N4521U
Colonel
Gad Zooks dude!
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Absolutely gorgeous!Big day! Had a gall bladder imaging session this morning to see if it's working right and finished the Seahawk this afternoon. Won't know about the gall bladder for a couple of days, but you'll learn about the finished Seahawk tonight.
Before putting the rotor on I had to get the tail boom on. I chose to use epoxy putty since there wasn't much gluing surface for conventional adhesive AND the surfaces themselves were not very secure. I put a wad of putty on the back of the fuze side of the ResKit hinge component and pushed the parts together. Had to hold it for a while by hand and then used some tape. The putty cures pretty fast, and while this was going on I removed a lot of the stuff that had oozed out of the joint all over the place.
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After it cured I did more fine cleaning using various dental tools. BTW: you may want to ask you dentist if he has any tools that are no longer usable in the practice, but could be very useful for us modelers. I got a bunch from my dentist. After cleaning I had to go back and touchup paint any areas that degraded during all this fussing.
I did final touchup on the main rotor, trimmed all the extra-long pins that are now holding the blade hubs, and did final finish on all the wires and bits.
I had to repair the rear blade brace since it fractured right near the fuze joint. Don't know when it happened. I drilled and pinned it. Not easy with the model so far completely and the brace glued to it. Kitty Hawk styrene was a bit brittle and broke way too often way too easily. The rotor went on easily and all the blades aligned perfectly with the braces. Miracle!
I then remembered that I had to add paint and add the missile warning sensors that go onto the port and strbrd EMS pods in front, and the HF antenna wire. I also had to reattach the open engine cover this time with wire. It's now a bit flexible so you can bump it without it fracturing off. CA is too darn brittle!
For the antenna, I used E-Z Line Lycra inserted into a 0.030" Albion micro tube held with some thin CA. For those that haven't use E-Z Line, it's great for rigging antenna and small naval ship rigging. It is hugely elastic and when slightly stretched stays taut. It also glues almost instantly with thin CA. I think it has to do with the huge surface area within the fiber itself. The stands making up the yarn are very fine. The tube was inserted into a hole I drill in the fuze at the antenna entry point. Also a pain in the butt since the model (including the rotor) was already there and in the way.
With that it was done. I still plan on doing the base, but the model stands on its own nicely. Here's the album.
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So there you have it. Work started in mid-Oct and ended in mid-Feb about 4 months of pretty intensive work. My opinion of the model:
Pros:
1. Beautiful surface detail especially with the addition of the ResKit parts.
2. Lots of choices on build and configuration. (Huge amount of parts still left on many sprues.)
3. It's a great model in a great scale. You can really go to town on super-detailing.
Cons:
1. Instructions leave something to be desired. Terrible instructions on creating the stowed version
2. That reversed part HD33 that i had to redraw and 3D print.
3. Styrene was fragile and broke at the worst possible times. You better be a good problem solver.
4. The ResKit parts did not mate 100% accurate with the kit's requiring further problem solving.
5. Fits - While having the interior as a separate box seemed like a good idea at the time, in reality it made getting a good main joint nearly impossible requiring a lot of filling.
It was singularly the most complex aircraft build I ever did and I've been building models almost non-stop since 1954 at my 9th birthday. I've made a practice recently to have each project I attempt to push my skills. This project did not disappoint. That said, I love how the rotor head and engine came out. They met the image I had in my mind's eye and for that all the work was worth it.