1/35 Academy UH-60L Blackhawk

Gallery Article by Rafael Pelizzon on Dec 27 2017

 

      

UH-60L Brazilian Blackhawk

This model represents Brazilian Air Force Blackhawk from 5º/8º GAV, Pantera squadron, located at ALA 4, Santa Maria RS. 

Brazilian Air Force received its first Blackhawks, locally known as H-60L, on 2006 in a Helo Drab finish. On 2011, started to receive two more batches of helicopters on Brazilian AF standard gray and green camouflage. Brazilian Army operates older batches of UH-60L in Helo Drab, while Brazilian Navy fly brand new S-70B Seahawks. BrAf machines have M-134 Miniguns as self-defense weapons and a Robertson 180 gal internal tank to increase range. They've been used on SAR missions, medevac, CSAR, troops transport and air policing missions against slow movers. This aircraft, FAB 8909, was used at Olympics Games on 2016 in Rio de Janeiro in air defense role with fighters like F-5M and A-29.

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The kit 
Academy's kit is pretty big, good engraved panel lines, nice exterior details but pretty poor interior. I used Big Ed interior and exterior detail set. The set is pretty good, with color instrument panel with makes life really easier, also the pre-cut mask helps a lot to do not mess the clear parts. But crew chief and gunner seatbelts are wrong from the real helicopter. They also have good details to the tail rotor but lack the wiring for the main rotor. The swashplate is nice to give a better view to the kit, but Eduard's rotating scissors are pretty weird to be installed. Some stuff are better to use the ones from the kit, like the window wipers. Other still outdated, like the avionics vent windows, which were made from scratch. They could come also with lateral avionics bay access door which is a decal in the kit and comes on newer machines. But their tips to trim kit parts are great to avoid fitting problems on some parts.

Back to the kit, there are several extra parts which are not so clear at the instructions, so the modeler may be careful to follow the steps and which parts should be used. There are three different covers for main landing gears and ESSS mounts and two different landing gear legs. The ones from the last Limas sold to Brazil and Colombia are the ones which are not at the instructions. The kit also comes with old pilot windows, so I had to sand the inner mounts from the clear parts.

As I had limited time to finish the model, I've skipped several details from inside. I just painted the upper sections as there was the soundproof cover (also BrAF fly with them), but I made from scratch the 180gal tank and hoist control for the operator. Also take care with Eduard lateral mounts. As the kit has a big gap from interior to exterior, they may interfere if you decide to close the right cargo door (I had to trim it to fit properly). 

I used the Dillon M-134D Minigun from Legend. They are in resin with few photoetched parts for sight mount and handles. They also come with the 4400 round ammo box and the new flash suppressor, the problem is that the ammo feeder belts are in resin and are too fragile, so it cracked several times while I was trying to shape it to link the ammo box to the gun. Because of that, they went to the trash, why they didn't make them in photoetch?!? 

The weather radar dome was made with epoxy. It's different from Pavehawks or DAP noses because those ones are totally over the avionics compartment, while Brazilian ones are at the middle line of the avionics bay. Those noses are found on Blackhawks from Brazil, Colombia, Austria and Japan. It would be good if any company consider making then in resin, mine were a bit undersized after I've finished sanding. The HF and VHF antennas were made from scratch also.

I've used Humbrol enamels and AK acrylics for painting. It was the first time using AK paints and I didn't like so much it finishing, as they've become something like a thin vinyl layer which was a problem if I had to sand anything or would come together with some masks. And I had left it drying from one day to another to start handling the kit after the AK coat was airbrushed. But their colors are pretty fine. In another way, I loved using their panel liners set and washing solutions for the first time. So much that the model got dirtier than it should be. 

The decals are from the model and Brazilian stuff were printed in a laser printer with Microscale decal solutions to make custom ones. The kit has a complete stencil set for helicopter, which has a lot of stuff written over all panels (it was made for infantry... so it's better to have everything written :P... and that's why everything to be monitored became colored led lines on the panel). The modeler should consider cutting some stencil decals in pieces to make it easier to be positioned.

At the end, it was a pleasure to build this kit, even with all the work that came together. After flying this machine for seven years I could left this small guy at the squadron with the others big ones.

Rafael Pelizzon

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Photos and text © by Rafael Pelizzon