And so it begins

Posted on May 24 ,2014 by Niek Nijsen

Finally, after many months of waiting, my modelling equipment has arrived and I was able to set up my work desk. I’ve been doing a lot of research in the meantime on the subject and managed to get a lot of good information. Once my desk was set up, I got busy.

Starting with unpacking the boxes and sorting out what I collected during the previous few months, I got a good look at the massive size of this project. A few years ago, before moving to the USA, I started a kit of the BK-117, although not planned to be as detailed as now. I discovered that I already had cut out the doors on one of the sides, which was great news as I can new use this. I had to cut out the other half however. Took quite a while before I had them all cut out and lost one of the halves in the process, but the doors came out which was the ultimate goal. I now have one good set of doors and one good shell. The right side will remain closed, both doors and upper cowls, as I think this will add more to the realism than having all doors open.

Using the EC-145 upper engine compartment, I came to the conclusion that the BK-117 model was in fact 4mm too small… After fitting the front window, it appeared that 4mm would be too much and I opted to go with 3mm, as this would perfectly align the front window with the frame of the helicopter. I added a 3mm strip to one of the halves and things seem to fit a lot better. This does mean that the upper part of the helicopter will need a lot more work, as this is still 1mm too wide to fit perfectly. I should be able to solve this nicely with having one side open, allowing me to play a little.

I chose to use the EC-145 tail section, as the BK one lags a lot of detail. Not exactly the same as the BK version, but after I changed a few things they look exactly the same, except that the new one has a lot more details to it.

That’s it for now, but as you can see it’s starting to show the huge size of this project. Good thing I found someone through a forum from New Zealand who is willing to help me by providing a lot of needed information. Thank you Anthony, I’m very grateful. As always, photos can be found through the link at the top of this page. I’ll be away for a week, but once I’m back, more updates will follow and the build will start taking shape. See you then!

PS. I already got my hands on the next project, which will be a limited edition (only 800 were made) of the “Tiger II”, better known as the King Tiger. Being scale 1:16, it’s simply massive in size. I’ll try to set up a page for it in the near future, where you’ll be able to find more details and photos.

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