Heli-Kit News #193, 21-Sep-04
1. In late August Golden Dragon Productions announced on the Hyperscale 'Plane Talking' Forum that they are working on a full 1:48 kit of the CH-54 Skycrane, for release 'most likely in March or April 2005'.

Meantime, Golden Dragon are taking pre-orders for a 1:32 Longbow conversion set designed for the Revell / Monogram AH-64A Apache, with a production date still listed as Sep-04. The set will contain a full cockpit, radome, and 'all exterior modifications'.

2. New from RAF Decals is their first sheet of helicopter decals. This magnificent (and very reasonably priced) set of professionally screen-printed decals for RAF Whirlwinds, #7211, covers a total of 16 separate aircraft. There are enough roundels, etc. to make a high proportion of them from the one sheet. The multi-colour items such as roundels and squadron badges are printed in two or three pieces to ensure perfect registration.

HAR.2	XJ424	22 Sqn	1955	grey over white
"	XJ430	22 Sqn	1955-56	grey over white
"	XJ760 / 'K'	22 Sqn, St Mawgan	1957	yellow
"	XJ432 / 'B'	22 Sqn, Tangmere	early 1960s	yellow
"	XJ763	'A' Flt, 22 Sqn, Chivenor	1959	yellow
"	XJ437	228 Sqn	1958-62	yellow
"	XJ409	228 Sqn	1959-62	yellow
HC.4	XJ421 / 'T'	155 Sqn, Malaya	1954-59	green & brown, w/ yellow tail bands
HCC.8	XN127	Queen's Flight, Benson	1959	royal blue over aluminium, red cheat lines
HAR.10	XP395	'B' Flt, 22 Sqn, Manston	late 1960s	yellow
"	XR458 / 'E'	28 Sqn, Kai Tak	1968	green & grey over pale grey
"	XD184 / 'Spades'	84 Sqn, Akrotiri	1967	yellow
"	XP398 / 'Hearts'	84 Sqn, Akrotiri	1979	yellow
"	XJ729	202 Sqn	1978	yellow
"	XP330 / 'Z'	230 Sqn, Wittering	1969	green & grey over black
"	XP360 / 'W-V'	CFS, Ternhill	1968	red & silver

3. Dutch Decals have announced sheet #72064 which includes markings (without roundels, as usual, for which #72029 is required) for S-51 'Jezebel' of the Royal Netherlands Navy. As with the recent sheet #48041 (ex #48021) this appears to be a reprint of the decals for the same aircraft that were previously on #72025.

4. Available for several years, but not noted here before, Hawkeye Models Australia have a small decal sheet #CDS115 in both 1:72 and 1:48 for S-61N VH-BRI of Ansett Airways. This white aircraft features a rear fuselage decorated with the constellation Crux (Southern Cross) trailing rainbow coloured 'go fast' stripes on a dark blue sky. If anyone has any photos of this aircraft, please send them to the editor!


Watch the Hawkeye website for a new 1:48 scale RAAF/ AAAC Huey upgrade set #CS-11 (tropical filter system) and a 1:48 RAN Gulf war Seahawk conversion.

5. JBOT have released some more new decal sheets, available in the scale of your choice:

• Los Angeles Fire and Police Bell 47G (x2). The LAPD aircraft is 47G-5 N4799R, now preserved in the California Science Center in Los Angeles, while the Fire Department aircraft is 47G-3 N73985.
  
  
  
• New York City Police Bell 412, N414PD, which is equipped with Doppler weather/ground mapping radar, SX-16 Nightsun spotlight, FLIR Ultra 6000 video system, pop-out floats, rescue hoist, and siren-PA speaker.
  
  
  
• Oklahoma Highway Patrol Bell 206B, N630HP
  
  
  
• Hellenic Fire Fighting Services BK117, SX-HFE
  
  
  

6. Linden Hill's 'Bush War Hinds Part 2' decal sheets and the supplementary stencil sheets (sold separately) will be out next week. A proof copy of the 12-page colour instruction booklet shows 18 aircraft in diverse camouflage schemes (the final version will probably include one more):

Mi-24RKh	Red 41	440th OBVP, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG)	Stendal, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany	1991
Mi-24V	0813	341st Letka, Slovak Air Force	Presov, Slovakia	2000
Mi-24V	-	RDB/JSO, Serbian Security Services	Belgrade International Airport	1998
Mi-24P	Red 66	335th OBVP, Ukrainian Army Aviation	Kalinov AB, Lvov, Ukraine	mid-1990s
Mi-24VP	Red 33	288th OVP, Naval Aviation of the Baltic Fleet of Russia	Nivenskoye AB, Kaliningrad	2001
Mi-24D	CH612	No.9 Helicopter Sqn, Sri Lankan Air Force	Minneriya-Hingurakgoda AB, Sri Lanka	1997
Mi-35	H-357	4th Helicopter Sqn, Angolan Air Force (FAPA-DAA)	'4°de Febriero' AB, Luanda, Angola	1991
Mi-24P	-	KFOR det, 27th Aviation Group, Russian Army Aviation	Pristina, Kosovo	2000
Mi-24V/Mi-35	-	1st Flt, Eritrean Air Force	Asmara, Eritrea	2000
Mi-24D/Mi-35	-	12th Attack Sqn, Ethiopian Air Force	-	2000
Mi-24P	77	AirMobility Assault Unit, Uzbek Air Force	Verkhnekomsomolsk AB, Uzbekistan	2003
Mi-25	4493	4th Attack, Transport & Special Ops Helicopter Sqn, Iraqi Army Aviation Corps	Basra	1991
Mi-24D	TU-VHO (shark)	Forces Armees Nationales de Côte D'Ivoire (FANCI)	Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast	Dec-02
Mi-24P	Yellow 14	262nd OVE, Russian Army Aviation	Bagram AB, Afghanistan	Dec-88
Mi-24V	Red 23 (eyes)	335th OBVP, Russian Army Aviation	Gazni AB, Afghanistan	1985
Mi-35	Z303	No.104 Pioneer Rotarions Helicopter Sqn, Indian Air Force	Gorakhpur AB	-
Mi-24RKh	Blue 44	VVS of Armenia	Yerebuni, Armenia	2003
Mi-24P	(lightning bolt)	Joint Air Group, Russian Army Aviation	Grozny, Chechnya	2000

Detailed historical and paint colour references are included for all aircraft.

7. Coming soon from Red Bolt (a.k.a. Anders Nowotny), is a sheet of decals #720133 for the Bell 204, Austrian Air Force, entitled "Ciao BELLa". This 2001 scheme marked the retirement of the AB.204B from Austrian service.


Red Bolt decals are stocked by Flightdecs, who now also have Flying Colours Aerodecals from Sweden (notably the excellent #72-101, Vertol Hkp4), and most of the re-issued Scale Nutz range from Singapore.

8. Twobobs Aviation Graphics sent the artwork for #48-085 AH-64D 'Operation Iraqi Freedom Apaches' to their printers last week, with delivery expected in mid October. This sheet will feature three aircraft, two with shark mouths and one with eagle tail-art, and will have enough decals on it to build two of them.

9. Czech Master Resins have added an alternative undercarriage to their Sikorsky R-6A Hoverfly II (HKN #187), for use when the helicopter is loaded and the assembly is compressed. The geometry of the original part has also been changed slightly, but this is a modification you can very easily make yourself, and it's hardly worth worrying about.

CMR will supply the alternative assembly as standard in their second production run, which is about to get under way. If you already have the kit and wish to obtain this part, you can contact CMR directly, but please don't expect to get it for nothing, production and shipping expenses must of course be covered.

10. Eduard's September releases #XF-224, a set of canopy and wheel paint masks for the 1:48 Academy CH-46E Sea Knight. There's also a book on the H-46 family due out in October from Landing Zone.

11. Wayne Mutza's latest book for Squadron/Signal, UH-1 Huey Gunships Walk-Around, is now published. 97 color photos, 100 monochrome photos, 12 colour profiles, 2 3-view drawings, 3 scrap illustrations, and 2 tables, #5536.

Wayne's encyclopedic knowledge of the Huey family shows throughout. Along with coverage of all US gunship variants based on the airframe, there's good detail coverage of the basic aircraft itself. As well as US Army short-fuselage Hueys, you will also find Navy Seawolves, Marine UH-1E's, long-fuselage US Army birds, and a section on the UH-1N.

There is a brief book review by Scott Van Aken at Modeling Madness.

12. Latest publication from Wings and Wheels is Present Aircraft Line No. 11, Mi-4 Hound in Detail, by Frantisek Koran and Miroslav Khol.

This indispensible accompliment to the 1:35 Trumpeter kit (if you haven't already built it, and it's now available at knock-down prices) has 72 pages of colour photos featuring two Czech aircraft in exhaustive detail; 0538 preserved at the Prague-Kbely Aviation Museum, and 4139 preserved at the Aviation Historical Society Foundation at Vyskov, as well as an assortment of other airframes.

13. The N2 2004 edition of the magazine Mir Aviatsii is dedicated to the history and current service of the 830th Independent Helicopter Regiment, a ship-based anti-submarine unit attached to the Russian Northern Fleet. There are four separate articles covering 56 pages, many photos in both colour and monochrome, plus 22 colour profile drawings. All the aircraft that have been used by the regiment are covered - Mi-4, Mi-6, Mi-8, Mi-14, Ka-15, Ka-25, Ka-27, and Ka-29.

14. There's another review of the recently issued Fonderie Miniature 1:48 H-21, this time at Hyperscale (20-Sep-04).

And yet another at Internet Modeler, in their September 2004 edition.

And Modeling Madness have reviewed the Zvezda Ka-27PS Helix, #7247.

While ARC (6-Sep-04) have had a look at the recent 1:72 IAF Helicopters decal sheet from Sky's Decals (HKN #186).

Thanks to Len Lundh, Tony Morgan, Pete Brown, Yevgeny Borissov, Guy Holroyd (Linden Hill), Drew Graham, Petr Buchar (CMR), Steve Evans (Hawkeye), and Mario Prast.

If you buy something direct from the maker as a result of reading about it in Heli-Kit News, please remember to tell them that you saw it here. This will encourage the flow of more news in the future, and maybe we'll even get the occasional review sample!

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