Academy UH-60L DAP Black Hawk

[Elboogie]

Thank you guys for the compliments, you guys know how to make a person feel welcomed.

But if you have any critiques about my build, I welcome them.  I believe it will make me a better modeler.

 

So the next thing that I was handling was all the subassemblies on the bird, such as landing gear and chaff dispenser etc.  Now the pictures that I am showing shows the part with Mr. Dissolved Putty on them but they have been removed.  And some of the sub assemblies have wires etc on them so when I am ready to attach them, the wires would show as well.

 

 

 

 

Chaff dispensers:

 

 

 

 

 

Flare Dispenser:

 

I put some card on the bottom of the flare dsipenser because I had a problem  with that piece showing the bottom of the part itself. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The IFR probe (I believe that that is what it is called):  LOL

 

 

 

 

-Richard

[Lothar]

Yessss, yesss, yesss, another inspiring master of scratch building over here !!!!

 

Lothar

[Elboogie]

The one thing that I am really proud of in this kit is the rotor assembly.  I have never done a rotor before so it took me a little while to get use to it.  I will show you pictures of the tail rotor and the main rotor assembly:

 

 

Rear tail rotor:  I used MM Gun Metal and dry brushed the rotor with MM titanium / then the blades I used Tamiya Olive drab with a little white to lighten the color.  I have seen some pictures of a Black Hawk that had Olive Drab or a certain type of green on their tail rotors.  I made my tail rotor that same way, also to take away from the all black helicopter:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the dry brushing of the tail rotor:

 

 

 

 

I painted the demarcation lines Silver and black like the pictures that I used as a reference.  Out of the whole helicopter, I am most proud of the Tail rotor.  It doesn't have any blemishes of paint on it or anything else on it, like most things I paint.  I  packed it away with my main rotor assembly and I won't attach it to the frame until the last step.    

 

 

 

-Richard

[Elboogie]

Now comes the main rotor assembly and the blades:

 

I added the hated PE parts to the rotor assembly:

 

 

 

 

 

Then I primed the parts with Mr surfacer 1200 from the can and then painted the parts MM Titanium and then painted MM Gun Metal on top.

Then I dry brushed the parts with MM titanium:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I first painted the mast with Alclad gloss black and then Alclad White Aluminum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tubes between the swash plate and the mast, I  placed a certain color on the links and the swash plate to represent their attachment point when they disassemble the rotor.

 

 

Main rotor is done.

 

 

-Richard

 

 

[Elboogie]

Now the main Rotor Blades:

 

 

I painted the rotor blades black (Nato Black) and painted the demarcation line silver.

 

 

I tried to paint the abrasion strip but because the abrasio strip should be black, I left  the blades the way that they were.

I found out about the abrasion strip, and basically everything that I am mentioning here from members in ARC.  I did not know a thing about doing Helo's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now the only thing that I am struggling with is the weather of the rotor blades.  I cannot dry brush a big subject like the rotor blades.  On small parts like a rotor assemblies and etc, it is very easy.  But on big things, I make a mess for me.  I cannot tell you how many times I had to repaint my rotor blades, (at least 4 times I think) because the dry brushing that I did was too strong.  Now I have pigments and they work out well for me, except when I have to apply dull coat to the blades, it almost takes away everything that I did.  I know when we use pigments, we should add more that we think because  the dull coat or whatever we use to protect the weathering will take some of the pigment away.  But if anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.  

 

But I will figure it out, it is one of the last thing that gets attached to my helicopter so I have time.

 

 

-Richard

[Elboogie]

Yessss, yesss, yesss, another inspiring master of scratch building over here !!!!

 

Lothar

 

 

Thanks Lothar.

But I am far from a scratch builder.  I got most of my ideas off of shark64.

This is my first time doing extensive scratch building ever.  I usually do model airplanes, but after seeing shark64 huey, he inspired me to do a helicopter.  

Since that time I have gotten 3 more helicopters in my stash.  Who would have known.

 

-Richard

[Elboogie]

Rest of the sub-assemblies:

 

 

Rear landing gear Wires and cables etc,  and completed wheels.

Painted the tires with Mr Color Lacquer Tire Black and the hubs with Tamiya Olive Drab.  I have yet to weather the wheels, I will wait until the end of the build.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rocket Pods:

 

Tamiya olive drab with a little white.  Also MM gun Metal and MM titanium for dry brushing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ESS wings: (I believe that is the name for them)  with putty on them:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Engine Outlet:

 

Alclad Gloss black and Alclad Polished aluminum and Pale burnt metal.  Then I decided to paint the entire part pale burnt metal in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard

 

 

[Elboogie]

Now here comes some more dry fitting.

 

Started with the cabin and the fuselage and I taped them together.  I have been reading other people's WIP on the academy black hawk and I have heard things about the fit of the windshield to the helicopter.

So I decided to try it.

 

The top looked fine:

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the windshield, where the windshield attaches to the helicopter at the bottom, is not bad, nothing that gluing the fuselage together would not mend.

 

 

 

 

 

Now here may be a problem.  Where the windshield attaches to the chin window area there seems to be a gap.  But the chin window isn't in there yet so it may not be a problem when the chin windows go into the helicopter.

 

 

 

 

Now at this time, this arrived in the mail:

 

 

 

 

So my hands are tied for the next year.  

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard

 

[Hawkwrench]

I've followed this build over on ARC and now I'm a member of LSP following it again.

Great job on the hawk so far!

 

Tim

[Elboogie]

So here is my story concerning Live Resin miniguns.

 

I first ordered a set of the miniguns from Live Resin and the craftsmanship is outstanding.  When I got the miniguns, they don't come with instructions.  I have never did a model gun before so I attempted to put together the mini guns and they came together correctly except that I glued on a part wrong so the whole thing had to be scrapped and I ordered another two miniguns.  Now that I have built them before, I knew what to look out for.  So here are the miniguns:

 

 

 

 

With instructions:

 

 

 

 

 

And the final product:

 

 

 

 

 

Then I did the magazine boxes that come with the mini gun set and put them in their position and even did a wire from the magazine box to the motor.  I recently found out that the little magazine box (aka the motor) should not be in a black hawk because the black hawk is already wired for the magazine boxes or something like that.  But it was too late because the boxes were already installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The collectives:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard

[shark64]

looks good from here. 

I like the paint job on the tail rotor BTW.  front cockpit is pretty sharp too.

Oliver

[Elboogie]

looks good from here. 

I like the paint job on the tail rotor BTW.  front cockpit is pretty sharp too.

Oliver

 

 

And the funny thing is I am already taking notes on the kit so when I build my MH-60s, it will look half as good as yours looks.  

Thanks Oliver

 

 

Richard

[Elboogie]

I've followed this build over on ARC and now I'm a member of LSP following it again.

Great job on the hawk so far!

 

Tim

 

 

Good to see you Tim

 

Richard

[kike_gt]

I haven´t seen that tail rotor Richard! looks realli nice!

 

to bad my Pavehawk is already closed and far away looking as nice as your helo! I'm waiting for your paintjob and Oliver´s to see what I can pick and use to at least kinda save i that way!

[Elboogie]

Wow, you guys are almost all caught to my build.

 

I left a lot of pictures out, but in a nutshell, this is almost it.  Now back to the kit.

 

 

First off, something else I got in the mail:

 

 

 

 

 

This is the second helicopter that I have got since i started this kit last december.    

 

 

So I started working on the M230 Chain gun and its magazine box.  And I painted my fuel bladder as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I started to glue my cockpit together.  The seats and frames and the cyclics and everything else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Richard