Iranian AH-1J Fujimi 1/72

[fmichelsen]

It's been a while since my last build in here, so I'm a bit excited to get started.

This helicopter will be a part of my Iranian fleet in 72nd scale. I've ordered some new decals for it, and they should be on their way in the mail, but I could'nt wait for them to arrived, so now its time to begin  
The kit itself should be fine, it is a older kit, with raised panellines, but they look very sharp, so hopefully I can make it work  There is however alot of flash in someplaces, and the canopy does not look that good, but I believe it should be possible to make it look decent
Regarding the decals, they look terrible. Very very yellow. Hopefully I dont have to use them, or I'll have to check my spare box for others  

The box:

The content of the box;

Close-up of the decals....

 

Time to get started
 

[k5054nz]

Excellent! Iranian choppers are cool, I always enjoy seeing them. Is there a 214ST in your future?

[fmichelsen]

11 hours ago, k5054nz said:

Excellent! Iranian choppers are cool, I always enjoy seeing them. Is there a 214ST in your future?

Yeah I really like them, think they look cool in those colours  About the 214ST, I would love to make one, but I believe it would demand some serious scratchbuilding skills to make one, since, as far as I know, there is no kit in 1/72 scale for it.

[fmichelsen]

I build the cockpit, OOB. The seat are really bad, looks more like a wingback chair for a livingroom, than a seat in a helicopter, I've made some simple seatbelts of tamiyatape.   Should I ever build another one, I would buy some aftermarket ones. 
The plastic in this kit is very "hard". When cutting it, it snaps sometimes. The front controllever snapped 2 places🤔 Took some care to fix it, specially since the "middelpieces" were completly lost to the carpet monster, so made at new part of stretched sprue. 
The fit is however excellent, no gaps or need to use force to glue the fuselage parts together

 

The chairs. Since this picture was taken, I've given it a wash, and a bit detail painting. Pictures of that next time. 

 

Cockpit again. Slight sight of the instrument panel. The decals did not fit that well, so had to cut it in several pieces to fit, but turned out okay  

 

The fuselage joined together - superb fit  

[Gondor44]

Very interesting, and I have one of those in my stash too. 👍

 

Gondor

[fmichelsen]

So far this kit have not been to difficult, and now it is ready for a grey primer  Hopefully not to many mistake will turn up  I decided not to glue many part to the fuselage since it feels like a fragile set, so they will be painted seperately, then mounted   

 

The main body - some mr. surfacer was need. Specially around til back og the canopy

Some of the part - to be primed soon

[Lewis95]

Looking good buddy. In regards to the Mr Surfacer, do you use this as a putty and sand back or are you using thinners to wipe it flush? 

[fmichelsen]

7 minutes ago, Lewis95 said:

Looking good buddy. In regards to the Mr Surfacer, do you use this as a putty and sand back or are you using thinners to wipe it flush? 

I've used thinner, specially on this one, with it's raised panellines, I'm trying to avoid sanding as much as possible 

[fmichelsen]

I just discovered that it would be a "tail-sitter". Luckily I havent put on any paint yet  I managed to take the nose of it with out damaging anything, fill it with lead, then glue it on again. Onve the glued is set, it go over it again with som mr. surfacer  Disaster avoided 😅

[Lewis95]

4 hours ago, fmichelsen said:

I've used thinner, specially on this one, with it's raised panellines, I'm trying to avoid sanding as much as possible 

Do you find the thinner method works well? Would you mind describing your method from the top? I'm still sanding away like a badger after multiple applications 

[fmichelsen]

2 hours ago, Lewis95 said:

Do you find the thinner method works well? Would you mind describing your method from the top? I'm still sanding away like a badger after multiple applications 

For sure. It's quite simple, fill the gap with Mr. Surfacer 500, normally I use a old brush or a toothpick, leave it to dry for about a hour (if longer, it will become more difficult to remove). Then I apply some Mr Color Thinner to a cottonswap, and starts to wipe over it, and after some time, it becomes softer and sticks to the cottonswap, except for what's left in the gap.

Hope that it can help you

[k5054nz]

Cobra's looking great!

  

16 hours ago, fmichelsen said:

About the 214ST, I would love to make one, but I believe it would demand some serious scratchbuilding skills to make one, since, as far as I know, there is no kit in 1/72 scale for it.

I recently saw a scratchbuild on, I believe, a Japanese Facebook page and it was amazing. Hopefully it's possible to track down that modeller so you can compare notes. If I happen upon the model again I'll post it for you.

[Lewis95]

13 hours ago, fmichelsen said:

For sure. It's quite simple, fill the gap with Mr. Surfacer 500, normally I use a old brush or a toothpick, leave it to dry for about a hour (if longer, it will become more difficult to remove). Then I apply some Mr Color Thinner to a cottonswap, and starts to wipe over it, and after some time, it becomes softer and sticks to the cottonswap, except for what's left in the gap.

Hope that it can help you

Ah excellent. Thank you very much Albeit, the current gaps on my Dak require PPP but I will retain that knowledge!

[fmichelsen]

Got it primed, and saw many many flaws. There where quite large cracks and gaps needing filler. So I gave it som more mr surfacer, and wiped it of with thinner, and most of the primer came of as well🤨 So after quite a lot of sanding to make sure everything was smooth, I primed it again, and postshaded it with some black. Next up, the sand colour