I started another chopper conversion at my clubs build a thon meeting a few months ago. Yeah, I seem to be addicted to this lately. I had picked up an ancient Hasegawa OV-1 Mohawk and a Matchbox Bk-117 at a show for a bargain. It seemed a natural for a switch. I tried to use as many parts from the "parent" Mohawk kit as possible. Even though I had lost the windscreen quite a while ago I kept working on it. I was hoping to either find it or find another kit. I can't blame the carpet monster as my work space is in the basement with a concrete floor. I managed to drop a model I had built years ago and parts went every direction. So I got out the vacuum cleaner with the collection bin and swept the entire area. Lo and behold there was the windscreen, completely undamaged. Score!
The Mohawk's engines are removed from the wings and positioned Sikorsky Sea King style. The nose wheel is now the tail wheel and the main gear legs are now part of, well, the main gear. Plus a repurposed paper clip for strength. Wheels are from the spares box. The gun under the nose is from a really ancient PT-109 kit. I can't remember what I had for breakfast but I can remember that!
Yep, that's a Monogram F-111 repurposed cockpit. The kit cockpit is sparse to say the least. I need to find some instrument panel decals yet.
The outer wing parts are shortened and still needed mucho putty to get a decent surface. I made a wing spar to go through the fuselage at the standard wing attachment opening just to get the wings to line up and be horizontal. Pylons are from one of the Apache kits used on the whopper chopper build. The little grey parts on the nose and tail are from a Fujimi Skyhawk kit.
The little winglets are from the vertical stabilizers from the Bk-117 kit, cut and trimmed a little. The tail rotor is one of the Mohawk's props with the pointed nose clipped off.
Overhead shot with the four bladed rotors from the Bk-117.
A couple of fuel tanks made from two 1/48th Mk-82 bombs. They sucked as bombs so this is a better use anyway. I think I have some 2.75" rocket pods or Zuni rocket pods laying around here somewhere. I also need a couple of steps of some sort for getting in and out of the cockpit. I'm going for a '60s or '70s time frame. If I can find the decals I might paint it that USMC green color they used on choppers. They needed something to escort those Frogs on the way to the LZ and just couldn't use that blinkety blank
Army Cobra thing!
