Dragon 1/35 AH-6J 'Little Bird'

Modeling Subjects Helicopters
1

Its time for me to take a break from armor builds and build something with rotors. I had so much fun building UH-1H for a friend’s 50th birthday last year so I am afraid I am hooked…

My next victim…

Was disappointed to find this not as good as most Dragon kits. Didn’t realize it was made in 1995…

PE belts and foot petals are from Eduardo…

Primed with Vallejo black primer…

Painted…

Kit miniguns were terrible… shame on you Dragon folks!

Brass miniguns from RB to resuce… but they were not that easy either. After many hours they are finally assembled…

I had to use stryene to reinforce the brass round pieces to hold the barrels better. They were way too thin and fragile… I would be keen about buying miniguns from RB again.

Ammo belts were damaged when I had it painted. So I went ahead and ordered an aftermarket set from Cobra Company that comes with four long ammo belts made of rubber. And a set of decals… believe it or not Dragon didn’t include decals for this. All pictures of actual Little Birds I have seen had marks…

Hope you will enjoy this…

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Hello Andy!

That’s a machine I like very much. Judging by the start you made, the model’s gonna be really good! Good luck with your project and have a nice day

Paweł

3

Looking good so far. Keep up the great work.

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Thanks Gino and Pawel! Was trying to build it out of box without aftermarket but it is not happening… :sunglasses:

Hope the stuff from Cobra Company arrives soon since I am almost done with the interior. Dark washes applied to the pit last night… will post an update soon.

Have a great day too!

5

Update on the Little Bird…

Cockpit dark washed and covered with dust. Planning to add more dirt to the floor later…

Halves of fuselage have been glued together… fitting was just horrible so it required plenty of putty and sanding.

I am sure I will need to add more putty after it is primed.

Canopy has been dipped with Future to cover some scratches. It already was off the sprue when I opened the kit unfortunately.

Skids and weapons attached… now it is armed and dangerous!

I have two weeks and half to finish this in time for the model show. LOL Thanks for looking…

6

Looking great! Just curious, but what are the dimensions in millimeters of the armament mounting “plank”. I have the Academy 1/48 MH-6/MD-500 kit and am lacking that information. That kit only comes with TOW pods like the standard MD-500 Defender, not the MH-6 kit it purports to be. I can convert from 1/35 to1/48 with the scale ruler that I have, but if you can provide me the 1/35 dimensions I can scratch build that part for mine. I have scrounged up miniguns and rocket pods from other kits.

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Thanks Stik!

Sure, I can help you but I don’t have one of those fancy measuring thing. I only have a standard ruler… I can measure it in CM if it helps?

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Stik- Here’s pictures… I figured it was best to take pictures with a ruler placed next to it.

3.5 CM from edge of the door to the tip of wing excluding the missile launcher.

Little less than 1.5 CM width… Hope this helps… good luck!

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Thank you sir, the photos help a LOT! As long as its measured in metric, it makes the math conversion a lot simpler. Could I get a thickness dimension also please?

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Absolutely! Will take another picture tonight… glad it is helping.

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It helps immensely! Many thanks my friend!

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Good looking bird!

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Sorry it took me a while to do this. Here’s the thickness pic you requested…

Hope this helps…

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Sorry I missed your post earlier… thanks! Appreciate it…

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Here’s update on the Little Bird… man, this kit has a lot of fitting issues especially the bubble canopy but its almost done.

Added couple of wirings to the miniguns…

Then it was painted with Vallejo Black Gray with few drops of black. Then it was highlighted with thinned Dark Grey for the fading parts…

Fitting issue between the bubbe canopy and fuselage was nasty… after coats of putty and Mr Surfacer it looks OK now…

Thanks for looking!

16

Andy, I knew it’s going to be a hot looking chopper! Say, what kind of launcher is that - it’s unusually long for that type. Keep up your great work and have a nice day

Paweł

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Thanks Pawel! I agree… thought those launchers looked long. Relying on the only good source pictures at this site it looked pretty good.

http://s362974870.onlinehome.us/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=185268

Notice the launchers were dark gray not black?

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They started life black, but the black used by the 160th quickly fades to a dark gray color. The rocket launcher is a 7 shot 70mm M260 pod.

Ray

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Thanks Ray! Is that you the same guy who posted great pictures of the Little Bird?!?!?!? I have been using it to build mine and paint it too. You have been a great help!

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That would be me, but I’m only a pixel pusher. As you probably read they were given to me by James Green. I’m glad they are proving helpful. You might also find THIS thread interesting. Most of the photos there were taken by Graham Stevens who was a plank member of the 160th. They are earlier Little Birds but still very cool. Graham coined the name NIght Stalkers for the group.

Ray