Revell 1/48 Sikorsky CH-53G

[Filler]

On 8/1/2020 at 11:05 AM, JOCKNEY said:

Puts my corner of the dining room table to shame i must say !

And you dont have to clear everything away when its family feeding time at he zoo !

I’m very fortunate to at last have a nice and pretty much dedicated space. It’s the box room that we shared as ‘the office’ but I’ve kind of annexed it as my ‘hobby room’. It’s not entirely safe though as there’s another person due in the house in December that is going to put a strain on my hobby from various angles.

 

But in the meantime I do have the time and space and aside from watching football on TV (which resulted in the mistaken post above - completely wrong forum) I’ve spent a few more hours measuring, cutting, adjusting and gluing small strips of styrene into place. Both sides are pretty much the same now.
 

A bit more to do but soon I’m going to start cutting and fitting the padded material that lines most of the rear cabin.

 

I’m going to try using this heat shrink sleeving material.

 

I can crease it and punch the button like dots into it and spot them black after painting.

 

Got plenty of it to work with

 

I have also decided to open the side door behind the cockpit.

 

For this I plan to chain drill out the door from slightly inside and clean up. From the spare kit I’ll go from the outside and hopefully get a clean job on both the fuselage and the doors. I might start this tomorrow evening.

 

This is a degree of scratch building I’d never really thought about and is taking me out of my comfort zone. It’s also time consuming, so the Lynx isn’t going to happen and I’m not sure I’ll get this done by the deadline, but it’s quite rewarding work and I’ll give it my best.

 

 

[modelling minion]

Some very nice work going on here.

Interested to see how the heat shrink works out, might have to add it to the list of stuff to liberate from work.

[Filler]

Mine came from work too. That large size is no longer used there which was handy. It does look promising in that it's quite easy to cut and shape and I think it gives a good impression of the padding that I'm trying to represent. The one thing I haven't and probably should try first is how it takes paint.

[Hewy]

Great detailing work👍

[desert falcon]

Top notch work so far Filler, will be interesting to see how the heat shrink will look once you have done your magic on it! 

[Filler]

Before I start playing with the heat shrink I started on what I think is the riskiest diversion from out of box. I started on having the side door open. To achieve this I first needed to remove the closed door. I did this by a combination of chain drilling and a circular saw on a Dremel like tool.

 

After a little cleaning up

 

Next is to cut out the door from my spare (missing bits) kit and then scratch the steps that are part of the bottom half.

[Filler]

One other thing, I was planning to ask if anyone had used and can recommend any decal rivets. As there are raised rivets on the kit, I guessed they might be better than using a riveting tool. They’d hopefully help both in recovering any lost rivets around seams and also just forward of the side door where Revell seemed to lose interest in adding any rivet detail.

 

Any suggestions?

[Filler]

Door cut and pretty much cleaned up. Not a bad fit either really, not that it needs to be perfect anyway.

Next is to score the door through horizontally. The top half hinges up inside the aircraft and the bottom hinges out and down to form steps.

 

I have to say, I never expected to see my desk look like this when assembling a plastic model kit.

 

[modelling minion]

That is excellent work on the door, you have achieved a very good fit. It will look really good when it is posed open.

[Filler]

Fiddlesticks! I’ve just cut the door in half, which was fine and then I’ve done a little dry-fitting and it turns out that either the cargo bay deck is too high or the door too low and the result is a step that is not there in reality.

 

Time for the old thinking cap, but improvisation and deviation from accuracy will be required. It’s a bit annoying but at the end of the day there is much that isn’t accurate here, so it’s not a biggie.

 

In better news, it looks promising for painting the heat shrink. I brushed on some thinned Tamiya acrylic XF-19 and it went on terribly - but I’ve never been able to brush the stuff anyway. Un-thinned it went on better in terms of coverage but still clearly brushed. Lastly I sprayed some Halfords rattle can white primer which has gone on nice and evenly. After leaving to dry the good news is that all of them took and show no signs of cracking or flaking, and it even seems to handle Tamiya masking tape. So that bodes well.

[modelling minion]

Hmmm, that is a PITA about the cabin floor level, interested to see how you deal with that.

Good to see that the heat shrink material takes paint nicely.

[Filler]

I guess I have three options:

 

1. Live with a fictitious step.

2. Create a new lower level cabin floor.

3. Build up the base of the door level with the cabin deck.

 

1 is easiest, 2 probably leaves a new issue at the ramp end, so maybe 3.

[modelling minion]

I agree, number 3 sounds like the best option here.

[Filler]

Number 3 it is!

[Filler]

Before I need worry about the crew access steps, I’ve turned my attention to the cargo bay side of the cockpit wall. Added some of the more notable features.

It’s certainly proving a big project as I still have those crew steps plus a load of troop seats to scratch yet. Then all the padding material and some token pipes and wiring before finally doing some painting. I am enjoying it but I am a bit envious of the builds that are making better progress and look like helicopters.

 

Hopefully I can make some quality progress this weekend myself.

[modelling minion]

That is some very nice scratch building, bodes very well for the rest of the build.

[desert falcon]

Take your time Filler, it's a joy watching your work!

[Filler]

Thanks everyone for the comments and encouragement. I’ve spent a few more hours at the bench today, on and off.

 

First thing I decided to do was chop more of the kit up. I was troubled by the sloping section between the cockpit bulkhead and the cargo deck. It meant the box thing didn’t fit so well and it just doesn’t slope in the real thing.

 

I patched up the deck and extended the bulkhead down to the deck

 

Another thing I wanted to do was to add the flight engineers seat. You can see it here in its kind of stowed position. It swivels round to fit between the pilot and co-pilot seats.

 

I’ve started working on one of the seats from my first attempt at improving the pilots seats. I’ve also added the wedge like bracket that it sits on. Some hastily added rivet detail was added too. That really won’t be seen though.

 

Happier with this area now.

 

Another thing that is slightly vexing me is that the cargo deck is like something from a funhouse. It’d make a great roller coaster for ants. This is one thing I’m reluctant to replace. But maybe I will as it might also improve the problem of it being a bit high and leaving a step at the crew door. Where it meets the rear ramp doesn’t look to great either as far as I can tell. I shall sleep on it.

[Andwil]

Excellent detailing Filler, ita making a vast improvement over the rather basic kit parts.

 

AW

[Jabba]

The extra detailing is very impressive and also the way that you are overcoming some of the difficulties that the kit is throwing at you. Take your time with these improvements.

[modelling minion]

More very nice detailing there Filler, the problem with having doors open is that it means you can see more empty areas that just cry out to be detailed.

[Filler]

For sure. I am finding that as you start adding detail and think that a piece of ducting and a 'box' thing will do, you start to realise that it then looks incredibly barren and that you need to add rivets and pipes and cables and fire extinguishers and seats etc etc. A lot of it is so small and fine that it is very difficult and beyond my rather rustic scratching skills. Where to draw the line hey?

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Very nice scratch building and detail work on show here Phil 

[Lex77]

Very nice scratch building! Looking forward in seeing the rest of the build.

[Filler]

Long time no post. I’m in dangerous territory at the moment with this build as I’ve entered a realm of scratch building that I’ve never been before.

 

I’ve been struggling in a kind of 1 step forward 2 step back way. I’ve cut parts off that I’d already done as I wasn’t happy and I’ve fashioned a new deck so I can sit it lower so that it's flush with the crew door and will help a lot with the rear door too.

 

 

Also been dry fitting the two halves and it’s proving difficult to get them to go together nicely.

 

Perhaps the biggest challenge awaits in trying to make and install the troop seats. It’s difficult enough to make them out of styrene in the first place but getting them inside is going to be a bit like a ship in a bottle.

 

I’ll spend a bit more time on it this evening if I can avoid the distractions of RF-4Cs and A-10s. Seems to be my typical reaction of when it gets tough, I research another build.