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If you had to paint a 1/16 scale plastic version of the following object, what colors would you use and what techniques would you use to apply them?
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/detail-turbine-helicopter-bell-uh-h-iriquois-close-view-63462664.jpg[^]
Aircraft in Detail - UH-1 Iroquois Walkaround Gallery[^]
My best guess right now:
The turbines inside get a base code of a medium metallic color and a wash of flat black to make them dirty.
The inside of the exhaust pipe gets a dull medium gray and the spiraling kerosene residue is drybrushed with flat black or very dark gray.
The outside of the pipe gets a similar treatment, but with more black drybrushed on everywhere. Some traces of rust and again some medium metallic color are drybrushed onto the end and the edges for detailing.
Does that sound like a plan. At the moment these parts are still in the color of the filament I used to print them. In my personal color reference chart that color is known as 'light turd brown'.
(Yes, Glenn, I'm finally working un the Huey again)
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Hmmm, I would use a mix of metallic & copper paints with black!, I did that on a EE Lightning (non of this F35 malaky!) and it looked good!
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I'm very sure that this is just a better steel stovepipe, which is perhaps coated to prevent heat and corrosion to eat it up in no time. So you suggest to mix in some copper to make it look more like metal discolored by the heat of the turbine?
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Yup, the shiny copper I used (Revell I think) had little flecks that would have made a solid copper look odd, but great as a sort of high light.
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Black. Mat, gloss - whatever's handy.
Big brush; maybe a 6 incher. I'd break out the fence sprayer, but that's a lot of faff to clean for a little bit of spraying.
Now you know why I don't do model making. 
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Then please tell me what you would do with the red anticollision light right above the turbine. 
(I use a LED with a built in oscillator)
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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SFW[^]
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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That should be ok for a Vietnam Huey.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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It would work for "Good morning Vietnam", but you'd need Ride of the Valkyries[^] for most of 'em.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Yep. Four lasers and two launchers with seven proton torpedos each. Enough to kill the Death star.
Wait. That was the X-Wing. These Huey gunships have four M60C machineguns and two rocket launchers (7 rockets each). I designed and 3D printed them, but took them off again so that they don't get into the way when I paint the model. I also tried printed surfboards, but if you look at your movie clip, you will see that the gunships don't have the surfboards with them. There is too little room between the weapons and the landing skids.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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2 or 5 mm LED, 2 for small scale, 5 for bigger. Not really messed with anything radio controlled so am not too familiar with the scales...
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That cheap glass fiber body from Asia was not made to any specific scale. Partially because they simply could not care less, partially because they simply got some things wrong and partially for real technical reasons. The length of the tail is determined by the diameters of the main rotor and the tail rotor, not really true to any scale. The mechanical parts have to fit in, after all.
Overall, I go by a scale of 1/16. The side doors are more like 1/18, but that seems to be an accident. For normal plastic models that is quite large, but it's actually the smallest RC helicopter I would like to fly. Size does matter here, because they fly better and more stable.
And then there is the price tag. This Huey is really a cheap thing from Asia. You would not believe how ugly and inaccurate it looks off the shelf: Look here[^]
I actually found the decals for exactly the helicopter I also wanted to have. Someone had them made is 1/6 scale for a far more expensive model. I took a look at it on their website. Very nice, but it would cost me at least 4000 - 5000 bucks to get it into the air. And it does not even have guns.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Waiting for a Jenkins build too finish, so wasting time I clicked on the link again and was looking at it the tail seems at angle which the real Huey/UH1/Bell 411 wasn't, it appears too short! Have they altered that for aerodynamic reasons or is another detail they have been creative about?
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It's a 'short' Huey, a Bell 204. Much earlier than a Bell 411. The model is a very early Huey, like a UH_1A or a UH-1B. I'm trying to pass it off as a UH-1E (which looks very similar to a UH-1C), which already had a longer tail and a narrower tail fin. They did that because they built in stronger turbines. With more engine power, you need longer main rotor blades to get that power 'on the road' and then the tail must be longer so that the main rotor and the tail rotor can't collide.
Later Hueys (UH-1D and later) had a longer cabin for more seats and even stronger turbines or twin turbines, so the rotor blades and the tails also kept getting longer.
The narrower tail fins have only one reason: To obstruct the air flow of the tail rotor a little less to make it more effective.
I have only one picture of the original Marine UH-1E where you get to see a gread side profile. It is a later UH-1E, which should look more like a UH-1C and have a longer tail and the stronger turbine. Still, the tail looks like that of a UH-1B with a broader tail fin. It's very confusing, but actually these helicopters were repaired, refitted and upgraded all the time. Sometimes even repaired with whatever parts were at hand. Some even so much that you can't tell anymore which version it originally was.
Stop crying, pilot. Your tail was shot off and we got you a perfectly good one from another Huey that was out of action. Or would you like a little vacation until they ship us the correct parts?
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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I'd paint it the same way I painted models as a kid: get my mate Dave to do it in exchange for a week's worth of maths homework answers. Never failed.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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Yeah that all sounds good. I was going to suggest a goldish color for fins and edge, but eyes are really bad this morning and can't tell if it's goldish or not!
Technician
1. A person that fixes stuff you can't.
2. One who does precision guesswork based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge.
JaxCoder.com
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Quote: How would you paint this thing?
Badly.
CodeWraith wrote: what techniques would you use to apply them?
My secret techniques: shaky hands and poor eyesight.
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Believe me, everything is an improvement when it's printed in light turd brown[^].
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Jet turbine != helicopter turbine. Similar, but not the same. Bad things would happen to a helicopter's rotor blades if a jet engine started to push the helicopter forward. Sorry, no Airwolf.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Easy - just point it down instead. Won't even need a rotor then.  
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Yes. What an accurate model of a Vietnam Huey that has no rotor and buzzes around on a single jet engine like a drunken fly. All that while the glass fiber body is slowly consumed by the heat from that engine.
Why don't we just keep the rotor and the motor it already has? It already got off the ground with these before I ever wanted to make it look like a Huey.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Yes, but you see, I have a very supercilious attitude towards model helicopters. Once, some time ago I had to make an extended business trip to Pakistan, where I got seriously ill. The corporate health insurance took care of all the expenses, but I had a long period of convalescence.
What to do? Why, build model helicopters, of course! Physical and mental exertion were banned under pain of wife.
I built two, one a trainer, of robust and matronly appearance, and the other a scale model. Now, as a kid I had built lots of RC model 'planes, even building my own transmitter and receiver duos. Flew them all, after a few unintentional but non-fatal prangs.
Both helicopters? Sixty seconds max. All fatal - back to the drawing board jobs.
Thus I have immense respect for anybody who can fly the bloody things - but just don't ask me about my piloting skills.
Me? The following year I bought a boat and went sailing. Never pranged that.
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Don't give up. That's the normal story for every beginner. Exactly that happened to me and about everyone else I know. No matter what you know about flying airplanes, helicopters are totally different beasts in every respect.
Try it this way:
1) Get the right helicopter. Not a scale model. It's too expensive to repair and offers no advantages for a beginner except looking good. Get a trainer. At first glance you would probably take the smallest one you can find because it's cheaper and easier to repair. WRONG! Bad choice. The little guys have no mass and are very nervous. You have to be very quick and precise, exactly what a beginner has yet to learn. Better would be something like a T-Rex 550[^]. Yes, I know the price tag. I have one. It's really as nice and stable as a helicopter can get and has a lot to offer once you are ready for more advanced things.
2) Find an online course. They usually are organized into lessons which explain what you should do and exercises to practice. You have to learn how to stand before you can try to walk and to walk before you can run. That means mastering hovering before you can fly around and mastering flying around before you can try any stunts. That costs a lot of patience, but you must take one step after another or you are always in danger of losing control. It's like learning to play an instrument. You can't really play it until you don't have to think about how to play the next note anymore. With enough practice your fingers just do what you want.
3) Now, how will you get over the steep learning curve at the beginning without smashing a few helicopters? Get yourself a simulator. You can plug your remote control into the PC and use it to control a simulated helicopter. There you can fail as often as you like and it costs nothing. Just keep on practicing and one day it will suddently work. The simulators are a little sterile, but they are close enough to the real thing to really let you learn something.
Good luck. There really is no such thing as a born helicopter pilot.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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