Fujimi 30020 "Grasshopper" Alouette III 1/48 (actually 1/50)

[Ranjo71]

Hi everybody,

This will be my first contribution to the "Ready for Inspection - Aircraft" topic and to the Britmodeller forum at all since I joined in 2021... 😳

But, it's never too late to start with something so here it is.

It is my interpretation of the Fujimi Alouette III kit in 1/48, which is actually 1/50. It is a depiction of an Alouette III in the colours of the "Grasshoppers RNLAF Helicopter Display Team", which was a well known guest at airshows during thje 70's, 80's and 90's.

 

A little background on how I got to built this kit.

Actually I built it for someone else: when I was working with the Royal Netherlands Air Force (Koninklijke Luchtmacht - KLu) some 15 years ago, we had a lieutenant that was a former crewchief with The Grasshoppers Display Team. One day he had this kit on his desk and he told me he was looking for somebody to build it in the colourscheme of The Grasshoppers.
I (me and my big mouth) told him that I would do that for him. But as things go, he retired and I left the Air Force and the kit remained unfinished. Until May 2021...
I managed to contact him through Facebook and arranged a meeting at the "Alouette Museum Barneveld" where he is a volunteer. There I handed him the model, after a long time.

As said: the kit is rather "off scale" (1:50 in stead of 1:48 as stated on the box). I built it OOB and especially the colourscheme was very fun to do.

There were no decals to be found for this scale, so I printed them myself. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you like it and looking forward to posting more of my work.

 

Cheers,

 

Remco.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Ranjo71

[upnorth]

I like it.

 

In my experience, helicopter teams are like turboprop teams, thy nead a lot of planning to be done right.

 

I never saw the Grasshoppers, but I saw the Spanish air force helicopter team and was very impressed.

 

I was also at Airpower 2022 when the Austrian air force Alouettes made a formation for the retirement of the type from Austrian service.

Edited June 11, 2023 by upnorth

[Ranjo71]

Thanks!

 

I saw the Spanish display team as well. Indeed a spectacular show.

 

Love your websites, by the way. 😉

 

[matti64]

Excellent model. I saw the Grasshoppers at one of the Mildenhall  airshows back in the 1980's and was so impressed.  they really got me i started on taking an interest in Helicopters as modelling subjects.