1/72 Revell EC-135 Police - DONE

[Dermo245]

Just started this one recently, inspired by the builds here of Ben M, Paul Parkes and Gengriz..

Box contents

Some nice detail (and flash)

This will be OOB and similar to the below with decals courtesy of Peddinghaus

Cockpit work and then taped together to see how it looks. The only extras will be some scratchbuilt screens for the backseat observer..

Thanks for reading and enjoy your modelling.

Dermot

Edited June 24, 2012 by Dermo245

[troschi]

Hey Dermo,

nice to see a police helicopter build again!

there are some issues with Revell's EC-135 - I will only consider the most prominent errors:

- the seats refer to early prototypes and mockups, they can easily replaced by those from an EC-145

- the main rotor has the wrong turning direction. By mounting them "upside down" one has to remove this ugly "bend" in the blade

- the tail fin is too high - it can be shortened and sanded with the upper panel line as reference

- the front skid tubes (bent endings) are too long with the low skid gear. Simply cut the straigt piece in front of the front crosstube and glue only the bent upwards part in place.

- the lower skid gear gived the model a wrong appearance, the front crosstube has to be higher so that the nose of the helicopter points slightly upwards and that the fuselage belly is not parallel to the ground anymore. Although not being 100% at the end, this could be easily fixed by filling the gap where the front skid corsstube should be glued in by filler or by another piece of plastic tube/rod

- if needed: A high skid gear for an EC-135 is curiously included in the recent Police boxing of the EC-145

From own experience: Be careful with the windshield fitting. This is a delicate area where some troubles can be expected.

Good luck and hope to see some progress soon.

[smyfe]

Hi, I hope you don't mind but i wonder if these are any help to you. Taken on Sunday, first time with a dslr.

Please let me know if they are a problem and i will remove them right away.

Mick

Edited April 10, 2012 by smyfe

[Dermo245]

@ troschi - many thanks for the list of fixes. Am going OOB on this one but will take on board for the future. Your advice on the windscreen fitting is appreciated, thanks!

@ smyfe - great photos and always happy to get more reference pics, cheers!

After painting the interior, I scratched some screens from sprue for the backseat observer.

Both fuselage halves before closing. The clear parts were a bear to fit in place!!

And before a first shot of primer..

Thanks for reading and enjoy your modelling.

Dermot

[Dermo245]

Hey everyone and here's the latest on this one.

As Troschi has mentioned, this kit has a number of inaccuracies which I might tackle on another build. However one change I did was to move the lower landing skids forward a touch - here's the before..

And the after. I know it doesn't look like a lot but I need the extra clearance front and back when I add the side-mounted FLIR and Nitesun equipment.

And the before and after on the kit istelf.

And thanks to the nice people at Peddinghaus Decals, these arrived in the post today! I ordered them online Sunday night, shipped Monday, Ireland on Thursday which I think is good service from Germany.

Can't wait to try them but off to paint first! Am currently scratching the FLIR and Nitesun and will post pics of those soon.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your modelling.

Dermot

Edited April 27, 2012 by Dermo245

[Liamfletch]

Looking great, always had my eye on this kit in the past but never purchased.

[Dermo245]

Hey everyone and here's the latest on this little rotor.

Scratched together a new Nitesun/FLIR turret, the kit part is the one in the middle here..

And how the new parts will look once glued on...

And with some paint finally on, which turned out better than I expected.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your modelling.

Dermot

[Gajman]

Looking good so far. Well done.

Gary

[Alpha Delta 210]

Looking good. I keep wondering whether to buy this kit. I will be watching with interest.

[Caution Wake Turbulence]

Looking good for 1/72!

Apologies if I'm wrong, but I think uk police choppers are usually dark blue and yellow rather than black. It is often hard to tell from photos, but this one I think is blue:

G-SUFK - Suffolk Police - Eurocopter EC135 T2 Plus - Helitech 2009 Duxford - 090922 - Steven Gray - IMG_9242 by StevenRGray.co.uk / Stevipedia.co.uk, on Flickr

Sorry if you know this already...

I have the Peddinghaus decals for the met police ec145 which I'm planning to build one day...

I like your scratched interior.

Andrew

[Dermo245]

Looking good for 1/72!

Apologies if I'm wrong, but I think uk police choppers are usually dark blue and yellow rather than black.

Andrew

Cheers Andrew and you're 100% right on that one - it's dark blue, not black! Must be the crummy screen on my ancient laptop at home.....

As I'm a brush painter and prefer acrylics, have you any suggestions on a colour to use? I did try Revell's "Midnight Blue" but it wasn't dark enough (strange that) and can get Vallejo if there's something in that line.

Many thanks in advance,

Dermot

[heloman1]

Nice build there, these EC 135/145 kits are really good, just enough detail for 72nd and great decals too. I'm surprised Revell haven't scaled them up to 48th as well. It's a good job the graphics guy didn't get carried away with the fin registration it might not have been quite PC (plod)!

Colin on the Africa Station

[Caution Wake Turbulence]

Hi Dermot,

not sure I can be of much help regarding paints. I had earmarked the Revell blue for my EC145, but I hadn't actually checked the match in the flesh. I was just looking at the Xtracrylicx colour chart and saw the Gloss Sea Blue, which looks quite dark:

http://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/xtracrylix...lour-chart.html

worth a try maybe, although it's difficult to tell on a computer screen.

Andrew

[Dermo245]

Thanks for all the comments here (and on the Modern a/c forum page) and cheers Andrew for the Dark Blue recommendation.

I tested a little of Revell's "Midnight Blue" Gloss Acrylic but it just didn't seem right. Perhaps it needed two coats but wasn't for me - a little too purple in hue, if that makes sense. So I went with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue and am really happy with how it turned out. It's kinda hard to see in the photos but is clearer over the front door frame...

Will add the final bits to this and then it's Future and decals!

Thanks for reading

Dermot

Edited May 22, 2012 by Dermo245

[Dermo245]

Hey everyone,

Here's the latest on this build - I added the scratchbuilt FLIR and Nitesun bits to it, along with the main canopy which needed a lot of trimming and fettling to fit well.

And now with the decals added - the generic ones are from the Revell kit, with the Police markings from Peddinghaus. It was my first time using decals from Peddinghaus and they were great to use and went on really well - they're not too keen on being moved around once they go on so needed to be gentle with them. I'm also much happier with the paint scheme - thanks for all your suggestions and images.

Just a final coat of Future needed along with aerials and she'll be done!

Thanks for reading and enjoy your modelling.

Best wishes,

Dermot

[Dermo245]

Finished this little chopper and very happy how it turned out, especially the colour!

Will post some more pics over in Ready for Inspection; thanks for all your comments and advice, and to Mick & Andrew for photos of the real a/c which were a huge help.

Cheers,

Dermot

Edited June 24, 2012 by Dermo245

[Paul @ Parkes682Decals]

Hi Dermot

Im afraid you have the wrong G-SUFF,I make the offiical models for the West Midlands Police Air Support and there are a number of issues concerning this model.

Firstly,G-SUFF is a EC-135 T1 version with high leg version the one you have done is a

P2 version

Inside is wrong as well,colours,equipment.

Outside is wrong as well the FLIR POD is located in a belly pod.The Searchlight is mounted at the centre line rear of the belly pod

Also the decal manufacturer have not permission from West Midlands Police to produce these decals and are breach of copyright.

I had to get permission to do mine from West Midlands Police.

I wish you would have contacted me first

Paul

Parkes682Decals

Edited June 24, 2012 by Mike
Removing repeated photos

[Dermo245]

Hi Paul, thanks for the feedback.

To be honest, I'm a bit demoralised now having spent a couple of months on this build and it's arseways.

On the decals, I didn't know there were official ones made; I just ordered mine in good faith when I found the manufacturer's website. It was never my intention to breach any copyright arrangements by purchasing and using them. On the interior colours/layout, I was only doing my best and trying to find photos was difficult - the pictures I saw must have been a company demonstrator model (with low skids) and not the final version.

Will certainly contact you about decals in the future.

Cheers,

Dermot

[Julien]

Not your fault for buying the decals. If you are buying commercial product then you would rightly assume they have made the right arrangement to produce the decals.

Looks good to me despite the few errors.

Out of interest which parts of the decals are copyright? you surly cant copyright the word POLICE and the registration number is owned by the CAA? or Helicopter owner?

Julien

[lukastu]

Looks nice and little.

[Scarlet]

I feel for you mate. All that work and then it gets a battering on here. As for the copyright issues, I can't see that you've done anything wrong, you bought them in good faith from a third party that's obviously producing them commercially. If anyone's broken the rules, it's them not you.

A very nice build by the way.

[buttoncup]

Very nice model.

[Liamfletch]

Top build, I need to get this kit. Never had any luck building any helicopter but think I'll give this a go.

[DanSAR95]

Hi, I know this is a old tread but I'm planning to do this but for the Newcastle based helicopter, what I was wondering is where did you get the equipment around the skids. Also, what yellow paint did you use. Regards

[ben_m]

Hi, I know this is a old tread but I'm planning to do this but for the Newcastle based helicopter, what I was wondering is where did you get the equipment around the skids. Also, what yellow paint did you use. Regards

As he says in post #7, I think Dermot scratch-built the equipment. I did mine in a similar way in my build thread. Which reminds me, I really need to finish those two off one day...