SACG SH-360 Aonyx

[Captain Canada]

I'de leave the nose white....seesm to work pretty good on the Super Puma !

[Damian2]

Okay Damian, it has been over a month since you provided your last update.  I hope you have managed to overcome the obstacle with the H-60 engines on the H-3 fuselage. 

After looking at the last image provided that shows the upper works of the H-60 sitting next to the H-3 fuselage I got to thinking that maybe you could cut away some more of the H-60 part to reduce the width at the front where it could then be about the same width as the area it is supposed to occupy on the H-3.  The overhang created by the H-60 engines along the side of the fuselage could then be addressed by filling in the undersides of each engine with the part of the upperworks that was cut away when it was trimmed up to reduce the width. 

Thats pretty much the direction I'm going to be taking with mounting the engines on this beastier although I haven't worked on her in that time period due to my SAAF MiG being in prog. Now that she's taken care of I'm going to go ahead full steam on the SH-360 Will be popping up to my decal man next week to sit and talk about getting decals made for her

D

[Damian2]

Roof's off the SH-3! 

Lotsa work ahead!!!!

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Roof's off the SH-3! 
Lotsa work ahead!!!!

If you need some additional words of encouragement, all I can offer up right now is F.I.D.O.! 

[Damian2]

Well now that the SAAF MiG is 99% done I've resumed work on the SH-360. After looking at some of the work going into various builds in ARC's Choppers GB I decided to a bit more than just tint the fuselage windows so you couldn't see it. This is the first time I'm adding so much detail, up till now its mostly been adding an MFD here or some minor ribbing in the cockpit there etc. certainly nothing on this scale!

1. Since this pic was taken I've lopped off the SH-3's engine nacells, to say this was gut wrentching is on lie!



2. The flight deck with the two little chaps who will occupy it. Seats, consoles and pilots mocked up the rest is all glued in. You'll note that the seats, tail rotor pedals cyclic and joysticks are not from the SH-3. The seats and pedals come from the UH-60 kit and the other bits come from the CH-46. This is because the SH-3 kit was missing these parts and well I think they look good!



3. Just behind the flight deck is the medical storage cabinet and fridge/freezer. No, no jokes As this A/c services the fishing trawlers and other work craft in their respective AOs the need to store items such as various meds, plasma/blood or the requirement to keep a severed digit or limb cold was incorporated into the design. The fold away jump seats form part of a storage locker for various sundries. Once I get around to painting him my flight medic will be napping here.



4. The roof for the main cabin. All you guys who scratch build make this look soooo easy! I still need to add more lines and pipes as well as intercom connection points.



5. The liitle dude behind the flight deck will become my SH-360's crew chief/hoist operator. I removed his arm and readjusted the position to lower it. I would like to pose him in the open doorway scanning the sea...



6. Fold away jump seats at the rear of the cabin. I'll be adding more things in like med bags and backboards etc as I go along



7. This is the FINAL scheme I've settled on. It cuts the black section back so it's just an anti-glare shield for the pilots.



As always comments and crits are most welcomed!!

D

[Jeffry Fontaine]

This is really starting to get interesting!   I never gave much thought to adding an interior to this when I originally came up with this kit-bashing idea.  Looks like you are taking it to a whole new level now so please keep us in the loop on the progress.

[noxioux]

I'm also very interested in how the interior goes together.  I've always struggled with the helo kit interiors.

[Damian2]

An quick update:

I've cut the UH-60's tail rotor back to a point where it is the correct height profilewise when compared to the tail boom on the SH-3. This means I have a width correction to make but its nothing I haven't done before (see my SAAF MiG).

The pics below are mocked up to give you the impression of the final config on the chopper.

1. Front on...



2. Top down...



3. Profile...



At this point I'll be doing away with the hinge mechanism as this won't be a ship based chopper but a land lubber, although this may change when I get closer to actually mating the kit parts up.

Any crits and comments welcomed as always!

D

[Scooterman]

Me likie!!!! 

This is going to fool more than one person.........

[Jeffry Fontaine]

This is going to fool more than one person

We certainly hope that it will do just that. 

[Damian2]

Hi all!

Well after three looong weeks of studies and writting CPL exams I've finally gotten a chance to kick back and do some more work on the Aonyx. The interior is done and I'll be moving on to painting and installing the sucker from Monday onwards!

1. Port side interior done, I'm experimenting with kitchen foil as a felt linning you see in some chopper pics. Also featured are the fold away seats, storage rack and the medical bag:



2. Starboard side, with a documents holder, fridge/medical cabinet and storage locker and seats:



3. Looking through the flight deck opening:



4. And the massive hole in the roof:



I was going to open the side door, but after discussing it with Jeff I'm leaving it closed to provide some stiffness to the structure that I've lost with the removal of the roof. Also with this being in flight its a littl extra security

As always comments and crits are most welcomed!!

D

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I was going to open the side door, but after discussing it with Jeff I'm leaving it closed to provide some stiffness to the structure that I've lost with the removal of the roof. Also with this being in flight its a littl extra security

As always comments and crits are most welcomed!!

Damian,

Without having the parts in front of me to touch and feel, I can only suggest this and you can let me know if it will work or not.  The area that you mentioned under the engines on the top of the fuselage where you are experiencing the gap issues.  Would it be possible to fit a piece of plastic card stock across the top of the fuselage to blank off the opening and then place the Blackhawk engine and transmission section on top of that flat plastic piece?  It might alleviate the open gap issue that you are currently experiencing with the match up of the Sea King fuselage with the Blackhawk piece.

[Mossie]

Damian, I like the idea of using foil for the lining.  How did you emboss the pattern?

[Damian2]

Damian, I like the idea of using foil for the lining.  How did you emboss the pattern?

A cheap BiC pen and a steadyish hand is all thats needed. I glued the foil in with a derivative of white glue as it give you the work time to get everything snugged up.

D

[Mossie]

Nice one!  Seems like a simple enough trick, might use that in the future.