Sikorsky S.58c passenger conversion. Italeri 1/72nd scale + Air-Craft Models resin parts

 

Graphic material from the Net. Hope I am not stepping on anybody's toes

 

We are back on the ether after hurricane Lowell. We were fortunate and did not suffer any damage, only went without power for a few days. But many people got it really bad, and the property and infrastructure damage is extremely high, and many areas are still suffering the consequences. Please consider helping any vetted, serious organization that is hands on. 

https://www.gettyimages.se/search/2/film?family=editorial&phrase=hurricane%20lowell&sort=mostpopular

The Kauai community is incredible. We got help from friends and neighbors, and the Aloha was everywhere.

 

 

Strange contraptions of complex engineering and somehow giving the general impression of charming clumsiness, helicopters have been there almost from the beginning of the industry. So goes too for the kit industry. I like to build one of them now and again, just for a change, and (I must admit) because they are usually easier to build than planes (gasp!). But why keep it simple, right? Let’s do a conversion to a civil passenger transport, completely modifying the fuselage of an existing kit. For that I acquired an Air-Craft Models resin aftermarket set that after some serious surgery should render the necessary changes to represent a Chicago Helicopter Airways Sikorsky S-58C.

Nice transparencies, but Italeri packed them with the rest, so of coarse there are several scratched that will need polishing. Hey, Italeri, how expensive is a plastic sleeve?

Major parts detached, all cleaned up. Bonga-Bonga bits to the trash can:

The aftermarket set, sturdy box to protect contents:

Profusely illustrated instructions with added advice:

Well-cast, no bubbles, no deformities, nice detail. So far so good. They don not have on catalog the one I want t build, so I purchased a similar one that includes flotation gear:

The interior walls are smooth and have some detail, and do not show the coarseness of other resin offerings:

The set includes photo-etched details and decals (the latter won't be used, as I will commission a particular set for the Chicago Helicopter Airways machine):

Masks, but other will need to be hand-made for the additional windows:

The resin parts are easily separated from their pouring blocks. The fuselage sides need all their cabin windows and doors opened. This is not an easy-peasy affair as the flash membrane that covers these openings (at least on my sample) is thick, so this is a multi-step, carefully and gradually approached business:

The resin is very nice to work with, and again no bubbles, no short pours, no warping. Good set.

A caveat that came via Tim and Tom Kalina: The tail rotor in the Italeri kit "rotates" the wrong way, so those blades have to be cut-off, a metal pin inserted, and re-glued in the opposite direction. Thanks to them for this very important detail that completely escaped me, naive as I am, thinking that most kit manufacturers do their homework 🙄 

 A few vents are drilled:

The instructions have you cut the tail of the kit's parts:

Here the differences are made clear. I confess I thought at some point of using just a partial of the resin parts -the windows section- and scratch the other details, but ultimately deemed it not practical:

Correcting now as explained the kit's tail rotor blades' facing the wrong direction. First the blades are removed at their root and drilled to accept a metal pin:

The hub is also drilled:

et voilà:

Some of the parts are glued and other are being prepared for airbrushing:

Notice that I glued the tail halves. The kit's instruction want you to add the tail rotor at this time so it can lock on the washer that goes inside:

...which is stupid as any modeler knows, because it will hinder a number of other steps, painting included. More intelligent manufacturers came to other solutions to allow parts to rotate. 

The holes for the LG legs need a bit of enlarging for a comfortable fit:

Some notes:

There is a photo-etched set for this helicopter but mostly applies to the military variants. The only really useful bits for me would have been the nose meshes, BUT, they require careful and clean surgery, and I will just simulate the effect. IF there was an afermarket engine set (with all the details, not just the engine), then I would have considered opening the nose and do the screens.

This civil version needless to say differs in many details from the kit, so it's mandatory to study photos. Even so, the five machines CHA had seem to differ among themselves in some details too, so one registration should be chosen, study and represented. Their decoration presents some variants too.

Preparing some parts for priming and base color:

The main rotor is assembled:

 

 

 

 

To be continued...