not like that, maybe something like this: Anyway, I'm sure you get the idea. So I felt that the kit inlets needed some modification. I started by sawing off the mounting rings: I then drilled out the inlets, much as I abhor imperial measurements I did this with a 1/8" drill: My thinking was to add some engine bullets to the intakes but first I needed something to mount them on. Another piece of black card would fit the bill after I drew a scale drawing of the part required: That was then cut out with minimal wastage: With a bit more trimming and grinding flat the ends of the exhaust tubes here's how it looked when fitted: I then made and fitted some engine bullets using 1.25mm plastic rod: I decided that would need painting before proceeding much further so I got things masked up for that: I also brush painted some matt black on the card before installing the painted inlet part: While all that was going on I also sorted out the missing and lose windows. The bubble window was the one missing earlier, now restored, the adjacent one also fell out, here mounted up on the tool I made to get them reinstated: All a right pain but at least doable. Next the main rotor drive shaft cover, MM Is right this makes light work of sorting out the upper fuselage seam. It does however have this blade aerial moulded in which does not appear on my machine so has to go: Here it is fitted along with the removed aerial: Next I think I will be filling all the seams and I need to get the canopy sorted - quite a lot of work there actually. Bye for now, Nigel

Please let me take you off the tenterhooks. The first job of the day was to apply a nice coat of W&N Galeria matt varnish: The RHS exhaust pipe partially detached somewhere in the process hence the fresh super glue. After removing all the masking the fuselage halves were united. Liquid cement in the pin locators and between the bulkheads, super glue on the bulkheads, floors and ribs, finishing off with progressive application of liquid poly round the external seams - you know the routine: Fuselage close up is always a bit fraught and this one was not without its issues, there is this quite big gap on the underside which refused to close up: Nothing a bit of Milliput won't sort out I'm sure. The worst issue however was the windows, this bubble window came out entirely and two others are loose: A bit of a pain but hopefully not the end of the world as there is some decent access with the tail doors still off. One of the next jobs will to be to fit the engine intakes, here just resting in place: The kit provides some conical intakes to fit over those hollow mounting points but they don't look anything the one reference picture I have from the decals: Does anyone have a better picture of what they should look like? Bye for now, Nigel

Indeed. This afternoon I thought: get the drop down seat installed and those broken ribs sorted, no problem. It was all going to be so easy. When I got home from work I set about fitting the seat, after many frustrating efforts and about four hours I gave up on it being a working feature and superglued the darn thing in place. I also (quickly) got the broken ribs sorted: After a few minor paint touch ups everything is now ready for that coat of matt varnish so I will be able to (finally) close up the fuselage in the morning. Bye for now, Nigel

The anticipation is killing me!