My second chopper.
Its the old Dragon kit, box art looks great but lots of details lacking when you get into the build.
That's 1/144 scale for you!
The parts are nicely moulded and little flash to clean up.
Cockpit detail was sparse, to say the least! As everything is rather visible through the canopy glass I added seat protection to the sides and rear of the seats using card stock from my old business cards.
Instrument panel fabrication
Panels & instruments installed.
I couldn't fit the canopy because of interference from the fuselage top......
So decided to cut the offending area - this also allowed me to open up the engine intakes later.
Canopy now fits perfectly (I had dipped it in Pledge/Klear earlier to ensure maximum clarity).
Drilling out the upper air intakes in progress.
Opening up exhaust diffusers.
Another missing auxiliary cooling hole
Filled the gap and reattached the piece removed earlier.
masking the canopy using my usual method - foil from soup/sauce flavor cube with inner waxed layer removed to expose adhesive sided foil.
Acrylic filler applied.
After painting, clearcoating, applying the few decals and another coat of dulled Pledge/Klear I started detailing the panel lines.
Finish wasn't particularly dull so I used lots of weathering pigment to get a bit closer to the desired look.
Cleaned the canopy glass of foil adhesive with alcohol.
This is the look I was after ?
IR jammer turret added. By this point in the build I had decided OOB would look pretty sparse, so the scratchbuilding commenced.
Drilled more holes for rotor links and Air Data System arms.
Runners from brass photo-etch sets utilised for the rotor links.
Rotor links fixed in place; rather fiddly so lots of patience is required!
More drilling.
Various sensors and aerial added.
Also fabricated a front screen wiper.
ADS arms ready for fixing - lots of cyano used for all the extra bits.
ADS Sensors coming along nicely.
You need a steady hand and good eye for this!
The missing sensors........
Another dive into the PE sets found appropriate parts
The naked gun! Definitely doesn't look ok, so more wire fettling is required.
Looking better, also added the wire cutters to the landing gear.
Here's the Havoc for comparison - the tail rotor went MIA during one of the intercontinental moves ?
Mil-28 was built in the early 90's, all gloss Humbrol, no Klear coats but at least by then I was using Micro Set/Micro Sol.
I wasn't really into weathering back then, let's just say it dropped in from an airshow display ?
Two variations on the same theme, in the end!
That's it, folks!
Comments
6 20 March 2022, 15:04
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It's the old and not-so-detailed Dragon kit which I bought many decades ago to sit beside the Havoc in my "Red Storm Rising" collection.
Planned to just do a quick OOB exercise, but as it progressed I couldn't resist adding here and there!
