Academy UH-60L DAP Black Hawk

[Elboogie]

Good Afternoon Gentlemen.

 

This is my first WIP on LSP and I have done some work on the Model before I put up this post but I did so in ARC forums and I want to transfer the info over to LSP.

 

My subject is the Academy UH-60L DAP Black Hawk.

 

I have never done a helicopter before and my WIP is not a accurate representation of the model ( I took some artistic licensing on the bird) but most of the helicopter represent the real deal.

I have gotten a lot of help with the helicopter on ARC and their members that know a little something about helicopters because when I put the model together, I did not know ANYTHING about helicopters.

I found myself naming things on the helicopter without knowing the name of the part that I was adding.  Now when it comes to airplanes, that is usually my forte.  

My father was a fighter pilot in the Air Force and he use to drive F15C-Eagles and F16 Falcons.  So naturally I know the round abouts on a fighter jet.

But helicopters, I did not know a thing.

After starting  this build, I really started to get into helicopters.  The main reason why is because I started to like helicopters is because of the dioramas that you can build when you do a helicopter.  I am tired of painting flight decks.   

 

 

But when you do a helicopter, because they have the chance of landing everywhere, and even on a flightdeck, that leaves you a lot of dioramas that you can build in whatever environment.

Since December I have gotten the Academy MH-60s kit and accessories and the 0H-58D Kiowa Warrior and Floyds update set and Zactomans update for the Kiowa.  And I ordered the Dragon MD-530 Gunship.  

The only problem that I can see is that there isn't a lot of kits in 1/35 scale.  Being that I am older, anything smaller that 1/35 scale or 1/32 scale, does not work out for me.  I have seen some people on 1/48 scale subjects take their detailing to amazing heights, but I cannot.  I would rather do 1/35 scale because to detail the kit is much easier for me and my eyes.  Go big or go home!!

 

Now I started working on the helicopter last December and I will post a lot of pictures without explanation to catch the WIP up to date.  Then I will comment when I get to what I am currently working on.

So please be patient with me and I hope you guys find the WIP interseting.

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Welcome aboard Richard!

 

 

Looking forward to seeing your project unfold.

 

Kev

[Elboogie]

Welcome aboard Richard!

 

 

Looking forward to seeing your project unfold.

 

Kev

 

 

Thanks Kevin, I sent you a PM asking to change my username.  Whenever you get to it is fine with me.  I am sure you have your hands full over there.   

[Elboogie]

Alright here we go.

To catch  you guys up with more that 4 months of work, I will take the pictures in stages.

 

First my kit and work area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Items from Live Resin:

The second picture of the minigun in the cabin entrance, I found out that the DAP doesn't use a mingun in the cabin entrance area.  So I bought the Cobra M230 Chain Gun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My work area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And all the pictures that you see hanging on the walls were all done by me.  I love sketching comic book characters.  Something I took from my childhood.

 

 

 

-Richard

 

 

 

 

[Elboogie]

The first thing that I did was some artistic licensing.  Working on the cabin floor.  

First thing I ABSOLUTELY HATE PE!!  I cannot express that enough.  

The reason why I hate PE parts are my own problems.  No matter how many WIP I see about PE parts and gluing them, I always get too much glue, not enough glue, or I misplace the part on the helicopter because the glue took too fast or whatever.  PE parts to add details to your build that is absolutely fantastic, but I have never had a tack for them.  

 

But I still use them.  On the cabin floor I didn't like the pe parts to simulate tie downs so I created my floor with styrene.  Now if you guys ever view a current build on WIP from Rotorman MH-60s build, I took a lot of steps from his built to create mine.  Rotorman is on the most creative person that I know and I started doing helicopters because of a build of a HUEY that  he did that  was amazing to me.  

 

The Floor:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rear cabin wall:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard

[Elboogie]

Middle console with the PE parts attached.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took out the space below the pilots seat to add the avionic boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard

 

 

 

 

 

[Anthony in NZ]

Hey Richard, great to see another helicopter being built around here!  Errr although my 32nd BK117 is really slow moving (as Oliver reminds me ) 

 

Love what you have done so far, with all those extras, she will be a show stopper.  ARC is full of some extremely knowledgeable helicopter guys, you are in good hands with help from them.

 

Thanks for posting and welcome to LSP!

 

Cheers

Anthony 

[Elboogie]

Next thing I did was the pilots cabin area floor.  Once again I took some creative licensing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the middle console dry fitted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard

 

 

[Elboogie]

Hey Richard, great to see another helicopter being built around here!  Errr although my 32nd BK117 is really slow moving (as Oliver reminds me ) 

 

Love what you have done so far, with all those extras, she will be a show stopper.  ARC is full of some extremely knowledgeable helicopter guys, you are in good hands with help from them.

 

Thanks for posting and welcome to LSP!

 

Cheers

Anthony 

 

 

 

Thanks Anthony

 

It is my first helicopter and Oliver has helped me out a lot.  I try to take some of his knowledge to my build.

 

 

-Richard

[Elboogie]

The front wall by the pilots area:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No here is where I ran into problems because I have never done this kit before.  I wanted to extend the middle console so I created a box of styrene and it came out like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem was that I had placed the front wall too forward.  Being that I have never done this kit before, I placed the front wall in front of the tabs that they have in the floor instead of behind.  So I had to add another extension to the console but I fugured that no one would be able to see inside of the helicopter because the main IP will cover it.

 

 

-Richard

 

[LSP_Kevin]

This is really fantastic work Richard!

 

Kev

[Elboogie]

The Roof.  The roof looks nothing like the real deal.  I took some reference pictures of the roof and I applied my limited scratch building skills and tried to recreate what I saw.  I don't think it looks too bad, but not a actual representation of the actual roof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard

 

 

 

[Elboogie]

This is really fantastic work Richard!

 

Kev

 

 

Thanks Kevin.

 

I thanks all my efforts to the people on this forum and the people within ARC forum as well.  They have taught me so much.

[Elboogie]

Now comes the first of a lot of dry fitting.

I dry fitted everything that I have done so far and put it in the fuselage to see if everything fitted correctly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I started on the pilots seats and frames:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pilots seat was something that I took from Rotorman (aka Oliver) that he did on his MH-60s build:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to do sheepskin on the seat covers but I decided not to.  I applied a trick that I always apply to the F-14 tomcat seats to represent the fabric found on the seats.  I used a band aid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I am posting a lot of pictures but I am trying to catch this Forum up with 4 months of work, so I do apologize.  If you guys have any questions or comments please post them and I will reply.

 

 

-Richard

[Elboogie]

Then I applied the PE parts to the seat frames.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now here comes the funny part.  Like I said, I have limited scratch building skills.  So I tried to recreate the back of the seat frames with the springs and all.  Now I won't post my first take on the seats but believe me, you won't want to see it.  So I took it apart and started over.  I put some styrene parts in the middle of the frame and I used guitar strings for the springs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard