This is a resin kit of the Commanchero Gunship seen in the sci-fi series ‘Macross’ but its so close to a couple of ‘real world’ choppers I thought I could sneak it in here. Of course the Hind comes to mind, but there are a few other inspirations too.
I’m going to try and get it as close to a modern weathered-to-hell-and-back Apache or Hind as possible, with extra scratchbuilt detailing and an ugly old paint job.
Here’s where I’m at…
So far, I’ve made a gatling gun out of syringe needles, put in some climbing rails, rebuilt the prop pylon with various size of aluminium tubing and put some more styrene bits and pieces on for detailing. Seen here as well are some pilots from the series that I mastered and cast in resin. Should give you an idea of the scale, if nothing else.
Haven’t had much of chance to work in this, but had a good go this weekend.
I’ve replaced the back rotor with a scratchbuilt one. I didn’t like the Hind ones supplied with the kit, aesthetically I wanted something to go with the curves of the hull and some blades from the moder ‘Tiger’ eurocopter fit the bill perfectly for me. They are attached here temporarily with blu-tac for photography. Remember, as there’s no real ‘canon’ to this, I get to make up some of this as I go along!
I put in some figures to pilot, and gave the interior bits and pieces some Alclad Duraluminium to give them a bit of shine. Once they go behind the cockpit canopies you wont see them as much, and I want the canopies to be a bit of a visual focus.
Next I will put the canopies on and seal them on, mask them up, and that’s the last time we will see the interiors until it’s finished!
So I took a look at the gatling gun I built and decided it wasn’t good enough. I built another one out of injection needles and some sheets of epoxy putty. The other one I made (pics earlier on) was made with brass tubing, and it just didn’t look to scale. Neither does this new one, but its a bit closer! Huge caliber though…
Then, after an undercoat of Tamiya Sky Grey, I masked the whole thing to give a subtle camo effect. I saw a modern assault copter in a subtle grey-on-grey scheme that I really liked which I am trying to emulate. So after an hour or two masking the whole thing with tiny bits of Tamiya masking tape (haven’t found a cheaper substitute despite my experiments) I put a coat of Royal Grey over it. I was happy with the result. In the pic here the contrast is a bit exaggerated because one is finish is completely dry, and the other only half an hour old.
Since that pic I have put on a coat of Pledge One-Go (that’s ‘Future’ to the norte-americanos ). I’m about to start putting on the decals. There’s a little bit more masking to do, but I will tackle that later.
I’ve got about 5 days before I enter this bird in a competition, so I will be finishing it this week one way or another! Nothing like a deadline to get you motivated!
Well the pressure is still on, I’m really counting down the nights to the convention.
Tonight I should have finished decaling, but I wont finish until tomorrow now. I finished masking and airbrushing tonight - the dark grey nose, and tail - which these pics failed to capture well.
Today I brought a Macross kite decal that I had reproduced from work to home. When I arrive home I found that the kite symbol did not reproduce well, so I’ve lost a day. Tomorrow I will put the symbol on, and maybe rush back home at lunch to put on a coat of Future.
You can see its quite glossy because of the Future coat. But I have a special Matt coat which will cover that shine flat as flat. That will be the final coat, which hopefully will only be 3 nights away. Really looking forwards to removing those canopy masks!
You rotor-heads will be laughing at my decal placement, I’m sure. I’m laughing too! [:D] I’ve ransacked a few different sources for the decals. No idea what some of the mean, but they help to make this non-existent assualt copter look a bit more realistic.
Tomorrow I’m not sure if I will post pics… there probably wont be anything interesting to see. Not sure at this stage.
After a couple more clear coats and weathering, the camo pattern has all but disappeared. I don’t know why… originally the delineations were quite clear, but successive coats has turned the whole thing grey - you can just see the camo pattern. Quite disappointing.
Anyway, I finished it as much as possible before the Macross Convention in Brisbane. Here she is. Looking at her now in daylight - this is the first time I’ve taken a good look at her while the sun is out! - I can see plenty of issues. Still, that’s a job for another day, as well as the missile pods.
