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Little Bird AH-6M


Dukie99

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Here is my next entry to the clear the SOD: Dragon 1/35 Little Bird converted to an AH-6M using the Black Ops models conversion set. Hopefully going from this:

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to that:

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I started this kit when KHM announced more than a year ago that it was going to release a new tool little bird. The conversion is great with very clear and precise instructions but for some reason I lost interest after a while. Now after the massive endeavour that rescuing my A-10C from the SOD was, I feel like something smaller and it is hard to do something smaller than the AH-6M.

 

I have Werner Wings decal to go with it and a brass minigun, which I may or may not use. I found a bottle of MRP lacquer in "Helo drab" which should work fine for the overall color.

 

Once this one is done, there will be only one build left on my SOD, GMF Hs-129B-2 but I am not quite ready to save that one...

 

Cheers,

 

David

 

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Mike,

 

In the cockpit only the floor and the bulkhead come from the dragon kit, the seats, central console with MFDs and all the controls come from the black ops conversion. The seatbelts are from the Eduard Blackhawk set. Not sure how accurate this is but they look cool. I used Airscale decals for the central console and MFDs. This is a very comprehensive conversion where most original Dragon pieces are replaced. The dragon fuselage is used (after some scary cutting to make to side opening behind the pilots bigger), the skids, canopy and main rotor blades, everything else is resin.

 

Made some progress tonight building the GAU-14, the minigun, the Hydra pod and some of the tail components. I will post pictures tomorrow.

 

Cheers,

 

David

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Made quite a lot of progress this week-end. Makes me wonder why I put this helo on the SOD, it is quite an enjoyable build. After thinking about it for a while, I decided that I need to paint the outside of the front fuselage before gluing the cockpit in place. Since this bird has no door, masking the cockpit is next to impossible. I used Tamiya NATO Black before using MRP Helo drab and I like it a lot. I then decided to glue the cockpit in place with 2 minutes epoxy. Here is the first step with the cockpit glued on one side and the other side just dry fitted while the epoxy cures to ensure good alignment. The weapon plank is just dry fitted. I will only glue it when the fuselage is closed up.

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I repeated the same operation to epoxy the back bulkhead on one side before glueing the fuselage together. The fit was actually surprisingly good but there are still a few seems I need to clean up.

Made also some progress on the ordnance and other components

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I need to mask the glasshouse and It is way too thick for the scale but it will have to do, the fit is just so so but that also will have to do. There are a lot of bits and bobs to glue under and on top behind the main rotor (sensors and antennas) but the major components have been done. I should be ready for some decals next week-end.

 

Cheers,

 

David

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Vandy, Troy, thank you for your kind words. Made some more progress tonight. Masking the canopy inside and outside

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Installed the pylon on the hydra pod. The braces are made of 0.5mm copper wire. I pierced through the resin pylon to install them. I will probably pick them up in aluminum with a brush but I may also leave them as is, I don't know yet.

 

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I also installed the GAU-14 on the weapon plank. The pylon braces got the same treatment. The ammo belt took a while to get the right shape but with a glass of boiling water I was able give it the proper shape and it fits great and the gun look badass if you ask me.

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I hope you like it.

 

Cheers,

 

David

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David,

 

This little bird keeps getting better and better. The mini gun looks awesome. Always wanted to fly a Loach back in the day. I was in the Army Guard. I had greats times flying the AH-1S, OH-58's and UH-1H. Lovely build going on here. I wish some aftermarket love would go towards a Loach in 1:32 scale. Keep them coming. Superb efforts going on here.

 

Troy

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Troy, thank you for your kind words and thank your for your service. I envy you to have flown these birds. I am strangely attracted to modeling helos although I never set foot in one and from the time I spent in the army (the Swiss army that is) I should be more attracted to armor than aircraft. I guess I did too much crawling in the mud as a Panzergrenadier, so I need to look at the sky to compensate😇

 

Brian this conversion is designed for the Dragon kit so I don't know if it makes sense to wait for the KH kit. The benefit of the announcement of the KH kit is that I could buy the Dragon kit very cheap. I had bought this conversion before being able to find the Dragon kit at a decent price. For the KH announcement the kit was routinely selling for more than 100USD on eBay. I paid 40USD for the kit and close to USD 90 for the conversion (well worth it IMHO).

 

Tonight I finished adding the last pieces of resin to the airframe. Bottom of the aircraft:

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Tail and tail rotor and top antennas:

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And finally with the rotor and weapon plank dry fitted. We are getting there.

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Cheers,

 

David

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Mike, thank you for posting. And I call this one done. It is by no means perfect but I am pretty happy with the result even though I seriously struggled with the fit of the canopy. Here are the pictures, not the easiest to do in that all dark scheme. I hope you like it.

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On to the next bird on the SOD.

 

Cheers,

 

David

Edited by Dukie99
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