PATRICK FROM THE SANDS Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 Hello Fellow Modelers When I was in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm, I saw this fascinating machine and, to keep the memory alive, I decided to build one in my favorite scale. The only reasonable choice was the pricey Whirlybird model, offering a resin kit with all necessary features of the iconic CSAR Jolly Green Giant (The Revell kit is completely wrong). I have to be honest: Even after opening the box, which seems to provide an accurate rendition of the CH-3 with some nice PE parts, the Whirlybird kit is far from being easy to construct and is finally a true monstruous challenge! It is my first tentative in the helicopter world, obviously I didn't chose the easy way by starting with an artisanal full resin kit. It took me ages to modify, remove, scratch, add and create parts to finally obtain a far from "top of the range" result. From the tip of the AAR probe to the tail rotor, I almost change everything! I will not bother you with the (very) long list of what I did. The whole cargo bay (given completely empty!) and cockpit were redone, the hull shape corrected, rotor head, rotor blades, etc... The only positive point is that Whirlybird offers the option to represent all the five machines used during "desert Storm" in a nice decal sheet. I chose to build the only MH-3E equipped with flares boxes mounts (but the boxes were never used), with a modified color scheme post-DS. The https://www.dstorm.eu/pages/en/usa/mh-3e.html website provides some nice pictures. All MH-3E belong to the 71st SOS (AFRES), Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona based at Ras al Mishab, Saudi Arabia. Here are the photos: The real bird: removed read the pinned post in chat Mine: ...and as usual, a little dio to put the machine in situation: the truck is a USAF M35, Academy modified and the ladder is scratch built. As a conclusion, I will not recommend this kit if you look for easy modeling. Strange and sad that its "father" the SH-3 has been nicely covered by some model manufacturers like Cyberhobby.com but not the iconic Jolly Green Giant... Critics most welcome and thank you for looking! 62 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopesdaddy Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 What a beautiful result, looks spot on to me. I also have been waiting for a good jolly green kit (although I would like to biild an earlier one) it is nice to know that the whirlybird one doesn't appear to be worth the effort Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PATRICK FROM THE SANDS Posted November 27, 2022 Author Share Posted November 27, 2022 43 minutes ago, Hopesdaddy said: What a beautiful result, looks spot on to me. I also have been waiting for a good jolly green kit (although I would like to biild an earlier one) it is nice to know that the whirlybird one doesn't appear to be worth the effort Hello! Thank you for your kind support! For the Whirlybird kit, you can build a Vietnam era Jolly Green Giant if you are not expecting a fair amount of detailing (e.g. cargo bay and access door closed). However, it is an artisanal kit, we are galaxy far from today's standards and this one requires a lot of amount of work. One British modeler did it also and you can see in his analysis that the details provided by Whirlybird are quite crude: Maybe Cyberhobby.com will give a nice surprise one day ???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robertone139 Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 Nice job and welcome to the world of unrestricted aviation, you picked the hardest way to be initiated to helos. btw, you may want to check you main rotor installation vs the one in the reference build thread.😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PATRICK FROM THE SANDS Posted November 27, 2022 Author Share Posted November 27, 2022 (edited) 5 hours ago, Robertone139 said: Nice job and welcome to the world of unrestricted aviation, you picked the hardest way to be initiated to helos. btw, you may want to check you main rotor installation vs the one in the reference build thread.😉 Hello! OOOOPS the blades are wrongly fitted!!! Let me correct this stupid mistake! Edited November 27, 2022 by PATRICK FROM THE SANDS Identified "Robertone139" advice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PATRICK FROM THE SANDS Posted November 27, 2022 Author Share Posted November 27, 2022 ...however can somebody explain to me what "removed read the pinned post in chat" means? the photo I put of the real helicopter has disappeared...🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 It might be something to do with this:- https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234948024-airlinersnet-and-copyright-issues/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 That is a stunning model Patrick, made better with a cool DS scheme, gotta like those desert schemes. For all the hassles it gave you, it has turned out beautifully, maybe except for the rotors & I don't know enough to comment either way. Re the Airliners.net photos I think I'm right in saying it is ok to put in a link to them. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unfinished project Posted November 27, 2022 Share Posted November 27, 2022 Now that’s something you don’t see everyday. Excellent results and well worth the effort. 👍🏻 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted November 30, 2022 Share Posted November 30, 2022 Very cool build, that's great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PATRICK FROM THE SANDS Posted December 1, 2022 Author Share Posted December 1, 2022 Hello Gents! Some photos of the final model with the correction of my stupid mistake mentioned accurately by Robertone139: Have a nice day! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RupertTheBear Posted December 1, 2022 Share Posted December 1, 2022 Despite all the challenges and monkey wrenches the kit threw at you - the result is fantastic! About the subject - I sometimes wonder how kit manufacturers work. I know it's probably the usual "supply and demand" but while every single manufacturer has at least 15 Spitfires and 109s or Tornados on offer, some gear that was used for a long time, took part in different conflicts and left their (some deeper, some shallower) mark in history sadly is neglected. The Jolly Green Giant is one example. And I wouldn't call neither it, nor the SH3 Seaking boring or less significant than e.g. the Black- or Seahawk family, which is also covered extensively by different kit manufacturers. I'm still waiting for Airfix to give us a nice modern Gazelle in 1/48th scale I could put next to their Lynx 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PATRICK FROM THE SANDS Posted December 1, 2022 Author Share Posted December 1, 2022 4 hours ago, RupertTheBear said: Despite all the challenges and monkey wrenches the kit threw at you - the result is fantastic! About the subject - I sometimes wonder how kit manufacturers work. I know it's probably the usual "supply and demand" but while every single manufacturer has at least 15 Spitfires and 109s or Tornados on offer, some gear that was used for a long time, took part in different conflicts and left their (some deeper, some shallower) mark in history sadly is neglected. The Jolly Green Giant is one example. And I wouldn't call neither it, nor the SH3 Seaking boring or less significant than e.g. the Black- or Seahawk family, which is also covered extensively by different kit manufacturers. I'm still waiting for Airfix to give us a nice modern Gazelle in 1/48th scale I could put next to their Lynx Thank you! Fully agree with your comment, whatever the scale or the type (helo or fixed wings), some iconic machines have been completely forgotten by manufacturers for the benefit of limited production artisans which are - sometimes - filling the gap with an expensive price tag.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Martin Posted December 1, 2022 Share Posted December 1, 2022 Very very nice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robertone139 Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 On 12/1/2022 at 2:30 AM, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said: Hello Gents! Some photos of the final model with the correction of my stupid mistake mentioned accurately by Robertone139: Have a nice day! Awesome! It was very nice before, now it's perfect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PATRICK FROM THE SANDS Posted December 3, 2022 Author Share Posted December 3, 2022 19 hours ago, Robertone139 said: Awesome! It was very nice before, now it's perfect! Thank you again! if you want an idea of all the corrections I made, they are here: "https://www.master194.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=119157&sid=5a393e9bebdbe970a30f760f7e5dc16c (Unfortunately it is in French) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeddahbill Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Very nicely done! I remember seeing a few of these in Riyadh around August or September 1990. Regards, JeddahBill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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