Academy 1-72 MH-53E

[Ran]

With the P-51D done and on the shelf, and the He-280 back on the table I scanned the stash and decided a chopper is due. Picked out this one and will try to go for the White JDF Bird. This should be an easy build with a challenging paint job. 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Stay tuned.

Ran

 

 

[Jackman]

Will watch this with interest. JMSDF subjects are rare in modeling forums. 👍

[heloman1]

Oooh, I like. An interesting choice of subject and markings. I have the kit in the stash plus the 1/48th kit, which I have purchased a lot of AM parts for. Maybe later this year or early next.

I'll follow your build with interest.

 

Colin

[RupertTheBear]

That kicks off some memories. Did this kit (Italeri box) when I was 12 or so but I went for the Marines grey paintjob. Looking forward to yours and also respect for choosing a mostly white camo 

[Ran]

This past two weeks I managed a lot of bench time - but could not bring myself to sit down and write.

I'm now masking with MicroMask and have to take breaks between layers so I might as well update this build log.

 

The fuselage is closed and I'm gluing the outer stuff.

Two major takeaways from this build:

 

1. This chopper is BIG - in 1/72 its almost as long as the 1/48 H-280. 

2. Old mold 1/72 kits just suck with poor engineering. This kit has parts that resemble short-runs

Want a few examples?

Checkout the sponsons - nothing by way of guiding or fixing:

 

 

Or this strange engineering:

 

The bottom part of the chopper and the floor of the cargo hold are also a strange piece of engineering.

 

The cockpit is simple enough - and I fought the AMS urge quite well. Well, almost, just added a couple of boxes to the rear part.

 

 

I failed to win against AMS when I noticed the magnitude of grills and exhaust ports. This is the first time for me - I took the DSPIAE electric grinder, armed with a drill, and went to town. The same took in high speed generates enough heat to make it a hot scalpel:

 

 

 

The tail was more challenging:

 

 

The rotor base was glued, but the glue drooled all te stopper piece - I had to cut it and work something else:

 

 

Fixing inside the fuselage was almost notional, same with engine#3 exhaust, almost no location features:

 

I had to glue the fuselage from the Front to the Back in several steps and then do the same for the bottom part:

 

 

You can't see the time spent on filing, leveling, filing {repeat} - rrrghrr

 

Cutting those miniature masking parts for the canopy lookednot funnot-fun' so I decided to mask with Micro Mask. Most of the features on the canopy were boldly marked. I hope it will go smoothly.

I did put some transparent green on the top windows.

 

That's it for now.

Comments are welcomed.

Best

Ran

 

 

 

 

 

 

[I Dole]

I'm doing the Italeri version at the moment. USN colours.

Using the Eduard set, mostly for the grills, and the Reskit exhausts.

Lots of opportunities to get the putty out.