Adam Coleman is a dear friend I know through my IPMS club, Lafayette Scale Modelers. Though Adam lives in Texas now, he is still a great supporter of our club’s efforts. He even took time to fly here to North Carolina for our recent show! Adam shared these great photos, as well as some thought on the building of this kit, and a bit of it’s history. Thanks so much Adam!
Well, …just in time for the end of the year! Attached are a few pictures of my just completed Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Argentina – FAA) CH-47 Model 308 (similar to the CH-47C or BV-114). This was a somewhat lengthy conversion of the old 1/72 scale Matchbox Ch-47D, then a modification to rebuild the nose to the longer CH-47C. The rest of the kit was built out of the box, except for the decals, which are from the Aerocalcas Argentina set.
FAA H-93 (CG-073 B-802) was supplied to Argentina in 1980 for transport and Antarctic support. The machine was originally painted in the Antarctic scheme, then painted overall camouflage for its wartime use in 1982, then later repainted to the model. Markings changed slightly during this time, and also some external parts are clearly different. As you can imagine, getting good coverage and research photos are a little hard to find, so I did my best with what I could procure. It was a lot of fun to build, but the quality of the kit means lots of hard work too.
The nose is built from the base of the old Matchbox Strikemaster, and then made up with modeling compound. The blades were revised to the later “square” version, and there was several other minor additions. I’m still on this kick of using what I have at the workbench, rather than buying more.. I managed to keep that concept true again.
The model depicts as H-93 may have looked in the mid-1980s as a machine attached to VII Air Brigade, III Squadron, on Antarctic duties at Marambio base. It’s the end of the southern summer, and she has flown many hours on, and around the volcano’s of the Antarctic Peninsula. ….Weathered, dirty and about to be sent back to the mainland.
Enjoy!
Adam COleman is an IPMS member from Texas by way of Australia and North Carolina. His first model was the 1/72 Airfix Me-262 – landing gear up! Today his modeling interests are broad, but with an liking to the classic British kits. He likes to travel the world and visit hobby stores too!
