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Here is my rendition of a Bell TH-13T training Helicopter. This started as the Italeri OH-13S kit. I was a little concerned about using this OH013S kit as the basis for this build because research showed that the TH-13T was a "wide body" model 47G-3B1/2 variant that is ~8" (20.3cm) wider, with a cabin width of 63" (160cm), than the standard H-13 such as the OH-13S with a width of 55" (139.7cm). But in typical Italeri fashion the kit measures out to 66.24 (168.25cm) scale inches and that was close enough for me, while actually much wider then the OH-13S it purports to be. See here for a discussion about this topic: Both Eduard and CMK make detail sets for the H-13. I would have preferred to use the Eduard set, but it is OOP and impossible to find so I ordered the CMK set. This came with a resin cabin, resin parts for the engine, photo etch for both and a vac bubble canopy. I liked the CMK cabin better then the Italeri one so I used that as well as some engine parts. I also added some boxes to the front of the instrument panel to represent the additional avionics of the TH-13T. I used the Italeri bubble that fit the CMK cabin very well. The doors did need a bit of work to get then to fit right. I am not sure if this would have been an issue with the Italeri cabin. All the other parts were from the Italeri kit. Markings for the TH-13T were pretty minimal. I used the stars and "ARMY" from the Italeri kit as well as the main and tail rotor stripes. The numbers and letter came from a Fantasy Printshop set. I used AK Real Colors Orange for the paint. It covered well and only needed one coat vs the 2 or 3 Humbrol 18 would have required. Total build time was just 10 days. So here it is: Next up is a Douglas AD-5Q (EA-1F) using the Hasegawa AD-6 kit and the RVHP resin conversion set along with the Skale Wings folding wing set. Enjoy.

This is a 1/72 Bell TH-57A SeaRanger US Navy basic/advanced helicopter trainer using the Matchbox OH-58 kit and the M&E Models conversion. The M&E conversion was injection molded plastic, not resin, and dated back to 1989. It is for the early TH-57A and was designed for the Matchbox kit. It consisted of 2 fuselage haves molded in very thick translucent plastic, a tail boom, white metal rotor parts, and decals. The interior, fins, skids, and tail rotor come from the Matchbox kit. The Matchbox interior only needed slight trimming of the bulkhead tops, and while the TH-57 instrument panel was just a centrally located pedestal the kit part was the full width of the from of the cockpit so needed more trimming. Missing were the collective stick and rudder pedals which I added, but given the translucency of windows are hard to see. The rear rudder fin needed to be shortened. The main rotor was left as an exercise for the builder and I made it out of 2 laminated .015 strips of styrene mated to the white metal rotor head. Here are some construction pictures: Note the white strip of styrene around the top of the "dog house" that forms a little lip that was missing from the fuselage halves. This is what you get from M&E Here it is assembled with the Matchbox parts in in green and brown. Note that the rear of the main skids needed to be shortened a little to give it the right TH-57 stance. Later to be added were 2 exhausts on the top of the dog house. I made them from brass tubing which I found hard to work with and cut and I am less then satisfied with the results. While there seem to be many pictures of the TH-57B & C, pictures of the A are harder to find, but I did find this one: and used it as a model for painting and decaling. The M&E decals where for a US TH-57A (which deviated slightly from the above picture), and an Israeli and UK Bell 206. I did a test of one of the UK decals and it fell a part in the water. So once again MicroScale Decal Film came to the rescue and mostly solved that problem. So after all that, here it is: As an aside in my research I cam across this web site: http://www.jetwashaviationphotos.com/us-navy-air-training-command-.html Which has a lot of good information about US Navy pilot training including this chart: which I found very useful. It is a little dated since the TC-12's have been retired and replaced by T-44C's and the TH-57 is in the process of being replaced by the Leonardo TH-73A Thrasher. Next up in the Italeri F-100F Wild Weasel using the Blackbird wings Enjoy.

Bit late in starting but as i dont take long on models It will be finished well before the deadline. Griffon HT1 of the helicopter school using the Italeri kit with no aftermarket (except MAYBE the decals) I will use Revell decals for the most partput anything up on the site and had nearly finishe So on with the show. I suddenly realised that I had not put up anything on the forum and had fished the cabin. Those who have seen my builds before know that I do tend to get on with it and am not too fusy about the accuracy of the kit unless it is glaring I leave it as it came in the box. First pic is picture of the box (duh) There is enough of the basic 2 blader being build so the spure only shows the Griffon bits Decals x2 will be using bits from both Sorry no cabin being built pics but got carried away. I used a modeldecal wessex instrument panal cut down for the instruments I think it looks better and under the glass its very hard to see properly anyway. From another angle Rodders

Well hello there everyone, what can I say, having just taken part in my first ever GB with being part of the F-5 STGB I have enjoyed the experience so much I have decided to dive straight back in with my first ever attempt at building a helicopter. For this I have decided to use the AZ Models TH-1G Training Cobra kit that I picked up the other week. I will be representing her as TH-1G c/n 34270, 70A scheme as shown on the box art. I've had a quick look at the kit and it looks quite nice, the instructions are a little confusing but compared to the Tiger Hobbies sheet I have been working off lately they're almost encyclopeadic in comparison. Anyway heres my box and sprue shot, all layed out and ready to begin when I get in from work tomorrow!

Hey, i was thinking with what kit could i join this group build and decided to use old (but still not so bad) P-40K kit from Kovozavody Semily (later Vista, repacked by Revell and these days by Smer) which i got realy realy cheap. And because i like to make conversions and something not so common around, i decided to make russian P-40E UTI (trainer/combat) version with Klimov M-105 engine. I was browsing web yesterday and got some picture and some a bit simplified blueprint , also there are plenty of photos of commercial aftermarket conversions so it might help a bit too. Here is pic of the kit (even in the original box like 18-20 years old, maybe even older ) and how it should look at end While i was searching for the training version of P-40K i found many interesting prototypes, ofc many training versions, but this one was the most interesting to me - TP40K used to teach aircraft mechanics to taxi planes. So i decided to build it along with the russian P-40, just had to order the long tail P-40K kit, so atm no pics of the box/kit, just pics of the real plane at first it looked like this ll be my sideproject but seems as soon as i finish my actual one, this is going to be on the main stage for me