Some
time ago I finished building the full resin 1/48 Cobra SH-60B Seahawk. From that
kit I had a lot of leftovers f.i. the fueltanks and of course the complete
Academy bodywork. That’s when I got the idea of building a HH-60J Jayhawk.
But
then I had to modify the complete left side of this helo as it needs two
windows, and the Academy body is a Blackhawk version with doors and windows at
the wrong place.
During
that period I read about it that Italeri would come out with a 1/48 Seahawk
which bodywork would be exactly that what I needed.
So
last week I bought 2 kits as you need 2 the same windows on the leftside and
with the help of Chris Miller of Cobra I received the pylon for the leftside
under which the two fueltanks are mounted.
Starting
the work at the leftside fuselage you have to carefully cut out the windows from
the 2 leftsides. With some
Evergreen styrenestrips they can glued at the right place. Also some smaller
styrenestrips are needed at the outside clearly seen at lots of pics of the
Jayhwak in the Squadron Walkaround.
I
also cut out the side steps left and right on the hull.
About
the interior I can say…….just have a look at the ARC site, there you will
find some excellent pictures of the the Jayhawk.
The
radome on the nose is created from a 1/32 bomb a leftover from the
Trumpeter A 10. Watch the size……..it’s 10,2 mm in
diameter. As you can see at the pic’s the rest has to be filled
and shaped with very thin styreneplate. |
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Now
you’re getting to a hard part……………kit nr 29D (you need two of
them) has to be reshaped to get them fixed properly let and right of the
radome close to both bellywindows. Again, check the pic’s at ARC. |
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Talking
about windows………………..the left top window didn’t fit at all, it
proved to be too small or better the place where it should go is to big !!! One
of the things of which I say, typically Italeri. To solve this problem I went
through my leftovers and found the complete front cockpit window of a Academy
Blackhawk and made a complete new top window.
Left
and right of the fuselage the boarding handles have to be placed, I used
the one’s from the Cobra resin kit.
Also
from Cobra I received the resin pylon which is situated at the left side
just below the windows, they hold the two fueltanks. The resin fueltanks
were in the Cobrakit. So you see most of the parts, not used when building
the Seahawk are now being used to make this Jayhawk. |
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The
antenna on top of the fuselage is from the Academy Blackhawk and replaced more
to the leftside. The kit antenna which was meant to be placed on top is now
replaced to the underside of the tailboom.
The
rotorheads and blades are fine and can even be placed in a folding position.
So
no comment and that ones.
A
minor change/adding has to be made on the cockpit doors, just below the
windows you need to create a small handle.
On
the rightside you have to create the antenna wiring which is running over
5 small pins. I drilled some very small holes and used some steel wiring
to create the pins and than added the antenna wire.
Once
again use the walkaround pic’s on ARC to see the exact location or the
Squadron walkaround of the UH-60 Blackhawk.
All
the decals on this machine are leftovers, the ones on the tailboom are
from the Heller C 130 Coast Guard Hercules, perhaps they are a bit to big
but I could not find other ones. |
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The
numbers and words are created from Microscale sheets.
Paints
used are all Tamiya spraycan colours, only the blade tips and rotorheads are
painted with Modelmaster.
In
a view words I tried to describe the way I built this craft, it gave me lots of
fun in building a chopper which can’t be found on everyones shelf.
Greetings
Jan
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