Well after almost 3 months of working on this in my spare time, here’s my completed Italeri 1/72 H-34.
I chose to model a USN UH-34G from HT-8 in the overall red-orange training scheme. I used the Cobra Company resin interior and the Eduard photo-etch detail set. Both were excellent and I highly recommend them. I also cut off the closed cockpit windows to display them in the open position and added some wiring for the hoist motor above the cabin door. I had the decals custom made at Fireball Modelworks (thanks Joseph!) and they turned out great.
Nice work on opening the side cockpit windows , the cockpit interior looks great too .
The fireball decals look perfect , how did you work out all the measurements for each decal numbers and lettering to give to joseph ;
I have a couple of 1/72 scale USMC UH-1E Trainning Huey’s as well as two Navy H-34’s , I’ve been trying to scrounge up spare decals from different sheets and it’s difficult to get letters and numbers exactly the same size . It would be great if I could get everything I needed on one sheet ? All I have as reference are the pic’s in Squadron Signals UH-1 Huey and H-34 in action books .
Thanks for the positive comments guys. I had a fun time doing this build and I’m happy with the results. Wish my pictures were better…
As for your questions John - I didn’t give Joseph any dimensions. I just e-mailed him some pictures and gave him a “laundry list” of exactly what markings I needed and he did all the work. I can’t tell you how great Joseph was to work with and the results speak for themselves. I can’t recommend him enough! Not only that but his prices are very reasonable – I’d almost say too cheap!!
He also did another H-34 decal set for me (an overall grey bird from VC-1 – it’s in the Squadron “In Action” book and a color photo is located in fantastic book “Sikorsky H-34: An Illustrated History”) and a UH-1 in Ft. Rucker markings that I’m working on now…
Drop him a line and then be sure to post photos of your builds John!
Very nice job on the Seabat, I’ve got Kingpin II from the Squardron H-34 book on my list of things to build someday.It is a similar high vis H-34 used during one of the Antarctic explorations.
What did you use for the day-glo paint? It came out very nice and I understand that is a difficult color to paint.
As for the paint, I attempted to use Model Master fluorescent red - orange (#2041 or FS28913) with my airbrush. I must have had some bad paint thought because it went on like 220 grit sandpaper, ugh! After a few curse words I sanded it smooth and re-primed the bird. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do and I was starting to think my Seabat wouldn’t ever be finished. Then one day about a week later I was in the paint isle at my local Wal-Mart I stumbled across a spray can of Krylon #3101 “Red Glowing Orange Fluorescent” paint. I decided to take a chance with it and after some testing I was very happy with the results and used it and was very pleased with the outcome.
Fluorescent finishes aren’t too bad, the key is making sure you have a uniform light primer on everything you want to paint fluorescent. I used light gull gray and that worked just fine.
Good luck with your H-34 and be sure to post a picture when she’s done!
