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HPH Helldiver


Brian79

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Ive been working pretty steadily on this kit and so far its pretty good. I started with the cowl and added some interior detail because the PE is really too one dimensional, still not done yet.

 

The pros are that all of the major parts fit together great, even better than some injection kits. The clear parts are absolutely fantastic, I mean absolutely best Ive ever seen. The Cowling PE couldnt fit any better.... it is perfect. Surface detail is great too and there are very few mold issues with the main components. The cockpit is really nice too, except there are some overscale issues Ive yet to take a closer look at, I think chopping the seats and headrest will be good enough, no sweat.

 

The down side is my upper engine cylinders are all pretty much trashed by rubber molds that were worn out, they have little pieces of blue rubber on them from where the mold was starting to disentigrate. The landing gear legs are pretty ugly too in terms of mold quality, but I can make them work with I think and finally the pieces that go in the gear bay that attach to the struts are broken with no missing pieces in the bag. I'll ask for replacements, if they wont, I'll CAD up a new motor and other parts I need.

 

If they address the issues for me, Id give this kit a 10/10 which it really does deserve!

 

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Nice to hear...I have been seriously considering ordering that kit.

 

Your assessment of it reminds me of the HPH Hornet I built a while back.  Absolutely brilliant in most aspects...pretty rough and "half hearted" in a few others.

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Well tonight I worked on the prop hub and the engine face. The engine had a blob of resin in the hole where the brass rod attaches and i didn't drill the hole straight so I made a big mess of it, same with the prop hub. I wish they would have just drilled the hole in the spinner, it's hard to drill a perfect hole on the vertical axis. Does anyone know if Eduard has a 2600 in the works? This kit is beautiful, but the more I look at it the engine is really, really weak. I have a feeling I'll be CADing one up if not...

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Guest Clunkmeister

Brian, just Email HPH. They're really good about getting replacents out quickly. They want to see the kits built, not sit unbuilt in some dark closet, still packed in the box.

Edited by Clunkmeister
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Guest Clunkmeister

Brian. They have done me right several times. They're gonna develop a model for me as well, and I trust them completely.

Email them, let them impress you too.

Edited by Clunkmeister
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Ok, I made a little more progress tonight. After dry fitting the wings numerous times I decided that to get a strong bond and a tight fit I would tightly tape the fuselage together and mount one wing at a time and then take it back apart to detail the interior. I know this sounds odd, but I have done it before and with a lot of checking it works fine. My initial mock-ups with just the spars showed that I would have to apply extreme pressure to get both wings snug at the same time. With the interior absent I can stick my fingers in the bomb bay and push really hard to get a ultra snug joint. The spars have ample slop in them to allow for an accurately aligned bomb bay later. You may notice that I also glued the wing together with out the PE parts inside, I also mocked this up and everything will fit fine after the wings are assembled. Again I did this because you really risk damaging the fine details adjusting the wing. One important note to that effect: Notice the crack on the inboard side of the wheel well, I did that on purpose to eliminate the natural gap that is there. Check out the HPH build pics and you will notice a decent sized void they have filled there, if you cut this area it will snap right in, a little epoxy and it will smooth right out, hope that makes sense...

 

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Edited by Brian79
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Nice progress, Brian. FWIW, HpH has just released an aftermarket 2600 engine in its Alternate Parts range:

 

http://www.hphmodels.cz/index.php/en/shop-2/produkty-hph-models/doplnky-a-chemie/r-2600-engine-1-32-detail

 

It's probably not a cheap way to fix the problem, though, and I'm sure HpH would send you replacement parts. I notice that their website says all orders will be shipped after 10 August, with the implication that they're currently on summer holidays.

 

Kev

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