The SAAF Forum

I realised that it has been a long time since I posted anything here despite having completed a number of builds! So to put that right have decided to tackle this next one in public with a bit of a WIP approach. Judging by the amount of work that is going to be needed on this kit I may live to regret this but time will tell

So on to the kit and the build. As usual I will not be obsessed with rivet counting accuracy but happy if I end up with a half decent Frelon that resembles a SAAF aircraft. There is a lot of negative comment to be found when you research this kit and having opened the box and had a look I am not surprised! That said though, I am sure with a bit of patience and creativity a fairly decent build should result and afterall it is the only option currently available in this scale.

Kit arrives in a large pizza sized box



And this is what you get inside

So what's the problem I hear you all say? Well in summary it's a low pressure short run kit (OK that's what everyone else says and it makes it sound like you know what you are talking about) which means to my eye it looks like it is somewhere between a resin scratch build and a home industry extrusion moulded product. There is lots of flash to be cleaned up, lots of sprue connection points and mould imperfections which I assume is due to the low pressure process and needing to get the melted styrene flowing to all parts of the mould. Of late I have been building a few Scaleworx and Baxmod products and happily report that their quality is much better than what I am dealing with here, we need to support our locals more as they are world class!

A few pics which hopefully show the extent of the issues







And all I can say here is Oh dear, this is going to be fun when the time comes to sort this out!

A few issues I know I am going to have to tackle include:

Scratch building the rear wheel mounts to get to this configuration as the kit only comes with a sponson set up



As can be seen above in one of the pics there is no internal detail other than a cabin floor and ceiling so I will try to scratch build some interior detailing to resemble this, if it fails than I will just close the rear door to hide everything



And then there is this, the lump that looks like a squashed spider is supposed to be the main rotor which is obviously a focal point on the model so will have to be sorted out, I just don't know how right now. These pics show the kit part, what it looks like in 1:1 scale, what the 1/32 kit part looks like and what some crazy modeller has achieved. I will be happy if I end up somewhere in between!

I have made a start but have spent the last few evenings cleaning up parts, scraping off excess plugs and filling lots of holes and dents. When I have anything more meaningful to show I will post an update.

Here is a final shot to show a size comparison against a 1/72 Puma which shows how big this helicopter actually is!

They are called Mach 2 because that is the speed at which you normally regret having bought them once you see the contents

Wow, LOTS of work ahead. Not often we see the Putco being modelled, so looking forward to it.

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How come every time my ship comes in, I'm at the airport?

Bushpig, I built a Frelon some years back.

It builds into a very nice model with a bit of patience.

I used some excess Puma seats for the back, saved me some extra work!

Geoff

Holy smokes, that looks like fun

Rather you than me! Having said that, I'm sure you'll knock it out the park (in a good way).

Hey Bushpig,

That actually looks like a nice kit

Will you be cutting out the cabin door and posing it open as well?

You could use brass rod for the rear wheel mounts.

For the seats, maybe brass/ plastic rod for the framework and tissue paper soaked in white glue with a little Tamiya tape for the straps. Another option for the seats might be to heat some plastic card above a candle and then stretch it out to get a rippled/ wavy effect. You could then cut the shape of the seats out, along with the hanging straps and glue using normal plastic cement.

Regards,
Stratobat

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'If the literal sense makes good sense, seek no other sense lest you come up with nonsense'

For the undercarriage I used sprue.

Some kits have nice thick sprue that can be used, I didn't have brass rod in those days.

I opened the cabin door also.

Geoff

PS. For those that think this kit is horrible, the haven't yet built a 1/72 Co-operativa Lavockin LA-15!

Thanks for the input and comments guys. I must say that as I am working a bit more with the parts, once you get the flash cleaned up and do any necessary repair work the actual parts are not bad at all, it just means having to apply a bit more hobby skill to get a decent result. Perhaps we are becoming spoilt now days with the level of commercial kits that are available?

On the seats, I am not too stressed about making them up as I did a similar exercise on my C-130 build that I shared on this forum.
The padded linings is where I am currently focussing most and experimenting with a few ideas. Interestingly with this I see some versions (and it appears to be the case for SAAF machines) have a padded fabric lining whereas others (eg an Israeli walkaround I found) have a metal sheet with perforated holes lining.
At the moment I will not be opening the side entry door, I toyed with the idea for a while and decided against it but that may change as I get into the build.
The idea of borrowing parts from other kits has crossed my mind and may well be the way I go (the issue then becomes what's available vs how far away from accuracy to original I am prepared to go, watch this space)
As for the revised wheels braces I am thinking a combination of brass and styrene rod.

Looking forward to following this one ! Always had a soft spot for the old Putco . Amazing how spindly that main undercarriage is. How are you planning on sorting out the main rotor hub.

BTW, good to see some other builders becoming active on the forum again

The Frelon is a wonderful choice Bushpig, and the potential for weathering makes it even more appealing!

Well guys I think I knew when I started this one that it was going to be one of those builds that progresses in chunks with lots of rest time in between I have already decided to pack it away and take a break!

I have to think a bit more about some of the challenges and in the meantime tackle something a little easier.

So after a few more days of working on this one here is a little progress report. I simulated the quilting in the cabin with scribed styrene sheet cut into panel sections. Painted with a light cream mix and then a raw umber oil wash.



Painted the floor section, from reference pics it looks like a very dark green so I did the panel lines in black, masked them off and over-sprayed with dark green and then a final coat of tamiya x-19 clear to blend it all in. I have also started the framework for the bench seats.



I scratch built the additonal panel between the cockpit and cabin which is missing from the kit. I then added some panels, scratch built a fire extinguisher and axe