1/48 Italeri HH-60J Jayhawk

by Jan M. Visser

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Some time ago I finished building the full resin 1/48 Cobra SH-60B Seahawk. From that kit I had a lot of leftovers f.i. the fueltanks and of course the complete Academy bodywork. That’s when I got the idea of building a HH-60J Jayhawk.

But then I had to modify the complete left side of this helo as it needs two windows, and the Academy body is a Blackhawk version with doors and windows at the wrong place.

During that period I read about it that Italeri would come out with a 1/48 Seahawk which bodywork would be exactly that what I needed.

So last week I bought 2 kits as you need 2 the same windows on the leftside and with the help of Chris Miller of Cobra I received the pylon for the leftside under which the two fueltanks are mounted. 

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Starting the work at the leftside fuselage you have to carefully cut out the windows from the 2  leftsides. With some Evergreen styrenestrips they can glued at the right place. Also some smaller styrenestrips are needed at the outside clearly seen at lots of pics of the Jayhwak in the Squadron Walkaround.

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I also cut out the side steps left and right on the hull.

About the interior I can say…….just have a look at the ARC site, there you will find some excellent pictures of the the Jayhawk.

The radome on the nose is created from a 1/32 bomb a leftover from the Trumpeter A 10.  Watch the size……..it’s 10,2 mm in diameter.  As you can see at the pic’s the rest has to be filled and shaped with very thin styreneplate.

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Click on images below to see larger images

Now you’re getting to a hard part……………kit nr 29D (you need two of them) has to be reshaped to get them fixed properly let and right of the radome close to both bellywindows. Again, check the pic’s at ARC.

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Talking about windows………………..the left top window didn’t fit at all, it proved to be too small or better the place where it should go is to big !!! One of the things of which I say, typically Italeri. To solve this problem I went through my leftovers and found the complete front cockpit window of a Academy Blackhawk and made a complete new top window.

Left and right of the fuselage the boarding handles have to be placed, I used the one’s from the Cobra resin kit. 

Also from Cobra I received the resin pylon which is situated at the left side just below the windows, they hold the two fueltanks. The resin fueltanks were in the Cobrakit. So you see most of the parts, not used when building the Seahawk are now being used to make this Jayhawk.

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Click on images below to see larger images

 

 

The antenna on top of the fuselage is from the Academy Blackhawk and replaced more to the leftside. The kit antenna which was meant to be placed on top is now replaced to the underside of the tailboom. 

The rotorheads and blades are fine and can even be placed in a folding position.

So no comment and that ones.

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A minor change/adding has to be made on the cockpit doors, just below the windows you need to create a small handle.

On the rightside you have to create the antenna wiring which is running over 5 small pins. I drilled some very small holes and used some steel wiring to create the pins and than added the antenna wire.

Once again use the walkaround pic’s on ARC to see the exact location or the Squadron walkaround of the UH-60 Blackhawk. 

All the decals on this machine are leftovers, the ones on the tailboom are from the Heller C 130 Coast Guard Hercules, perhaps they are a bit to big but I could not find other ones.

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The numbers and words are created from Microscale sheets.

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Paints used are all Tamiya spraycan colours, only the blade tips and rotorheads are painted with Modelmaster. 

In a view words I tried to describe the way I built this craft, it gave me lots of fun in building a chopper which can’t be found on everyones shelf. 

Greetings

Jan 

Photos and text © by Jan M. Visser