Most of us have heard the quotes and seen the scene, even if we haven't viewed the entire film. We are, of course referring to the portion of Apocalypse Now where the PBR carrying Captain Willard upstream needs the help of the Air Cavalry to move upriver. The Air Cav were led by a gung ho Colonel, William Kilgore, memorably played by Robert Duvall. Aggressive, seemingly fearless, and passionate about surfing, this Colonel is not above taking on a VC stronghold when he learns that a famous surfer in civilian life happens to be a member of the PBR crew, and that the best surfing is to be found where the VC are strongest and the PBR needs to be inserted to continue its mission, leading to a memorable sequence featuring, Hueys, surfboards, Wagner, mayhem, and napalm (in the morning...)
My subject for this build is the Colonel, his surfboard, and his Huey.
We'll need a Huey, the Colonel and a pair of custome surfboards.
The Colonel:
While there have been a number of figures made to represent the Coonel, I chose the Andrea 54mm "U.S. Cavalry Officer" as being the closest in detail and appearance.
A white metal and photoetch kit, he'll need to be placed cleverly in the foreground with his Huey (in 1/48 scale) placed strategically behind.
The Huey I chose is the well regarded Kitty Hawk UH-1D, which will need some homebrew decals or stencils to create screen-accurate markings.
Finally, his surfboards will be scratchbuilt from balsa or sheet styrene, with home made decals to create their custom graphics.
1. Colonel Kilgore:
A cleaning with Dawn to remove any mold release agents, and white primer coat:
Cav hat in place. The hat makes the man!
Not a bad likeness. Hope I can do it justice.
Starting to lay down basic colors.
Still waiting for USPS to deliver, so let's make some name tapes and a subdued cav patch for his jungle jacket:
Running out of things to do with the Colonel and his 'boards. USPS missed its second Will Arrive On date. Grrrr....
2. Kilgore's Huey
A Plethora of Pieces.
The kit consists of three large sprues molded in light grey, a small sprue of clear packed in its own inner box, two decal sheets and a small frame of PE parts. Color me intimidated.
Most aircraft kits have a small interior and large exterior; in this case, it's nearly reversed. There's a lot of detail going on here that will all be exposed or visible through the windows. Since it will never be closed up, I won't be able to finish the interior, mask, and spray the exterior. This will need to be "paint as you go" for much of the model.
I've read reports of final fit issues, so there'll be a lot of test fitting as we go.
We start with control panel, controls, and seats. Some light flash and ejector pins to deal with. Biggest challenge is simply working with so many dainty pieces. The passenger seats are 5 pieces each...in this case, facing forward as in the movie. I'm waiting on some dark gull grey enamel before they get glued in.
I'm currently delayed by USPS losing track.of my chosen paint for, at last count, more than a week, so I'll work on subassemblies and isolated detail painting in the interim.
My plan is, when finished, to take a "movie photo/video" reminiscent of Kilgore's arrival at Charlie Point, compete with whirring blades, sand, and smoke. The kit as designed will not enable a free-turning rotor. To work, to work...
We'll modify the kit by installing a long brass bushing in the housing attached to the helicopter, and a long aluminum shaft to teplace the short plastic locator pin in the rotor. This proved to be more difficult than anticipated.
You see my bushing took the place of part of the plastic shaft, as it was nearly the same diameter.
Cleaned up and installed.
The problem revealed by a test fit was that the detailed mechanism at the base of the rotor did not clear the corresponding parts on the copter...
I turned the rotor base in a drill to slightly reduce its diameter, and fabricated a spacer to increase clearance.
This still resulted in interference with rotation by two small parts. Not wanting to extend the spacer, I simply filed them down until they cleared.
Success! The clearance is tight, but rotates freely at a touch.
Now we'll move on to some interior detail painting, starting with the seats.
Pilot/copilot armored seats on OD, passenger seats with gray frames and green nylon covers.
(Temporarily) installed. Added the cushions in the front seats.
The Engine
The kit has a fairly detailed engine suitable for "panel open" display, so we'll spend some time here. A variety of metallic shades and shading make it look "in service".
PAINT ARRIVES! We can get on with this build.
All interior surfaces are sprayed in Modelmaster Dark Gull Grey enamel.
Once dry, the interior is oversprayed with Vallejo matt clear finish. The next day, an oil paint pin wash is applied to the interior surface details, and excess cleaned away with brush and thinner, highlighting the excellent detail and leaving a lightly used appearance.
Now the seats can go in. If you're smart, you'll install the seatbelts, available as photoetch pieced, in advance. Or you can do it after the seats are in, cursing all the way ;-)
Then we can finaly assemble the bits we've painted into something that starts looking like a Huey.
I'll paint the doors and install the door glazing separately. But the single largest piece of clear plastic encompasses the windscreen, and a portion of the roof. First up, green tinting the roof windows.
4. First, soapy rinse and let dry to ensure good acrylic adhesion, as we're using Tamiya XF-25 Clear Green. Mask everything but the inner surface of the roof windows with Tamiya tape. The piece of 3M blue is just a handle. Thin down that goopy clear. Test spray on a scrap of clear packaging, making dure it doesn't clog or "orange peel". It is required more thinner than you'd think.
Plan on two light coats, each time just enough for it to look wet.
Success.
Now I need the Cav plaque that goes on the rear bulkhead above the seat backs. Printed on decal paper, and sealed. Will paint the edges black and install.
How about those nose markings?
Decals? Not available. Could I DIY? Yes, but they'd look conspicuously like decals. I'm going to try "reverse stencils". Paint the surface the text color. Use a vinyl cutter to cut out the letters and stick them to the surface. Overspray with the surrounding color. In this case, two colors, white and orange, two stencils, one text, one hand cut graphics, and two final colors, black and OD. Easy peasy, right?
Note To Self: Do this before assembly, save on masking.
White underspray:
Let dry, add mask, spray orange for text.
The text was created in Powerpoint, and printed several sizes until I got one that looked to scale.
Now to print on vinyl. My wife has a Cricut machine for her crafting. Let's see how it works out.
Now for masking and painting.
Top half flat black.
All masks removed.
Needs some light touchups, but I'll take it!
Another movie Huey feature not part of the kit is the ARC 102 HF antenna that zig zags along the tail boom.
We'll cut some .015 bronze wire into 3/16 " lengths, drill the fuselage, and ACC them in place:
After painting and decaling we'll run the HF wire. Note the first standoff has a dogleg in it, I assume to take the stresses in keeping it in tension.
There are quite a few other vents, probes, and antennae on this bird:
The door gunner's guns and mounts remain.
The excellent-fitting Eduard mask arrived, so we can move ahead. I'll need to DIY over the already-painted nose, and fill in the door openings as I'll paint them before mounting in the wide-open position.
Cardstock and tape for the doors, Eduard on all glazing, a combo of parafilm and Tamiya tape on the nose, and Tamiya tape elsewhere as needed.
Ready to lay down some Mr. Color O.D.
I really like the way this paint goes on.
Cooked up some homebrew cav decals for the doors:
They'll get sealed in with some Vallejo Matt varnish, then get their windows installed, then get mounted.
Next, decals on the boom, and mount the tail rotor:
I didn't trust the kit attachment, so I drilled the boom and installed a wire pin, and used some thick ACC to attach the assembly. No easy way to allow it to spin, however.
I took a tip from a video by former Mythbuster Adam Savage to "hang" the HF antenna. I used some nylon thread, gluing one end into the hole near the base of the tail boom I had drilled earlier. Once dry, I pulled it taught against the first antenna pylon, touched it with a straight pin containing a tiny drop of ACC, then, with a tweezers, grabbed a micro-pinch of baking soda and sprinkled it over the glue dot. Instant cure. Repeated on each pylon to complete the left side. The prototype I am modeling wrapped around and continues as a mirror image on the other side, and is pulled back and away from the tail boom by a cable, spring, or bungee attached to the tail skid. I modeled this from a separate piece of nylon thread, at each point using the baking soda to accelerate the process.
The antenna appears dull silver or grey, and for contrast I painted black "fittings" on the tensioner with an aluminum cable.
There were a few clear light lenses to be added, and the red light atop the engine housing, painted with clear red, and a pair of downward facing landing lights on the belly.
The door guns were added, and touched up.
Finally, I made a set of straps from some wine bottle foil, painted military green, and used some window cement to glue the straps to the boards. The straps were fed through the "step" below the front of the door opening, and the machine gun mounts in the rear, pulled tight, and glued in place.
Ready to load up and head to Charlie Point!
3. The surfboards
There are both movie stills and custom replicas of the surfboards seen in the film. In some scenes they appear dark OD, black in others, with red, orange, and dark yellow details. I'll go with basic black. Cleaning up some shots of replicas found on the internet, you can recreate a reasonable facsimile in 1/48 scale. We'll make the trial board from balsa.
It appears that the only difference between the top and bottom is the presence of the fin. Both have red stripes and the Air Cav symbol; Kilgore's personal board has his name and "AIRMOBILE" emblazoned on it. These graphics will become decals applied to a gloss black 'board.
Getting the basic shape is not difficult, but filling and smoothing the balsa grain takes some doing.
I think board number 2 will be styrene...
When completed, they will be strapped under the door openings as on the movie 'bird:
'Board graphics hot off the inkjet:
These were based on a combination of screen captures and replica boards, drawn to scale,and saved as .jpg files. They'll get a coat of fixative when dry, and then be applied to my black-painted boards.
1st board made from balsa. Easy to shape, hard to get a smooth finish. 2nd, in white styrene, slow to shape, easy to finish.
Need to take some more off...
Decals for both sides of two boards.
A few touch ups, bottom fins, and some clear gloss to seal it all in. Meanwhile my inbound paint languishes at the Chicago USPS Distribution facility...
4. Bringing it all together
My plan is to create a few "movie stills" reminiscent of the scenes from Apocalypse Now that show the Colonel landing, donning his hat, and surveying the LZ. I will need to use some forced perspective to fool you into seeing the 54mm Kilgore along with the 1/48 Huey. I'd like him out front, the Huey behind, angled to show both nose art and surfboards. It should be on the beach.
A hunk of 1" styrofoam was cut and layed out, and the scene mocked up.
It was trimmed down so it appears rectangular from the photographic POV
it was also sloped down to create the appearance of greater depth so the chopper colud be place closer, appearing larger, with the figure closer to the camera reduced in height compared to the background Huey.
The styrofoam was coated with flexpaste to seal it and provide a surface for the next addition to adhere to.
Hardware store patching plaster, spread on and textured randomly. Smoother at the back, as that side is close to water's edge.
Once dry, I brushed it vigorously with a wet paintbrush to smooth the surface, removing "unsandlike" features. Then a coat of light tan latex paint.
Once that dried, it was covered entirely with dilute white glue, and a layer of fine sand sprinled over all.
I then spent some time working on the arrangement of the two pieces to show the custom features (nose art, surf boards) and disguise the difference in scale. Once happy with that, I made channels for the Huey skids to rest in, and a cut-out for the Colonel's base to rest in.
Those were then painted and sanded like the rest of the base.
Now they blend better into the base. Now to work out the optimal lighting and backdrop.
- A Bit Of Model Photography -
I prefer natural light and a naturalistic backdrop for my models - not nature scenes, but an environment where one might naturally see the subject. As noted above, I built the sand base with a specific photo in mind. Here's how I'll set up The Shot.
- Natural light - this replicates an outdoor scene, so it looks best under natural sunlight
- Lighting angle - how do I position the subject so I get light and shadow where I want it? Time of day also plays a role. Also important to note the lighting on a photo backdrop like I am using here. Shadows pointing in opposite directions is an immediate giveaway.
- Focal point / length - what do I want in focus, and what can be left out of focus? In this case, I want the closer figure in focus along with the helicopter. My depth of field needs to include both.
How to set up to capture this?
Tripod with a consumer grade DSLR; portable workbench holds the base and models; old-school portable movie screen holds the backdrop photo, found online and printed on my home printer on plain white legal paper.
ISO set low for better resolution; Aperture priority to ensure the desired depth of field, plus I backed away and used the zoom to close back in to "compress" the scene, again to help disguise the scale difference between Kilgore and the Huey.
Special Effects: I had wanted to get a capture of the Colonel arriving, with smoke marker swirling. I would need smoke in a very specific place.
I used a plastic bucket, lined it with aluminum flashing, cut a hole in the lid, and taped an inverted funnel on top.
I cut a round hole in my base, and inserted a golf tee topped with a round plastic disk cut from sheet styrene,
painted and sanded to match the surface, located directly under the helicopter. Below, an old aluminum cigar tube with its end cut off pipes the smoke from funnel to base. Place smoke in can, light, close, place base over funnel.
If only I'd gotten a sharper focus from my camera. I shot it as video, and hoped to get a great still photo. My error. Should have shot it as a burst of stills. Maybe with an assistant next time. But I like the effect. Practice, practice, practice!
For the final shots, natural light, at various angles and distances.
Except for my video failure, I was pleased with the build. The Kitty Hawk kit is excellent, the Miniature was excellent, the only limits are skill and imagination. I recommend these kits without reservation.
