1/72 Mach2 Kaman HH-43 Huskie

Gallery Article by Thomas Brückelt on Jan 21 2016

 

      

The Kaman HH-43 Huskie was a unique design with its intermeshing and counter rotating rotors. It was used for SAR-missions during the Vietnam war.

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Mach2 offers the Huskie as a nice short run kit in 1:72. The parts fit well, some burr has to be removed. A bit of putty is necessary to get a good looking model. There are fine details on the outer surfaces.

I added some details inside the cockpit: Overhead panel, collective pitch levers and pedals I built from scratch. Further I added a roof inside the cabin.  One of the pilot´s seats has to be reworked. It seems that the mould is damaged here.  The inner shape of the seat must be restored completely.

I added some details on the outside: The bracing of the tailplane and the antennas were made out of spure.  Also the rotor heads were pimped with some details out of spure. Note that the Kaman helicopters have no swash plate. The rotor blades are bended with the small control surfaces by servos.

I painted the model with brush. I searched pictures of Huskies in the internet to find out the painting of the details. The manual shows just the basic painting. I used the decals from the kit which are printed in a good quality.

Finally I sealed the HH-43 with clear, silk varnish.

The Mach2 kit allows experienced modellers to get a model of a very interesting and seldom helicopter. Some rework is necessary to get a good looking model, so it was a little challenge building this model, I enjoyed very much.

Best wishes

Thomas Brückelt

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Photos and text © by Thomas Brückelt