The Duke's Helicopter Group Build

[Stikpusher]

Mark, you’re getting close to the finish line on this one.

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Carlos! I do hope I can finish it soon!

[Duke Maddog]

Well it's been awhile since I posted here. After a number of repairs of broken parts and a couple coats of clear to make this glossy enough, I finally got the decals on it. This helicopter had a total of six (6!) decals just on the nose. These were the first three that I added:



You can see where I had to punch the guns through the bottom one. The next two decals then went on over these:





Finally, the last decal was added to the top of the nose:



I went on to complete the decals for this helicopter, but apparently forgot to take the pics of the fully decaled bird. Next update.....

Thanks all for looking in, comments are welcome.

[BsYamato]

Nicely done despite cuved surfacies

[Medicman71]

Wow! Very nice work on those decals.

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks guys! I am thrilled to have finished that nose! Now to seal them in so I don't have further issues.

Thanks again, your compliments are most appreciated.

[Stikpusher]

The Cobra is looking great Mark! That nose art is sweet!

[Duke Maddog]

Thanks Carlos! It was quite the challenge to put on. I really have to watch out for any more Special Hobby kits!

[Stikpusher]

Yeah, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard anything saying that those were easy kits...

[Duke Maddog]

Well, it has been quite some time since I've had the chance to update this, much less build anything. With Comicon and the IPMS Nationals as well as other issues, I barely had any time to do anything until recently.

The first thing I did was to try and finish this helicopter. When I picked it up to put the final parts on (weapons load) everything started to fall apart once again! See here:



What you don't see is one of the skids also came off, but I'd already glued it back on. Then all these parts came off as I was putting the last weapon pod on. The main rotor broke and the main disk that holds it to the fuselage disappeared. So, I used an old T-34 idler wheel to replace it. It was the right size and so I sanded the bevel into it before drilling it out. Here it is partially sanded, showing the bevel I was adding:



Here is the beveled hole it is supposed to go into:



Needless to say, I got it repaired, added all the weapons pods to this and now it is finished.

Finally, here is my Special Hobby 1/72 scale AH-1G Marine Cobra from Vietnam. This was one tough build as it was so delicate everywhere! I finally got this finished:








Thanks for all the great comments, support and motivation here. I think this was the first Group Build I finished here on SPAM. Thanks also for looking in, comments are always welcome.