CW_Tom

I’m also trying to develop a jig to transfer hull details from the plans to the model accurately. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am looking in the modeling tips, tricks, and jigs section of this forum and coming up with some possibilities, but also looking to see if anyone else has other ideas. Thanks.

Thanks! I appreciate it. That’s what I was looking for.

I’m assuming there may be a “No sh**” at the beginning of “there I was.”

I realize scale is relatively arbitrary when you can pretty much pick “font size.”

Thank you guys for the likes and replies. I’m glad to see the continued interest. My plan for the future of the model, after the sanding is complete and obvious control surfaces manufactured, will be etching detailwork into the hull, such as hatches and the like. When that is complete, I will be painting it. I’m planning on using acrylic paint for it. I will also be manufacturing a few of the masts, such as periscope, radio antenna, etc. I’ve never done metal work before with these, so I’m planning on making them out of plastic sprues, and cocktail sticks (toothpicks). I would like to do metal work in the future but I don’t feel prepared to try it on this model. Where can I get decals in 1:200 scale for the numbering for the draft lines on the bow and stern and for the hull number? Thanks again, Tom

You guys weren’t kidding about liking to discuss food. 🤣

Even the Ring-Necked pheasant of North America isn't a native species. It was introduced from East Asia. Its South Dakotas state bird, apparently 1 of 3 state birds to not be native to the US.

Just a quick update. I’ve started sanding the hull, rounding it out. I’ve got a ways to go, and it’s a lengthy process, but I’m enjoying it. Here’s the current state of affairs. Hopefully there is enough relief in the pictures to highlight the details.

Welcome Jose! There is plenty of good information here. I'm fairly new here myself and have been impressed with the projects that have been posted here. Have you done any modeling in the past?

So, for a few years of my young adult life, I drove truck, for a construction company, and we traveled around the region. One day, a duck flew up in front of me and hit my windshield. Didn’t break it, fortunately. I looked in the side view mirrors but never saw it land. A couple miles later, I saw something flickering in and out of view out the passenger window. Looking over, it was the wing of a duck flapping in and out. So, I stopped. The duck had become lodged between the cab and the external sun visor. Obviously, it had gone on to better things, but was very much intact. So, at my truck, on the side of the road, I breasted it, threw the meat in the cooler, took it home, and cooked it up. It was pretty good, considering the circumstances.

I pick up on these things. 🤫 Also, get two hats. If you leave one at your desk, people think you’re there at work when you may in fact be taking a well deserved long lunch break. “He must be here, his hats here.”

Hello Denis! Just found your build on the Osprey! I'm sneakin' in the back to watch and carrying a clipboard. (If you carry a clipboard around, you become invisible. Everyone thinks you're doing something when all you're doing is walking around carrying a clipboard. Tom

Touché... I've got nothing, *doffs hat*, to follow that up.

I'm still a fairly green aviator, 800+ hours. I'm, of course, working to improve on that 😉. For us, the draw to the Huey is probably because it is so iconic. If there is one helicopter that in itself, could best encapsulate Army Aviation, its the Huey. A lot of that comes from the fact that it was made to do things above and beyond what it was originally designed to do. As I'm typing this, I realize I haven't given a lot of background information on myself. I enlisted in 2007 as an engineer in the Army Guard. My MOS was Heavy Equipment Operator. I really enjoyed that, for nearly ten years, operating bulldozers, front-end-loaders, graders, and the like. Finally, a few years ago, I made the jump to aviation and was awarded a flight slot. I spent a couple years down at Ft. Rucker getting all schooled up. I've been back now with the unit for a couple years flying the UH-72 Lakota, which is Airbus' (formerly Eurocopter) EC-145 C-2 (BK-117), just painted green. I do have some time in the Blackhawk, but currently, my main airframe is the Lakota. I've got a family that I enjoy spending my time with when I'm not at work. I've always been interested in models, though this took the form of airplane models in my younger years. Boat modeling has been a recent discovery, about the time I decided instead of buying my dad a model of his sub, Tinosa, I could probably make it (so I thought) for quite a bit cheaper, and with a bit more satisfaction. To bring things full circle, when my interest in the military grew, by that point, societies viewpoint of the military was already changing. Definitely, things took a rapid turn towards the positive, as far as the public was concerned, after 9/11. So, I've been fortunate to have been respected for my decision. My respect to all of you who, many of you being drafted, came back to the opposite. I'm glad to see that our society nowadays, while it may not agree with the government's decision that sends us overseas, doesn't take that out on the military members themselves (at this time at least). I realize I'm still summarizing/glossing over a lot of my life and particularly what I'm doing currently, but I tend to the buck the trend and try to be careful what I post. Because of this, I tend to under share. I don't even have a Facebook or any other social media. So, that said, I imagine I'll unwind a bit more as time goes on. The community here seems like a great place for that. I'm really interested in talking aviation and military history, so please, keep me in the loop if you guys have any other discussions pertaining to that! Regards, Tom

Welcome Mike! Glad to meet you. I hope you're finding the forum chock full of good information. Regards, Tom

Welcome Randy. I too am fairly new here and have been impressed by the community. Tom

I just want to say I appreciated reading through this thread. Thank you guys for all you've done, and for all you're continuing to do, I might add. I'm pretty new to the community, but I enjoy the closeness I'm seeing among its members. Lou, I hope the recovery is going well and thanks for your inputs on my build. I hope to see some more coming from the Huey build in the future. I have to add, when I was at flight school for the Army, down at Mother Rucker's in AL, many in my class lamented the fact that the Huey was no longer in the Army inventory. However, across the way, the Air Force still use the Huey for their training aircraft and we would sit and drool watching them fly, especially when they did their tactical flight training. A few of the Air Force trainees I talked to seemed to find the Huey a bit old and couldn't wait to move on to bigger and better. They couldn't seem to understand why we'd give our right leg, or something else, just to be able to fly one. Regards, Tom

@lmagnaA lathe is something I’m adding to my wish list. Though it will probably be a few years before that is realized. Anyway, I’m enjoying the process so far and I’m finding things I’d do differently if I were to do it again, but that’s all in the fun. I’m excited to see how close I can get to having something that looks like a hull of a submarine versus a banana. 😆

Thank you for the feedback, @Old Collingwood and @Roger Pellett. I should have switched to sand paper already on the sail. I did oversize the dimensions for that purpose, hog out most of the material, then refine the rest with sandpaper. But it is cutting a little bit close, I think. I appreciate the input Roger. I think for now I’ll keep plugging away at what I’ve got, but that is something I will definitely consider when I do a similar project. Either way, I know it’s going to be a lot of sanding 😁. I am reserving the right to remove the rudders and sail, then add them back on later.

Keith, Imagna, thank you for the suggestions. Thank you all for the likes. I’ve been able to chip away at the model, in some ways literally. I stuck with the dowel plan. It went pretty smoothly. The hardest part was making sure the notches in the outer lifts lined up straight through to the other side. I ended up with 1/8” of dowel on either side, just enough to slot into the holes and prevent any sliding motion during the gluing. It worked well. After letting the glue dry overnight, I was left with this. Just behind the model, you can see my top down template. At the time of this picture, I was working out how to lay that on top so I could, again using the band saw, cut the top down profile. Once the template was ready, I decided to try my hand at some chiseling around the sail. It went pretty well. I haven’t cleared it out all the way to the hull because I am using the square base to help hold my top down template in place. I did have one accident at this stage. After chiseling out one side, I switched to the other. I would chisel vertically down a few taps to separate the wood from the sail portion before coming in horizontally and lifting out the waste. Doing this put a little too much pressure against the sail and it split. Fortunately, it didn’t totally separate and I was able to get some glue in the split area and secure it. I think I’ll use a coping saw to vertically separate the wood next time, instead of a chisel. Finally, I got to my father-in-laws band saw again and got the last cuts complete. I also managed a little whittling and planing to start rounding the hull. Thanks again for the interest and likes. Again, I’m open to any suggestions you guys may think of. Regards, Tom

Looking great! Excited to see the progress

I suppose on their own they were effective, but they were pretty much a stopgap between the Army realizing a need for a dedicated Gunship to escort the air assault Hueys, and the development and arrival of the Cobra. (Which, by the way, is the only US Army helicopter not named after a North American Native tribe. Fun fact.)

The development of the ACH-47 is pretty interesting. “Guns-A-Go-Go”.

Edward, I got all caught up on your build and am interested to see it finished. I think the lower deck looks great. Regards, Tom

Thank you Keith. I appreciate the feedback. I think I will stick to my original plan then, and not drill through the entirety of the model, though I may do some looking at the salt idea.