UH-34 in the Padi

[rtfoe]

Hey Daniel, there are paddy fields not far away from my house in Sekincan, about an hour and a half drive so reference for it was real. Except it's grown in industrial size fields. Here's a video of the fields...

Cheers,
Richard

[Steve Jones]

That console is beautiful. Wonderful work as always mate:thumb2:

[rtfoe]

Thank you Steve...I hope you like the following...

Firstly strips were added as bracings for the top portion of the mesh. I did it this way rather than trying to leaving the original strips on and to sand and thin them to accept the mesh. Gluing and final puttying tiny gaps to the canopy with Gunze liquid putty aided with a brush.

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The hoisting winch just looked naked and uninteresting without some straps and cable wires. Reference helped with the attachment points

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The picture on the right shows how effective the dangling wire is in the cockpit.

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Again the picture on the right shows why all the effort was put into getting the window to slide open. It makes the kit scale larger than it actually is.

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There will be more...

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Ok I get it, :smiling2: winches arent that exciting so on to the next... how about handles and windshield wipers?

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These were all brass wire bent with tweazers...seriously, attached with drops of Cyano.....10 of them.

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The wiper was attached to a hole carefully drilled on the raised canopy frame.

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Cheers,
Richard

[scottie3158]

Top notch work as always

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
Superb attention to detail. Not only do you do the research to see what detail is missing but you have the modelling skills to scratch what is needed.
Jim

[rtfoe]

Hi Scottie and Jim, thanks for the kind comments. The UH-34 was central to the diorama I was doing and upfront that any details added would help it along. I was going to spend time doing the paddy that somehow triggered my mojo to go all the way. Normally I would have just concentrated on surface detail.

Masking of canopy and mesh, priming and pre-shading gets underway...

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Cheers,
Richard

[scottie3158]

Richard, what size needle do you use for your preshading?

[Mickc1440]

Another catch up and well worth it, some great work on this one Richard.

[JR]

Hey Daniel, there are paddy fields not far away from my house in Sekincan, about an hour and a half drive so reference for it was real. Except it's grown in industrial size fields. Here's a video of the fields...

Cheers,
Richard

Thanks for that video Richard, never realised it was harvested in that manor, and not a tree in sight ! Always assumed you had thick luxurious woodland.
The bird looks fantastic, fancy the manufactures getting the blades wrong. Great detail as we have come to expect.
John.

[rtfoe]

Richard, what size needle do you use for your preshading?

Scottie, I use a 0.3 needle and it literally can be airbrushed to about 1mm but it would mean the needle almost touching the surface, air pressure dead low and paint nearly transparent.

Thanks Mick.

John, you're welcome...what you see is industrial scale for local consumsion, we still import rice from Thailand. The little villages still do it by hand and the their plots smaller. This area is very close to the coast and flat. I was surprised to with the direction of the blades.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Hi, masking and painting...the part of modelling I have a love hate relationship with. You will see why I came up with the tissue solution...using masking tape was unbearably painful.

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I used a mixture of olive green and drab applied in light coats until the pre-shade was just subtle enough through the paint.

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Some pure olive green was sporadically sprayed in certain areas to give that sun bleached paint look.

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When you attempt to paint the canopy shade I would advise you to do it from the inside, dilute the clear green and do a wash. Wicker away access with a clean brush or tip of a tissue. The windscreen wiper and rear view mirror were detached for painting. The wiring for the winch will be hand painted in.

[ATTACH]316423[/ATTACH] All masking off...almost, the back window is still covered.

Cheers,
Richard

[Guest]

Awesome work

[rtfoe]

Thanks Ken...done eons ago. Nowadays I skip the interiors. :smiling6:

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Okay Guys,
Here are the initial gruesome images of the pilots and crew chief. The pilots are salvaged Airfix figures from a twin seater jet that somebody discarded. I asked him for his figures. If you notice, helicopters don't fly high enough to require oxygen masks. I repositioned one of the figures head to turn right. Added new right arms to hold the joystick and removed their feet to fit the cockpit. I removed as much of the seam lines with a sharp blade.

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The crew chief was from Preiser with a helmet made from epoxy putty. I gave him a thumbs up with stretched sprue.

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The seatbelt harness were from epoxy putty added just enough to show attachment to the seat.

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Reference showed Marine pilots donning green fatigues and dark green helmets and were painted as so with minimal highlights. I varnished the helmets remembering seeing them quite shiny.

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That's it for the heli crew. Many people asked why I had the crew chief do a thumbs up, only years later when the dio was done did they finally see why. My planning sometimes can be concieved years ahead.

Cheers,
Richard