The Little World

Tuesday mornings are sacred round here – that is the morning I get to go to the SMCWA clubrooms and build a scale model.

Ignore the fact that I have two other modelling stations – here inside and out in my shed. Ignore the airbrush booth and the assembly bench and the rack of 157 bottles of expensive paint here at home. It is the experience of the club atmosphere that makes the occasion.

It is a Mens Shed – which means Old Mens Shed for the most part. Oh, there are exceptions as younger working people get days off or are invalided for various reasons. The fact that the club provides three meetings a week for them is a real advantage. Constant coffee, occasional cake, and enough rough humour to wipe the barnacles off the bottom of a tramp steamer.

If you are disciplined you can build any kit you like at the club – by disciplined I mean you have to bring the goods and the tools to do it, and then do it under the full glare of scrutiny. This is only nerve-wracking if you are not prepared to take helpful advice. None of us know everything, but most of us know something. I’ve come away from several years of membership with a lot more skill than when I started and a lot of that has been the gift of other’s help.

So on to the H-34. As it was a club build a lot of the stages were completed far away from a camera. It has occupied four weeks from box open and finished on the final Tuesday evening – I needed to do the clear coating back here at the Little Workshop.

Note the choice of gloss coating for both the colour seal and decal seal. The aircraft can bear that much shine – and I seem to have a great many gloss varnishes of various sorts here in stock. I long to use them up and find a simple three-bottle solution for the future. This helicopter uses Tamiya clear gloss lacquer for these coats – cut with a 30% shot of regular Mr. Hobby thinner. Smooth gloss and very fast dry.

Back research turns up the fact that the Choctaws were an extensive choice for all four of the US armed services as well as 27 other national operators. La Marine nationale – the modern French Navy – seems to have opted to arm this helicopter heavily – though this may be a lead-on from another boxing done by Hobby Boss. I could see the side-door gun in use in Algeria, but unless you were doing pirates in the Med, it seems overkill. As it is I opted to omit the second M/G the kit provided.

Note the droop on the main rotor blades – all provided in the moulding. HB have also made a strong and tight join for each blade to the hub. The difference between this precise moulding and the approximation that Amodel did for the Piasecki HUP-1 is like cheese vs. chalk.

I am now on the lookout for the earlier Sikorski helo – the S-55. You’ll know it as the four-wheeled three-bladed bignose that Revell moulded in the 50’s. Every kid I knew had one and this kid wants one again. I don’t suppose the Revell offering was 1:72, so I’ll be looking further afield for someone else’s. I know that there were RCN S-55’s and there should be decals for them.

A Quest!