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Seventy Years of Sabre-Tooth Tigers


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Hey All

Today I present to you a CH-118 Iroquois of 439 "Sabre-Tooth Tiger" Squadron. This particular scheme dates from 1994 when 439 Sqn were celebrating their 70th Anniversary. Enjoy...

Firstly, the real aircraft... CH-118, No.118106

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The Italeri Huey is actually a very nice kit; plenty of options and detail and a reasonable parts fit... that is until you get to the clear parts. The fit (or lack thereof) of the clear parts is just plain awful. Every window with the exception of the ones above the cockpit was too small for the opening it was supposed to go into. I'm talking at least 0.5mm all the way around. The side windows were replaced with clear acetate glued to the inside. The intent was to glue the kit windows to the acetate but after trying (and failing) on the small side windows, I elected to leave it as it was. If it were up to me, I would have the doors in the kit molded in clear. Like I said the rest of the kit is very well done, with lots of interior detail and different configurations of equipment and seating for whichever version you prefer.

This Huey was painted with Pollyscale Reefer Yellow for no particular reason other than it was the closest bottle of yellow at the time. Vallejo Black mixed with a little flow improver was used to do the tiger stripes... that's right ladies and gentlemen, those stripes aren't decals they were painted by hand! The (anti-slip?) area on the top is Tamiya Medium Grey. The windows above the cockpit were tinted green with some Future mixed with green food colouring. The exhaust pipe was removed during assembly and replace with some aluminum tubing after painting was completed. Numbers, roundels and such came from Belchers Bits "Canadian Helicopters" decal sheet. The only aftermarket besides the decals was a set of Eduard Superfabric seatbelts.

The inspiration for this build came from last month's issue of Scale Aviation Modeler Intl. which featured an incredible 1/35 Huey build (which I believe is here on Britmodeller somewhere). In the accompanying colour profiles was this striking scheme. It had to be done! I didn't bother to source decals, so I just dove in, took my time, and to be honest, I wasn't as hard as I expected. It was actually quite of relaxing.

All in all, not bad for my first helicopter if I do say so myself.

Regards

Edited by ANovaScotian
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That is one very nice model, if I could be forgiven for suggesting there is a stripe missing from the tail boom, if you hadn`t had the photo for reference I wouldn`t have noticed it.

Regards

Tony

You dare question my honour Sir!!!??? :fight:

If we're talking about the same stripe (the one above and below the elevators) I couldn't find a picture from above or below to determine whether or not the stripe carried on to the elevators or not, so I left it off. No harm, no foul. I've always been in favour of honest representation over exact replication anyway.

I had fun (mostly) with the build, I'm happy with the outcome and its one less kit out of the stash and in the display. If more of us thought like this, the hobby would be in a better place in my opinion.

Regardless, thanks Tony

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,ANovaScotian - My compliments on a fine looking build of your 'Iroquois'.I love the quality of finish and your method of creating the stripes.I am planning a 'Strike Eagle' build which will have Tiger Markings and I'd planned on applying them with careful brushwork.You have shown how good they can look.All the best,Paul.

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Hello,ANovaScotian - My compliments on a fine looking build of your 'Iroquois'.I love the quality of finish and your method of creating the stripes.I am planning a 'Strike Eagle' build which will have Tiger Markings and I'd planned on applying them with careful brushwork.You have shown how good they can look.All the best,Paul.

I would suggest using a good brushable (is that a word?) acrylic, like Vallejo or maybe Lifecolor. If I was to do this again, I would be tempted to use an enamel, just to have more working time with the paint.

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