Kitty Hawk 1/35 HH-60G Pavehawk......."These things we do"

[Phone Phixer]

So, having fought my way through Kitty Hawks 1/48 F-35B, what to do next?

I decided to build inflict another Kitty Hawk kit on myself. Now they can end up looking good models when built, it just takes lots of work.

I've always liked the look of the US special ops helicopters, so I thought I'd go big. KH released the H-60 family in their 1/35 helicopter series, and I just could not resist the Pavehawk.

 

I will be building it as one of the 56th (RQS) rescue squadron birds when they were based at Lakenheath.

 

This is what I have.

 

I also have the Armory resin weighted wheels and Werners Wings decal set. Although I could do with the decals from part 1 with the helicopter I plan to do.

I'm also getting the excellent Live-Resin crew figures and guns.

 

As inspiration and ideas for this build I will be using (blatantly copying) THIS build on the LSP site. Although my efforts will be nowhere near the standard of that amazing build.

 

It's a big old lump, and with the speed of my builds, will take some time to do.

This is the size of the fuselage, next to a 1/48 Tornado.

 

I'll post back here when I've made a start.

 

Rob.

[heloman1]

Great choice, like you, I think Kitty Hawk kits are good but some of the tooling is iffy. I'm in the middle of building the Seasprite (elsewhere on BM).

I'll follow your build with interest. I might look at one of the 48th Seahawks.

 

Colin

[Phone Phixer]

Kitty Hawk have made this kit (along with all the other Hawks) with a modular cabin assembly. The fuselage halves then are added around it.

The internal cabin roof needs some major detailing, as it's molded as a flat panel. Nothing like the real thing. I need to work up to all the detailing and scratch building for the roof. So I've started with the floor, then I will do the cabin sides.

 

 

A bit of scratch building in the wells under the pilot seats.

 

 

Auxiliary (Robbie) fuel tank added. All the securing straps are PE with the kit, but the part numbers and instructions bare little resemblance to the finished item.

 

 

Rob.

[Phone Phixer]

On to the cabin sides.

The left side I added some wiring looms and a coiled long lead. The long lead is used by the crew chief to communicate during engine starts.

 

The right side, i added wiring looms again. Also added the winch controller hand set. For the wiring , I have some 0.3mm solder that is nicely flexible so it can be shaped well.

 

 

On to the roof. KH have molded it as a mainly flat panel. In reality it has lots of cavities filled with avionics boxes and other systems "stuff".

I forgot to get a picture of the plain roof. This is it after marking out the framework. Time to start some cutting out.

 

[Dadeo911]

Looks like you have your work cut out for you. (Sorry couldn't resist the bad pun.)  I think Kitty Hawk made the roof plain so average modelers like myself don't get too overwhelmed with it.  Having said that, have you seen the work Pete Fleischmann has done over on the Large Scale Planes forum? (HH-60G Pavehawk Kitty Hawk 1/35 - Works in Progress - Large Scale Planes)

 

I have this kit in my stash and have plans eventually to try to work on the roof as well.  I will be following along and hopefully can get some tips and inspiration from your work.  The work you have done so far  looks great. 👍

 

Happy modeling,

 

Chris

 

Edit: I tried to link to the build but for some reason it won't copy the URL.  

Edited January 31, 2021 by Dadeo911

[Phone Phixer]

43 minutes ago, Dadeo911 said:

Having said that, have you seen the work Pete Fleischmann has done over on the Large Scale Planes forum? (HH-60G Pavehawk Kitty Hawk 1/35 - Works in Progress - Large Scale Planes)

 

Hi. Yes I have been following his amazing work. Just incredible the detail he has gone in to on that build. I did link to it on my first post, it just is not a very obvious link,

 

 

On 1/20/2021 at 8:48 PM, Phone Phixer said:

As inspiration and ideas for this build I will be using (blatantly copying) THIS build on the LSP site. Although my efforts will be nowhere near the standard of that amazing build.

 

Had to chuckle at the pun.

 

Rob.

[Dadeo911]

1 hour ago, Phone Phixer said:

 

Hi. Yes I have been following his amazing work. Just incredible the detail he has gone in to on that build. I did link to it on my first post, it just is not a very obvious link,

 

 

 

Had to chuckle at the pun.

 

Rob.

Sorry I missed that.  Looking with my man eyes I guess. 🙂

 

[Phone Phixer]

The first part of the roof detailing is now done. Several evenings of cutting and filing resulted in this.

 

I had already started to make the ribs using plasticard.

Then fully covered in.

 

And given a coat of Mr Hobby aqueous light ghost grey. Then weathered.

 

So far, so good. Now I've just got to work my way along and fill all the cavities with "stuff".

 

Also, these finally arrived on a slow boat from Russia.

Genuine Live-Resin pilots and GAU-18 .50 cal guns. For the gunner figures I got a couple of Chinese "re-casts" cheap off evil bay.

 

 

Onwards and upwards.

Rob.

[phildagreek]

Looks fantastic so far.

[Marklo]

Very painstaking work. I think I’d have replaced the roof with strip and sheet, or more likely just left it  

[Phone Phixer]

Not a great deal of progress on the roof detailing. Gradually working my way along.

Wiring looms are 0.3mm solder wire, the black cable wraps are thin strips of decal. The boxes are either from spares bin or scratch built.

[Phone Phixer]

Progress continues along the roof.

Added more boxes, wiring looms and cabin lights. Also fitted the fast rope frame included in the kit.

 

I also had a go at painting the Live-Resin pilot figures.

 

My first attempt at figure painting. The camo uniform is supposed to be multi cam pattern, but it ended up looking more like woodland pattern.

[Phone Phixer]

I'm calling the cabin area complete. Just got to add some comms cables to the crew when building it up.

 

Now to move on to the cockpit overhead panel. This is Kitty Hawks idea of detail. Needs some enhancement.

 

[Phone Phixer]

The cockpit overhead panel now has a few better looking levers. Also added a couple of "wander lamp" map lights.

 

 

A bit of info from the build I am following for the same kit. The Pave Hawk does not have a circuit breaker panel above the pilots head. So parts 56 & 59 are not required.

 

 

Whilst we are on the subject of KH's instructions. This cropped up, with the same numbered PE grill (PE4) listed twice. I've marked the correct part numbers.

 

 

Rob.

[Alan P]

Fantastic work so far! This looks superb. All that detailing work shows a sense of perseverance which will get you through to the end, I've no doubt - I get exactly what you mean about KH kits being self-inflicted! Luckily I have the Academy MH-60L (DAP) so will be watching what you do with great interest. 

 

Thanks for linking Pig Fleischman's build, it's as inspirational as you say. 

[Phone Phixer]

The next bits up are the flight engineer/gunners seats in the cabin.

 

Standard items.

 

Padded out with some milliput. I also added the PE harnesses, intended for the pilots seats.

 

And painted.

 

In the cockpit, for the instrument panel and center console, I had a dilemma. The choice of painting them or using the kit supplied decals.

My IP painting is not the best, to be able to show the instruments off correctly in this scale. I took the chance on the decals over all the raised detail.

Several small cuts and copious amounts of Micro Sol got them down really well.

 

I'm now in the position to build up the cabin. Onwards and upwards.

 

Rob.

 

P.S. Thinking ahead on upcoming area's. Does anyone know the colour of the Pave Hawks engine bays and around the main rotor gearbox. Kittyhawk give no call outs for there, and I can't find any clear photo's.

[Phone Phixer]

The cabin is now together. Nothing dramatic on its assembly, you just have to sand the joining surfaces as the fit can be tight.

 

The Live-Resin pilots fit perfectly in the cockpit.

 

 

Then the fuselage halves close around the cabin. Despite sanding down the edges as much as I could, it was still a very tight fit. Clamping was required, both upper and lower seams needed some work.

 

 

KittyHawk have the upper fuselage, containing the engines and rotor head as a complete assembly. This should then fit on the rest at the end of the build. A quick dry fit assembly of this does not fill me with confidence it will fit without several issues.

I'm going to build it up as I go. I think that will work better.

 

Rob.

 

[Phone Phixer]

The upper fuselage is coming together. it took a bit of work to properly fair in at the rear

.

 

I think this is a better way of assembling this area, instead of building it as a separate unit and then adding it to the top.

 

The engines are okay, but would benefit from a bit of detailing.

I only tack glued the forward bulkheads, so they can be hinged to allow the engines to be fitted and removed.

 

 

Engines detailed and painted.

 

The next bit, is to try and work out the installation of the driveshafts and main rotor gearbox. Most build reviews report problems getting these in.

 

Rob.

[Phone Phixer]

The driveshafts are in, and in one piece.

 

This is what they are like, pre-fitting. Several of the build reviews for any of the Hawk family ended up with the shaft getting cut from the angled part and installed separate.

I slightly widened the cutout in the shaft and thinned down the upright in the coaming so there was space to rotate it into place. The locating spigot on the shaft, that fits into the forward part of the engine was removed. Not a hope of getting that in.

It all gets covered over anyway!

 

The main rotor gearbox is only in place loosely. The rotor head secures into it, so it will be glued in near the end.

 

 

Painted the exhausts, including the copper shade heat discolouration they get.

 

 

[Alan P]

Excellent detail Rob. Also, good problem solving with the fiddly constructions...Kitty Hawk never found a structure they couldn't overcomplicate 😂

[Phone Phixer]

Fuselage construction continues. All the main structure is complete that will not get in the way of painting.

 

Notice how, after all the work to get the driveshafts in, they are covered by the intakes! Well I know I got them in. 🙄

 

 

While fitting some of the blade aerials, I had an oh bu**@r moment. I had not planned through the instructions enough with regard to opening up holes in the fuselage. The instructions show what holes to open for the flare dispensers. But not for the aerials.

Consequently, anyone planning to do this kit, take note of below. The other locations need opening up.

 

The build I'm following, as my reference source, did note about the Live-Resin .50 cal guns. The set is meant for the Academy kit, so the mounting points for the ammo tanks and main gun mounts don't fit.

 

 

A bit of kit bashing is required to make a go of these.

 

Rob.

[Alan P]

Looks brilliant. Very fast work to get to this stage already, it's shaping up to be a great build.

[Phone Phixer]

A bit of a gap between updates, but I'm back again.

Primer applied to the Pavehawk. I use Tamiya grey surface primer in a rattle can. It gives a lovely finish and I have never had it lift, even on photo etch.

 

There are some anti slip areas on the roof, around the "doghouse". Rather than just painting them black, I thought I would add some texture. I used Mig Ammo anti slip paste, as used in armour modelling. The effect looks good.

 

Then the whole body had a coat of Mr Hobby aqueous H305 Gunship Grey. Black areas were done with Tamiya XF69 NATO black.

 

The anti slip areas with paint.

 

After the overall coat, I went over panels with some subtle post shading. I don't like to do too large a difference in shades. Not a fan of that style.

My potato of a camera does not pick up the shades too well, but you probably get the idea.

 

Decals next.

 

Rob.

[Phone Phixer]

Decals are on and a UMP dark dirt wash applied.

 

I had the Werners Wings Pave Hawk sheet 2 decals for the general markings and stencils. The Lakenheath and aircraft specific decals from the OOP sheet 1 were graciously supplied by @bentwaters81tfw. Many thanks to Frank for that.

 

Then it was on to lots of small sub assemblies to add, that seem to take forever, with no signs of progress.

I had a go at creating the prism effect for the countermeasures "disco ball". First a chrome coat from a Molotow pen.

Then a light coat of Tamiya clear yellow, followed by clear red.

It needed a bit more. So another coat of clear red and a highlights of thinned clear blue. That got this.

And in place. Sorry another poor photo. I couldn't get my camera to focus on where I wanted.

 

The chaff and flare dispensers were also fitted. I added the wiring looms from 0.3mm solder.

 

 

 

[Lewis95]

Looks good bud.