Whirly

Hi Craig, thank you for pointing me to these images, they are really helpful! The green bubbles came out ok and finally could start decalling, here you can see it mostly done. I also "wasted" some time in adding this tiny yellow stripes on the mainwheels, they are very visible in most images. P.S. I got in contact with Mike Belcher and we sorted any problems with the decals, he promised to send another updated sheet. Thanks for looking!

Oh, sorry Craig: I wrote in a hurry and didn't remind that the decals cater for both versions, the early one I'm building and the later camouflaged one as depicted on the box cover. The decal designer had really good intentions, providing all you need to do every serial of the JGSDF in both colour schemes, probably something got mixed up when he gave directions on the colour to use for each numbers block. Anyway, here is the continuation. My luck is that covering all four squadrons the sheet gives four COMPLETE sets of individual markings besides the single numbers series, comprising the front serials in the right white colour. A thorough search of all the known serials, possible combinations with the available decals numbers and compatibility with the double yellow stripes I had already applied on the model ( ) came to locate just one possible serial; JG-1718! Before going on, let me only add that I remembered to paint the bubble windows just a moment before starting with the decals. You know that decals and masking tape aren't good companions...

Thanks both for the appreciation! Now I've somewhat recovered from my illness I'm trying to catch up on what is left to finish this model. I entered the decals phase and it has highs and lows.... the Fujimi decals are very stiff and prone to silvering so I often had to use very strong solvent to get an acceptable result, but this slows down the process because you can't touch the model after application, risking to ruin everything. Another drawback of this sheet I found when I came to apply the front serials: a frantic search and re-checking of the instructions followed but the truth is that they were erroneously printed in black instead of white, as if they were for the later camouflaged scheme

Hello Mike, I'm Fabio, who originally lamented about the problem with your early decal sheet: I'm going to send you a PM.

Thank you MM, I appreciate that

My projects for a multiple build failed miserably due to the usual unpredictable distractions, not least the flu I caught from last weekend: I'm so sick I can't do anything at the workbench despite all the free time I have Three weeks more should be enough to finish at least my single model. Since my only occupation now is reading I studied more in depth the other subject I wanted to build, the very early Labrador with fluorescent red tail. To my horror I found that the Belcher Bits decals I hoarded so jealously over the years are completely useless for this era: for unknown reasons they put in the instructions a profile of the delivery scheme, then added a note saying that it can't be done with the decals provided... Bah! So, I have now a question for those who purchased the Printscale sheet: are the big RESCUE scripts printed in the correct fluorescent red or, as my monitor tells me, are in the same red ink used for the rest of the sheet (making them useless too) ?

Time for an update! I had little time lately and tried to use it on the bench as much as possible. Canopy masking was fun but with a little bit of patience didn't take more than a hour. Notice how I managed to place a nice Tamiya glue drop on the right window : I tried with every canopy treatment I knew but there was no way to remove the milky dot... This side is still good thank's God! Please note the vents just behind the canopy were filled since they are not present on V-107 and CH-113s, only H-46s have them. Here I had a bit of luck while masking the side portholes since they are exactly the same diameter as a paper punch I had on my desk! Now finally ready for the paintshop: first the side sponsons were covered with white, yellow and Mr Color Fluorescent Orange. Masked and ready for the olive greeen with the side tanks. Overall Olive green applied and lastly semi-gloss black for the nose and exhaust areas plus underside of rotor blades. Thanks for looking!

Hi Craig, you have done a super job, can't wait to see it finished! Regarding the rotorheads, I wouldn't refer to any US CH-46 because they all have a powered blade-folding capability, while the KV-107s has none and , as much as I can see, seem to have no hydraulic lines at all.

Been quite busy in the last few days and did also small progress in the build due to the poor fit of the components. First a view on the rear pilon details: I used a sprue as support for the scratchbuilt pieces which created a problem with the cargo bay roof... ok, just a minute work with a file. then I had to scratchbuild the ventral winch panel: somehow it was missing from my box. Look how much filler, dissolved putty and plasticard I used. very poor fit of the tail components. As I said elsewhere it's better to glue each part to the respective fuselage and then join all together. more filler needed also for the interchangeable engine panels. that's it for now. I will be away for a few days, Happy Easter to everyone!

I confirm this approach is the way to go: I made some progress on my build but not posted images yet. I found the rear pilon halves already glued by the previous owner of my kit and had to fight hard to align the parts and then to fill the joint.

Thank you all for the positive comments! Simply to avoid scratching/smearing the windows before applying proper masking, no secret techniques here

Hi Craig, good progress on this one, she's looking very bright! Glad you are using the correct orange instead of yellow 13538 suggested in the Print Scale instruction sheet. Also Field green is completely off, what are you going to use for the Gloss Olive Drab? Seems 14087 is quite different from the later matt variant and no off-the-shelf paint is available.. Cheers Fabio

The main visual difference are the larger sponsons. Academy offers this alternative in a special boxing, we have two builds ongoing, unfortunately in 1/72 I too am not aware of any conversion.

Hello, looking at many reference images online I got an itch for doing an HMX-1 VH-46F, only it seems they are all of the 'Bullfrog' sub-variant. Is there any 1/72 conversion available or is it all up to your Milliput reserve? Thanks Fabio

Hi Smudge, time available is subjective: depends on your penchant for super detailing and speed of build That Microscale sheet is really one of the very early ones, should make a fine model. The other subjects are also interesting, didn't know there were Jolly Green Giants in overall Engine Grey.