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Trumpeter 1/35 CH-47D Chinook


Wafu

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I've decided to post this on, It's been six months since I first cracked the box lid so its not a fresh build. In fact, I stalled over the summer to finish building a member of my shelf of doom.

 

 

So here is the photo of the box and some of the things brought together for this build all those months ago, this isn't a definitive showing of ‘things' but it gives you an idea of my intensions.

 

 

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Trumpeter provides the modeller in 1/35, a base to start building a Boeing Chinook, that's all I can say. The kit is massive as is the aircraft itself. Having said that its sparse to say the least, a very bare cockpit and a very, very bare cabin leaves the modeller two options, close all doors or get scratch building, I chose the latter.

 

I started with the cockpit, Floyd Werner provides a very good conversion/update for this area.

 

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Floyd's conversion throws out the cockpit floor, Pilots seats and centre pedestal, giving you a full MFD (Multi Function Display) cockpit. Just add looming and you are away.

 

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The cabin however is another story. I had a clear floor plan of how the 160 SOAR Night Stalkers have their cabins laid out. I set about building the avionics rack on the port side forward bulkhead, this done I moved to the seats. Eduard Big set helps with this, they provide the seats ‘fabric' and belts, you make the frame. As you can see the other cabin parts started to make me wander off the task in hand.

 

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After all that fun has subsided, the marking out and painting of the floor started. While this dried between colours, the stretcher litter was made. After this had been done I set about the cabin wall soundproofing. First a skeleton of plastic beams was glued into place, this was followed by sticking pre-cut sections of aluminium tape that had been rolled over a cooking sieve to give the crosshatched effect. With that done I inserted the kit windows and applied the Eduard masks for the windows. 

 

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A down side of living in the UK is that Cobra Company doesn't ship here, so the rear ramp area has't to be scratch built. Above shows my start, the frames are to big so will be stripped out and new, smaller ones fitted. Thanks to Simon who is building a RAF Mk D, he provided the scale pattern for the framework. We've been guiding each other through the minefield of this kit, as you'll see latter on in the build.

 

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One of the first times I brought the sides, roof and floor together, this would happen a lot in the days, weeks and months to come.

 

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Thats all folks, for now anyway.

 

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I like where this is going! What service/theatre are you planning for it?

 

Darren

Hey Darren, I am modelling the Night Stalkers 160 SOAR, looking at the Afganistan theatre. Hard to find photos so am looking at a general arrangement of kit fitted.

 

If anyone has photos of these aircraft with engine sand filters and a good photo of antenna fit between the rotors, I'd love to hear from them.

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Nice start so far mate! I've been following along on Simon's build so it's good to see another of these coming together although I see you are more or less looking at the E/G model. 

 

I know from personal experience how much of a b**ch this kit can be at times, but as you said, it's a good base. 

 

I look forward to following along, just remember, EVERYTHING gets covered in dust in the ghan.........  :goodjob:

 

Even though they're not of 160th birds, I have some photos of how/where the dirt builds up when you get to that part.

 

Craig

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Thanks for the kind and constructive comments guy's

 

I'll try and bring this build up to date over the next day or two.

 

As the build moved on I spread my time between the rear ramp area and the cabin build up. When I got bored of scratch building I assembled and painted kit to place in the cabin. Vies versa went on for a month or so until I was happy with both area's. I know its going to be encased but I know its there.

 

I used the Eduard set for the base and then introduced the stringers and frames accordingly, not totally accurate but looks busy enough for me.

 

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With the interior beginning to come together I started looking at the outside. Floyd has moulded two massive slabs of resin, each extended tank weighs a ton, not literally but you get the idea? Floyd recommends pinning these, I have to agree and so I did.

 

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note the fill-in plug highlighted in Floyd's on-line build, good to be told about it before pinning and bonding on to the kit.

 

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Its back to the inside and positioning the kit on the port cabin wall. Seats are trimmed to allow the stretcher litter and the two firing positions.

 

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Now its starting to look like something.

 

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Both sets of seats in, port side firing positions, US stars and stripes on the roof, day bags, Pelican cases and cool boxes fitted, just need to weather the deck down to a dusty, middle eastern effect. 

 

However, as I repeatedly bring the airframe together problems start to manifest themselves. 

 

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Warped, misaligned airframe. Seems I'm not alone, this kit has a reputation for this.

 

 

The airframe now metamorphoses from a big kit to a massively big and heavy kit. Bring it on..

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Part 3 of the catch up on this build. Trying to bring this to date.

 

The last post left me with a 'step' in the lower airframe, disappointing to say the least. I had been warned but it still came as a shock. I sacrificed the lower belly misalign to make sure the upper four parts had minimal steps. 

 

Once  the interior had been assembled and painted the two section were brought together. Even with a good layer of putty the step was noticeable. Drastic action was called for just to get the lower sections some where near being smooth.

 

 

 

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Four separate cuts in the lower belly had to be made, then the belly was removed and assembled separately. Once dry this section was offered back to he main airframe and then glued. All the stress in the two sections had gone and now a reasonable amount of sanding had to take place. I wasn't going to lose sleep over this area as she will sit on her wheels and you shouldn't see that much past the forward undercarriage, thats the theory anyway.

 

As a break from sanding and applying putty my attention turned to crew, I want to display the aircraft with crew and maybe some ground troops. Again I was tipped off about a company called Reedoak, this French company makes an amazing range of figures in differing scales, low and behold three different US helicopter figures. 

 

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I replaced two of the heads with Live Resin Crew heads and ended up with these guys, sorry about the out of focus one.

 

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And after a splash of paint and some NVG gogg's

 

 

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Then started to mess around with the pilot, used the Trumpeter base body and after removing the pilots seat, I set about strapping him in and replacing his head and boots with Live resin ones, worth the effort I thought.

 

 

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After all that excitement I turned back to face my biggest challenge, I HATE VACFORMS. The canopy provided didn't cut it for me, I tried to polish it but no, even Floyd says he would have replaced each glazed part with a vacform, thats why he supplies the option in his conversion. So after a strong cup of coffee and no interruptions I got my Dremel to work.

 

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No turning back now.....

 

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With the pilot in place, a test fit..

 

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So thats me nearly up to date on my build.

 

 

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Very impressive mate. Good fix on the underside of the fuselage; that's what I should have done with mine. Those figures are amazing! I think I'm going to have to get me some of them.....

 

Does Floyd supply the vac windows or is that a separate purchase? I know he was canvassing interest in them but I wasn't sure if it ever made it to production. 

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

Edited by brahman104
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