Dukie99 Posted October 27, 2015 Author Share Posted October 27, 2015 Thank you all the positive comments. Back from the holidays and severely jetlagged, I have made some progress tonight, the cargo hull is pretty much finished with only the row of seats on the portside to be added but before doing that I need to glue the fuselage because the seats rest on the sidewalls. Somehow I will have to find a way to insert and glue them in. I installed a plamya grenade launcher at the end of cargo hull since I have decided to take out the clamshell door. It is still quite barren in there I think I will have to add some ammo boxes and other equipement to make it a bit more busy. I have partially glued the fuselage and I have to say the fit is pretty good, the only gap to speak of is just above the cockpit but nothing that some putty cannot take care of. Here are some progress pics. Thanks to John for the color reference on the AK-74, I hope I am not too far off. It starts to look like a Hip. Thanks for watching. David mywifehatesmodels, dutik and Lars Befring 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Great progress, David! Yes, even in that photo, it's pretty much instantly recognizable as an AK-74. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark31 Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 Great work keep on going. I have moved my mi-8 to the top of the stash thanks to yor build. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukie99 Posted October 29, 2015 Author Share Posted October 29, 2015 Hi Guys, Thank you for the encouragement. I have been working on the windshield and scratchbuilding the front PKT emplacement that you so often see on Afghan Hips such as this one: I have shaped the front cover with putty. I am not yet satisfied with the profile as it looks too chunky and I need to make it slimmer but I think it does not look too bad. I have scratchbuild the inside mount from evergreen styrene rod and plasticard and used a piece of a Dragon PKT for the body of the gun. Not much will be seen once I glue the windshield to I think it should look OK I also masked the inside of the canopy to paint everything blue-grey. Normally I dont mask inside canopies and I am happy to shoot inside color on the outside canopy first but with this much glass, I decided to also mask the inside so it looks better. Unfortunately some of the glue I used to glue the plasticard seeped under the masking tape and mared the central windshield at the very bottom , I will have to sand and polish that area I want to get a perfectly clear windshield I hope you like it. Till next time, thank you for watching. David mark31, Lars Befring and mywifehatesmodels 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukie99 Posted November 3, 2015 Author Share Posted November 3, 2015 Finally finished the cockpit by adding a folding jump seat for the front PKM position and then gluing the glass. I have managed to sand and polish the inside of the central windshield which I had marred with glue. There is a number of gaps between the glass and the fuselage and I filling these gaps with expoxy which cures transparent so I can then paint it with interior color and hopefully these gaps will not be seen from the inside. I have also started sanding the fuselage to remove the central joint and should be ready for primer by the end of the week hopefully. I have made progress on scratchbuilding the heat suppressors and I hope to finish them this week-end. Thanks for watching. David Lars Befring and mywifehatesmodels 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukie99 Posted November 7, 2015 Author Share Posted November 7, 2015 Now that I have closed the cockpit and the fuselage, it is the grind of sanding, puttying and resanding. I am getting there and it will soon be time to rescribe all the lost rivets, oh joy! In the meantime I have almost finished the heat suppressor. They are a prominent feature of all Afghan Hip late in the war and of course they are nowhere to be found in the box, so I decided to scratchbuild them out of plasticard and here is the result. You should not look too closely but from a distance I think they look the part. Right now they are just dry fittet, I will only glue them after the camo is done. I hope you like it. Thanks for watching. David Lars Befring, mywifehatesmodels, dutik and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 Thats a big brute! I kinda am in a big ugly helo mood lately..............Looking forward to some color! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 I would have sworn they were kit parts! Great work! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark31 Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Nice work keep up the great work. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dukie99 Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Time for an update even if I did not get much bench time this week. John, Mark, Brian and Maru, thank you for following this build, each of you have great builds on LSP and it is great for me to see better modelers taking an interest in this build. What would a gunship helicopter do without pylons? not much I am afraid, so I started building the pylons provided in the Ruporator set. This is a great little kit but fragile even if all the resin pieces have copper wire in them for strength. I have assembled and primed the main pylon frames. I have only cleaned the two sets of holders which will keep the frame level. I will glue the frames and holder set only after painting and weathering the fuselage to avoid breaking them but I wanted to dryfit them before painting to make sure everything is square. I pierced holes in the fuselage for the attachment points, which I will subsequently fill with expoxy. In the pictures below, everything is just dryfitted and holding from the holes made in the fuselage. There is a slight sag to the frames but once they are glued that should disappear. D Don't know what you think but it looks badass even without any weapon, so wait until I load her up . I have started working on the weapons, I plan to install two pods of rockets (from the ruporator set), two twin 23mm cannon pod (from Trumpeter Mi-24) and two AA-8 Aphid (from Zactomodel). I know that the Mi-8 rarely carried the Aphid in Afghanistan but since I found this picture (also showing gun pods), I could not resist Thanks for watching. David Lars Befring, mywifehatesmodels, Geoff Staniland and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNoAF Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Cool chopper!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mywifehatesmodels Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Great work on the pylons and racks. She's already starting to look mean! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark31 Posted November 13, 2015 Share Posted November 13, 2015 Nice one keep going. And yes i love the look of the pylons maybe i have to buy a set. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted November 14, 2015 Share Posted November 14, 2015 This is some right nice modeling. Great show! Sincerely, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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