Aussie Tiger *Finished*

[Andwil]

For my second entry I am building this Hobby Boss Eurocopter Tiger

 

 

as an Australian Army armed reconnaissance helicopter.  Ironically it has recently been announced that the Tigers will be replaced by AH-64E Apaches.  The Tigers had a troubled history, lengthy maintenance requirements resulted in high operating costs and low availability.  In addition there were problems with communication and data links.

 

A look at the parts:

 

 

 

 

The instructions are of the exploded diagram style:

 

 

I also have the Ronin Decals sheet which allows any of the Australian Tigers to be modelled

 

 

the decals come with a very useful set of detail photos:

 

 

some parts of the  defensive suite will need to be scratched and, somewhat dauntingly, so will the very long towel rail aerial on the port fuselage.

 

A quick start today with some of the major components cleaned up and dry fitted:

 

 

fit is quite good and it goes together well, the cockpit tub is a very tight fit care will need to be taken to get the nose to close up properly to allow the canopy to fit correctly.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

Edited March 31, 2021 by Andwil

[Andwil]

A few bits and pieces done since the last post.

 

IPs; these are not very well detailed, the disks and buttons are represented by shallow depressions, so dry brushing is useless for bringing out the detail:

 

 

But it’s moot as they can barely be seen once the shrouds are on:

 

 

Seats, again very basic:

 

 

Assembled cockpit tub:
 

 

Fuselage closed up with the cockpit and rotating gun mount under the nose in position.  Some thinning of the front of the cockpit opening was required to get a good fit of the tub.

 

 

I have also drilled out some holes along the fuselage side to take the supports for the aerial rail.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

All major airframe components assembled and some minor gap filling started:

 

 

The stub wings and tail planes will be left off until after painting to make masking the camouflage easier.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[trickyrich]

nice!!  

 

I have the same decals set but for the 1/48th Italeri version plus the resin conversion set for the Oz Tiger. I was meant to have built it for my son, he worked on the Tigers up in Darwin (he's on drones now), never had a nice thing to say about Tigers.

 

Personnel I think we should have gone with the AH-1Z Vipers (got a model of one of those too, 1/32nd). Think I may now have to get an Apache now! 

[modelling minion]

Nice work on your Tiger.

They have had a very troubled service life everywhere unfortunately, not just in Australia.

One thing the Australian ones do have going for them is a very cool camouflage scheme, it will be interesting to see if the replacement Apaches have the same one.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

7 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Nice work on your Tiger.

They have had a very troubled service life everywhere unfortunately, not just in Australia.

One thing the Australian ones do have going for them is a very cool camouflage scheme, it will be interesting to see if the replacement Apaches have the same one.

 

I'll be interested in this one Andrew, I have had the Revell kit tucked away in the stash for about 10 years.  Just regarding the colour set you are using, the Tiger does not use the standard green that is used on the other helos and AFVs. It is a some funky French mix with IR reducing properties.

 

Craig, re the Apaches, it would be nice to see them in the standard Aussie scheme, but the last two helo procurements from the US (CH-47D and CH-47F) have come in the US Army colours, so we will have to wait and see.

[Andwil]

1 hour ago, trickyrich said:

I think we should have gone with the AH-1Z Vipers

For purely aesthetic reasons I also would have preferred the Viper over the truly awful looking Apache!

 

39 minutes ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

Just regarding the colour set you are using, the Tiger does not use the standard green that is used on the other helos and AFVs. It is a some funky French mix with IR reducing properties.

Thanks for the info Ray, I will have to see what I can do about the green.

 

AW

[Andwil]

A piece of sprue chopped up and filed roughly to shape has been added as the mounting for the funny little cross shaped antenna on the rear fuselage.  Canopy masked and glued on with Formula 560 canopy glue, this needed a bit of clamping to sit down properly.

 

 

Some Evergreen rod added to the tailplane for the rear facing sensors or whatever they are.

 

 

Some scratches to polish out and it will be ready for paint.  I have had to change my intended subject, I originally was going to do one of the Tigers I saw at Avalon in 2019 but looking at my photos saw that the engine cowls have been modified with louvred and additional piping that is beyond my skill level to replicate, so I will have to do the earlier appearance without the Griffon on the tail and individual names.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

I seem to have reached that frustrating point in a build, where, for various reasons, very little progress is being made.  I had hoped to be well into paint by now, but the stars just haven’t aligned.  I did find an hour or two this morning and decided that I wasn’t happy with aspects of the model.  For example, look at the dust filter/FOD guards provided by Hobby Boss:

 

 

they look more like a a Victorian era railway bridge than part of a Helicopter.  So these were sanded down ( photo taken during this procedure).  The plan is to cover them with tea bag material after painting of the fuselage.

 

When the sanding was done the canopy was sprayed black and then everything got a coat of primer:

 

 

which revealed a gap around the canopy:

 

 

which somehow I hadn’t spotted before.  I’ll fill that with a mix of canopy glue and black paint.  Picking Shiraz grapes tomorrow so probably no more work on this until the weekend.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Got some time at the bench today, after first catching and evicting a large Huntsman spider from the cave (I’ve spared any arachnophobes out there a photo of the beast) got the first colour on the Tiger:

 

 

The rotor blades are dark green, I used Hataka NATO green as closest to what I can see in photos:

 

 

Landing gear:

 

 

For the light green I got hold of a Israeli light green, FS34227, it’s close but still a bit dark, adding a few drops of a light grey might improve the match:

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Well that’s odd, my update shows as being posted just now but the thread is still on page 2 with the last post 3 days ago 🤔

 

AW

[modelling minion]

Very nice progress on your Tiger, coming together very well indeed.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

29 minutes ago, Andwil said:

after first catching and evicting a large Huntsman spider from the cave (I’ve spared any arachnophobes out there a photo of the beast) got the first colour on the Tiger:

Many thanks to you on this count sir.  Great work so far. 

Edited March 14, 2021 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Andwil]

Second colour on, Vallejo Model Air IDF green with a couple of drops of light grey.  Semi free handed using blue tack worms for the outline but no other masking.  I’m not worried about the overspray at the moment as a lot of that will disappear under the black segments.

 

 

 

Tail rotor:

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

[Andwil]

Third colour on.  My first attempt using blue tack worms was pants as the pattern is just too complex to get the worms to replicate in 1/72, so I resorted to freehanding and going over the resulting overspray for each colour.  It’s not completely accurate but it will do for me as a first attempt.

 

 

 

I also had to redo the black after the first attempt as the “Australian Black” in the AK Auscam set turned out a weird very dark bronze green.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Bandsaw Steve]

Looks fantastic. Those Australian Army colours look good on just about anything.

[Andwil]

Glossed in preparation for decals:

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Most of the decals are now on.  The Ronin decal sheet is extensive, allowing any of the 22 Tigers to be modelled, with a choice of both early and late markings.  There are a myriad of tiny stencils packed very tightly on the small sheet.  I decided that only the larger, more easily visible stencils will be used.  Even so I found that even with the optivisor it took a while finding some of them on the sheet.  When I found that I had put the tail rotor warning stencils on upside down I decided to call it a day and rest the eyes.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

This is looking nice Andrew, just been away sampling the Hunter Valley's finest!

[Andwil]

50 minutes ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

This is looking nice Andrew, just been away sampling the Hunter Valley's finest!

Sounds like a fine way of spending some time.  Were you able to keep dry?

 

AW

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

28 minutes ago, Andwil said:

Sounds like a fine way of spending some time.  Were you able to keep dry?

 

AW

For the most of it, drove back through the down pour yesterday.

[nimrod54]

This is looking rather special AW. Nice work on the camo.

[Andwil]

Having got my decalling mojo back I finished off the stencils and can drag this thread back up from page 3.

 

Stub wings, tail plane, landing gear and various steps and handles attached and a Matt coat applied:

 

 

 

Rotor blades and tail rotor:

 

 

 

I have had a bash at scratching the cross shaped antenna on the rear fuselage.  A thin slice was taken from the fins of a rocket, sanded even thinner and a hole drilled to accept a short length of 0.5mm brass rod:

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

The little cross antenna has been attached and the canopy unmasked.  
I have to admit to giving up on the towel rail aerial on the port side of the fuselage, I had a go with .05mm brass rod but just could not get the angles right.  So rather than abandon the build or ruin it, I opted to remove the support struts, fill the holes and touch up the paint.  I’m bitterly disappointed but will learn to live with it.  I’ll put it the cabinet with the port side hidden.

 

 

 

 

On the bright side, main rotor assembled:

 

 

targetting turret:

 

 

I had to paint the bottom of the spindle black as it is visible through the canopy.

 

Gun:

 

 

With only the intake filters to make up and the last few bits attached, this will be finished tomorrow if all goes well.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Well the Tiger is now as finished as it ever will be.  I’m not completely satisfied with the result, I don’t feel as though I did a particularly good job of it, it’s definitely a “three footer”.

 

I’m yet to decide whether I’ll post it in the gallery or not.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW