Pete's Eurocopter

[stillp]

Right, as I mentioned elsewhere, I've decided to give the Pave Hawk a miss for now and instead to build the Revell 1/32 Eurocopter EC145. This is going to be OOB, there's quite enough parts without buying more!

Some of the sprues have rather a lot of flash, others very little.

There's also one part that's bent, but luckily it's one I won't be using.


The kit can be built as either a Florida air ambulance or a German police version, which in turn can be either a transport or rescue version. I'll be building it as the German Police rescue version, since the ambulance decals look a nightmare, and the rescue winch is more interesting than the transport seats.
The choice has to be made right at the beginning, so the floor can be drilled for the correct configuration of seats.

That done, the control sticks can be added.



More soon.

Pete

[papa 695]

Nice start Peter, like you said there's some flash to clean up.

[Guest]

That’s a good start Peter!
Watching :smiling2::smiling2:

[stillp]

Moving on... I'm not too unhappy with the fire extinguisher!
[ATTACH]294086[/ATTACH]

There are several mistakes in the decal callouts: the instructions would have you place this long decal on the RH side of the centre console, not the left!
[ATTACH]294087[/ATTACH]
The decal they advise for the LH side looks as if it's intended for the main IP, but it doesn't fit! There are separate decals for the main IP, but not all mentioned in the instructions!
[ATTACH]294088[/ATTACH]
Couldn't get the camera to focus where I wanted, but in the photo below you can just make out two tiny decals on the nearer side of the seat mounting frame; there are 2 of each of 2 decals provided, and the instructions would have you put them all on one seat, which would mean 2 of them will be invisible when the seats are fitted to the floor, so I've put them on the 'outer' rail on each front seat.

[ATTACH]294089[/ATTACH]
The decals behaved very well though, I could pull them into place with tweezers without damaging them, and they settled down well after a liberal dosing with Microsol.
That's the pilot and observer's seats ready to install, next up there are seats for 'passengers', of which there are 7 provided but only 3 used in this version. I'll make up all 7 and then pick the best 3.

Pete

[Snowman]

Looking good!!:thumb2:

[flyjoe180]

Coming along nicely Pete

[Steve O]

Looks a treat Pete, it's going to be a nice one.

Steve.

[papa 695]

Looking good Pete

[stillp]

A bit more done on the interior.[ATTACH]294218[/ATTACH][ATTACH]294219[/ATTACH]
That single seat in the first photo is supposed to be the other way round, facing forwards, but if fitted that way there is no legroom between the back of that seat and the front of the one behind it, worse even than Ryanair (!), but looking on the web there seems to be a lot of flexibility in the seat configuration, so I think it might well be correct as I've built it.
Next stage is to attach the two side panels shown in the first photo, but there are 18 minute decals to apply first, so I'm waiting for a coat of Pledge to dry at the moment.

Pete

[stillp]

So far the fit has been pretty good, but I've just run into a major problem.
[ATTACH]294281[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]294282[/ATTACH]
Difficult to show in the photos, but the row of 3 seats is a millimetre or two too wide to allow the pins on the side panels to locate in the holes in the floor. I'm going to have to carve off part of the seat belts as well as some of the seat cushions and some of the base frame.:disappointed:

Pete

[stillp]

So, I thought about how much I'd have to carve off the seat sides, and wondered what a proper modeller would do... then decided to remove the seats:[ATTACH]294333[/ATTACH]
and cut a chunk out of the frame, either side of the central seat.
[ATTACH]294334[/ATTACH]
It's a very tight fit in there:
[ATTACH]294335[/ATTACH]
so I cut a bit more off. Now, how am I going to reattach them? I need a precision assembly jig, or, failing that, a lump of blu-tak and a coffee stirrer.
[ATTACH]294336[/ATTACH]
That can have a few hours to set before I try attaching the other two seats.

Pete

[papa 695]

Nice adaptions Pete

[stillp]

Thanks Ian.

Pete

[flyjoe180]

Coming along nicely Pete

[stillp]

A little more progress: [ATTACH]294467[/ATTACH][ATTACH]294468[/ATTACH][ATTACH]294469[/ATTACH]
However, I'm now stuck. Some decals need to be applied before the cabin is closed up, but I really can't make sense of the instructions to know which ones! This is all the instructions show:
[ATTACH]294471[/ATTACH]
Can anyone make sense of that?

Pete