1/48 Academy CH-53E

by Terry Chan

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This is my Academy 1/48 CH-53E helicopter model.  It was built out of the box using MAW decals.
 
Out of the box, this kit provides a very good level of detail inside and outside.  The cockpit has exquisite raised detail on the instrument panel and the bulk heads; the interior cabin is fully detailed with the molded-on wall details, floor details, ceiling details and passenger benches; the main rotor head is a model unto itself.  The only detail missing was some harnesses for the pilot seats.  Overall, the fit was pretty good.  I used some putty when joining the fuselage halves and around the canopy, but otherwise there were no major headaches during construction.

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Most of the the CH-53E in service today wear a three tone grey camouflage, and that is the scheme I chose to do.  I wanted to finish this model as if it's been used heavily faded under the sun with the weathering focused on a sun-bleached look rather than dirt.  So I went to work using my trusty Eclipse airbrush.

First I used Eduard paint mask (highly recommended when building a model with so many windows) to mask all the clear parts.  All the parts that will be covered by the grey camouflage was given a layer of flat white.  Then pre-shading of flat black over the panel lines was done.  Then another layer of flat white to tone down the black.

The three main camouflage colours were NOT used straight out of the bottle.  Each of them were diluted heavily with flat clear, flat gloss and thinner to make a translucent mixture (all Gunze acrylics).  When this mixture was sprayed on the whitened airframe, the underlying white and pre-shading would still show through, hence giving it a sun-bleached look.

Some random patches of white and greys were sprayed on various spots of the model, then blended in again with the camouflage colour.  This gave the model a weathered look yet still look natural with the paint job.

When the camouflage was done, I used Tamiya smoke to post-shade the panel lines again.  The engine exhaust tubes were painted with Alclad jet exhaust.

The rotor blades were painted Gunze tire black, which is sort of an off black.  Then a very thin layer of flat white was randomly sprayed across them.  Then I used Tamiya smoke to blend in the white with the overall tire black.  This process gave the black rotor blades a sun-bleached look.

After a gloss coat was applied, I started applying the decals.  The MAW decals were very thin and reacted very well to Solvaset.  The MAW decals set came with black walkway decals as well, but I chose to use the kit walkways instead.  In hindsight I should have used the MAW walkways because they were thinner and wrinkled less.  The walkways were given the same sun bleaching treatment as the rotor blades via flat white and Tamiya smoke.

 
Another gloss coat to seal in the decals, then the model was given a panel line wash.  Finally a coat was applied.
 
When I removed the paint mask, I was very happy to see the effort I put into painting yielded very good results.  The light, sun faded colours were exactly the look I was aiming for, and all the weathering was part of the paint job (no pastel chalk was used).
 
Overall, this is a very good model.  It's a complex build but the model was engineered superbly by Academy.  Highly recommended.
Terry

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Photos and text © by Terry Chan