1972 Sikorsky CH-53 GS highly detailed & lighted - Gallery

Stephan Ryll
Awsome build -love the lights 👍

Alexander Grivonev
Incredible work...it seems to me heli builders are the most crazy ones concerning detailing. Really exceptional...

Spanjaard
excelent! the cables for the rotor blades are inside them??? wow

Choppa Nutta
cool stuff 🙂

Christian W
Thank you very much for your comments 🙂
The main idea was, that I'd like to rebuilt the interior. A friend of mine said, that it's sad, that it won't be visible because it's to dark inside the cargo area. He mentioned something about light 🙂 So I said "If lights, than everything with lights!" I had a lot to learn about voltage, ampere or calculating resistances and made a plan. The goal was to run the lights with 9V. I never did this kind of work. Totally new field for me. So I'm a little proud of the lightning 😉
To be honest: two tiny light are missing: one, which illuminates the main rotor blades and the other, which illuminates the number on the flap of the main landing gear. I noticed them to late 🙁

@Spanjaard ... Indeed, the cables for the rotor blades are inside the blades. I took my multi tool and cut a nut into the underside of the blade, put the cable inside and filled it again. A good side effect was, that because of the heat of the putty trough the drying process, the blades became that typical curve for hanging rotor blades 🙂
Here some pictures of the underside of one blade:
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Konrad -
Wow absolutely impressive 👍. And the light effects are outstanding. Well done great work!

Spanjaard
incredible! lots of work there 🙂

ForestFan
Amazing work!

Holger Kranich
What an exceptional build!

Duri Cherry
Very nice work!

Bart Goesaert
nice work, splendid work with the lighting

Bryn Crandell
This is amazing. The lighting is crazy! I like where you hid all of the wiring above the cargo bay. Still not sure how you wired the main rotor so that it can still spin.

Christian W
Thank you so much 🙂

@Bryn ... I'll take some minutes tomorrow to answer your question. It's a little more complicate on the smartphone. I'd like to put some pictures to the explanation. When you see it, you'll probably say, it can be so easy😉
Further on I'll check to upload a video during the testing of the main rotors lights.

Christian W
And: for transportation you can till take the main rotor away. "Plug & Shine" you could say 🙂

Christian W
So. Here some Pictures of the "thing" for the lights in the main rotor blades.
All I took was the refill of a ballpoint pen and the metallike things of an old fuse with that body out of glass. The holder it self is scratch built. On the first picture you can see the three cables, which go to the connector for main rotor. One ground cable and two power cables.
Picture #2 shows the construction ready for built in.
On picture #3 & #4 you can see the collector for each power cable. They're connected to the electricity of the helicopter. This "springs" are out of some old relay 😄
Picture #5 shows the part built in in the top of the cargo room. You can see all the cables for the lamps in the helicopter. The blue box in the front (where the orange cables are) is one of three switches. With this especially I can switch everything in the top of the helicopter: main rotor blades, cockpit, dashboard, cargo area light, cargo light over the rear ramp)
Two other switches are located in the "wheel houses" (see picture #6 & #7). They are responsible 😄 for the position lights, landing lights (front), search lights (front), hoover light (rear), anti collision light (rear)

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Christian W
Is this link working? A short movie of the rotating main rotor with 3 mounted blades: modelle.kaefergarage.de/923_175.mov

Scott Hastings
Wow this is spectacular lighting. I get the rotor lights, you made a circular connection with the metal plates so it keeps contacts open as it spins. That is ingenious. Does it flicker as it spins or is the contact constant?? I made a Sea King with some SMD LED's, but nothing like you have done here. Very impressive.

Thomas Bischoff
most impressing work here! I cn't believe you fitted all this into a 1:48 model!

Christian W
Thank you so much for your comments 🙂
At some points during the work, I wasn't sure to get all this into the kit without seeing it. One solution were pretty thin cables. But I used nothing in the helicopter without testing it. So I tested the wiring, when the wiring will be that hot, that some damage can be caused. I knew, I'd like to use 9V and so I could calculate, how much power will be flowing through the cables. The main point after all is: when one light fails, there is no chance to repair it. So it has to be on a safe side😉

@Scott: it doesn't flicker anytime. I think that depends on the springs I used, which in fact have two contact points each circuit to the metal (see picture 3 above). It looks and is very flexible *knocking on wood*

Christian
Eines der besten CH Modelle die ich je gesehen habe, den Bau hatte ich ja damals mit offenem Mund verfolgt. Immer wieder schön anzuschauen 👍

Christian W
Danke Christian 🙂 Ich weiß nicht, ob ich heute nochmals so etwas bauen würde. Derzeit eher nicht.

Christian W
Added some better pictures of the lights of the helicopter

Konrad -
Wirklich Klasse Christian! Wirklich beeindruckendes Modell.
Hat der Heli in den Rotoren Abstandslichter? Wie auch immer es sieht sensationell aus 👍!

Christian W
Danke schön!
Ja, hat er. Das sind Formationsleuchten. Sieht man nur von oben. Im Original sind sie eher türkis. Die CH hat zusätzlich auf dem Rumpf und auf dem Höhenruder ebenfalls insgesamt drei großflächige (ca. 6x20cm) leicht leuchtende Flächen, anhand deren man die Flugrichtung erkennen kann. Eben um nachts in Formation fliegen zu können.

Christian W
Achso: in den Rotorblattspitzen sind sie im Original ca. 4cm breit und 0,5cm hoch. Sieht wie ein kleines Häuschen aus. Das Licht kommt mir zu den Spitzen und zur Wurzel raus.

David Taylor
well done Christian I would'nt know where to start

Chris Greathouse
Wow crazy awesome mate!

Konrad -
Danke Christian für die ausführliche Erläuterung 🙂! Hab ich mal wieder was dazu gelernt.

Christian W
🙂 Gerne.

Thank you so much for your kind words. For me it was also hard to start with. It was the first helicopter after approximately 20 years. Then absolutely the first and only model kit with lights. I had to learn about resistors, power, ampere, series and parallel circuits and washing / weathering. It was a good process. I learned a lot.

Spanjaard
You put it to good use 🙂

Hans-Jürgen Haag
Einfach klasse die CH 53 ! Super Arbeit, das habe ich so noch nie gesehen.

Patrick Hagelstein
Ich dachte: "Ist ein nettes Modell, ist aber nicht so mein Ding..." Bis ich mir dann doch die Bilder mal genauer angeschaut habe... Wirklich unglaublich was Du da gemacht hasst! 😮 Sieht super aus und vor allem die sämtliche kleine Details wisse zu überzeugen! Top gemacht! 👍

Christian W
Vielen lieben Dank!
An sich ist das Modell echt nicht so aufregend. Da ist der in 1/72 oder 1/144 gleich aufwändig.
Nur bei dieser Größe kann man dich einiges raus holen.
Die Beleuchtung war anfangs nicht geplant. Nur der Innenausbau. Denn: wenn die Laderampe unten ist, Kann man bei der Großen ganz gut rein schauen und dir leere ist dann schon irgendwie peinlich. Das war der Grund für den Ausbau.
Als der fertig war, sagte ein Freund von mir "Nur schade, dass man beim fertigen Modell nichts mehr davon sieht. Bau doch Lampen ein". Und das war der zündende Impuls. Es ließ mich nicht ruhen. Der Entschluss dann: wenn schon, dann alles was ich kann. Das Ergebnis ist zu sehen 🙂

Ich steh auf den Hubschrauber. Und so finde ich ihn genial😉 Tolles Ding.

Christian W
Man fragt sich, warum da im Innenraum überhaupt nichts dargestellt ist. Gerade bei dieser Größe.

Anthony D'Agostino
Glad I figured out finally how to find albums of other users, but also sort of scared, there is no way I can build anything close to this. A phenomenal job. From what I understand, it's hard enough to build this OOB and look good, but to do so much extra/scratch building on top of that, and then add all the lights, absolutely amazing! I will probably hit you with a thousand questions when I start to build my kit, at least until you get tired and block me that is????! One question that I have off the top of my head (one means three????). How did you build the ribs inside the fuselage, and do you have references? The internal wires and conduits, what size/type of wire did you use? The anti-slip grit strips, what did you use and how did you know where to put it? I was considering using regular sandpaper to create those strips in my builds, but don't know if it's too thick and not to scale, even using 1500 or 2000,will have to try until I get it right. Or, you can just share your method????.

I will be looking at most/all of your albums, now that I found them. Don't worry, I won't comment on EVERY picture, just half of them. Just kidding. Unless I see something that really makes me need answers, I will stay quiet and just enjoy the pics.

Cheers,

Anthony

Patrick Hagelstein
Hi Anthony! I can not answer for Christian's approach but I do want to answer a remark you made: We all started awing over other's pictures and there's nothing wrong with being overwhelmed but just by looking at pictures, reading stories and most of all practicing reproducing the stuff I saw, I learned so much and I just want to encourage you to just give it a try and learn from all the others here on this beautiful platform! 🙂 We are all here to help a fellow modeler. Please be welcome and please blast us with all your questions and don't hold back! 😄
Enjoy! 😄 👍

Christian W
Thank you, Anthony! I can underwrite the words of Patrick: it is a Long process in modelling. With this kit I learned a lot. You know, I'm a car guy and this was a totally foreign Topic for me. I built 2 more CH-53 to test and learn about weathering. I asked some collegues for tips and read a lot in Forums. This helps definitelly. I had a Girl to help me with the calculating of the resistors. I never put electrical stuff in a model kit. Aslo my first try.

You are welcome to Show, what you build. I can promiss you, that I'll never block anybody because of his Need for help! I was in the same place years ago and I'm not the best at all. There is a lot of awesome stuff out there. I take this as a challenge to improve my skills but not to be affraid of not handling something. I know what I can do and if I'm not sure to reach a new Level, I try Little steps to reach it. You have to learn how to deal with failures and than it's fine.

Christian W
To answer your question:

For the interior of the fuselage there are not enough good Pictures in the web. I had the luck to have access to this helicopter and take a lot of pictures of it - the 85+12 like it's named. You see that the model kit is pictured on the back ramp of the original.
The material I used is called "plastic sheet". In Germany the architects use different shapes (triangle, half round, round, pipes, flat, squared..) for Building architectical stuff / models. The Producer is "Evergreen". Look up scalemates for it😉 But I drew them on a big sheet, cut it out and brang it in shape. They where numbered for each Position in the fuselage because of the lightly different meassures.

For the wires I took pieces of wiring (old Radio, tv ...), which fit nearly to the original with the diameter. The thickest cable is approx. 2mm which shows the hoses for the fuel lines. A tip is: if you have a mouse for the Computer that doesn't work: get off the isulation and look, how thin those cables are. Those cables are usefull for ignition wires of car e.g.
The only functional wires are near the side door for transporting power to the deck lamps and everything else above the Windows.

The anti-slip grit is made out of flour! It is that simple sometimes. Paint the parts you need with color and bring flour on it. let it dry a Little and use a brush to remove the flour softly. Then you can spray it with the Airbrush without any Problem. For this, there are some Pictures in the web but not that good😉 The instruction sheet is not that detailled. But - like mentioned before - I had the original to take some Looks for Details😉

Be free to ask more! No Problem.

Kerry COX
What an effort. !
I can just imagine all the research and gathering of items and material to effect this build. I know there was a LOT done. But what got me was the wind shield wipers modification. (And the access door rope on the steps too. !) That says to me that your just as crazy as me. hahahahahaha
I love your work and the result.
A BIG salute and a 'well done'. 😉 👍 👍 👍_

Christian W
Thank you Kerry!
A great honor to hear that from you. I see what you build. 🙂 The whipers were a emergency solution. The original whipers were sanded partly away because of the filling of the gap between the fuselage and the Windows. Then I took the Chance t rebuilt the original one 😉 Sometimes it's a curse. You come from Detail to Detail and you have to pull the ripcord not to get to much in Detail mania 😛. There is a Point where you want to get the model kit done.
It was a big step for me to get it done. A lot of new stuff learned. Would I built one again? I don't know. But if, I know, that there are some Thing I would Change. Something I would do on another way.

Kerry COX
Well put Christian. 👍 🙂
I get so engrossed in detailing it no longer becomes fun. !
But occasionally, I have to check myself and pull back. hehehehehe
But also, on your build, I really liked the rotor head plumbing. 👍 🙂

Slavo Hazucha
This is a combination of model making and engineering... Both on a grand level, my highest respect 👍 Everything said here I can sign without a second's hesitation, the interior is really stunning, bot so is most of the rest 🙂 I hope we can watch your next build in real time, would be an honor!

Ian Oostelbos
Just awe inspiring. Beautiful work.

Bernhard Schrock
Erstaunliche Leistung in jeder Hinsicht insbesondere Beleuchtung (hab selbst eine Affinität zu LEDs als Elektrobastelbär).

Erik De Smet
This is a magnificent build, sorry I missed previous comments. Does the real heli also have lights on the rotor ends and when are they used ? I never saw this before ?

Christian W
Danke Bernhard! Das war für mich die erste Beleuchtung. Eine Herausforderung in allen Belangen. Ich musste erst mal lernen, wie das mit Strom und Widerstand funktioniert und dann eben für den berechnen. Auch als Reiner Autobauer war es eine weitere Herausforderung. Es muss komplett unbedacht werden. Lackiere ich doch Autos vor dem Zusammenbau. Dann die Verkabelung in beiden Hälften mussten ja zusammengefügt werden bevor die Zelle verklebt wird. Vom Altern mal abgesehen. Das machte ich früher auch noch nie.
......Das war ein schöner Lernprozess und hat auch Spaß gemacht.

Christian W
Thank you Erik!
You're welcome. The main rotor blades have those lights indeed. They are approx. 6cm wide, 1cm in depth and 6-7mm in hight. They are used at night when there are in formation flight to be seen from the top. Additional the CH-53 has a kind of lighted stripes on the rear upper deck and rudder.
So the pilot above the helicopter can also see, in which direction the aircraft goes. 4th hey are approx 5cm wide and 20-25cm long and flat in the shell integrated. On my model they are not lightened.

I'll upload a picture of my model to show you, where they are located.

Here is the picture:
Sikorsky CH-53 GS highly detailed & lighted - Gallery | Album by christian-w (1:48)

Spanjaard
lets bring this beauty to the top of the feed again, for everybody to enjoy it 🙂

Dominik Weitzer
A w e s o m e . thanks for pushing up!

Christian W
Thank you mates!
I added three more albums of the whole building process. The scratch building, the wiring and lightning, the decalling and the painting. Enjoy!

Kerry COX
How enjoyable all your effort has been to see posted here Christian. !
Inspirational to say the least. ! 👍 🙂

Bill Newcomer
Way cool with the lights! I imagine it is not a flyable RC chopper.

Oliver Zwiener
Klasse Ding !!!

Christian W
Thank you Kerry. It was a challenge to get all the lights into the helicopter. It was challenging to calculate all the resistance and power. It was the first time for me to get any electrical stuff into a model kit. New terrain. Bug at the end it was good to do totally different stuff. It was good.

@Bill ... You're right. It was another thought to spin the main rotor by a little motor. But with the thing for to get the light to the main rotor blades there was not enough space for a little e-motor.

@Oliver ... Danke schön!

Peppy
I'm speechless.
WOW.