Academy 1/48 CH-46E Bull Frog
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History
This is the first 1/48 helicopter kit from Academy. All that I
can say is I want more!
The first thing that you will have to do is find some good reference
on the CH-46 - the kit instructions are a lot of help, as they have
a lot of good pictures of the helicopter. There is only one book on
the CH-46 and that is Famous Aircraft Of World by KoKuFan. It was helpful,
but it is an old book and does not have any pictures of the new CH-46E.
It would be nice to have a Squadron In Action book on the CH-46. I did
find some very good pictures on www.Airliners.net.
The kit is modeled in gray plastic with one clear plastic tree, and
a very big decal sheet. It can be made right out of the box and will
make into a nice model. Included are a lot of parts for different versions
of the CH-46 which is why you need some good references on the one that
you want to do.
Step one is the Rotor Assembly. Just follow the instructions as to
which one is forward and which is the back rotor. These are counter-rotating.
At this point I got to looking at some pictures of the rotors in the
folded position and it looked like it would be easy to do. I cut the U
joint of the rotor blade to make an actual U shape. Then I made a new
part with a piece of styrene rod for it to slip onto, as you can see in
the pictures. I pinned the pieces together. This way you can rotate the
blades into the folded position. You do not want to mix up the rotor assembly
parts when you cut them, so do one rotor at a time. I made a mark on them
for the front and back rotors to eliminate confusion.
Pictures of the rotors when they are folded show that the back ones
do have a good droop to them. The front ones not as much. Also you can
see just how they will fit into each other. This conversion will make
the kit look nice and is pretty easy to do.
One other thing that I did was to cut open the intakes on the front
and the back rotor housing. The kit just has an indentation but not all
the way through. I did see that on the back rotor assembly that you could
see a round yellow object. I found a good picture with the engine
doors open and it is a yellow reservoir. You can see it on all the
CH-46s. I made it out of some rod and painted it yellow. I think this
looks better than just painting the hole black.
In the next step you will now mark all the holes in the fuselage that
you want to use for which ever model that you will be doing. They have
some good pictures as to the ECM and all the additional outside stuff,
so check what ones will have to be drilled.
At this time you can put in the stuff on the inside and paint it. The
only thing that I did not like was all the sink holes on the inside of
the fuselage. The ones you can see, fill with putty; the ones that won't
be seen, don't worry about them.
Next up is the cockpit. I used the decals for that. When you get the
canopy on you can not see too much in there. One thing I did do is add
some seat belts.
The next step is to put it all together. They have the back door that
can be in different positions, so pick out the one you want to do.
I did add some stuff to the front door. I cut out the side of the door
and added a rail. You can see this in the picture. I added some wires
to the hoist. I made a hook too. I also made some new wind shield wipers.
The biggest change I made is the intake screens. The kit pieces are
not clear whether they are the screens or the covers that go over the
screens. It looks to me like they are trying to make them look like a
screen. So I wanted to try to make some that would look better.
I got some fine screen that looked like it would work, and made a paper
template of the basket. I just wrapped the paper around the kit part,
pressing it firmly to make an impression and then cut it out. I then put
a piece of tape over it and cut it out. I then took the tape off and laid
it down on the screen, and cut the screen out. You can use the tape over
again. I made four of them until I got them right. Then I used a leather
punch to cut the nose screen out. I then use the kit part and roll the
screen around the part and glue it. You should have a little overlap to
help out in gluing. You want to make sure that you do not glue it to the
kit part. Then you can glue the nose screen on. I cut some wire for the
nose and glued it on and put some tape around it.
There is a way to get around the kit part and that is to make a cover
to go over the intakes. This could be done with some tissue paper.
On to the painting
I found some good pictures on the internet of the camouflage that I
wanted to do. The unit I did was the HMM 261 Raging Bulls.
When I got the kit all painted I put a coat of Future Floor Wax on
and started to decal. There are a lot stencils and markings that you can
put on. The instructions are very good in showing just where they all
go so mark them out to what ones that you will use. I had to use some
other decals for the big star and the black Marines and numbers.
When that was all done I gave another coat of Future and then did an
oil wash. With that done I put a flat coat on.
Conclusion
So that is a Bull Frog. I did think Academy did a very good job on
the kit. I do hope that we will see some more helicopters like the CH
47. And some of the BIG ones!
I would highly recommend this kit. You will be happy with the BULL
FROG.
I would like to thank MRC for the review sample.
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