Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Feb 18, 2023 17:40:31 GMT -5
I’m going to be building a box of the UH-1 Huey Helicopter Platoon (TUBX07), made by Battlefront, for the Team Yankee WWIII miniatures gaming system. This box contains two plastic UH-1 Huey helicopters, two plastic flight stands, eight rare-earth magnets, one decal sheet and two unit cards. I will of course, be able to use these with the Team Yankee system, which I own a substantial collection of miniatures and rulebooks/supplements… however, I bought these for use with a miniatures game I’ve been developing, called The Legion: Rumble in the Jungle. My miniatures game uses 15mm Old Glory miniatures of Vietnamese Viet Cong and American U.S. Army “Green Berets” (a.k.a, The Legion), which I based and hand painted. In this regard, the Huey’s fit to scale well enough. The Legion game revolves around four American “Green Berets” miniatures, representing individual soldiers who complete various missions per scenario. The mechanics of the game involve missions (scenarios) where the Green Berets work their way up from the bottom of a battlefield map, through jungle and villages, to the top of the map, where the helicopters will typically be used to extricate the team; these missions may be recon missions, rescue operations, search and destroy, etc. Rather than just make it to the map top and hop off, I thought it’d be cool to have The Legion hit an LZ, sometimes hot and a danger to the helicopter…just nice, added tension! The battlefield is comprised of 2.25” square tiles that I designed and painted. An example of a playtest game… The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, commonly known as the "Huey," was a multipurpose utility helicopter famous for its widespread use during the Vietnam War. Bell developed the powerful helicopter in the mid-1950s and produced more than 16,000 units between 1955 and 1976, over 7,000 of which served in Vietnam. Ill be starting the Huey’s build soon.
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Post by mustang1989 on Feb 18, 2023 21:48:11 GMT -5
I’m going to be building a box of the UH-1 Huey Helicopter Platoon (TUBX07), made by Battlefront, for the Team Yankee WWIII miniatures gaming system.ins two plastic UH-1 Huey helicopters, two plastic flight stands, eight rare-earth magnets, one decal sheet and two unit cards. The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, commonly known as the "Huey," was a multipurpose utility helicopter famous for its widespread use during the Vietnam War. Bell developed the powerful helicopter in the mid-1950s and produced more than 16,000 units between 1955 and 1976, over 7,000 of which served in Vietnam. Ill be starting the Huey’s build soon. Now this'll be fun to watch. I had tail #390 at Ft Hood. Being a Huey crew chief was such a fun and rewarding job and I miss it terribly.
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chromdome35
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Post by chromdome35 on Feb 18, 2023 22:51:50 GMT -5
Love the use of tiles for terrain, endless combinations.
On YouTube I have seen vids of people 3D printing terrain tiles hen painting them. Have you tried that yet?
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Feb 19, 2023 11:34:17 GMT -5
I’m going to be building a box of the UH-1 Huey Helicopter Platoon (TUBX07), made by Battlefront, for the Team Yankee WWIII miniatures gaming system.ins two plastic UH-1 Huey helicopters, two plastic flight stands, eight rare-earth magnets, one decal sheet and two unit cards. The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, commonly known as the "Huey," was a multipurpose utility helicopter famous for its widespread use during the Vietnam War. Bell developed the powerful helicopter in the mid-1950s and produced more than 16,000 units between 1955 and 1976, over 7,000 of which served in Vietnam. Ill be starting the Huey’s build soon. Now this'll be fun to watch. I had tail #390 at Ft Hood. Being a Huey crew chief was such a fun and rewarding job and I miss it terribly. Thank you for your service! And it’ll be fun for me to watch too, as this will be the first Team Yankee kit I’ve built… these are more like a model kit, on sprue and everything, versus the old Flames of War solid resin minis that only needed tracks, gun barrel, and stowage glued on. These kits also, are built like model kits in terms of liquid glue, vs the CA superglues. Love the use of tiles for terrain, endless combinations. On YouTube I have seen vids of people 3D printing terrain tiles hen painting them. Have you tried that yet? I am positive my wife will not, under any circumstances, allow me to purchase a 3D printer! Ain’t gonna happen. …both from the cost of the machine standpoint, to the ER bills from slashing my hand and arm open trying to pry them off the platter; and knowing me and my luck, I’m pretty sure I could manage to blow up the hose somehow. …as far as 3D tiles go, currently, I’m not a fan. For me, I’m a 2-spectrum guy: I’ll either stay at one end of that, with boards/maps, or the other of full diorama battlefields. 3D hovers between those opposite ends of the spectrum, and I seriously do not need to complicate my life any harder I currently have a couple local friends (Mass and CT) that have 3D printers and are willing to make me stuff if I need it, so I feel fortunate and content in that
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chromdome35
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Post by chromdome35 on Feb 19, 2023 11:43:17 GMT -5
Yea, I am trying to convince my wife that I need a 3D printer, I know that battle all too well.
Are you hand painting the tiles, or printing them with a color printer and applying to the tiles?
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Feb 19, 2023 12:08:55 GMT -5
Yea, I am trying to convince my wife that I need a 3D printer, I know that battle all too well. Are you hand painting the tiles, or printing them with a color printer and applying to the tiles? LOL. Good to know I’m in good company! The tiles were all hand painted. I used COPIC dye ink markers; they have an alcohol base so the ink pools up when you go over a just laid down area, hence the texture of the open grass, for instance. The only other medium used is permanent black ink with a nibbled sketching pen. See here for a full explanation of my design process and artwork execution. There doesn’t seem to be a good area here on the MSC for that kind of thread… I am hoping that perhaps the Wargaming subject gains its own, and expanded section here in the future? Hint Hint to the powers that be
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Post by Steve Zuleski on Feb 21, 2023 11:45:05 GMT -5
Man, these are tiny, Ruck On!
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 14, 2023 16:28:33 GMT -5
OkieDokie! Been away from the workbench since the end of July… family matters with mom in law moving into a nursing home and all the logistics with drawing down an estate…man, the system is rigged against elder care costs! Anyway, I haven’t had any time whatsoever for modeling, wargaming, or anything else… but I’m now making time for myself a little bit, which included a bit of a clean around the work area, and I dug out the Huey’s …and started assembly of one of them, on the interior deck. It’s surprisingly well detailed on the plating and had a nice fit with a bit of TETC. Actually, that’s all I did, lol. For me, it’s not much time spent building, but I’m taking it as a win! Being late in the day, and pretty tuckered out, I don’t want to make any nasty mistakes, especially since this wargaming miniature is so small (about 1/72 scale in modeling terms). I’m going to build it as an U.S. Army Huey, hence the specific nose section pictured. There’s no instructions, really… the barest of diagram on the back with a general leader line giving the general area, haha… doesn’t even say the order of assembly so, it’s kinda a ‘fly by the seat of your pants; assembly, pun intended! I’d like to finish both Huey’s tomorrow if I can, as far as build… paint later in the week. I’ve been doing some polishing to my Vietnam War miniatures game in which these will be used so, I’d like to do some playtest gaming with them on the board.
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406 Silverado
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Post by 406 Silverado on Oct 14, 2023 20:39:05 GMT -5
OH BOY!!! I do love me some Hueys!! Really glad to see you back in the fold and back at the bench Emery. Man.....in 1/72 scale these things are TINY!!
Heck yeah it's a win any time we get to sit at the bench and put something together. Looking forward to seeing more of this.
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 15, 2023 14:55:28 GMT -5
OK, so the ball is rolling once again! YAY! Spent a little more time at the workbench early this afternoon and it really feels good to be working on projects again. So first up this session was the interior of both Huey’s… I’m gonna build both at the same time. The inside passenger interior of the helicopter is gray, which I started with a solid gray mixed from Folk Art Acrylics (black and white), and hand brush painted on after assembly of the seating and deck/walls. Took three thin coats to get the level I wanted. Next was installing those interior seats inside the fuselage, which dry fit perfectly so, I applied a little glue to the bottom of the fuselage and pressed the seating unit in firmly on the right side, and repeated for the left. Holding the two halves in my left hand, copter upside down, I was able to apply some TETC via capillary action, and then use clamps to hold tight… big one at the nose and a couple small ones for the tail boom; these are Dollar Store finds, by the way! Everything is curing on the bench. …I’ll apply a wash on the interior to make the interior look more troop used, rather than factory fresh. I’ll check out seams afterwards and get anything ironed out that stands out. I have more to assemble, of course, but it’s coming along. I’m making these as U.S. Army Huey’s for the game, but these could be made as Marines birds! These are 1H variants, which were available in 1966 and made in large numbers. They had powerful engines, and represent what I need to get in and get my boys out of harms way! Speaking of boys, I checked out the two crew members (one being a gunner) against one of the Old Glory miniatures I’m using for the Green Berets game I’m making and the size is pretty close; the models’ being a bit chunkier in body frame, but nothing way out of scale and pretty damned close! …I’ll paint these on the sprue tree. Planning to airbrush the exterior, but we’ll see…it’s been awhile and I’m not sure the setup for spraying is worth the desired finish at this scale.
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406 Silverado
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Post by 406 Silverado on Oct 15, 2023 17:42:13 GMT -5
Good progress on these Emery. I really miss being up in these things. Best job I ever had and not a day goes by hardly when I think of the good ol days.
Will be watching for more updates bud.
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reserve
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Post by reserve on Oct 15, 2023 18:36:41 GMT -5
Oh hell is it WW III again?
Pretty nifty little kits
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 16, 2023 10:04:45 GMT -5
Good progress on these Emery. I really miss being up in these things. Best job I ever had and not a day goes by hardly when I think of the good ol days. Will be watching for more updates bud. Thanks… man, what a thrill it must be to be up in a helicopter…a bucket list item for me. Of course, I’d rather not be doing so with bullets whizzing by my ass, but hey, spice of life, right?!? It’s a funny thing with me, that I can get caught up in so many other things, that it’s so difficult to regain a presence at the workbench to model or build miniatures, and months of years can go by. But once I diddle just a little with a kit, the pilot light, which was just a mild flicker pops on full, and I start feeling that feeling… “I gotta get back down there!” It’s one of those AhHa moments sometime in the past that I know, if I can just do a bit, a lot will follow. Oddly, it’s the same way with artwork and banana splits. Oh hell is it WW III again? Pretty nifty little kits Lookin’ more and more like in the next few months, eh?!? I’m not sure how much you, or any of the other folks here know about Battlefront Miniatures, the company that makes Flames of War (and the latter spin-off’s like Team Yankee and World of Tanks) used to make their tanks as solid blocks of resin… the metal tracks, hatches, stowage would all be glued on with CA glue and BOOM, a miniature! They were nice in that they had weight to them, like fine chess pieces do; the bad, they wer resin and needed sanding… But Flames of War took a nosedive in popularity when a system called Bolt Action! came out (FoW is 15mm, and BA is 28mm); Battlefront revamped their Flames of War line, but gamers got pissed because it required getting all new books (it has TONS of “Campaign” books, which are basically set up per nation and force, and governs play) and they had to change a bunch of units around in their collection too match new specs. It was a clusterduck of massive proportions… The point I’m finally getting to is, when Battlefront retooled the game, they retooled their miniatures to what you see similar to this kit I’m building, which gives you a hollow plastic miniature. There’s good and bad to that, of course, and I’ll not bore you with the details (that’s why I have a forum on wargaming… so I can endlessly bore poor unsuspecting humans and the occasional militant cat), but it didn’t help the gaming base that do not model build and now, need to build a miniature from scratch; the irony being, they are super simple builds, to a modeler.
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dukemaddog
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Post by dukemaddog on Oct 17, 2023 17:35:32 GMT -5
These are looking excellent already! Way to go! I got to see some of these in use in a Team Yankee game tournament this past weekend at our game convention in Buena Park. I only wish they had settled on 1/72 scale for this game; I would have been half ready!
Keep them coming man!
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 17, 2023 17:50:37 GMT -5
These are looking excellent already! Way to go! I got to see some of these in use in a Team Yankee game tournament this past weekend at our game convention in Buena Park. I only wish they had settled on 1/72 scale for this game; I would have been half ready! Keep them coming man! Thanks… at the end of this build, I would really love your frank opinion on how mine turn out, compared to what you saw!
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 17, 2023 17:51:21 GMT -5
Work continues and she’s starting to look like a Huey…well, both sisters are! Both are being built in tandem. This is such a small scale, and some parts require steady handling with tweezers, or dead reckoning with fingers that feel like tree trunks! I started this session by sanding and smoothing seams and checking joins. The synchronized elevators in the tail boom were surprisingly tricky, as the fit was a little loosely goosey and one of them has a bit of a gap I don’t like. I’ll have to look at it with a fresh view tomorrow but, I think the elevator on one slipped down while drying… unfortunately, by the time I noticed, it was dried solid in place; I’ll see how bad it looks and if necessary, use some Squadron putty to fix ‘er up. The tailpipe fairing on the other hand, was much easier to place into the end of the engine cowling; the sculpt was made in such a way that in the placing of it within the cowling, the natural angle of the unit itself, nudged it up to the correct facing… definitely needed angled tweezers to get these into place. Not having a third hand, TETC was kinda useless, as it dried by the time I got the tailpipe fairing in the tweezers and raised to the cowling…so, I ended up using Model Masters in a squeeze bottle/pipette. …yeah, I’m not crazy about the seams… as a model builder, they wouldn’t do at all and I’d definitely putty them. Ah, therein lies my dilemma: as being a wargamer, and these are for wargaming, that’s a bit over-the-top. “What will he do, what will her do???” (I. Don’t. Know.) Next up was the nose compartment door at front. Dang, here we go again with fiddly! Getting it to snap into place was not easy at all and required some sweet talking to each girl; TETC again was not my friend, as it dried before I could rearrange grips and do the do, so again, I placed a dab of MM to secure in place, and then some TETC all around. Lastly, the machine gun mounts. O.M.G. These drove me about mad. The mounts basically fit two tiny posts at the bottom L-shaped hinge, into two tiny slots at the base of the compartment floor. MM to the rescue again, but this was honestly the worse component fit of everything and I worry about longevity of the hold, as these will be handled a lot in gaming… they really should have been molded into the fuselage shell halves somehow. Machine guns, skids, rotors, and doors to be added next session. Then I’ll get to the interior compartment washes, and then painting. Might be a couple little items to add, like litters, which might fit in. There’s not a diagram for decals included so, I’m doing a little research on the ones provided. I’m 99% sure they’ll be 1st Cav. I still don’t know if these are to be Hogs, Slicks, whatever… Battlefront was sneaky in being vague in this. Still, it’s a fun build.
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Post by tcoat on Oct 18, 2023 7:21:11 GMT -5
Work continues and she’s starting to look like a Huey…well, both sisters are! Both are being built in tandem. This is such a small scale, and some parts require steady handling with tweezers, or dead reckoning with fingers that feel like tree trunks! I started this session by sanding and smoothing seams and checking joins. The synchronized elevators in the tail boom were surprisingly tricky, as the fit was a little loosely goosey and one of them has a bit of a gap I don’t like. I’ll have to look at it with a fresh view tomorrow but, I think the elevator on one slipped down while drying… unfortunately, by the time I noticed, it was dried solid in place; I’ll see how bad it looks and if necessary, use some Squadron putty to fix ‘er up. The tailpipe fairing on the other hand, was much easier to place into the end of the engine cowling; the sculpt was made in such a way that in the placing of it within the cowling, the natural angle of the unit itself, nudged it up to the correct facing… definitely needed angled tweezers to get these into place. Not having a third hand, TETC was kinda useless, as it dried by the time I got the tailpipe fairing in the tweezers and raised to the cowling…so, I ended up using Model Masters in a squeeze bottle/pipette. …yeah, I’m not crazy about the seams… as a model builder, they wouldn’t do at all and I’d definitely putty them. Ah, therein lies my dilemma: as being a wargamer, and these are for wargaming, that’s a bit over-the-top. “What will he do, what will her do???” (I. Don’t. Know.) Next up was the nose compartment door at front. Dang, here we go again with fiddly! Getting it to snap into place was not easy at all and required some sweet talking to each girl; TETC again was not my friend, as it dried before I could rearrange grips and do the do, so again, I placed a dab of MM to secure in place, and then some TETC all around. Lastly, the machine gun mounts. O.M.G. These drove me about mad. The mounts basically fit two tiny posts at the bottom L-shaped hinge, into two tiny slots at the base of the compartment floor. MM to the rescue again, but this was honestly the worse component fit of everything and I worry about longevity of the hold, as these will be handled a lot in gaming… they really should have been molded into the fuselage shell halves somehow. Machine guns, skids, rotors, and doors to be added next session. Then I’ll get to the interior compartment washes, and then painting. Might be a couple little items to add, like litters, which might fit in. There’s not a diagram for decals included so, I’m doing a little research on the ones provided. I’m 99% sure they’ll be 1st Cav. I still don’t know if these are to be Hogs, Slicks, whatever… Battlefront was sneaky in being vague in this. Still, it’s a fun build. For those seams on the top I would fill them with Testers Clear Parts Cement (or white glue will do) and when almost dry wipe excess off with a damp finger. It may take a couple of applications but is better than just leaving them. It won't eliminate them but under paint will take the sharp edges that make them stand out away so they are more subtle. I use this in places like wing roots or where there is detail that could be lost when doing the whole fill and sand thing.
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dukemaddog
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Post by dukemaddog on Oct 18, 2023 16:23:38 GMT -5
They are looking great so far! I know what you mean about the fiddly machine gun parts, just remember to handle these by the boom at all times. If one of the tail pieces is drooping, you can dab it with a bit of Tamiya Extra Thin and when it softens up a bit, reposition it in a horizontal position, brace it in place and let it dry. The idea for the top seams is a great one; there are also some acrylic putties out there where you can apply the putty, then wet a fingertip or cotton bud and smooth it out with needing to sand. Again, it ain't perfect, but it will take the edge off as Tcoat mentioned.
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 18, 2023 16:46:29 GMT -5
Thanks for the input, guys… great suggestions! I forgot I might have some Testor’s Clear Parts Cement and will check that out next session. I was going to start today’s session with filling seams, but alas, my Squadron putty tube was hard as a rock! Well, it’s somewhere around a decade old so, I wasn’t too surprised I did try an Elmer’s Glue trick mentioned at MSC, but it was a bit of a failure, too… I’ll just order some more putty…or let and let be. So I switched to painting the gunner/crew instead, with Vallejo acrylics and finishing with a heavy splash of Citadel’s “Devlin Mud”. I clipped off and sanded the skids for next sessions’ application, but turned my attention to fitting the gunner/crew into the birds… oh man, they’re a tight fit! They are of course, a tad over scale, and I guess intended to hang out of the cargo/crew bay blasting away with their machine guns! Battlefront FoW is full of s*** with their website depiction of these, as the gunners on the site are much smaller, hold the MGs better, and sit INSIDE the cabin on the benches… Flames of War Miniatures Website Picture of Finished Huey UH-1 This is not so on the miniatures!!! All’s good, though… they are for wargaming after all, so a little artistic license is acceptable.
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 21, 2023 15:40:37 GMT -5
A short session at the workbench today, adding the skids to each Huey… …and then working on one of the Huey’s main rotor blades assembly; trouble started with the one rotor blade that would attach to the mast’s top peg (a small square peg), where the tiny tab with the square hole started to snap off! I used TETC to remelt it before it snapped off and got th rotor on the mast, followed by the top rotor blade that caps it with a solid cap. It’s quite precarious and even without the tab mishap, I wonder as to its longevity with repeated handling of the miniature in gaming… it makes me long for the days when Battlefront made it’s miniatures with some solid metal and resin components, where this whole rotor and mast assembly should have been one solid piece in metal. I’ve got it propped up overnight and will work on the other main rotor assembly tomorrow, hoping for the best on this one. Wish me luck!
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 22, 2023 11:11:45 GMT -5
Tail rotors put on… …and the second set of main rotors and mast… …this set was a bigger disaster than the first set; when I cut the rotor blade with the square hole in it, it sheared the tab in half, with the loose bit flying ing into the wilderness of my furnace room workshop area’s floor never to be seen again by human eyes! I glued both blades and mast together best as possible but time will tell if it holds! If not, one Huey will be converted into a downed wreck. The good news is, the other set done yesterday seems to be pretty solid!
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 24, 2023 19:11:09 GMT -5
Well surprisingly, the main rotors cured up pretty solid! It’s so frailty built around the connections of blades to mast that I was figuring this a 50-50% result at best, but these must be enough overlapping and abutting to have made the melted plastic, mold solidly enough…on quick inspection, anyway…time will tell as these are gamed with, but I’ll always try to remember these rotors are a bit delicate. So yesterday, I glued one sides’ gunner/crew bay’s “sliding” doors on (they of course, do not slide), and I did the other side tonight; San while I did the main rotors paint work, I got the tail rotors while I was at it. On the paint, I used Tamiya Semi-gloss black, but I think I’m going to switch to Citadel Chaos Black for the second coat, mainly ‘cause I want to see how they look with that. Note that the black is still wet, as is the Tamiya Dull aluminum. Next up, I’ll finally be able to get some paint on the exterior surfaces, and then a toned-down clear coat… and these should be done!
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Post by deafpanzer on Oct 25, 2023 7:55:22 GMT -5
You are getting there…. looking good!
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Whiterook
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 25, 2023 16:23:09 GMT -5
First coats on the exterior!!! Base color is Vallejo Air “Gunship Green”, applied in a thin coat with a wide artist brush. I was planning on airbrushing them burn my workshop area for that is under reorganization at the moment. Hand brushing is actually fine with me, as these are for 15mm gaming after all and I’m not looking for 100% realistic paintwork necessarily. The color was just slightly (and I mean, not by much) lighter a hue than the plastic the kit was molded with… After that latter dried sufficiently, I went back in with Vallejo Air “Light Green”… …the new workbench light I have is awesome for building, providing amazing light… but the paint job comes across brighter than on the bench; I wasn’t sure when I came back upstairs after that latter of painting, and I had to go back down and take a look…looked darker to me, but still bright. I took some time to work on the windows, where I used Folk Art acrylics blue and white to fill in the window areas, and after fried, went back in with Vallejo in a hand-made mixture of dark greens to paint in forest reflections. I had to go back in and touch up some of the hull and window frames from a few errant brush swipes… but the final result seems pretty good to me and gets the suggestion across. Ironically, they very last step of this build, after dullcoat is applied, will be to go back in on the windows with Tamiya Gloss to get the “glass” look… So I took a chance on, rather than trying to tone the color down with a new coat hand mixed darker, I tried an application of Citadel’s “Devlin Mud” wash… …I’ll have a proper look after everything dries appropriately, and with a fresh look, probably tomorrow. I really can’t say if I’ll darken the overall color or not… I’m kinda frustrated at the moment and don’t want to let that ruin things. The exterior color has been somewhat elusive so far! Here’s a good reference shot I’d saved as inspiration… On another subject, the decal sheet that came with the kit is NOT the one pictured on Battlefront’s website! Ticked me off, actually… the decals that come with the kit are minimalistic in content. I went ahead and ordered a decal sheet from Miscmini for $5 ($1 shipping) that has 1st CAV emblems in two sizes and great markings that look better than Battlefront’s. The build is pretty much on hold (other than tweaking the exterior color) until the decals come in.
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Whiterook
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Member since: March 2013
Posts: 837
Mar 13, 2013 15:29:19 GMT -5
Mar 13, 2013 15:29:19 GMT -5
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 26, 2023 11:50:14 GMT -5
So, one question has been answered… why do the Huey’s look lighter when I come upstairs to post pics? Lighting. The difference from the past is, I use a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, which has a phenomenal camera, but perhaps in combination with my new LED super bench light, something’s off on the color…like, color correction going on I don’t know about programmed into the phone. I used to snap pictures with a digital camera and transfer those pics to my laptop, and color correct with Photoshop Elements to mainly take out the white noise… cell phone cameras don’t seem to get hung up with white noise, these days. Anyway, going downstairs for a short session today, the Huey’s look darker, so I doubt I’ll do anymore colors atop. Today was pretty simple, paint the machineguns with Tamiya “Gun Metal”, but in the process, I snapped a rear rotor blade off the boom! Son-of-a-gun (no pun intended), Battlefront’s design truly sucks with its rotors!!! I mean, I’m not that Gorilla-handed. I glued it back on, but gosh knows the longevity of that once I start gaming with these… I’ll have ti remember to be VERY careful in handling. Next up was the exhausts, done with Citadel “Chaos Black” and a little Tamiya “Gun Metal” to highlight. Then, a first coat on the bottom cockpit windows…I might tweak those later. Lastly, a thin re-coating of chaos black to the main rotors. This is a painfully slow project, turns out… I figured these would be a quick build, but they are trickier than they look! I wonder how Batt;front’s tanks are!
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Whiterook
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Member since: March 2013
Posts: 837
Mar 13, 2013 15:29:19 GMT -5
Mar 13, 2013 15:29:19 GMT -5
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Post by Whiterook on Oct 29, 2023 14:09:13 GMT -5
Phewie, I’m almost there on these! So the decals that came with this do NOT match up with what Battlefront advertises on their website, including no sharks teeth, not unit emblem seen on their example pictures… the box art is actually, extremely vague in comparison so, what’s their game? (…no pun intended). Ah well, I went ahead and found new decals (<— see link) on the secondary market from Miscellaneous Miniatures, which arrived yesterday, which are super nice; I was looking specifically for 1st Cav Division emblems and this set had them. The owner is extremely good, and actually called me to offer a discount on shipping in card envelope rather than box (…was $5 shipping, which went down to $1!). I put a coat of Pledge (Future alternative) floor acrylic on the areas to receive the the decals last night… spent time today putting the decals on. Man, these suckers are TINY, but they are nice quality. Printed on the entire sheet, the numbers, wording, and symbols must be cut individually, and at this scale, that alone is tough. My hands aren’t as steady as they once were, I’m afraid and it can be aggravating. But, I got every decal I wanted on both units, except for the tail ID numbers… it was just too damn tight to squiggle them in there, based on a dry-fit, so I skipped those… there are plenty of examples of Huey’s without them. In fact, while researching the usage of IDs and unit emblems, I came to find out that it was all across the board in the ‘Nam, so there’s a lot of wiggle room in what goes on. Remember too, that these are for gaming so, literal iterations aren’t typically the name of the game with these! The hardest decals were the red arrow prop blast warnings; followed by the United States Army decals, which probably should have been cut in half, but they are so finicky to place, I figured I stood a better chance as a whole… there were plenty provided so, I did take off one that didn't go on too good, placement-wise… same thing for the nose number for what ended up being “818” (…which started out as 809 and then “624”, but of which had issues in placement). The 1st Cav emblems went on nicely on the nose, but the tiny ones on the tail wing were a challenge, to say the least! All of these look pretty good in the final result, though… I used Solveset to place, and Micro Set to seal (…yeah, I figured better safe than sorry). The last bit will be for a dullcoat, which will likely be airbrushed on later this week, once I get some squeeze bottles I ordered from Amazon…like the one you get with Vallejo or AK Interactive; I’ll make my own concoction of 70% Pledge/30% Tamiya Flat base, as I like to stay as non-toxic as possible in my hobbies. I’ll finish with Pledge on the windows to better simulate “glass”, and then assemble the flighty stands for gaming. Stay tuned… this project is winding up shortly!!!
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Post by deafpanzer on Nov 2, 2023 19:13:26 GMT -5
Too cool! I dig how you painted the windsheilds! You are getting closer to the finish line…
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Post by tcoat on Nov 3, 2023 9:24:23 GMT -5
Have you considered doing a spinning rotor effect? Sort of like this only larger:
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Whiterook
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Member since: March 2013
Posts: 837
Mar 13, 2013 15:29:19 GMT -5
Mar 13, 2013 15:29:19 GMT -5
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Post by Whiterook on Nov 4, 2023 16:27:33 GMT -5
Too cool! I dig how you painted the windsheilds! You are getting closer to the finish line… Thanks!!! After the final dull coat sealer, I’ll go back in on the windshield with Pledge brush painted on to give a bit of *glass reflection* Have you considered doing a spinning rotor effect? Sort of like this only larger: It did cross my mind, and would look great, but these are for use on a rather small, home made tiles gameboard of roughly 12” x 16”, each square tile being an out 2-1/4”…it’s a rather long birdseye-view downwards of maybe a hundred feet? Whereas the scale wouldn’t be terribly crazy to imagine, the gameboard space would make it difficult for maneuvering the miniatures figures (15mm each) underneath. Thanks for the suggestion, though!
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Whiterook
Full Member
Member since: March 2013
Posts: 837
Mar 13, 2013 15:29:19 GMT -5
Mar 13, 2013 15:29:19 GMT -5
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Post by Whiterook on Nov 4, 2023 16:43:08 GMT -5
Oh, forgot top mention… I did try a brushed on coat of my home-brewed dullcoat concoction, but ran into trouble. I applied it just to to the underbelly of one Huey, and inadvertently hit the side of one boom and crew bay door… but it had several fogged areas After some butt kicking on myself for not properly testing on a test piece, I days later, went back in with some pledge and it corrected the finish flaw, though now quite glossy! Thinking on what may have gone wrong, and talking about it on the forums, I figure… - The main culprit may have been too thick an application with the flat brush?
- The Tamiya Flat Base I used is a bottle that’s probably well over a decade and a half old and had gone bad? It was gray and clumpy on the sides of the inner bottle; when preparing the mixture, it came out kinda like thickish yogurt into my clean mini-jams bottle and probably had bad play with the Pledge (Future).
The correction went well enough, thank goodness, so I ordered a new Tamiya Flat Base and will see what the contents look like… and try a new mix. I did try the old mix with a thinner application by brush on a test area and it was fine, so idk. I’d rather be safe than sorry! New flat base due in this coming Thursday. Stay tuned!
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