SH-60B 1/35 Seahawk by Kitty Hawk

[Builder 2010]

This isn't WW2, but it's going to be an interesting model. i'm already posting this build thread on three other forums, so I'm not going to do a full-blown step-by-step. I am going to show some highlights. I'm putting a lot of effort into this modern weapon system. I'm using Eduard masks, and recently purchased ResKit AM kits for the right-hand T700 turboshaft engine, the main rotor head, the tail rotor and a more detailed tail boom hinge assembly. Too bad Kitty Hawk has closed up shop. They did interesting subjects. Having this in 1/35 makes for a lot of detailing fun.

I've finished the interior which in itself is a major modeling project. The interior goes in as a complete module with the interior walls included. I found a lot of good reference shots that show sort of an aqua blue interior which I duplicated.

I chose to use the decal faces for the sonar and instrument panels. All the rest I did by hand.

For the last two sessions I've been wrestling with super-detailing the ResKit T700 engine kit. To say this is challenging would be an understatement. I'm using various wires for the piping, and did some of this three times already. This is the tool I'm using to separate the resin parts from their sprue blocks. Even so, some parts are really too small (for me) to get them cleaned up without breakage.

In this instance, I replaced the resin pipe with phosphor-bronze as the other fell apart during assembly. Metal is always better. I've broken 6 0.010" micro-carbide drills at $1.75 USD per. That adds to the cost of this already $35 uSD engine kit. The fuel ring is also a replacement of a crumbling resin part. These ultra closeups make everything less beautiful, but the darn thing's really quite small.

Holding in a PanaVise was the only way to do some of this work. It borders on watch making or creating Fabergé Eggs.

With the addition of the accessory drive it's gotten even more complex. Painting is going to be fun.

I'm only going to open the right side engine hatch to show this off. Wait till you see the main rotor assembly. It makes this look like child's play. That's okay. My wife says it's self-inflicted punishment.

 

[SaparotRob]

Wow.

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Impressive

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far!

 

[Builder 2010]

Thanks fellows!
What really blows my mind is this power plant weighs 458 pounds and produces up to 1,900 hp. There's no doubt why turbo machinery replaced piston power. It was a big deal when piston engines produced more than 1 hp/pound. This beast produces 4 hp / pound and does so for thousands of hours between overhauls. A dragster engine can now produce almost 10,000 hp with basically a V8 engine, but unfortunately, it lasts about 1 minute of total run time. Most dragsters have one or more blown cylinders by the end of the 1/4 mile.

Short session today. I am now declaring that the piping of this baby is done. Some of the piping isn't... it's wiring. In fact, that thing I struggled with the last piece yesterday is actually a wiring harness that's just wrapped with yellow tape in the prototype. I actually thought about ways to recreate this effect then dropped the entire idea when I reminded myself that this is on the back side of the engine and won't be seen by anyone excpet, me, the creator.

Creating that wrapped harness in 1:35 would be an interesting challenge, but I'm not going there because of my above rationalization. There's lots of different colors in this little model.

Here's my final rendition before I finish the last little bits (engine mounts).

I tried the model out in the plastic kit part that captures the engine on both ends. On the exhaust end it's okay, but on the intake end I have to remove the nice flange that surrounds the intake bell as pointed out by the arrow.

 

[Wurger]

 

[SaparotRob]

Incredible. Really beautiful work.

 

[Builder 2010]

Today I actually did finish all the engine piping. I needed to substitute a kit engine mount since I broke the resin one. After trimming the flange on the exhaust outlet, I got a good fit into the bulkhead and glued it in. I hope I don't regret that decision when I get to painting, but I wanted to have a stable platform to hold it wire doing all the detail painting.

While I know where all the warts are, looked at from a reasonable distance (and not through my magnifying hood) it looks like I wanted it to; complex as hell. It certainly isn't as big as it in the picture.

 

[Wurger]

 

[BertUS]

Great built

 

[Builder 2010]

I had to replace another resin pipe that broke and will need to replace one more. They're really fragile! This one was a challenge since it winds its way around the oil filler cap and then through an opening in the cool end bulkhead.

Started getting the engine bay together. Found some images showing their internal color. As best as I can tell it's basically the same gray as the exterior with a lot of dirt. I mounted the kit engine on its front and back supports. I also fit the ResKit engine and found that one of the resin pipes and one of my mods interfered with the inner wall. You can just make it out in this image.

I relieved the wall in these spots and got a good fit.

I didn't glue the ResKit side in now. Instead I primed it and will do the engine painting before encloising it. I will be spraying the entire kit side with the interior color. It will be closed up so the engines only there to hold the bulkheads in place.

While waiting for the primer to dry I started the next super-challenge in this build: the ResKit Main Rotor kit. Here's what it looked like in the box. If you look closely you can see the rotor hubs parts attached to their sprue block. They're the cylindrical pieces.

These pieces were VERY DIFFICULT to remove from the sprue. The attached face has the 1/4 cylinder of the central shaft hole. Not only is it a finished round surface, it's also canted from the perpendicular since the entire rotor head arms have an upward pitch. Then to make matters worse, the four quadrants go together with pin and hole arrangement, but the pin was right in the cutting path you follow to remove the sprue block. I used the needle burr and removed most of the material and then a round burr to re-shape the openning. And I removed half of the pins in the process.

I decided that all the resin pins had to go and replaced them with 1/32" phos-bronze.

I got the four parts together as I figured they should go using gel and thin CA. I then went through the hole with a series of drills spun by hand to open it up and round it. It's still a tad tight on the shaft so one more drill size to get the slip fit I want. Press fits can break the joints. Any slight misalignment will be hidden by the blades in the folded position.

I'd love to make a diorama with service being done to this bird and would like to find some 1/35 green shirt characters to fill it out. Any suggestions?

Also found an image showing an engine that's been in service. Good color study.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work.
For the diorama figures, there's not much around in "modern" ground crew, but have a look at suitable 1/35th scale examples from the likes of Tamiya and Dragon, not necessarily American, or even "modern", as poses and clothing etc can easily be altered.

 

[ARTESH]

Beside what Terry " Airframes " have mentioned for ground crew, you can use Clay and or Sculpting Dough for Ground Crew Members and a piece of 30*30 cm of that camo (or any) textile would be enough for for making pants.

That light Green colour is a standard colour available for clays. And you can make the Camo pattern for textile easily by using textile colours, IIRC, all the colours are available for textile.


Also you can use 3d models and 3d Printers to make them exactly how you want them to be.

However the problem with clay, would be baking it, and the weight.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far!

 

[Builder 2010]

Thanks!

On one of the other forums where I'm posting this a fellow suggestd ReedOak, a French firm that produces stunning figures in many scales including US Navy flight crews in 1/35. Here's their link. Only problem is it would cost over 80 € for the four figures I'd want. Here's an example. I can imagine this figure on the chopper's roof pointing to something in the engine compartment or rotor head. Or on a work platform pointing at something in the engine.

Products - REEDOAK Rubber Composites

étude et réalisation de pièces techniques en caoutchouc armé de textile et de métal figurines impression 3D ultra haute définition

reedoak.com

I am very envious of the people who create such beautiful figures. I have little or no talent for it. I had to sculpt my own bomber crew for a 1:16 B-17 RC model I built 10 years ago for a commisision. My figures came out like Nick Park's "Wallace and Gromitt", as evidenced by this picture. The co-pilot looks like he's facing iminent death.

And that was after reading about how to do it. I've learned some more since doing this. I was using Sculpey and was trying to form the entire figure before curing in the Toaster Oven. I've since learned that you can work it in layers, getting the basic shapes down, firing it, adding more details, firing and so on. This way you don't keep disturbing the things you're getting right by working on the outer layers. That said, I'm still no sculptor. So if I want a crew, I'am going to have to buy it or find STL files somewhere and print my own.

The model did fly as can be seen in this video. I hadn't built and RC plane in 25 years before doing this one.



I primed the bulkheads with Mission Paints Dark Ghost Gray which is called out for the exterior color for the verison I'm doing. I then set this out to dry and continued working on the main rotor hub.

The next bit required a three-part assembly with lots of cleanup. This time I was able to use my razor saw or #11 blade to remove the sprue. You have to remove a web that's in the middle of a curved surface. This shell mates to the other part. You had to be very careful in removing the exess around the shaft portion of the mating part. There were extended flats that are required to correctly position the seond part's angular location. It would be bad to accidentally cut them off when doing the clean up since the geometry is very complex and it would make building the hub much more difficult.

It took almost an hour and a half to assemble the four rotor attachment parts. There's one more piece that goes into this that is the actual rotor blade hinge point. This part is not used on the Army Blackhawk version without the folding blade requirement. To properly remove the flash you DO need to be a bit of a sculptor.

The assembly in the lower left, if you look closely, you can see a white line on on the ear that's projecting out. That ear broke when I was holding too tightly during the filing operation. I CA'd it back on. It's not secure. I'm going to add a laminate of some PE fret brass to make sure it doesn't break again. The resin is hard AND brittle.

 

[Wurger]

 

[BertUS]

I tried to remember the name you calls. Reedoak. Ordered a while ago a figure of thema. Very nice 3D print, but you saw the layers. Details are nice but painting, the details disappppears. I can paint figure, have done about alot of bustes, so, my tip, paint thema very thin, beter is airbrushing and carefully paint the details

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I had to replace another resin pipe that broke and will need to replace one more. They're really fragile! This one was a challenge since it winds its way around the oil filler cap and then through an opening in the cool end bulkhead.

View attachment 648804

Started getting the engine bay together. Found some images showing their internal color. As best as I can tell it's basically the same gray as the exterior with a lot of dirt. I mounted the kit engine on its front and back supports. I also fit the ResKit engine and found that one of the resin pipes and one of my mods interfered with the inner wall. You can just make it out in this image.

View attachment 648805

I relieved the wall in these spots and got a good fit.

View attachment 648806

I didn't glue the ResKit side in now. Instead I primed it and will do the engine painting before encloising it. I will be spraying the entire kit side with the interior color. It will be closed up so the engines only there to hold the bulkheads in place.

View attachment 648807

While waiting for the primer to dry I started the next super-challenge in this build: the ResKit Main Rotor kit. Here's what it looked like in the box. If you look closely you can see the rotor hubs parts attached to their sprue block. They're the cylindrical pieces.

View attachment 648808

These pieces were VERY DIFFICULT to remove from the sprue. The attached face has the 1/4 cylinder of the central shaft hole. Not only is it a finished round surface, it's also canted from the perpendicular since the entire rotor head arms have an upward pitch. Then to make matters worse, the four quadrants go together with pin and hole arrangement, but the pin was right in the cutting path you follow to remove the sprue block. I used the needle burr and removed most of the material and then a round burr to re-shape the openning. And I removed half of the pins in the process.

I decided that all the resin pins had to go and replaced them with 1/32" phos-bronze.

View attachment 648809

I got the four parts together as I figured they should go using gel and thin CA. I then went through the hole with a series of drills spun by hand to open it up and round it. It's still a tad tight on the shaft so one more drill size to get the slip fit I want. Press fits can break the joints. Any slight misalignment will be hidden by the blades in the folded position.

View attachment 648810

I'd love to make a diorama with service being done to this bird and would like to find some 1/35 green shirt characters to fill it out. Any suggestions?

View attachment 648811

Also found an image showing an engine that's been in service. Good color study.

View attachment 648816

Some memories there! When I was in the Naval Reserves HSC-5 was next door to my Squadron. Some of my friends transferred over to them and wanted me to come over because I had helicopter experience a a civilian. I was an AD so I'd watch my buddies do engine changes when I was idle at my unit. I stayed put as these guys got deployed a lot. I think a year after if left California the unit moved to the east coast.