**** DONE: GB-37 1/48 Hughes 500D - Helicopters / Military a/c of BoB 1940

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Looks like a neat kit Glenn, and that pic of Tom Selleck really brought back memories, especially as one of the guys I used to skydive with was the image of him, and started wearing 'Bermuda' shirts at the jump center once he got the 'Magnum' nickname - just a pity he was only just over five feet tall !
 
A kit is made of that Taiwanese helo but you might want to shop around, $60 seems a tad steep
I looked it up and I think its the came kit I have but with a lot of extra PE for the ASW stuff. Found one on eBay for $40 including shipping, but for that price I think I'll try to modify the skids in the $9 Academy kit I already have.

I have some of that but what I have is too big to match the existing skids. I plan to use some Aluminum tube I have that's a pretty good match in size and drill a small hole in the end of the existing skid to insert some fine brass rod that will be slightly bent up to attach the aluminum tube extension and smooth over the joint with CA or puddy

Maybe shoe laces? I've see them used for rolled up torpedo nets on ship models.
Good idea Andy, that may work if I can match the sixe for scale
 
Great Movie, I have it on DVD and will have to pull it out and watch it again

Looks like a neat kit Glenn, and that pic of Tom Selleck really brought back memories, especially as one of the guys I used to skydive with was the image of him, and started wearing 'Bermuda' shirts at the jump center once he got the 'Magnum' nickname - just a pity he was only just over five feet tall !
Sounds like "Magnum & Mini-Me" :evil4:

What started the idea behind doing this chopper is that my daughter and I started watching the series again on DVD (me anyway, she had only seen an episode here and there) and I was looking at the helicopters in my stash to decide which one to go with for this GB when she asked me to do the one from the series. I looked on eBay and found one for $9 and decided to go for it
 
Yep, I've seen them really cheap on e-bay in the UK, and after seeing this one at Duxford (a real VietNam veteran, with patched bullet holes to prove it) I still fancy doing one sometime.


AM 179.jpg
 
I haven't updated in a while but I have been working on it off and on over the last couple of weeks,

One of the rear doors was made separate to be displayed open and didn't fit too well in the closed position as seen in the first picture here. The second picture shows it after filling with CA, sanding and re-scribing the lines
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The interior is mostly white which I always find hard to make look right so I tried preshading it all with black this time to try to give it some depth. The second picture shoes the assembled basic interior parts after a light coat of white over the black. I'm not real happy with the result and will be doing a lot of touch up painting here.
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Test fitting the unfinished interior. Fits pretty good
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I want to try to include the pilot and observer figures to give a sense of scale to this small helicopter. This meant I needed to do some work to make them look like T.C. and Magnum. The supplied figures were wearing what looked like long sleeved uniforms and the pilot had way too much hair for T.C. so I attacked them with a file giving them both short sleeved shirts and a hair cut for T.C. among with other refinements. Theses pictures are before and after. Its hard to catch all the detail because of the white plastic but you can still see improvement and will look even better after painting
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Made the mistake of having a nap late this afternoon .... er ... yesterday afternoon, and woke up at 19.00 hrs.
Been wide awake, so decided to crack on with the build. But feeling it now, so going for a short kip to get my 'body clock' back online !

Little tip for the figures when it comes to eyes, eyebrows and, in this case, a moustache - don't try to paint them, they'll always look like goldfish or frog's eyes in this scale, or like someone who is extremely high on some unlawful substance !
Use a fine pencil, like the retractable type, and draw in the eye lids, eyebrows, if visible, and a dot for the puplis. The eye sockess, and the 'shadow area' below the eyes, can be highlighted by using a slightly darker shade of the 'flesh tones' used for the face, and the same for the cheeks if required.
A very thin streak of white down the center of the nose also creates the illusion of depth and highlight.

The 1/48th scale pilot figure in my P-47 build shows what I mean.


Glenn figure demo..jpg
 
Little tip for the figures when it comes to eyes, eyebrows and, in this case, a moustache - don't try to paint them, they'll always look like goldfish or frog's eyes in this scale, or like someone who is extremely high on some unlawful substance !
Use a fine pencil, like the retractable type, and draw in the eye lids, eyebrows, if visible, and a dot for the puplis. The eye sockess, and the 'shadow area' below the eyes, can be highlighted by using a slightly darker shade of the 'flesh tones' used for the face, and the same for the cheeks if required.
A very thin streak of white down the center of the nose also creates the illusion of depth and highlight.
Great tips there Terry, Thanks

Should be able to use a roller for Selleck's moustache.
:evil4:
 
The interior is almost done (minus seats, panel and controls) Kind of plain but you can't do much with a white interior
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I did a lot of painting on the passenger and pilot but am still not done with them yet
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And lastly I glued in the side windows which was a lot more trouble than I thought it would be
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Still quite a bit to do on the interior and figures before I close up the fuselage, then I can start thinking about modifying the skids for the floats.
 

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