HH-43

Donald Dickson II
Yes, I keep getting side tracked. I am doing this one now. I like odd ball stuff, and this goes right with the H-21. The pics are ones my dad took at Tan Son Nhut AB in 67. I am going to try to stick to the pattern on these as best I can. I only see the stars and bars on them. No other markings. Anyone else see more?

Donald Dickson II
OK, so I got to work on it. Got the cockpit area done. So, that went swimmingly. Put that assembly into the fuselage half. Closed it up. Put together the rotor shaft area. All went together really well considering that the original molds were from Hawk. In 1961! Yes, it needs some sanding and putty, BUT, 1961 molds. You cant really complain about the minor fit issues.

So, here is the thing. The rotors spin. There is a gear assembly that you have to put together precisely. It seemed awful hefty to me, but hey, 1961 ideas. LOL But here is the problem. As you can see, the gears are clearly visible from the side and back. AND I need to address the floor being open on the bottom thing.

Now, the reason I know this is a 1961 Hawk kit is I checked the lineage here. Honestly, I hadnt really looked at it until I got to this point. I took a closer look at the pic of the original box and lo and behold, IT WAS MOTORIZED. Thats the reason for the overly hefty gears. And for the one shaft extending so far below the gear. So now I need to decide if I want to try to motorize it or just kind of wall off the gears so they arent seen. Never motorized anything. Hmmmmm.....

Alex K
Hi. I don't know how come that nobody has commented on this project yet, but to my mind (and to others' minds, I'm sure) the important aspect here is that you are doing this (as also your other Tan Son Nhut dio project) based on your father's photos... Good luck with both projects.

Nathan Dempsey
Never seen a camo painted Huskie. That's an interesting subject 🙂

Paul Hennessy
I like oddball. Looking forward to how this turns out.

Donald Dickson II
OK. Well, I had to put my fuzzy baby girl Lexi down on last Thur. So, clearly I havent been in the mood to do much modeling until like Tue night. Got all the glass on. Let it set for 24 hours then sprayed black. Will check the seams tonight.

Donald Dickson II
On with the build. Sprayed the bottom light gray. Then taped off the border area and sprayed the tan last night. Tonight I did the blue tac thing and sprayed dark green. My own mix of standard dark green plus some black. That color seems to have varied a lot in theater. Generally darker than the color straight up. Next session, more blue tac then med green.

While I was letting paint dry, I worked on the rotors. I noticed that one of the four brackets that holds the blades on is MIA. So i am going to have cast one. Yay. Should be fairly easy as it is a fairly flat piece. Since the rotors are the very last thing I do in a copter, I will wait until then to detail that part.

Donald Dickson II
OK, so some touching up and fixing a couple things, but camo essentially done. I have looked at the pics with a magnifying glass, and I absolutely do not see any markings except for the stars and bars. No U.S. AIR FORCE band on the tail, nothing. So I will likely only do that.

Nathan Dempsey
Coming along nicely. Hey at least you dont have to worry about hours and hours of applying decals.

Jeff Flint
If you have Facebook, there's a group on there about HH-43s in Vietnam. A search ought to bring it up. Lots of pictures and first hand accounts from guys who flew them.

This kit is based on the old Hawk kit that originally had a motor. I think they left over gears inside are from that. Cobra Company has an update set for them. Lone Star Models bought them out and he said he'll be re-releasing it again.

Donald Dickson II
Nathaniel, precisely my thought. LOL

Jeff, thank you for the info on the FB group.

Tim Heimer
Interesting build, never seen this bird before. Was the loss of your butt sniffer recent? So sorry to hear you lost her, they are part of a family.

Donald Dickson II
Tim, yeah on the 9th. 🙁 She certainly was.

The Huskie is really an interesting helo. Its a descendant of the Kolibri 282, a German design that was produced in 42. The designer, Anton Flettner, was brought to the U.S. at the end of the war. He went on to design this copter.

Tim Heimer
Interesting history on that! Thanks! Again, sorry for your loss. Peace be with you and yours.

Donald Dickson II
Thanks again Tim. 🙂

OK, so I got more done. I went ahead and clipped the rod extending from the one gear. That was part of the motorizing apparatus I am sure. Not needed. Made a "ceiling" from plasticard. Doing the same for the overhang in the back and the missing section of the floor.

I got to work on the decals. The bars and stars in the kit are WAY too big for what you see in the pics. I grabbed four from an aftermarket sheet that are the size they appear to be in the pics. I am going to go with just those. I tried the U.S. AIR FORCE banner on the tail. The lettering is blue, which looks totally wrong. And the decal disintegrated in a couple spots. So minimalist it is.

Donald Dickson II
Oh, almost forgot. I cast the part that was missing. There are supposed to be four of these as part of the rotor assembly. As you can see, only 3 are here. God only knows what happened to the fourth. I took some clay, pressed one of them down in it and pored some two part resin in there. Peeled it out of the clay, cleaned it up and poof! Oughta work.

Nathan Dempsey
Nice save Donald 🙂

Donald Dickson II
I also found out what that is under it in flight picture. That is a Fire Suppression Kit. Info here...

rotorheadsrus.us/documents/541.html

Donald Dickson II
Thank you Nathan. 🙂

Almost done. Just had to throw the rotors on and see if they actually worked and they do. Which is great because I was honestly having a hell of a time visualizing how the did not hit each other.

Tim Heimer
Me too Don! WYF! They don't hit????

Jeff Flint
Because Charlie Kaman ordered them not to hit. At least that's what my dad told me. 🙂

Tom ...
Wow, I never knew such a hello existed. Looks totally terrifying! Sorry to hear about Lexi. So sad.

Donald Dickson II
LOL Seriously, its ingenious in its simplicity. How they are angled in relation to each other and poof, they dont hit.

Anyway, she is finished. In the two reference pics, you can see they do not have the rear clamshell doors on. Simply a cargo net. I imagine that was because it was a tad warm in Nam and I doubt Huskies had AC. Thats my theory anyway. So, as there are no after market cargo nets out there that I know of, I made my own. I cut strips of lead sheet at a semi uniform width. Using a ruler, I laid them out in relatively even intervals. This is all guesswork on my part as to whether its the right size and dimensions for scale. Looks right to me, so thats it. At this point, I glued them all together then cut the excess and sprayed it dark green. Then cut it fit the back of the copter and wallah!

After that, I attached the landing gears and doors and winch. Painted the exhaust with Alclad and went over it with pastel to dull it down, dropped the props on and done. Considering the age of the kit, this was not a bad build at all. I dropped the ball on the interior though. Didnt think about it, but as there is nothing in there, I could have detailed it a lot better. Perhaps another one down the line.

Tim Heimer
Still looks good for such an odd bird! Nicely done Don!

Donald Dickson II
Thank you Tim. ???? I like the oddballs.

Nathan Dempsey
Nice work Donald. You really brought that old kit to life!

Donald Dickson II
Thank you sir. 🙂