The Delaware Valley Scale Modelers' 2007 Favorite Five Contest
Joe Volz’s 1/72 Coast guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter
My Favorite Five entry is a model of the United States Coast Guard rescue helicopter, the HH-60J “Jayhawk”. The Jayhawk is a variation of the vastly successful Sikorsky Blackhawk/Seahawk military helicopter series.
I began the project by using Italeri’s HH-60H kit and modified it, using Fireball Modelworks Jayhawk conversion set, as well as some scratch-building. The various “lumps and bumps” found only on the navy version of the helicopter were removed, and the resulting holes patched. The kit was next fully rescribed to replace the raised panel lines with recessed ones.
While the kit cockpit was generally correct for the Jayhawk, the main cabin was re-built from scratch. I added the various radio racks, prominent rescue gear and other equipment as seen in reference photos. The bench seat was built from sheet styrene and rod and detailed with lead foil seatbelts. I took the crew seats from another helicopter kit and modified them with strip stock to more closely resemble those in the Jayhawk, and added belts to these as well. The rescue basket was built from appropriate sized photo-etched mesh, folded to shape, with styrene bits added for detail.
Fireball supplies resin parts for the external fuel tanks, searchlight, nose-mounted FLIR etc… and these were assembled, and the main pieces attached to the fuselage with super glue. The searchlight was drilled out and the recessed area painted silver. A lens was formed using five minute epoxy. The grab handles near the cockpit were formed from soft wire, on a resin template supplied by Fireball, and then glued into holes drilled into the fuselage. All of the glass areas were next masked off in preparation for painting.
The model was primed and then first painted white for the USCG color scheme. Model Master’s “Sunburst” proved to be a good match for the red-orange color, and those areas which were to remain white were masked off and the orange airbrushed onto the model. These areas were allowed to dry, and then they were masked and the area around the cockpit was airbrushed black. The rotor blades were painted next, requiring quite a bit pf masking to achieve the gray/red/white/yellow stripes on the tips.
A coat of Future was applied to the model in advance of decaling. Fireball supplies excellent quality ALPS-printed decals in the set and these went on very well. The ink is very soft though, so care had to be taken not to scratch the decals. Fireball gives you options to build every Jayhawk in USCG service, and I chose a machine from the Elizabeth City, NC air station. A second coat of Future was applied to seal the decals, followed by Polly Scale satin for a finish coat.
Supports for the fuselage-mounted antenna were glued into previously drilled holes, and the antenna itself was formed from very thin stretched sprue. Wheels, rotor blades, searchlight and other small bits were now glued in place to complete the model.
I had wanted to build a model of the Jayhawk for quite a while, and the arrival of the Firelball Modelworks set on the market sealed the deal. This was quite an enjoyable build of a unique and colorful subject.
