ICM AH-1G 68-15012 "#1 Du Me Mi" - F Troop, 4th Cav, Phu Bai, 1972 (mostly) Finished!

[Out2gtcha]

I scanned the OOB decals into my Silhouette cutter software and began my usual routine of editing and manipulating the final cut product so its in keeping with the actual decals.

 

This process can be laborious, especially with things like the actual  "Du Me Mi" lettering, which was hand written and had a very distinct style. On certain settings when tracing an imported image, the cutter software can on occasion make the image very cartoonish, and out of proportion. This is where the intricacies of the editing in the designers edition comes in handy. 

The base Silhouette software allows you to manipulate the picture point by point, nearly anywhere there is a curve, corner, change in direction or separate line, you can, add, delete, curve, flatten and corner most any point the software creates when you trace an imported image.

(BTW, Ill be uploading this eventually to Scale Model Paint Masks as well) 

 

Its nothing like the learning curve on CAD programs or high end 3D manipulation programs, but its learning curve to get what you want is fairly steep none the less. This took some amount of hours to get things where I wanted. Im by NO means an expert at this, and I've still got a lot to learn, but I am at the point where I can get things where I am satisfied with them.

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, although there is no way to paint the stencils, I ended up with a fair good amount of masks to replace all of the larger decals for #1. I will still be glossing her up, and adding the stencils of course, but having no visible carrier on any of the big decals including the tail #s will be good.

I added in the tail numbers and a shadow on the last 3 numbers as its in the decals, and faintly in the pics I can see:

 

 

 

 

More..............

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

I had a HELL of a time with that @#$%&!ing lower tail boom seam!   Even after I drenched it in Tamiya thin it still came apart. I think the previous paint did not allow the quick drying cement to hold. 
I opened up the seam one last time and thins time had it clean and used some extra thin CA.

 

 

 

 

 

I also got really tired of sanding around the two lower boom sets of antenna or whatever they were, proud of the surface. VERY hard to sand around since they have both square and round detail on top of the panels themselves as well. 

I just sanded them right off the face of the earth..............right after I had made replacements from some evergreen stock, then shaped them on an exacto handle:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are definitely a bit over-scale, so I have done my best to sand them down a tad,  but honestly they don't look too bad now that they are under some primer. 

 

Back to work! (on the Cobra that is)

 

Cheers 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Black is down!
This is, MRPs "Black" MPR-005 (their basic black), its not their Super Gloss Black at all, but boy did it sure turn out glossy anyway! I did not intend or need it to be this glossy, but it sure did bring out any flaws, which I subsequently fixed, filled and re-shot.

 

Only the areas on the fuselage and around the cockpit that will be black in the end was shot with MPR-005, the rest was left in black primer. All the previous surface prep was worth it. With very little color/finish sanding the surface should be gtg.

I must say, the MRP-005 shot like an absolute DREAM and dried to a super stout finish. However, you really need to have your "S" together before you shoot it, cause it shows EVERYTHING. This surface is still far from perfect, but will look 20 times better once color sanded and with some flat over it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only the rear most underside panel with the tail skid slot in it, and one flat panel behind the skids are painted black on the underside

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ive got the main rotor blades and tail rotor in the paint booth atm, so while this hardens off, I will work on those. 

 

Cheers and thanks for stopping in on me. 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Looks great, Brian!

 

Kev

[Citadelgrad]

Clean machine.  That black looks amazing.  And i have dabbled in painting cars, there is no faking black, that is perfect.  Cant wait to see her dressed up for war.  

[GMK]

Lovely work, Brian. Something about that gloss black primer that emphasises the sleek lines of the snake. 

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks gents!  The black did turn out quite well, but still not perfect. As pointed out though, gloss black is the business and never lies about ANYTHING, so once flattened  down and weathered I think it will be just fine.

 

Im in the process of redoing the blades, both main and tail. I attempted to shoot some MRP Nato black, but the bottle was very old, and it did not shoot very well, so I am redoing things. 

The gloss black on the helo itself has hardened off nicely, so I will likely work on masking the white stripe and white background for the "#1 Du Me Me" text.

 

Cheers!

[MikeMaben]

Nice Brian.  Are you shooting the black with a .5 needle/nozzle ?   just curious

 

[Out2gtcha]

On 10/20/2021 at 3:20 AM, MikeMaben said:

Are you shooting the black with a .5 needle/nozzle ?   just curious

 

Hey Mike......IIRC, I think it is the OOB nozzle that came with my Iwata HP-CS.

I have the manual and pulled this out of it, as otherwise it gives a nozzle part #, but no size description:

 

"The 0.50 mm nozzle comes standard with the Eclipse BCS model, and the 0.35 mm nozzle comes with the Eclipse SBS, CS and BS models. These nozzles may be used interchangeably among all these models."

 

So, If I read that correctly, it appears Im shooting with a 0.35 nozzle. 

 

 

On to a bit of paint!

[Out2gtcha]

Got the masking for the white division stripe done, as well as the white for the background "#1 Du Me Mi" text on the port side of the upper engine housing.

 

I've used MRP-99 here as apposed to a standard stark white, as the "US Navy White" has a tinge of tan to it, just enough to take the starkness off of the white. I've used the same white as a base for painting the rotor blades prior to some MRP-51 RLM 04 for the rotor blade tips, as I felt it too looked a tad less stark. I didn't get any snaps of the rotor blades yet, but will grab some later tonight.

 

Masking took a while, and I'm still sure the stripe will not turn out completely to my satisfaction, so I'm sure I'll probably have some correcting to do

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The MRP-99 went down really smoothly

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is more white base color to shoot, including the shark mouth, as well as the danger arrows for the tail rotor, and a base coat for the yellow of 3 of the 5 tail code numbers, but those will have to wait for a second round of white, as there was just too much going on around the nose to do it all in one go. 

 

I shot the rotor blades last night, so will unmask and get those ready for some pics, as well as painting the main rotor blade housing and tail rotor blade housing. I will also be shooting the red for the "#1 Du Me Mi" tonight as well.

 

Cheers! 

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent precision masking, Brian!

 

Kev

[Citadelgrad]

Peel it...PEEL IT!!! 

 

This is one of my favorite parts, seeing how all that work paid off!!

[Uncarina]

Nice work Brian! 

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks for the nice comments guys.

I did in fact take the masking off for the text background and the division stripe, as I need to color sand any paint ridges off before masking anything else.

As you can see, there are some edge issues to be fixed, but no real bleeding of any kind and it could have been much worse.

Should be some easy fixes to this round of white, but it was like Christmas morn:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The curved underside stripe on the nose came out better than I anticipated however:

 

 

 

 

Back on the Cobra tonight with more masking and painting!

 

Cheers

 

[chrish]

Very sharp definition of the masking, well done! Especially with those compound curves.