Styrene

Styrene

Sunday, July 13, 2014

1/72 vacuformed Khee-Kha Art Products Bellanca CH-300

From the archive (2011):

Bush planes are the sort of renegades -James Dean-types if you like- borderline cases of the aviation world. There is something romantic about them and the environment they usually operate in.
The Bellanca CH-300 is another versatile 1/72 scale model of the expanding range of Khee-Kha Art Products from Alaska.
It is a vacuformed kit with resin accessories of extraordinary quality for which a pair of floats can be purchased as an aftermarket part form the manufacturer (Edo K-4650 in this particular case, there are others types produced by Khee-Kha).
This kit will allow you to build a number of options, since it comes with two cowls, two pairs of wheels –small and big-, spats, two different arrangements for the exhaust ring and “bowed legs” or “kinked” struts to cater for all the possibilities. A clear vacuformed front canopy is also provided.
The kit has comprehensive instruction sheet with building tips, a 3 view and livery options.
The instructions are there to be read, since they will warn you and guide you to avoid hiccups during construction.
You will have to get or print you own decals.
The plastic is nice to work with and its thickness makes it easy to sand, handle and repair if necessary.
I started by marking the contours of ALL the parts on their backing sheets with a fine point permanent marker. Then scoring with an Xacto and snapping the parts off the sheet.
Careful sanding is mandatory to obtain both proper thickness and neat contact areas. This is specially required for trailing edges and wing struts.
I deviated from Khee-Kha’s master plan on a few issues. I used brass “Strutz” for the characteristic wing airfoiled struts attachments –see images-, used a print of the real instrument panel backed with styrene instead of the kit’s part and did not use the wing spar as suggested in the instructions but made my own arrangement.
I decided to build all parts provided with the kit, for the sake of the review, so you will see in the photos parts that are not required for the version I was modeling. The only parts that were a bit challenging were the “bowed” legs, but came up nice with some care. I also used an almost continuous thin styrene strip as support for floor and roof instead of the segments suggested.
Further detailing included control horns made of aluminum soda can sheet, Venturi, joystick, rudder pedals, control cables and rigging with monofilament (you have to measure and drill their exit points preferably before you paint), Pitot tube, stirrups, fuel caps –aluminum sheet punch-outs-, navigation lights –from the CMR set-, curtain rolls and a couple of half-down curtains in the cabin, seat belts, and the like. This particular plane had a tail wheel, not the usual skid, so a white metal Aeroclub item was used.
A scale suitcase containing 1/72 winter underwear was made and stored in the luggage compartment, never to be seen again (even if you open the compartment :-)
“Strutz” airfoiled brass material was also used for some of the landing gear parts combined with wire, same for the braces of the wing struts. Since the exhausts had a particular end on the chosen plane styrene bits were shaped and glued to the resin part –see images-.
As can be seen in the accompanying photos a clear CD lid usually found at the top of the CD stacks was used to make the custom-fit windows, since it matched the thickness of the styrene sheet. Both Model Master Liquid Cement and Tenax 7R will glue this plastic without a hitch, but apply sparingly.
I used pins wherever pertinent to attach parts pursuing positive locking.
Construction was uneventful for most of the kit, but extra care must be taken in the nose area. The constructed fuselage must match the vacuformed windscreen and the resin nose; that requires attention, dry fitting, and patience. Again, reading the instructions and looking at the photos on Khee-Kha’s site are mandatory in order to avoid disappointment and unnecessary fussing around. And when I say fussing around I mean screwing up. I had to remove the forward fuselage side windows and trim them back, since I made them longer than required (that can be seen in one of the photos before the correction).
Check your parts against the 3 view provided for the length of landing gear and strut items before final assembly, so you can trim them to their correct size. In the case of the wing struts check them too against the model before final trimming and remember that it is easier to snip off a piece for final positioning than to try to add to the length of the part.
I finally decided to remove the fore window panes before painting and add them later together with the windshield. The oval windows were simulated with Testors’ window maker. Model Master acrylic was used for the red and the same brand aluminum Metalizer for the pertinent areas.
Aluminum-painted decal strips were used for the window frames.
Decals of course were home-made.
Inter Island Airways of Hawaii is one of the many attractive liveries that can be used for this cute little kit. A CH-300 was recently restored –although not perfectly faithfully- and flown in Hawaii with the original Inter Islands livery.

Khee-Kha's website:
Thanks to Lars Opland, owner of Khee-Kha, for his patience, good advice, and historical data.




































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