Whirly Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Hello, two years ago i started this conversion of the well known Italeri kit of the ubiquitous Bell 47 just for fun: we had an internal group build at our modelling club based on the Italian armed forces theme and, not liking any of the run of the mill subjects, I tackled this one with only a general idea of the task involved. A great help came from my brother who, being even more into helos than me, owns a precious 1/48 resin kit and lent it to me as a guidance. While I progressed researching the subject I got more and more submerged by the many subtly different configurations the real subject had, so in the end I got stuck more from information overflow and incapacity to choose a specific airframe than by the actual difficulties in the conversion. When I shelved this project I had scratchbuilt the tailboom, the main cabin floor and rear wall, the fuel tank fairings (to be completed) and vacuum molded an acceptable acetate transparent cabin. I had already intended to take the GB opportunity to finish this model, but now that LF models announced a full kit of the 47J https://www.lfmodels.com/ I have no choice, otherwise it will go in the dustbin... It seems just a matter of assembling everything but there's much more to do before shooting paint and I am really grateful to the Moderators for alllowing this entry. My final goal is now to complete the kit as one of the patrol units used by Guardia di Finanza (the Italian Tax Police) from the early sixties to the late seventies, with inflatable pontoons as a bonus since this is the most recognizable configuration you could see from the summer beaches, here below is a preserved airframe at the GdF museum but with skid undercarriage. As agreed I will enter another build of a pristine kit as a penance, just need some time to make a choice as I have way too many helicopters in my stash 🤫 Image courtesy of http://www.elicotteriweb.it/ 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Great to see this one joining the GB, look forward to following your progress, good luck cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 Flying Tax men,whats not to like! Great subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 Delighted to see you continuing this one with us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 Hi @Whirly Have you had a chance to make any more progress since we last heard from you ? It would be great to see this one coming together. cheers Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 Hi Pat, little progress I did because of assorted issues from both work and family, we all know how these things go... Anyway, I managed to retrieve the pontoons from a Pavla kit and I'm now wrestling with them to obtain something presentable. On a better note, I started another kit which seems much easier to progress with and I will soon post a proper thread. Thanks for your interest! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troschi Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 1 hour ago, Whirly said: Hi Pat, little progress I did because of assorted issues from both work and family, we all know how these things go... Anyway, I managed to retrieve the pontoons from a Pavla kit and I'm now wrestling with them to obtain something presentable. On a better note, I started another kit which seems much easier to progress with and I will soon post a proper thread. Thanks for your interest! There are actually some good floats available from DF Helo Stuff https://www.sparks-scalemodelshop.de/p/bell-47-schwimmer-kraftstofftanks-floats-fueltanks-1-72 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Posted August 3, 2020 Author Share Posted August 3, 2020 On 7/27/2020 at 6:08 PM, troschi said: There are actually some good floats available from DF Helo Stuff https://www.sparks-scalemodelshop.de/p/bell-47-schwimmer-kraftstofftanks-floats-fueltanks-1-72 Thank you Troschi! I'm still battling with my floats, but is nice to know there is an alternative if all goes bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 Hi @Whirly Any joy since we last heard from you ? cheers Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 Hi Pat, thank you for asking. I resumed work on the Bell only this week by sanding down the new Milliput fuel tanks. In the meantime I purchased the resin floats as suggested by Troschi and I'm doing some comparison checks, stay tuned for the results. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 Hello, I recently purchased both resin floats from DF HeloSTuff and the hot new LF Models kit to help me complete the current project but I'm not sure I did a good move. Please see below a visual comparison of these two pairs with the old Pavla parts I battled with for a few days: Detailed measures are as follows: PAVLA diam. 9.5mm lenght 57mm LF MODELS diam. 8mm lenght 61mm DF HELO STUFF diam. 7.5mm lenght 54.5mm Now you can see there are wild variations... anyone can give me just a hint to the correct proportions? Real measures would be best, but also those of the floats in this Italeri 1/48 kit could help a lot. Thank you! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Hopefully one of the three is correct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Posted October 5, 2020 Author Share Posted October 5, 2020 16 hours ago, Col. said: Hopefully one of the three is correct I do hope! From visual observation only the Pavla ones are certainly off... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirly Posted October 21, 2020 Author Share Posted October 21, 2020 Sorry to say that progress was null on this build... At least the "relaxing" Labrador is finished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desert falcon Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Some day we'll see this in it RFI gallery 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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