1/35 Academy MH-60G PaveHawk

Gallery Article by Todd Yost

 

Introduction 
This is my first submission to the ARC website, This is the MH-60G, one of the latest and greatest gunships the United States military has to offer. I am by no means an expert, do not do much research on the aircraft I build, and therefore am probably not a hundred percent accurate, so the “experts” please bear with me. 

Building, Painting, and Weathering 
It’s OOB, except for the crew and soon-to-be passengers. The kit went together quite well, the only major problem is getting the interior subassembly to stay up, some good bracing and gluing is required to keep it from leaning to and fro. The detailing is awesome, recessed panel lines, a pretty good cockpit, and many, many other little details that makes this model stand out quite well. The other major problem is the rotor assembly. The rotors are quite heavy, and require some extra attention to allow them to stay upright when connected to the mast. One of the rotors completely snapped off, and I had to do some improvising to get it back on. Long story short, a pair of wire cutters, some clothespins, and a lighter made the repair job possible (The repair will be a submission to the Tools’n Tips section). Other than that, painting, gluing, and weathering were fairly straightforward, total time on the project was about a month of long nights of work in the garage to get it to go together. I used Testors and Model Master’s enamels for the paint scheme, and a silver pencil and paint to do the weathering. I tend to concentrate more on the men that use and fly the aircraft than the actual aircraft itself. I take great pride in my little guys, and I hope they’re up to par for ARC. 

 

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Story 
I have used some of my imagination and decided to have this Hawk “flying” in the Somalia Conflict. As you can see, this bird has seen lots of action, lots of repairs have been done, most prominent is the windscreen and window plates in front of the pilots feet that have just been replaced, still unpainted. It remains unmarked, as I’m sure the 160 SOAR would have had it. The BlackHawk is extracting a Delta Force team from one of their many excursions.  

This is by far my biggest and best project I have undertaken, and I think it turned out pretty good.  Any questions, comments, or criticism is gladly appreciated.  E-mail me at TODDY143@AOL.COM. 

Hope you like it.

WHO-YAH

Todd Yost

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Photos and text © by Todd Yost