1/48 Hughes 500

[splash]

Now all my Telford builds are out of the way I can clear my bench ready to start the Tamiya 1/48 Grumman Wildcat.

[splash]

I forgot that both Brickie and I had picked the same a/c type so I'm going to change my selection to a Hughes 500.

[Purplethistle]

Interesting one! There's a photo of an actual Whirlwind that Winkle flew that I thought you would have been all over!

[splash]

Interesting one! There's a photo of an actual Whirlwind that Winkle flew that I thought you would have been all over!

It did pass my mind, as I have seen a photo of him next to a Whirlwind 7 after he had a forced landing in a snow drift south of Banff in Scotland, only three weeks befor he left the Navy in 1970.

The problem is trying to get your hands on a Whirlwind 7 the Italari kits are good and I have two in the stash but they need extensive surgery to extend the area under the rear cabin to add the weapons bay and the good old Airfix kit has the wrong tail

[coptermech]

Need any close up shots of an OH-6A(Hughes 500) to help? We do have the one we restored at the museum. I can also offer up info from parts manuals and maintenance manuals if you need it

[splash]

Hi Tony

Thanks for the offer, for the last few months I have been bogged down scratch building ship conversions for the CBK SIG display at Telford, so this will be a relaxing straightforward build with just a colour change, so I'm not planning on doing extra detail.

Having said that how often have I said "this will be an OOB build" and it finished up with major changes?

Once I have started if I need extra detail I will give you a shout, thanks again for the offer of help it is always appreciate.

Regards Splash

[splash]

Here is my target build

As you can see the parts count is small but you do get a nice little police motor bike

[ShaunW]

The Hughes 500 is a nice looking little helo IMHO. Looking at the four-into-two exhaust system on the sprue for the police bike and the shape of the bike's engine, the motorcycle geek in me is led to believe that it is possibly a Kawasaki KZ1000 police model, which I think the California Highway Patrol used for a period.

[Kitaholic]

Brings back memories of CHiPS, God I'm getting old

[JamesPerrin]

You always think American stuff is big in comparison with British aircraft, so when I saw one at the Helicopter Museum I wasn't prepared for how dinky it is!

[coptermech]

I built another Academy version awhile back. Only issue I had is the canopy glass lining up. Nothing horrible, just more of a pain.

[coptermech]

You always think American stuff is big in comparison with British aircraft, so when I saw one at the Helicopter Museum I wasn't prepared for how dinky it is!

Yes, quite small, but extremely agile and tough at the same time. This is the museum bird I restored, pre-paint and stripping of non-era parts.

[splash]

I recall we had an American Army exchange pilot on our Squadron who flew in Vietnam, he said if ever you are going to crash in a helicopter make sure you are in Hughes 500 as it's the strongest cockpit around.

As this is a 500D I think I might have to change the tail and loose one rotor blade.

Regards Splash

[splash]

The Hughes 500 is a nice looking little helo IMHO. Looking at the four-into-two exhaust system on the sprue for the police bike and the shape of the bike's engine, the motorcycle geek in me is led to believe that it is possibly a Kawasaki KZ1000 police model, which I think the California Highway Patrol used for a period.

Well spotted the instructions say Kawasaki Police 1000.

[splash]

Ok work has now started, the compact little cockpit shows why the design is so strong as the pilots and passengers all sit within the fuselarge.

As the cockpit is so compact I'm not going to add too much detail as most of will not be seen.