1/72 Hobby Boss CH-46E/F SeaKnight in a Japanese Scheme

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

After cleaning up the seams on the rotor blades and hubs the first bit of detailing I did was to drill out the lightening holes on the hubs, 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8mm holes fitted the bill. Three times three blades times two rotors equaled 18 holes in total:

 

 

With that done I assembled both rotors:

 

 

And unlike the instructions they do actually intend to turn in different directions.

 

In case anyone has any issues with my file work in creating the slots on the front pylons, the real slots can be pretty wobbly in real life, check this out:

 

 

I think my efforts on the slots actually flatter the reality.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

[modelling minion 7,577]

Another good detail catch there Nigel, also good that you've got the rotors turning in opposite directions otherwise it would make for a very interesting, but short, flight.

[Hewy 6,385]

Superb enhancements nigel, really impressive  modelling

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

Last night I got a bit more done, the mounting pins for the rotors are meant to be trapped between the fuselage halves by this flange on their lower end:

 

 

I like the rotors to be able to rotate but would prefer it if they could be just dropped into place so set about removing the flange with snips:

 

 

Fully cleaned up, this is how it will sit in it's mounting:

 

 

Tonight, straight after getting back from work I broke out the airbrush and, not bothering with primer, applied some matt black to the inside of the rear pylon. Here with all the masking removed:

 

 

Prior to that I had applied white primer to the oil tank and these rotor parts which will require a coat of dayglo orange at some point. I also primed the drive shaft "covers" and applied Alclad "Dark Aluminium" followed by "Exhaust Manifold" and the finishing with "Burnt Iron". By that time the white primer was dry so I applied some yellow to the tank: 

 

 

After dinner all the paint was nicely dry so I got on with installing the drive shafts and their end plates. It is but a barely glimpsed thing in the exhaust openings but worth the effort I think:

 

 

The next job to be ticked off the list was the cabin windows, following Oliver's advice I first ran a black permanent marker round the window apertures to represent the rubber sealing:

 

 

My prefered method for installing glazing is to use five minute, clear epoxy, I thought I might be able to install two windows at a time and set up accordingly. However by about three minutes the glue was past its best so I will be making a fresh mix for each pane, eight in total then. It's going to wreak havoc with my stocks of milk bottle tops!  (Actually I have hundreds). Here is the first one done:

 

 

After, a bit of a lie down I will get on with the rest.

 

Bye for now

 

Nigel

[modelling minion 7,577]

The windows going in and the exhausts done, this can mean only one thing, we are close to closing up the fuselage!!!!!!!!!!!

Fancy using paint without primer, that rally is living your life on the edge Nigel.

All good solid progress Nigel, and nice work too.

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

Quote

Fancy using paint without primer, that really is living your life on the edge Nigel.

 

Well, I felt it was a rather non-critical area and could live a little dangerously...

 

Tonight I have continued with the cabin windows. These were about the smallest dabs of 2K epoxy I could extrude from the tubes:

 

 

With one mix per window there was probably about an 80% wastage but never mind.

 

You know it always pays to check your references, the photo on the decal instructions isn't up to much as reference sources go but it does clearly show that the bubble window is the second one back:

 

 

 

So the individually numbered windows have to be swapped as follows:

 

 

There appear to various permutations out there, bubble windows in different positions and different multiples of them, this Canadian version has three per side for example:

 

Here are all the windows from the outside:

 

 

And from the inside along with all the milk bottle tops that nobly gave their life for this worthy cause:

 

 

More eagle eyed viewers may have noticed that two of the ribs have snapped off. They are not lost but are in safe keeping, there's no point in trying to fix them until imminently before the fuselage is ready for closure. I might now have a go at fitting the cabin floor and cockpit assembly, wish me luck.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

OK, the last job of tonight was to get the cabin floor / cockpit assembly installed in the LHS fuselage side using a combination of CA, liquid poly and liquid cement so this should be a very permanent fix:

 

 

I will leave that to fully harden up overnight ready for more work tomorrow.

 

Bye till then,

 

Nigel

[modelling minion 7,577]

Good catch with the windows Nigel, HobbyBoss really messed up with their instructions there didn't they.

Great to see the cabin being fitted in place, we all know what the next step is!!

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

There are just a few jobs to complete before the fuselage can be closed up, the first was to get the various lead wire cables installed:

 

 

Next the cabin seat:

 

 

All that was a bit of a struggle.

 

I then did a check that the two fuselage halves would now actually mate up, it seemed they would with a bit of persuasion:

 

 

There are also a couple of painting jobs to be completed too, somehow the little hinge pivot for the fold down seat has been left behind and still needs a coat of paint (I had thought maybe I had lost it but it was still there in it's safekeeping tub). The oil tank also needs  masking and a coat of grey:

 

 

So when those jobs are done and the seat and oil tank are fitted - oh and also a coat of matt varnish applied - the fuselage can finally be closed up.

 

Hopefully that will happen on Friday.

 

Bye for now,

 

Nigel

[modelling minion 7,577]

The cables do look very effective Nigel and certainly add to the effect of the interior.

It looks like the fuselage halves should go together without too many issues Nigel and its very handy that any top seem is covered by the drive shaft cover that runs the length of the fuselage.

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

I had the chance to get a little airbrushing done tonight. I masked the oil tank with some 1mm discs of punched masking tape and then after applying some metal primer to the seat pivot, followed by some Alclad grey primer to both I then finished them with some interior grey. Here is how they looked after the discs of masking had been removed from the tank: 

 

 

After dinner the paint was dry so I installed the oil tank just using some forgiving Gator Grip glue. Glue was hardly necessary but it felt like the right thing to do:

 

 

Next, if I am going to be spraying the interior with matt varnish clearly the windows need to be masked. 8mm squares of masking tape fitted the bill:

 

 

Also I want to prevent varnish from getting on the joint lines so those were also masked with a combination of 1mm tape, other tape and Blu Tack:

 

 

I think I just have to reinstall the broken ribs and then the drop down seat and then can get the varnish applied. Fuselage close up is looking like a dead cert for tomorrow (Friday).

 

Bye for now, 

 

Nigel

[modelling minion 7,577]

Tantalisingly close to getting that fuselage closed up Nigel.

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

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

[wimbledon99 4,327]

Hi Nigel,

 

She looks great! However, how do I politely put "so looking forward to when she shuts up"??

 

[modelling minion 7,577]

If you don't tell anyone about the seat not working Nigel we won't  .

Virtually on the edge of my seat now, waiting to see how the fuselage halves go together!

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

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

[modelling minion 7,577]

Yay!! The fuselage is together!! Well mostly anyway, that does look like a nasty gap at the bottom of the front fuselage but as you say Nigel hopefully you will be able to get it sorted.

I don't have any better pictures of "Madonna's bra" as Richard ( @spruecutter ) has christened them, if you're lucky you will find a picture of your aircraft without them, like I did  .

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

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

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

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

[modelling minion 7,577]

Good job getting that window back in Nigel, would have made things tricky if it wasn't possible.

I hope that the main canopy polishes back clearly, I'm always a bit hesitant of doing such work in case I can't polish it back to clarity. 

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

Quote

I'm always a bit hesitant of doing such work in case I can't polish it back to clarity. 

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

[Pete in Lincs 9,595]

It's proceeding rather nicely, Nigel, with the usual attention to detail.

The probe thingy is for the Outside Air Temp gauge, the round thing behind the probe.

[modelling minion 7,577]

Isn't it supposed to be us copying your build rather than you copying ours ?  I'm flattered that you would consider anything I've done worth copying.

Finding detail pics on anything on a KV-107 is surprisingly hard, you would have thought that Japanese modellers would have crawled all over them and photographed everything.

The canopy has come up rather nicely hasn't it, thank goodness, and the masks look like they will work very well.

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

Quote

I'm flattered that you would consider anything I've done worth copying.

 

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.

 

 

[Nigel Heath 14,142]

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