1/72 Siga Piasecki HUP-3 kit bash

Gallery Article by Phillip Steele "industrialmechanic" on Jan 19 2015

 

      

Please don't sneeze when you read this article. Something on the model will probably break off. This is a Canadian Piasecki HUP-3. Canada bought three of these little beauties for (originally) evaluation purposes on our ice breakers. They served in various other roles until the mid '60's. This model is based on, but not intended to be a replica of, the static display machine at the Shearwater Aviation Museum.   

 

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This build is a fairly extensive kit bash, using a (slightly too short) Siga model as the base, with parts from an Amodel and a Mach 2. Other parts were scratch built as necessary, or came from spares. Scratch fabrication of individual parts from time to time is not difficult. Making 12 parts that have to be exactly the same takes some planning, and I had to invent methods to produce what I needed. I'll describe what I did, (not in sequence) starting with the interior. I didn't fall back on the old "it's 1/72 scale, don't bother with internal detail" excuse either. I made a new floor from the roof of the Amodel, and added rudder pedals, a detailed instrument console, seats from a Fuji kit, a hoist hook and a drive shaft cover. Crew seats were added and the fire extinguisher from the Amodel was put in place. The exposed walls were finished with material from the back of the package that my artists curves came in. Painted interior green, it's a good representation of the pleated insulating covering used on these choppers. Using this method was safer that trying to add ribs and seams. The plastic was brittle and poorly cast, with some nasty little cracks showing up as the build progressed. I put the engine in the bay, in the correct position, with a drive shaft. The exhaust pipe is made from painted aluminum tubing.

Exterior modifications were more extensive. A new crew door was made, and the opening re positioned and reshaped. The grab handle and foot bar positions were corrected and new items were made from steel wire. The tie down rings are made from the same material. All of the foot steps were filled and rescribed using a custom made template. The four lateral flanges were sanded off and reproduced using thin plastic strips inserted in a scribed line, using another custom template. The fuel fill port was re positioned and reshaped. All of the window openings were re positioned and enlarged. New windows were made. Masking templates were made. The wind screen was refinished using head light polish. (more nasty little cracks) Panel lines, vents, hatches, and rivets were corrected. Detailing unique the Canadian machines was added. The forward pylon was raised 2 mm and re positioned farther forward. Re detailing was done with half round strip. The rear pylon was reshaped. Except for the Amodel wheels, the landing gear is completely scratch built, using brass rod, tubing, and some more of the steel wire for the brake lines. The cargo cables are painted nylon twine. The the antenna wire is 2lb fishing line, painted silver. The complex rotor heads are completely scratch built. They comprise of 42 individual brass and plastic parts each. The blades are from the Amodel kit, with modifications. The stand poles are also scratch built, from plastic. I had intended to paint them in black and yellow, but the required masking would have destroyed them, I'm sure. They were built right on the finished model with some compromises in length and shape. I didn't make the vibration dampeners, as they were removed sometime during the service life of these machines, lucky for me. The decals are CanMilAir, (which will give you some numbering options), and some others that I made myself. Model Master paints. 

I'd like to thank RotorheadTX for his kit contributions. 

Phillip Steele

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Photos and text © by Phillip Steele