After half a day, staring at the stash, trying to decide what to build, I decided it was time to go ahead and build this one. It is Academys 1/48 CH-46, I will be marking it in HMM-266 markings. This is being built for my good friend CPL Fox, who was crew chief on this particular bird in Iraq. He is now in a V-22 A$$pray sq. and completely loathes that crate! So, this is to remind him of the good times in the Phrog!!!
I started in the rear area, adding a bit of detail(mostly from my imagination)to cover up all the ejector marks(they are many!!!), and added some wiring.
Before;
after;
And some pics my buddy sent me from Iraq!
And 1 more with the ARMOR ART “Doing it Phroggy Style”
I have not been able to find any decals for this, so it looks like I’ll have to paint most of the mkgs
I added a bit more detail and wiring to busy things up a bit.
Painted, clear coated, decaled, washed, and dull coated the cargo area.
1 of 2 scratched fire extinguishers. The tank is a piece of sprue, sanded to shape, the handle is just thin plastic folded over a fine wire pull ring and the rest is from stretched sprue.
A bit more prog. The floor is almost finished, just a bit more weathering. I started by drilling out the tiedowns and adding a bit of stretched sprue. Then cut out the molded in detail for the trough tiedowns/rollers? Replaced with sheet styrene on the bottom and little, tiny bits of stretched sprue for the rungs finished off by cutting thin strips (from a blister pack) and CAed them along the sides for raised detail. Some rattlecan flat black, and a raw umber overall wash is where I’m at right now. I’ll add a bit of scratches and chips here and there.
If anyone has any cockpit pics, I would be greatful. I can’t find anything other than exterior and rear areas.
I have a similar build to do for a good friend that also served in 266. I plan on using some squadron photos to print my own decals. The black fighting griffen insignia on the sail should be fairly straightforward printing onto decal paper.
Awesome job so far, man! In 2003 my rifle company served as security at a lot of FOBs, mainly for Phrogs and CH-53s. We were with HMM-268 a lot.
Awesome little scratchbuilt details. The fire extinguishers are especially good. [tup]
It’s a shame that there are so many ejector pin marks… I have the Academy CH-53 kit and it’s the same story. Well over a hundred pin marks on the interior walls, which are molded with a quilted fabric texture, so it’s downright impossible to sand. One huge shortcoming on an otherwise very nice kit. [banghead]
Cool nose, er, door art on this one. Gotta love ol’ Michigan J. Frog! [:D]
Thanks for the compliments guys, helps keep me from slacking off!!!
So Andy, when do you plan on making those decals???
Anytime in the next couple of weeks???
Any chance of an extra set???$$$
Oddman- excellent link, I found everthing I needed…and then some. Now I almost want to completely open this thing up…ALMOST!!!
And Kev, if you’ve got any students on Monday morn, swing on by OZW, a Huey will be around for filming the new RED DAWN movie. If it is not out flying, it’ll be on the west ramp, just south of ONE-THREE, (also U of M survival flight hanger)
Fermis, You’re welcome! www.primeportal.net has helped me through a lot of projects. I don’t know how much you looked over the whole site but it has reference photos of a myriad of planes, armor, helicopters, ships. Good stuff. And I’m glad I could help you out! Continue the fine work and I’m excited to see the finished product. And give your friend a big thanks for me for his service over seas!
I can’t really answer your ? on the rotors for the green machine. I know, the one I’m doing is all black. I also have the Cobra co. resin. Kinda got mixed feelings about it, some bits look great, some are a bit sloppy. Also waiting on some Eduard bits to show up before I delve into the pit. I don’t normally go with all the AM stuff for myself, but this one is for my buddy, who has intimate knowledge of this craft. I wanna get as much in there as possible! Looking forward to seeing your progress!
If you haven’t checked out the link from above, it’s great www.primeportal.net. Click on “airstrip” and a list of craft will come up, pick your craft and get full walkaround shots. I think the 46s on there are all E models?
Here is the bulkhead between the pit and cargo bay. It is Cobra co. resin, but still needed a bit extra, so I scratched the crewchiefs fold down jumpseat out of wire and masking tape, and added a few more wires here and there. The piece isn’t completely correct, the area above the jumpseat on the real thing is open with all kinds of mess crammed in there, I’m just too lazy to cut that out and restuff it. The resin had a bunch of tiny bubbles there so I just covered it with a piece of styrene. Hopefully my Eduard goodies will show up tomorrow.
I counted up all the extra bits I’ve put in so far…276 individual bits!!!
Nice work. You ought to do a cutaway. You’re a more patient man than me, after an hour of sanding the pour block of that part, I was totally into goodenough.
I’m getting more from your build than pics online!
Awe man, now the pressure is on!!! I just used my razor saw and put a shim in between, to hell with all that sanding!!! I think a cutaway might be a bit difficult because of the way the interior and exterior are seperate pieces. The side and back doors will be open!!! I’ve been going through all my refs trying to help find an answer to your rotor color ?, no joy yet.
After going through a few more pics, I could see that my jumpseat was all wrong(Ididn’t really like it anyway). The pic shows it as a weave or web pattern, so I scratched a new one. I just bent a piece of wire into shape and weaved thin strips of Tamiya tape, and decided to show it off in the down position.
