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AS-332 Super Puma "Bristow Tiger" (Bobkit 1/72)


Mario

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                     Hello modellers,

I´m quite happy to be back with a new project finished. This build took me nearly half a year from start to finish. Originally intended as a refurbishment project for my old 1/72 Bobkit Super Puma, it went a little out of control...
Things started when I rediscovered the original decal sheet in the spares box. I bought the kit back in 1986 but wasn´t enthisiastic about the civilian version at that time. Read about the oil rig shuttles in the Aeroplane aviation magazine and thought it would look nice in bright colors on a little helopad base with a few LEDs.
I  started with the helicopter, sanded smooth the thick paint coat and added a lot of details to that rather simple kit. A complete interior with crew and passengers was scratchbuilt and a lot of broken parts had to be fixed. The helicopter pilots are reworked Hasegawa ground crews, the passengers are from the Revell Nato pilots set and from the Airfix astronauts. Polishing the clear parts took a great deal of time as the cabin windows couldn´t be removed anymore. The oil rig landing deck consists of a piece of styrene sheet, strenghtened with collected wooden shafts of New Years rockets. Except for the green LEDs, nothing was purchased and everything came either from the spares box or from the trash can... Fly screen for net and fences, toothpicks, needles and fingerfood sticks for the superstructure, sewing yarn, aluminium tape and stretched sprue.
Even the battery case was scratchbuilt and the switches came from broken electric devices. The platform is powered by three rechargeable batteries and has three lighting modi as I wasn´t sure if i could take photos later with the floodlights on.
The base was sprayed with a rattle can from a local hardware store and then shadowed by airbrush and pigments. The markings were airbrushed using templates. I´m quite happy with the result and wondering if there are aftermarket decals for the Bristow helis as it would be nice to have another one...
Hope you like it
                                 Mario

 

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Edited by Mario
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Magnificent build and dio Mario!! I am a civil heli kit fanatic and can't stop admiring your pics.

 

More Bristow decals:

https://www.aviationmegastore.com/civilian-helicopters-ssm72-007-sm-models-ssm72-007-vliegtuig-bouwmodel-transfers/product/?action=prodinfo&art=104001

and ofcourse WhirlyBits has civil kits and decals, although I am not sure there's Bristow among these. I have seen BA decals.

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Thank you all for the positive feedback!

 

20 hours ago, GeejeeZ said:

Magnificent build and dio Mario!! I am a civil heli kit fanatic and can't stop admiring your pics.

 

More Bristow decals:

https://www.aviationmegastore.com/civilian-helicopters-ssm72-007-sm-models-ssm72-007-vliegtuig-bouwmodel-transfers/product/?action=prodinfo&art=104001

and ofcourse WhirlyBits has civil kits and decals, although I am not sure there's Bristow among these. I have seen BA decals.

Hello geejeeZ!

Thank you very much for your kind comment and the link to the decals. Very interesting indeed!

Have also seen that Printscale offers a sheet with nice civil markings options:

http://www.printscale.org/product_562.html

 

Another option would be to simply purchase a  sheet with white letters and numbers but unfortunetely have not yet found italic waterslide letters of that size. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Mario said:

Thank you all for the positive feedback!

 

Hello geejeeZ!

Thank you very much for your kind comment and the link to the decals. Very interesting indeed!

Have also seen that Printscale offers a sheet with nice civil markings options:

http://www.printscale.org/product_562.html

 

Another option would be to simply purchase a  sheet with white letters and numbers but unfortunetely have not yet found italic waterslide letters of that size. 

 

 

I have the Printscale decals. One word of caution with these: the outlining of the big passenger windows is a tad too small and they end up lying on top of the window instead of around it.

 

The thing that would come closest to white italics is

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/draw-decal-48s-cessna-1w-cessna-slanted-registrations-white--1076142

although I don't think the font is exactly what Bristow used, and the 1/48 letters would be too big while the 1/72 might be too small...

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Thanks for all your positive comments! Very much appreciated!

8 hours ago, GeejeeZ said:

I have the Printscale decals. One word of caution with these: the outlining of the big passenger windows is a tad too small and they end up lying on top of the window instead of around it.

 

The thing that would come closest to white italics is

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/draw-decal-48s-cessna-1w-cessna-slanted-registrations-white--1076142

although I don't think the font is exactly what Bristow used, and the 1/48 letters would be too big while the 1/72 might be too small...

Have bought a Printscale sheet for the 1/72 Black Widow recently and was a little disappointed as nearly all the nose arts were oversized... 

Truck Line decals for the H0 enthusiasts are also a good choice in some cases. Or dry transfers. What I have done in the past was to rub dry transfers onto clear decal film and then use them as waterslide decals. Worked very well!

But think in my case the best would be to wait for another Bobkit popping up somewhere.

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