“Irene!” Task Force 160 in Somalia - now with Photos!!

[Valkyrie]

Lovely base interior will be great keep going 

[Johnny Tip]

As much as the kit seems to buck, what you make of it looks great. 

 

Too bad about the Little Bird having to wait...  I hope it doesn't look as bad as the MH-60 at least. 

Edited August 9, 2020 by Johnny Tip

[Tim Moff]

Interesting link to a piece on the ‘Night Stalkers’. Not Black Hawk, it’s about the Chinook and some mystery gear. I posted as it has some good colour close ups compared to a standard chinook paint job etc.
 

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35535/night-stalker-mh-47-emerges-with-mystery-modifications-during-training-in-colorado

 

 

[modelling minion]

37 minutes ago, Tim Moff said:

Interesting link to a piece on the ‘Night Stalkers’. Not Black Hawk, it’s about the Chinook and some mystery gear. I posted as it has some good colour close ups compared to a standard chinook paint job etc.
 

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35535/night-stalker-mh-47-emerges-with-mystery-modifications-during-training-in-colorado

 

 

That is a great link Tim.

An interesting bit of kit that is appearing on their Chinooks.

Their black painted MH-47's really do look fantastic and mean, definitely another scheme to add to the "to do" list.

[Lex77]

Nice one! You are really making some good progress over here!

[trickyrich]

thanks

 

On 8/9/2020 at 6:32 PM, Pappy said:

G'day Rich,

 

Good to see some plastic being worked, it must be nice to get back to the bench.

 

The build you are referencing, would that be Heavy Arty's build over at ARC?

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

I have seen that build and there's some useful stuff.

 

The one I've been looking at is on the Military Modellers site, they're done "Super 64". Not sure who the builder is, unfortunately they've only posted 3 updates as of Nov last year. But what they have done has been very helpful and covers the stuff I really needed to know, the interior etc. The rest I now should be ok with.

[Tim Moff]

Another interesting link and pics 

 

 

https://theaviationist.com/2020/08/15/this-poster-shows-for-the-first-time-all-the-aircraft-flown-by-the-160th-soar-a-night-stalkers-from-its-origins-to-the-present/

 

[trickyrich]

wow that's a cool poster!!!

 

I would love to do MH-60L DAP but I really don't want to build this model again!!!  An MH-47G in a large scale, 1/48th or bigger, now that would be cool!!

 

I thought I’d better do an update before I forget….got lots happening in the background with other projects! 

 

Getting the interior right is taken quite a bit of time, though I’m almost finished, so this is where it’s all at….in no particular order….

 

Have got the base coats done on the engine bits that can be seen, will clear coat then start the detailing process.

 

 

Not so sure this was such a great idea, but have assembled the main rotor!  Though have figured out this was probably a good idea as the fit was rubbish and can imagine what the job would have been like if it had all been nicely painted. I did think about using pins to secure the blades, but there just wasn’t enough plastic there for strength.

 

 

Right the interior, this has consumed quite a lot of time. The IP and centre console are pretty much done. They supplied decals for these but you sort of needed to remove all the detail to use them properly, or you could just paint them. Only thing is you’d need to paint all the dials….. I took the easy and longer way and cut out the individual indicators, then drowned them is setting solution.

 

 

Came out ok, need to do a wee bit more on the MFD’s.

 

 

Fitted out the armoured matting in the main cabin a flight crew area….

 

 

….seats are almost done, there’s also matting in the sidewalls of the gunners station. Once all the painting  and other stuff is done the interior will get a nice dusting with Mogadishu dirt and dust! From all reports the local dust got everywhere no matter how hard you tried to keep them clean.....but a nice change to not have to worry about dust!! 

 

 

Got to touch up a mistake in the “fast rope” mount. Using used nail-polish remover instead of enamel thinners on the wash!!!!! 

 

 

Will look good altogether.

 

 

Unfortunately a lot of detail will be lost once the cabin module in in the fuselage…of well. Speaking of which, I am still a bit concerned about the fit of the fuselage and cabin module…..they really don’t very well……can see some fun here!

 

 

 

Progress may have been a bit slow, but I should have the fuselage together by the weekend, the build then should go much quicker assembly wise.

 

Unfortunately for my poor wee “Littlebird”, the parts I had ordered for her have disappeared! Will now have to re-order them again……nearly $70 (inc postage) down the drain! 

[desert falcon]

Nice work Rich, sorry to hear that the parts for the littlebird went lost!

 

(What’s in the glass by the way - don’t tell us it’s water 😁)

[Andwil]

The like is for the build, especially the IP, not the lost parts.

 

AW

[trickyrich]

5 hours ago, desert falcon said:

Nice work Rich, sorry to hear that the parts for the littlebird went lost!

 

(What’s in the glass by the way - don’t tell us it’s water 😁)

Noooo it's just plain water....and decal stuff!!! 

 

I try to avoid models and alcohol as I usually end up drinking too much and finding out later I've been buying things on evilBay!!!   Some of my stash is a result of this sort of activity!! 

[Hewy]

A fine job so far👍

[Johnny Tip]

On 18/08/2020 at 15:02, trickyrich said:

Noooo it's just plain water....and decal stuff!!! 

 

I try to avoid models and alcohol as I usually end up drinking too much and finding out later I've been buying things on evilBay!!!   Some of my stash is a result of this sort of activity!! 

I'd have thought you end up drinking the decal stuff too after having too much alcohol... 

[exdraken]

Looks great so far!

[trickyrich]

I do have to apologize for the near glacial pace but have been caught up in way to much stuff outside modelling, I just don't seem to have much time for modelling at the moment..

 

Still fiddling away with detailing the interior……though I have a guess most of this will never be seen once the fuselage is closed up!

 

Ok some further correction work the rear section of the tail fin needed it’s shape changed. Like most of the kit the version in the box is for a later MH-60L version, so to build the correct version there’s lots of wee details to be corrected. On the left is the kit one with the later additional sensor mount, on the right is the modified one.

 

 

Looks much more the part now.

 

 

While I was away with work these lovelies arrived……

 

 

…….. so I just had to jump onto them! 

 

I was a bit suspicious about the “Fast Rope” setup and the supplied “rope”(That green stuff), well……… 

 

 

…the Live Resin stuff looks so much better….

 

 

Though one piece was missing, the white bit is the replacement, I just need to finish re-detailing that bit.

 

The M134D is a wee model all on it’s own. It’s so detailed and just looks awesome.

 

 

 

 

My only issue is that the ammo boxes are the wrong type, the ones used on the mission were quite a bit smaller and they had a few rather that to on large one for each gun. Plus I’m not suer where they were placed either. For simplicity sake and not to get to weighed down I’ll go with the big ones for now.

 

Unfortunately that’s it, I had hoped to have the fuselage closed up by now……after my next trip tomorrow I get to have a week off so hopefully…..

[exdraken]

Oh, that is quite some progress I'd say!

The resin updated really look the part!

I want such things for 48th..

 

 

[Hockeyboy76]

Oooo nice extras. 

[trickyrich]

Ok had a good solid ½ day on her, not a huge amount to show for that but it’s good solid progress…

 

Ok pretty much all the work is still inside the main cabin. The new “fast rope” setup is now fitted to the roof, I used plastic pins to help hope it in place, plus the Crew Chief and Gunners seats are now fitted to the roof, they will have support stays fitted to floor right towards the end as they’ll just break off.

 

 

 

Ok the difficult bits, life raft and Minigun magazines. Ok a lift raft was fitted to all these choppers between the Crew Chief and Gunners seats. It’s shape and what it looked like is a wee bit of a mystery, there aren’t (or I haven’t found them) nice clear photos of what they looked like. I’ve made something up that sort off looks like a life raft container from balsa. Have a feeling it might be too big….I’ll finish weathering it a see how it looks.

 

 

These choppers didn’t use the normal large minigun magazines as those supplied with the guns, but rather lots of smaller 7.62 boxes (similar to those fitted to SMG’s). The ones I can find are all out of stock, I can’t wait so I’m going to use the smaller .50cal ones that come in the kit. They’ll look the part so I can live with that.

 

I’ve found that someone does a full resin replacement for the main rotor hub and gearbox unit! It would be nice and looks awesome, but with the mail being so dodgy at the moment it just would arrive in time unfortunately. So I just started adding some basic detail here to help fill in the space.

 

 

 

The actual engine module is nearly complete. I need to do a wee bit of butchering (like everything else on this model) to get the intake cowlings to fit.

 

 

Did some test fitting and adjusting as well on the main wheels and wing stubs.

 

 

I am actually really happy with the look of the interior (life raft aside…still think it’s too big), it’s nice and dusty just like the real thing. 

 

 

 

Hopefully I will be able to finish the interior tomorrow and maybe even button-up the fuselage!! The life raft has a huge pin in the bottom so I can fit it almost at the end, so I still have time to change it if need be.

 

 

[Valkyrie]

Lovin this

[Hewy]

You're doing a fantastic job on what looks to be an awsome model kit, those resin extras really look the dogs danglies

[trickyrich]

I have some big news....the fuselage is together .....not that that was an easy task at all! 

 

Ok before I get to the update as awesome as it is….I have to go on record and say there is no way in heaven or hell I’d ever recommend this model to anyone, even people I don't like!!! I’d love to do the DAP version with all those guns…but not after this one!!!

 

There are a huge list of build issues with this model (I haven’t bothered to list them earlier) fit being the main one, strangely never mentioned in any reviews! No matter how many test fits you do there’s always something else to come and bit you when you get to the gluing stage, anyway……

 

….this is a classic one, I spent ages looking for a part I reckon should be there but isn’t!

 

I was planning to close up the fuselage and wanted to get the tail rotor ready, there’s a pin that goes inside to which the tail rotor attaches…..looking at this picture there is an issue!

 

 

No the hole out of alignment isn’t it…..though typical. The pin doesn’t go into anything! At first I thought there was another part that attaches to the rotor but after 20 minutes of searching (and the instruction don’t show anything…but there again they don’t show the non-winglet U/c setup either) I couldn’t find anything that looks like it might go there!  In the end I just glued the pin in place and will worry about all this later!

 

Ok for the interior, to actually finish this build I’ve made calls, the life raft is going and I’ll use the 50.cal magazines. This will now be closer to the reference build I’m following (this guy is/was building Super 64 as well) and he's made no mention of the life race to the smaller ammo magazines, he's done quite a bit of research on this particular chopper. Though other sites have, but not in reference to this particular chopper but more in general made reference to stuff that was fitted. Anyway it really won’t hurt the overall look of the build at all and it means I can finish there interior which I have.

 

 

 

 

I do think she look really nice…those rear seat stays were a pain to do! The inside looks nice and dusty without being too dirty…..we’ll forget about that sink mark in the rear seat I’ve just seen!!!! 

 

Ok time to close her up….I’ve been practising this for ages, done all the test fits…made adjustments here and there. So out with the glue…….

 

……well…….I don’t have a lot of clamps (I have a couple) so I had to do it in section the upper fuselage first, which was ok…. added tape and removed clamps.

 

 

The tail section ok as well….the underside horrible! A large gap from the nose to the start of the tail section. Brute force a couple of clamps and doing small sections at a time I finally get it together.

 

 

The nose section around the windshield still needs to be done but I’ll do that when I fit the nose.

 

I’m giving her a good 24hrs before I remove the tape, still a bit worried the fuselage may split when I remove the tape! The only good thing is that I seem so far to have a nice join (as in level) underneath, though we’ll see.

 

Depending on how much tiding up work the is things should go my quicker now…..I may even get close to undercoating her on the weekend.

 

But boy I’ll be glad to see the end of this build that’s forsure!

 

[JOCKNEY]

Looks amazing Rich, but goodness me i can't remember you having had so much of a battle with a kit before. Thanks for staying at it !

It looks like that tail rotor pin was supposed to be on the inside then glued to the rotor to allow it to turn, no doubt not shown in the instructions along with all the other missing info.

Fingers crossed for an uneventful tape removal 👍

cheers Pat 

[Hockeyboy76]

Interior looks great now you have taken out your orange lunch box 

[trickyrich]

it actually all turned out ok.

 

have progressed even further, letting everything sit for the moment and dry, have masked up all the clergies  bits.

 

Edit...... delete clergies and insert clear.....rotten auto-correct! 

[Hewy]

Ahh cmon,i bet your secretly enjoying it  really, you are doing a top job on it anyway, kits faults apart,it doesn't say tamiya on the box lid after all,

Its still on my list 🤗