Project Kestrel (2) Ha'la'tha VTOL

I continue to be unimpressed with Revell. The cabin build for the Kestrel is the H145M which is, apparently, a rebox of the EC145 kit from 2005. All the edges are soft except for the pieces that are specifically for the Military version. The engineering of the kit leaves some things to be desired as well. Several pieces are integral to the main cabin shell, and their alignment is critical, but there are no locating pins or even a shelf line. I've even found a piece that is supposed to be a mirror, but they cast it as a duplicate. The instructions tell you how to file and cut the thing to be the piece you need. That I would expect from a garage kit.

 Main instrument panel. Soft edges, there'll be some serious filling here.

The rudder, cyclic and collective controls are pretty nice. A little tricksy to get off the sprue, as there are gates on the very fine parts, but once you get them and if you're patient it can be worked.

Of course, I had to choose to do the troop transport version. Painting up the jump seats and then did a little research on the color gradations for red/brown leather. the instrument panel went together ok, but still needs some filling and work,

Putting the chairs in place and did a bit of weathering of the floor

a look at the main cockpit and controls.

This is what I was talking about. you have to build up an inner shell, and then this will align with the windows and ports on the external shell. You can see fitment issues along the top, and it's hard to be certain where the edges are supposed to be.

Of course, I also forgot when I was putting all that subtle weathering in place that it pretty much won't be visible.  I am thinking I'll keep the side doors off, or at least open.  The rear doors I can leave open, and I'm also thinking taking it completely off and mounting a minigun might be a nice option.  

We'll see how it goes together from here.  : )

Project "Kestrel" - The beginning. (Caprica-'verse Ha'la'tha VTOL)

Project has a name: Project Kestrel. I like the sound. :P Again, staying wit the theme of a resistance-use aircraft, I actually have to put a bit more thought into the equipment maintenance and battle strategies. From what I understand, the Ha'la'tha forces had a decent run early but were overwhelmed by superior equipment, manpower and resources. However, they had to have some kind of infrastructure to start with, and working with smaller, more agile and flexible hardware would have been a good strategy.

So, the Caprica VTOL design is big, powerful and state of the art in appearance, compared to our early designs of Huey or Chickasaw. Essentially a merge of a jet-powered Osprey and the Blackhawk, the designers didn't try hard to hide the Blackhawks lines, so I'm not going to bother with it either. I'm going take the EC145 and work along similar design concepts.

I'm liking the upward bent gull wings with tip-mounted engines. The one thing I need to figure out is the tail.. the narrow beam looks "meh" to me. But, because I want to keep the doors, I have to figure something out. Either a twin tail boom extending off the rear of the fuselage or something wider and more robust looking. Not sure yet. We'll see. I do want to keep that rear-opening door. That allows the design to be variable like the 145, troop transport, special assignment, med-evac.. etc.

The engines will be a bit tricksy. I have a few ideas.. but there's a trick to the V-22: Fuel and control delivery. That was conveniently skipped in "Caprica" if you look at the images, but I will have to account for it on my design. (Engineer brain again.) but the Osprey hub solved that problem, I can simulate a similar resolution.

More to come. : )

Vlog on the start

Ha'la'tha Resistance Fighter build - 6 Completed.

Once the main colors were down, it really was a matter of getting stuck in on the weathering.  For this, I stretched my skills again and decided to try using oil paints.  Yeah, I know, pretty much everyone uses them, but they are new to me so all the techniques are going to be learn-as-I go. 

I intentionally was going for a heavily weathered and worn look.  This aircraft is part of resistance forces and so is operated out of hidden bases with minimal maintenance available.  That's the look I'm going for- flight worthy, funcitonal but used.  The first thing I went for was the panel- line shading and I pretty much used the shading to hint at lines that weren't even there.  The feathering worked out better than I had hoped it would and I was content with the end result. 

After that, I just got stuck in on chipping, dusting and fading the colors.  Eventually, I got to where I wanted to go, and called it done.  I learned an incredible amount of things working this model, and I'm quite happy with what I was able to turn out.  There are many things I think I would like to do differently in later projects, but that is what learning is all about.  

So, the final product:  the GAS F/A-3 Medusa Attack aircraft.