Started this bird a while ago (read about this time last year or earlier) but I’ve never posted pics of it, and looking at it now I think I have more to do than I thought. Problem is I don’t really have the enthusiasm to finish it, and the same is true of the 1/35 Academy UH-1C Frog kit I hunted around for endlessly. [:(]
New camera but I still can’t work out how to take photos with a whole model in the shot and still be close up, and I also need to find a better way of holding up a white background, a kettle just doesn’t really do the job. Lol.
Hi Raven- I hope you find some inspiration to continue with this, 'cuz I think the Bell 47 is a cool looking bird, even moreso with the pontoons and yet even more in USCG colors. Looks like you have a decent start here.
Setting up a photo booth, even a temp one, isn’t necessarily easy but here’s what I do (I’ve got the luxury of having a desk in my mancave- the basement- on which to keep my ‘booth’ but this is pretty simple nonetheless): I’ve got two sheets of 8.5" x 11" computer printer paper laid down, slightly overlapping, and I use two more sheets of the same paper propped up with an almost full bottle of isopropyl alcohol and two other glass jars. The paper propped up is taped together in the back and reinforced with cardboard strips taped to the back. I’ve got multiple light sources around the desk, aimed at the desk surface. Is it a pro setup? No, but it gets the job done, it’s simple, and it’s cheap. Maybe you could use something like this for a backdrop to at least provide the solid white background, even if you don’t have a fantastic light source.
Give it a try and see what happens…and best of luck with your choppers!
Thanks. Yeah part of my problem is I don’t have a lot of room to set things up. These were just some quick pictures any way, so I shall probably take a bit more time in setting up the “booth” in future.
So, progress, finally got this finished after nearly a year!!
Didn’t really feel like doing a blow by blow account as there’s really not much of this helo, and it took nearly a year to go from the pics above to the year below, but here’s the final result.
I decided to repaint the OD to USCG red using Model Master Acryl Chevy Engine Red (I found a cheap source that ships to the UK), kind of wish I hadn’t as it gummed up my airbrush quite a bit…
Not very happy with the guys face because the skin tone and ink wash I used didn’t do well over the poorly moulded features, nor am I happy with his jacket (the highlighting I tried to achieve a leather look went all wrong so I had to go over it). I’m also not happy with the canopy as yesterday when I applied Klear over the top of Klear that had been dry/cured for a couple of weeks the canopy decided to go misty on me. And the decals have frosted on me in places.
I’m just not having any luck with clear pieces or putting down decals where I’ve tried to eliminate seams!!!
Just generally not happy with the final results at all, it was looking OK until I put the decals on, painted the pilot and sprayed a 2nd coat of Klear on the canopy (and the canopy doesn’t seem to fit right!)
Anyways you guys judge for yourselves -
I am now working on my 1/35 Academy UH-1C gunship and hope to give some progress updates on that later…
If I remember correctly, Klear is the European version of Future yes? If so, you can remove it with windex and some light rubbing.
I’ve had issues with future and masking, so I’ve personally switched to the Novus polishing sets, which are NOT compatible with future. Hope that helps and FWIW, it looks pretty solid to me!
