Uscg Hh-60 Jayhawk

[Guest]

Howdy guys and gals,

Well I got an early start this morning, got up about 6:00 am and started work on minicrafts MH-60 Special Forces Helicopter.

A few minutes in to the model I decided to make it a United States Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk. So I took some USCG decals I had printed for another model and used them for this model once I had completed painting it.

Anyway here she sits on my driveway:















This is a great kit and goes together well, plus there are alot of unused parts for your "junk" box

Thanks for looking and have a good day,

Greg aka GW

[Guest]

That's one greta chopper Greg, I hope one day to build one but have to wait till I have the money to buy it. Smart looking craft.

[Guest]

Greg, she's a beauty.

I really have to ask though.. do you have a separate house where you put all the models?

[Guest]

Howdy Russell and Mike,

First, thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them. Now as for storage space lol. No, I dont have a seperate house, I live in a four bedroom homeso i have the space, what i am lacking is shelving at the moment.

As soon as my neck gets to the point where i can swing a hammer again, I plan on installing some shelving so i can get some "group shots of the various models as displayed....it just seems like when I feel like building shelves, I am too busy building a model lol

Thanks again guys, have a good day,

Greg

[Guest]

lovely stuff greg! i love the coast guards jauhawk.

some people find it hard matching the red/orange colour. what did you use?

Richard

[Guest]

Howdy RJ,

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it. As for matching the Coast guard red, well, I used wal-marts finest "Gloss Red" rattle can..lol 88 cents at your local wal-mart .

Actually matching the HH-60 as well as the USCG C-130 and HU-16 "albatross" was easy. The red and white scheme of those aircraft has remained the same over the years. However, the HH-65 "Dauphine" is painted "Orange" overall with a white stripe. The Dauphine is painted orange because when using the red and white color scheme (The coast guard paints their own birds), they were getting paint schemes that varied depending on where the bird was painted, so they decided to paint all the short range "Dauphines" a consistant Orange with a white stripe. Of course the Orange and the red colors are helpful in recognition of Coast Guard aircraft and also help in locating downed aircraft should the need arise.

So the short answer to your question....."Cheap red spray paint" LOl

have a good day and thanks again,

Greg

PS: I had a dr appointment today and while in town i picked up the NH-90 TTH NATO Helicopter by revell in 1:72. I will probably start on it soon

[Guest]

geedubbya,

you mentioned decals you had printed up before. how did you go about that. ive been trying to find a way to make custom decals for the planes and helos im building but the only program i found i cant seem to get to work for me.

[Guest]

Howdy guys and gals, Well I got an early start this morning, got up about 6:00 am and started work on minicrafts MH-60 Special Forces Helicopter.

A few minutes in to the model I decided to make it a United States Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk. So I took some USCG decals I had printed for another model and used them for this model once I had completed painting it.

Anyway here she sits on my driveway:















This is a great kit and goes together well, plus there are alot of unused parts for your "junk" box

Thanks for looking and have a good day,

Greg aka GW

Hya Greg, I really like the helicopter, do you know if there is a 1/72nd scale version of this model available? I love U.S specialised military helicopters, I am in the process of converting 2 RAH comanche's into Marines choppers.

[Guest]

Howdy Rmanaseri, Chris,

First off, please allow me to welcome both of you to the forums, we are glad to have you here.

Thanks for the kind words about the Helicopter, I really appreciate it.

Now, on to business lol.

Decals....this is another of my favorite hobbies, creating them. How do I do it? Well it all started when I bought a "kit" for making decals. The kit was testors corp decal maker kit which came with a mini-cd program, 3 half sheets of decal paper and a spray on bonding agent or "overcoat". This was a great idea on paper I am sure when they designed this little kit, however, it had very few aircraft decals that I could use, it was mainly designed with model car builders in mind as far as I can tell. So, I never used the program, all I was really after was the bonding agent and the decal paper anyway.

Since the kit was not what had thought it would be, I decided to find all of the ensignia and markings online in google images, save them to my computer, then crop, adjust and otherwise edit them in one of my photo editing programs, I then had to determine the size I needed them to be in order for them to be "in scale" and also fit on the "half-sheets" of decal paper. The easiest way to determine the size the decal should be is to measure an existing decal such as a roundel or numbers from another kit of the same scale as you are wanting to design new decals for. The real trick is getting them in the correct position on the decal paper when you print them. The best way I have found, since I have a photo quality printer which only places the image in certain places on the page, was to first, arrange the decals on a "picture" the size of the decal paper. I then printed a copy of the "picture" containing the "decals" onto a piece of plain paper. I then use four small pieces of tape to place the decal paper over the printed image on the plain paper and place the sheet of paper back in the printer and print the picture/decals again, this time they line up on the blank decal paper. I allow the decal to air dry for a few minutes after printing and then apply several light coats of the spray on bonding agent to the printed decal. ( I have since found out that you can use most any "overcoat spray" like testors gloss coat or testors dull-cote in place of the bonding agent for the decals to keep the ink on the decal from running once the decal is soaked in water).

I hope that my explaination has been helpful, if youneed any more specific answers, feel free to ask and I will try to answer them as best I can.

Now to Chris' Question...

I know that minicraft made the kit I used although it was 1:48th scale, however, I believe they also make a 1:72 version of the MH-60 (the MH-60 is the special ops version of the UH-60, the coast guards jayhawk is designated the HH-60) but, the MH-60 models will not have the coast guard insignia with the model.

Italeri also makes a 1:72 scale model of the MH-60 and if you will look at this link, you can see a conversion of their model into an HH-60 with the use of after market conversion parts and after market decals. 1/72 Italeri USCG MH-60J by Pete Brown .

There are various models of the UH-60 Blackhawk on the market in 1:72, in my personal opinion, I believe the minicraft models are some of the best howeverthat would be for the individual to decide. One main difference between the UH-60 and the MH/HH-60 is the reserve fuel tank locations, on the blackhawk, the tanks are hung low on the helicopter, on the special ops pavehawk and USCG Jayhawk, the reserve tanks are mounted high on pylons to allow for troops to disembark and on the jayhawk to allow the helicopter to get close to the water if needed for rescue missions without the tanks being in the way.

Now I spray painted my version of the jayhawk with "rattle-cans"...ie spray paint cans, after having masked off the design i wanted. I painted the model white overall, allowed to dry and using low tack masking tape, masked the model off to give the desired paint scheme with the red paint. Its not as complicated as it sounds and really didnt take too terribly long to paint and assemble. (As you can see by my original post, I started on the model about 6 am and had the photos posted by 10:18 am that same morning).

Anyway, if you wish to find out more model manufacturers of the Blackhawk and its variants would suggest you search out google, google images or ebay and type in the variant you want....ie 1:72 scale MH-60 Pavehawk, HH-60 Jayhawk, UH-60 Blackhawk model kit. You should find alot of results.

I hope this has been of help to you both, have a good day and again welcome to the forum.

Greg aka GEEDUBBYA (GW)

[Guest]

Thanks for replying to my message, I looked at the links and I think I have all the stuff I need to build my own MH-60 Pave Hawk. I have the MH-47, and several MH-53's waiting to be built and an O/AH-6 also.Keep up the good work, I like it!! Here is what I am just finishing off at the moment.

As you can see I like to make alternative things also

[Guest]

Howdy Chris,

Well, you are welcome for the reply, but, I do appreciate your response to my posting in the first place too lol.

Your photos of your plane look great and I look forward to seeing even more of your work so keep em' coming.

And remember, you dont have to wait to build a model to post photos of it, models you have built in the past make great photos too, so if you have any previous builds on your shelves at the house, be sure and take pics of them and post them too.

Have a good day and good luck with the helicopters,

Greg aka GEEDUBBYA (GW)

[Guest]

heres some of the projects i have going and in the wings waiting. currently working on the ch-46. thats my brothers bird in the marines. the t-38, sr-71, u-2s and u-2c are just a sample of the planes my father has flown. mom worked on the sr-71. ill post more progress photos as i go. any questions as to details others may want to build thier own, shoot em my way. ill see what my father can give up on the sr and i can just about get anything else you might be interested in.

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[Guest]

Nice job but.... that looks nothing like a HH-60J helicopter. I can appreciate the effort believe me. I just wish it looked like the real thing. There are no external tanks that high, there is no fuel probe, and it looks like like your helo has heat difusers. I am just probably stating the obvious to you. I have been searching the internet high and low for a plastic model to build with my son and this keeps popping up. I am in the Coast Guard and I work on these helos, so believe me when I say your enthusiasm is appreciated. Thanks and better luck on the next one.

[jspitza]

Howdy Chris, Well, you are welcome for the reply, but, I do appreciate your response to my posting in the first place too lol.

Your photos of your plane look great and I look forward to seeing even more of your work so keep em' coming.

And remember, you dont have to wait to build a model to post photos of it, models you have built in the past make great photos too, so if you have any previous builds on your shelves at the house, be sure and take pics of them and post them too.

Have a good day and good luck with the helicopters,

Greg aka GEEDUBBYA (GW)

Or models that have been ruined :grinball2:

Great models Greg! I've been on a real bad building streak lately so posts like these are great to see! My Mother in law is in town and see is really annoying the hell out of me. I've managed to F$#@ up the new Airfix canberra and repairs are in progress. Just her being in the house drives all of us nuts so I can really blame her for this! Take care, Greg

[Guest]

Howdy Bellows and jeff,

First let me say welcome to the forum Chris, we are glad to have you here and look forward to seeing more from you. To both of you (Chris and Jeff), thanks for looking at the thread. And as for the "authenticty" of the model....well as i stated in my original post in this thread "Well I got an early start this morning, got up about 6:00 am and started work on minicrafts MH-60 Special Forces Helicopter.

A few minutes in to the model I decided to make it a United States Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk."

Yes this model does have heat suppressors, yes it does have external fuel tanks that are too high and yes to the people who serve in our nations uniforms and fly these things, (all of whom I have the utmost respect and admiration for) this model probably doesnt look anything like the HH-60J you are accustomed to. But, as I said, the original model was of the Special forces helicopter and I "improvised".

I appreciate your dedication to realism, however in modelling, which is a hobby, realism is more of what you make it. Authenticity is something some people take to heart when building models, while others merely seek reasonable facsimiles or representations.

I believe that if you will look through my gallery, you wont find an authentic model in the lot. I also believe that this holds true with most modelers...sometimes it maybe that they cant aquire the appropriate paint color...other times it maybe that they have a model of a later variant of an aircraft but are attempting to represent an earlier version, or possibly they are just being creative and taking a little bit of "poetic license" with their work.

Being that modelling is done mainly for the mere pleasure of building models, I rarely concern myself with trying to create a 100% authentic model...i build because i enjoy building.

Again, Chris, i do appreciate your criticism, and see it as constructive, however, to me, its just a hobby...something to pass the time and relax with.

Have a good day again, welcome to the forum

Greg aka GEEDUBBYA (GW)