Im normally an aircraft person, but I decided to branch out a bit and get a couple of Helos in the stash. My first is going to be a 1/72 scale MH-47 from Italeri. This kit requires a bit of surgery to help convert it into the SOA version, and I will also be adding a bit of detail to the interior. Wish me luck! [proplr]
THis is what the interior looks like…a bit barren, so I’ll be adding some thingamajigies to spruce it up a bit.
The original fuel tanks needed to be cut off, and thankfully, Italeri had a nice grove placed right along where you needed to slice, so that helped a lot.
Cutting the little tanks off:
the bigger tanks installed and puttied in. The fit wasn’t too horrible and the putty mostly helped to blend the seams.
Owl, I just picked this kit up as well … I can’t do too much building on it at the moment, but I’m very interested to see what you do with it… Good luck!
Trucking along, I began to make the seats for the interior. The seats have this red mesh backing, so thats what I started on first. Strips of paper colored red (on both sides) cut into strips and glued together:
the top rail is sections of paperclip.I made more mesh than I needed for the area, but I guess thats better than making too little! You can see a bit of the interior bulkheads I’m scratch-building in the uh…tail?..unloading?..back hatch?..area. The ribs were made from an old gift card, cut to shape. I wanted to leave the hatch open to see the interior, so adding detail to that area is a must!
Nice improvisation for the netting. Once everything is sealed up as some one is looking up the open ramp, it should look just fine. Just a thought, since I have not rode in a 47 for several years now, but IIRC, the area between the ribs behind the seats is covered with a soundproof quilting. If you are interested in trying to replicate that feature. and most of the interior is standard US Dark Gull Gray. The cockpit interior should be all Flat Black for use with NVGs.
Nice improvisation for the netting. Once everything is sealed up as some one is looking up the open ramp, it should look just fine. Just a thought, since I have not rode in a 47 for several years now, but IIRC, the area between the ribs behind the seats is covered with a soundproof quilting. If you are interested in trying to replicate that feature. and most of the interior is standard USDark Gull Gray. The cockpit interior should be all Flat Black for use with NVGs.
Night Vision Goggles- dont ask me for the nomenclature of the ones the aviators use, but having looked thru them I can tell you that they give a far higher resolution and depth of field than the PVS-7s and PVS-14s I got to use. Fantastic devices! The black cockpit interior removes reflections from the cockpit interior that can interfere with the pilots use of NVGs under conditions that those are used.
We use the ANVIS 6’s, if you need any photos for the build let me know, I have some on my computer. They are of the D model but alot of the components are the same. Unfortunately I can’t provide any G model pics (the regiment forbids it.)
Hello Owl, Looks like a great start towards the next very nice model.I’d like to point out one area for you - it’s like the insides of the rear rotor pylon. When the ramp is open you can look up, like inside of the pylon, and there you should see lots of machinery, most importantly the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit). It could be good to use some gizmology there, as the Italeri model is pretty empty in this area. Hope it helps, good luck with your project
Glad I could help. By the way, maybe I could help some more - here are four pics I secured off the internet some time ago - see I want to build the Chinook some day too. Hope the won’t give you too much of AMS. here we go:
That’d be it for now - good luck with your build, have a nice day
I’ve gotten a bit more scratch building done in the ramp area. Thanks to Pawel, I’ll be adding more in the rear rotor tower, Here’s where Im at now:
I was also able to finish up the seats. The frame work is straightened paperclip, the “fabric” is red-colored paper, and the legs are copper wire. Looks pretty good to me, and it adds a nice splash of color to the otherwise drab Helo. Here’s me test fitting/seeing how it looks:
the Chinook has been scooted aside for now, to allow me room to work on my “Weekend Madness” kit.
