"Okay, Hunt Club, are you ready for the pick up?" [pt.6]

Hmz. grmbl. Something I feared appeared true. My better-in-the-know friends on Papermodelers.com told me the model I had was a pirated copy when I told them where I got it from. It was something I didn't expect. But I immediately started the search for the right one. I could only just discern the name of the original publisher on the tiny pictures on that site (which I shall not name). With that information it was relatively easy to find the original site. A little later someone on Papermodelers came up with the same site so then I knew for sure this was the kosher one (it actually was an Israeli site) to obtain my model from. So I immediately got myself a legal one from there and that's how I solved the problem.
I have made some progress in the meantime.
First, the nose has been put in place. easy job, although it was a bit spacious here and a bit too narrow there. With a bit of fiddling and gentle force it was all handled and taken care of.
No pictures of that, I am afraid. But you can see a bit of the nose in the first three shots:

Hard to see but I have left a hole open in the nose for the three protruding engine exhaust pipes.

Pilot ready for action.

I also did some scratchbuilding: a very small pilot out of little rolls of paper which I cut up and bent to make limbs and rump. I used a silicone water absorbent bead for the helmet. A little paint and voilà. The other pilot will be made hanging a bit out of the window to get a better look of all the action down on the waves. The third one will be the load master kneeling in the open bay door, looking down. Gus will be made bobbing in the ocean, only his head and arm out of the water. I hope the others will come to be as easy as the first one did.

Another good use of a redundant lighting filter booklet. Still got many many colours left!

The clear front end windows of the cockpit were made from a ziploc bag I had laying around and the top windows, which in reality seem to have a greenish tint preventing sun glare were made from a piece of lighting filter from a sample booklet (it was LEE 121, if you want to know). I reinforced the insides of the window pane with CA.

Pilot glued to his seat

The windows now seem to be a bit hard to get into place, I think due to the addition of the coloured filter part. That will be solved in the coming days. I already cut out the bulge part where the rotors will go and a part of the tail section. That will come up too, just like the rest of the crew and Gus.

There was a question on Papermodelers whether I would make the rotors like they were spinning, so on a transparent disk with a blurred effect on the four rotors. That indeed is a nice effect, but when I thought about it, I realised it really is a frozen moment in time. The sea doesn't move, the water pouring out of the spacecraft doesn't move, the helicopter hangs frozen in the air. That also means for me the rotors should be completely still. So, I will just make the rotors and have them like they are. The spinning prop-idea is a nice one for something else, maybe.

The next days might be a bit unpredictable, we might have to pick up our new (old) car (at least I hope we can) and the 27th is my birthday, with 41 candles to blow out. I sometimes have the feeling 1990 is just ten years ago but it clearly isn't. I am getting old.  But perhaps I'll find some time to do some building.