RC Boater Bill

I am in for this one! Lots of eligibles in the stash!

I have a bunch of “classics” in the stash, including several eligible 1/72 WW1 kits. A pair of Pegasus Hanriot HD-1 kits caught my eye— I think I’ll start with those. I have multiple decal sheets in hand- sheets like “Famous Balloon Busters”, which include markings for a variety of types, and there’s no mainstream kit for the Hanriots…

1/305 Revell US Coast Guard Secretary-class Cutter- built as the USCGC Duane in her 1968 Vietnam fit. Duane was a member of Coast Guard Squadron Three (RONTHREE), which played a crucial role in supporting Operation MARKET TIME, patrolling the South Vietnamese coastline, interdicting enemy vessels, and providing 5 inch gunfire support, among other missions.

US Coast Guard Sikorski HH-3F Pelican “1484” from USCG AIRSTA Cape Cod in October 1980. Converted from the 1/72 Revell HH-E “Jolly Green Giant”. Build for the 2022 Revell-Monogram classic GB: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235112089-another-uscg-hh-3f-pelican-revell-172-hh-3e-jolly-green-giant-conversion/

Finally, some progress you can see! During our prolonged cold snap, I spent a few hours designing and then cutting the masks to cut on my Cameo4 cutting machine. With slightly warmer temps in March, it was back to the paint booth. The blue went on a little over a week ago. ( I used Tamiya XF-23 light blue. ) Tonight I masked and then airbrushed Vallejo Olive Green for the base color on the upper surfaces. I’ve settled on this aircraft from the Swedish volunteers who flew for Finland in the Winter War against the Soviets. . As I understand it, Sweden “loaned” a squadron of Gladiators to the Finns, and plenty of pilots volunteered to fly them. The planes started out in standard Swedish olive green over light blue, and were given a quick winter camo by painting bands of silver paint over the green. Finnish markings were then added to the fuselage and underside of the wings.

After two weeks of very cold winter weather here in New England, ( -15C outside) it finally warmed up enough to let me paint in my basement workshop! Last night I primed the various sub assemblies so color is next! Nothing photo-worthy, but soon, I hope…….

Thanks for “taking one for the team”..! The Smer kit I have only gives the wide stripes as decals- I guess they are just ignoring the thin ones. I’m unlikely to bother with them— at this point, I’m thinking I’ll try painting them on. My thoughts are that I’ll first test-fit the bottom wing, fixing the fuselage curves so it fits properly. Then I’ll remove it, and prime and paint the fuselage. I’ll then try masking the wide stripes as best I can- shooting for a “striped effect” and not worry too much about getting them all exactly correct. If they come out well, I’ll then try some thin ones. One that is all set, I’ll glue the lower wing in place and fill in the missing black on the bit of fuselage between the left and right wings. If this is a disaster, plan B will be paint the whole fuselage black, and use Ernst Udet’s “LO” decals from the Du Doch Nicht kit.

Looking forward to hearing about your results, for both the stripes and tail! (Those red stripe tail decals also worry me…)

Are you using the decals from Smer, Eduard, or someone else?

Found some photos from 2019 I never shared— This is my build of the Revell re-box of the 2000 Italeri kit in US Coast Guard service. The kit comes with markings from the early ‘60s- after the uniform aircraft designations were implemented and the “all yellow” colors were replaced with USCG- unique colors. I wanted to do the model as a USCG helo, but the idea of masking all those angles and black stripes in a straight line on that curvy/lumpy fuselage didn’t appeal to me at all. Instead I used a Print Scale sheet for a helo from the mid-late 50’s, when they were still using the USN designation “HO4S-3G”. I am very pleased with how this one came out.. It isn’t an award winner, but it looks great on the shelf! ( Thanks to Pip Moss, aka “Seawinder” for the photos.) In the mid-1950s, they were still “writing the book” on Helicopter rescue procedures… and the “1309” has an interesting Rescue in its history: A Snail in a Gale by LCDR Paul Smith, USCG (Ret.) CG Aviator 345, Helo Pilot 18 On April 11, 1956, we received a distress call at CG Air Station St. Petersburg, FL at 0917. A supply barge with six men aboard was sinking 97 miles northwest of Clearwater, FL. The wind at the time was 50 knots from the northwest which was directly in the path of the distressed vessel. The only alternative was a helicopter. I was designated as plane commander and began some calculations. The helicopter, HO4S 1309, had an airspeed of 90 knots. Flying into a 50 knot gale would leave me with only a 40 knot ground speed. The flight time from St. Pete to the scene would take nearly three hours. With a fuel range of only four and a half hours, we could not attempt the flight. I decided to carry a 55 gallon drum of fuel in the cabin, to be transferred in flight. This would give me enough time to hoist six men on board and return downwind at a ground speed of 130 knots. I departed St. Pete at 0933 with Harold French as my copilot and Warren Wilson as my hoist operator. After two hours into the flight, I told Wilson to commence transferring fuel via the siphon hose. After about ten minutes of watching my fuel gauge with no increase, I asked Wilson how he was doing. “Not good,” was his reply. I turned control over to Harold and went aft to the cabin. Wilson had a large bucket half filled with aviation fuel from sucking on the siphon hose. I jettisoned the bucket and turned the fuel drum from vertical to horizontal and got the siphon flowing on the first try. The extra fuel came just in time to avoid aborting the flight. August “Gus” Kliesh (CG Aviator 109 , Helo Pilot #5) had arrived on scene ahead of me in a P5M, so I homed in on his position. When I arrived over the vessel, it had almost zero freeboard and was rolling badly in the trough, with waves awash a foot deep over the deck. I hovered over the vessel in the extreme turbulence and noticed that Wilson had already lowered the ’horse collar’ to the waiting men below. Once the first man was in the sling, Wilson started him up. While he was being hoisted, I flew a 360 and came back upwind just the sling reached the deck again. It took about twenty minutes of this procedure to hoist all six men aboard. Once the last man was on his way up, I turned downwind and headed back for St. Pete. The rest of the flight was uneventful. We covered the 120 miles back in less than an hour and still had thirty minutes of fuel remaining.

So far, the kit has been a decent build. Fit is generally good (enough). The only thing I’m not keen on is having to deal with the big rigging holes. I guess they thought builders would be raiding mom’s sewing kit for some heavy duty thread? The idea of having to fill the way-oversize holes after rigging with fine nylon monofilament doesn’t really appeal to me. ( I suppose I could just fill and paint them now, and then drill new (much smaller) holes later - or just not rig it at all! ) I wonder what others are doing…..?

The 3-piece canopy fit well, and I was pleased with how clear it is. Next step: Mask the canopy, and then it will be off to spray booth for a coat of primer….

Thanks for bringing this thread back to life! I didn’t know it existed before… Looking forward to learning more about these Night Fighters! (I have the Airfix kit in the stash…)

Steve, This really came out looking great!! I’ll have to keep an eye out for this kit- especially the Smer version! The decals look like they behaved very well. Any issues or tips to share there?

Progress made… The fit of the fuselage front piece and the stab are examples of the fit of the parts so far. The front piece has gotten a bit of filler all around, while the stab will be taken care of next session. The landing gear legs have been the loosest -fitting part so far. There’s about a 30 degree arc where the parts can go. The key is to get the axle parallel to the ground. I recommend doing them one at a time- get the first one set, then you have a something to align the other one to. This is all likely “not a surprise” to anyone who has built Heller kits before….. (My last Heller kit build was almost 30 years ago.)