F.I.G.A.S. Hueycobra - FINISHED (story & pics)

Weaver · June 20, 2015, 04:29:47 PM

Okay, I'm in.

This is the middle model of three I have planned showing the same airframe at different points in it's life. It starts off as a stock AH-1G that gets exported to Argentine in the mid-'70s for use in it's COIN campaign in the north (an equivalent to the Air Force's Pucara that's under the Army's control, basically). They then take a few to the Falklands in '82, and this one gets captured intact, de-militarised, and put into service with the Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS) as a flying crane, which is the stage I'm modelling here. Once they get fed up with the running costs, they sell it off to a private company which results in an "interesting" end to it's career.

Other than the shady last episode, this is actually the real story of a UH-1H Huey that ended up in the Falklands, which is how it's decals got on the S&M British Antarctic Aviation sheet that I used for my BAS Skyvan. in it's flying crane incarnation it needs to be stripped of all uneccessary weight, so the wings, turret and cockpit armour will all be going, and a U-shaped frame hanging from the the wing attachment points will carry a cargo hook underneath the CofG.

Here's the bits:

The model is the Special Hobby one that they were selling without boxes or decals at Telford for a very reasonable £6, which is why I got three. Some Montex canopy masks are on the way. The hook frame will be scratchbuilt and the hook itself will be the unused catapult hook from the Belizean Seahawk.

I'm also putting it into the VTOL GB on BTS which is running concurrently with this one, but with a shorter deadline.

KiwiZac · June 21, 2015, 02:12:59 PM

What a great idea, I've always wanted a FIGAS Islander but this is even cooler! A Cobra used for lifting is a very neat idea. Plus you get some lovely shooty stuff for the spares box.

Weaver · June 21, 2015, 02:37:08 PM

I'm sure that I didn't come up with the idea of using a Cobra as a flying crane, but I'm damned if I can find the reference that gave me the idea...

You get loads of spare shooty stuff with the Special Hobby Cobra even if you build it up fully armed, so given that two of my three arn't using ANY of the kit armament, I'm going to have LOTS of spares.

Each kit comes with (all exquisitely moulded, BTW):

2 x 19-round FFAR pods
2 x 7-round FFAR pods
2 x 7-round cluster-of-tubes FFAR launchers
2 x 7.62mm Minigun pods
1 x 20mm Vulcan with 2 x conformal ammo packs
1 x single 7.62mm Minigun turret
1 x double turret with 7.62mm Minigun and 40mm AGL

The cluster-of-tubes FFAR launchers would go particularly nicely on a very early UH-1 Huey-Hog with the twin M60s on each side in place of the later Miniguns. Likewise, the Minigun pods would be ideal for arming all manner of light attack types.

Martin H · June 21, 2015, 02:50:42 PM

I used the same decals on this beast.

I was reliably informed by the leader of the South Atlantic sig that Xtracylic Red Arrows red is as near a match for the red used on the Huey as its possible to get off the shelf.

Captain Canada · June 22, 2015, 04:58:34 AM

This is going to be good. Love the Cobra and she's going to look great in red ! Nice Wessex too Martin

Mossie · June 22, 2015, 05:23:52 AM

Bight red Cobra will look a bit different. Are you planning to build it's Falklands service or it's 'interesting' end to it's career?

Weaver · June 22, 2015, 06:07:09 AM

Quote from: Mossie on June 22, 2015, 05:23:52 AM
Bight red Cobra will look a bit different. Are you planning to build it's Falklands service or it's 'interesting' end to it's career?

Falklands: "interesting" wouldn't qualify....

Weaver · June 22, 2015, 06:10:20 AM

Quote from: Martin H on June 21, 2015, 02:50:42 PM
I used the same decals on this beast.

I was reliably informed by the leader of the South Atlantic sig that Xtracylic Red Arrows red is as near a match for the red used on the Huey as its possible to get off the shelf.

Nice one - looks good.!

The decal instruction sheet's a bit thin on colour info isn't it? It shows all of them in the same bright red, but judging by photos and conversations, some of them were nearer to orange. Presumably the real VP-FBD was painted with whatever they had available locally, which would probably have been the same as the FIGAS islander that was red with a blue stripe.

Mossie · June 22, 2015, 06:37:12 AM

Sorry, I meant just in general rather than for this GB, and it's military service both sides of this build.

Weaver · June 22, 2015, 12:12:34 PM

Quote from: Mossie on June 22, 2015, 06:37:12 AM
Sorry, I meant just in general rather than for this GB, and it's military service both sides of this build.

Well eventually I hope to build all three and have them on a common display base: pre-Falklands Argentine Army service, FIGAS, and "interesting".

Weaver · June 22, 2015, 08:23:00 PM

Well this is interesting: there is NO means of support for the rotor mast. What you see in this pic is what you get:

The streamlining plate fits in the conical hole on the top of the fuselage, but if you use the open option (as I'm doing) it falls right through. I'm not particularly bothered about the rotor turning, but I would like the option of taking it out for safe transport, so I'm concocting a confection of tubes at the moment.

I've also cut the armour off the seats. I reckon that a flying crane needs the lowest possible unladen weight, and this stuff is heavy, so I'm just not fitting most of it (the cockpit side pieces are separate) but the shoulder pieces are moulded in:

It'll need seatbelts making 'cos the canopy's huge and shows everything.

PR19_Kit · June 23, 2015, 12:55:41 AM

Did you miss the anti-gravity bit? It's on sprue C I think..........

Captain Canada · June 23, 2015, 09:34:47 AM

That is just weird !? I like the idea of cutting off the armour bits. I'm building the Joy Pack trio right now as trainers and I might just do the same !

Weaver · July 07, 2015, 03:34:18 PM

Not much progress but some. Here's the rotor mast fix. There are two tubes inside each other glued into the fuselage, so the one glued to the mast plate fits smoothly. This was nowhere near as easy as it looks because the inside of the fuselage is a complicated shape and lots of fettling was needed to get it aligned correctly:

Here's how it looks assembled:

There's a small vent in the side of the fuselage with a silver grill on the inside of it that has to be fitted before the fuselage is sealed up, so I decided to paint the red on the lips of it's hole now, since the hole will have to be filled with blu-tack to mask the grill before the main paint is applied. While I was at it, I did the deep holes and fin slots around the intakes, where spray might not reach:

The intakes on the AZ kit are wrong, and there's a Brengun resin correction kit available. I nearly bought it when I bought the canopy masks, but adding it bumped up the postage to the point where it all got quite expensive. This being whiff-world, I'll just claim that the Argentinian Cobras had locally-produced intake shrouds.

Weaver · July 09, 2015, 05:58:06 PM

Pictures tomorrow, promise...

I have to say that I'm rather disappointed by the level of fit on this model. It looks nice in the box, but just about everything needs fettling to make it fit and the engineering could be better.