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Cross-kitting Blackhawk parts: a way to improve the Academy kit.


thierry laurent

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11 hours ago, phasephantomphixer said:

Thanks for looking into this, and posting Thierry.

But I of course bought the KH MH-60R Seahawk.

A quick look in the box showed two blade sets, but didn't snoop further.

Any chance you checked the R boxing for similar extras?

 

Here's the situation of possible spare army parts for the MH-60R:

 

- the cabin roof : NO (no B sprue in that kit)

- the cabin floor : NO (no B sprue in that kit)

- the nose hatch : NO (no B sprue in that kit)

- the nose windows ('Navy' with pitot support area but very close to the Army ones and this helps a lot in correcting the Academy nose): YES (GP sprue)

- the front doors with internal details : NO (no B sprue in that kit)

- the front seats side armor: NO (no D sprue in that kit)

- the extinguishers: YES (sprue E). The Navy ones are on the HE sprue.

- some IP parts : NO (no B sprue in that kit)

- the main rotor blades (compatible with the Reskit rotor head parts and this also helps a lot in improving the kit): YES (E sprue) plus rotor head on C sprue (I forgot mentioning it in the MH-60S as I will use the Reskit set)

- M240 machine guns: YES (HE sprue)

- the internal fuel tank with hoses (but without the fixing straps): YES (C sprue)

- the external winch : NO (no B sprue in that kit)

- rocket launchers: YES (F sprue)

 

As you can see the major difference is the lack of the B sprue that has many major Army/AF Blackhawk/Pave Hawk parts.

 

Hth

 

Thierry

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1 hour ago, thierry laurent said:

If you compare closely both kits as I did you can observe different things:

 

- the windscreen: They are actually very close. The obvious difference is the external sides: too straigth on the Academy kits whereas they should be a little bit rounded (as they are on the KH kit). However, even if that is visible this does not jump to the face if you do not put both kits close to each other. No way to solve that without modifying the fuselage sides and this means fully rebuilding the kit! However, we are considering a portion of a mm there. So, I will live with that.

- the nose hatch: The KH part covers nearly perfectly the Academy nose. So, they are very close. No problem to me.

- the front lower windows: Here is the really terrible part. I did not believe my eyes when I made the comparison! The part length is more or less 7mm bigger and the width 5mm than the dimensions of the equivalent Kitty Hawk windows! I'm really surprised that aspect is not discussed in reviews or assemblies of that kit as to me this is what really spoils the look. Even the Black ops nose is copying that problem whereas the Academy parts are close to 1/24th scale!

 

My conclusion: if you solve the lower windows nose issue, I'm sure you will get a visually acceptable result if not fully accurate. This is not the easiest thing to do but I've some ideas to experiment.

Oopsss! I mixed both winsdcreens in my explanation. Actually this is the Academy one that is too rounded.

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Well Ben, if you have a different opinion, I have no problem about that as I took for granted the fact the KH was far more accurate because of pictures of the assembled kits. I compared both kits. I did not take any real scale measurement to compare and cannot say I did not miss something. At least I did not see something else that jumped to my face! 

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15 hours ago, thierry laurent said:

Well Ben, if you have a different opinion, I have no problem about that as I took for granted the fact the KH was far more accurate because of pictures of the assembled kits. I compared both kits. I did not take any real scale measurement to compare and cannot say I did not miss something. At least I did not see something else that jumped to my face! 

The things I noticed and heard was that the KH kit was WAY more accurate all the way around.  The Academy kit looked like it was squashed down. (If that makes sense).

The HIRSS Exhausts are too big and instead on sticking down at an angle, they stick more up.

They just look wrong over all.

Inside, the left and right soundproofing details are not even there at all. The back wall is completely blank of detail. (There's ALOT more to list)

 

Being a former UH-60 Crew chief, I look for detail in these kits and the Academy ones just don't have it. 

Me, the KH kit is light years ahead of the Academy kit and worth the money to me.

 

Tim

 

Edited by Hawkwrench
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I guess this is probably linked to the too rounded front fuselage as the internal parts dimensions are very close. So close that I made a copy of the KH soundproofing cover of the linkages to add on the Academy H-shaped side part and they mate very well. Globally the internal sides of the fuselage need many elements and details to be added notwithstanding the plain floor, ceiling and bulkhead. I tested the use of the spare KH floor and ceiling plus resin copies of the bulkhead and rear walls and this looks possible with some minor modifications. I think that opening the front doors will somewhat hide the rounded sides. As I'm not sure it will be possible to use the KH ones, I ordered the Blackops ones. I read about the exhausts issue some time ago but still need to have a look at that area and was only discussing the nose issues. I will come back about this. Another issue to solve is the belly hook bay. It is located far too back (8mm?) and too thick (at least 1.5mm). Fortunately this is easy to correct.

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The Academy exhaust heat suppressor chambers parts are without features, clearly too long and a little bit too thin (in heigth). Moreover the body edges (where the rear extension is fixed with arms) should go down a little bit more. This results in the wrong stance. Last the air intake is too large: both vertical sides should be close to be parallel whereas the external one is far more angled on the kit. Actually, with the use of the KH suppressor parts in the Academy body you see what can be modified. Essentially, if you sand the body rear edges where the suppressor parts rear edges are going out (more on the bottom than the top and more towards the external) you can improve noticeably the rear exhaust area stance. With a thin wedge of plasticard between the body halves (horizontal seam) you can slightly increase the heigth to insert the thicker KH suppressor parts. With a similar triangle of plasticard you can modify the external lip of the air intake to get a smaller one with nearly parallel sides. Head scratching for sure to know what to modify but not a big deal from a modelling perspective!

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When time permits, I will cull all extra parts from the R and toss them into one of my Academy boxes.

To think of all the KH -60's that will get built and those tasty extras getting binned...Aagh!

Anyone willing to donate theirs, I will pay shipping.  Thanks Thierry

Edited by phasephantomphixer
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