First task is to cut out the fuselage which is in two halves and produced from lexan. There are additional parts for the sponsons and a few other bits.

Cutting the canopy out isnt easy as there are no real guidelines to follow so take your time and trim down slowly.

One side of the fuselage overlaps the other, trial both halves together until the seem fits well.

The fuselage is marked out well for window positioning and has some lines for maintenance covers etc.

The next task is to glue small blocks of plastic supplied with the kit in strategic positions on the male side of the fuselage. This is completed with CA.

The idea of this is to enable holes to be drilled through from the other side of the fuselage followed by small screws to join both sides together.

To help with this process I taped both sides together accurately with masking tape before completing any drilling, without this the process will be very fiddly.

Use a drill bit of 1.5mm diameter.

The fuselage can now be joined together as a trial fit. It is very awkward to get the screws to fit as they are very short, slot head and flat on their leading edge.

I found some small self tapping screws of the same diameter with a phillips head which are much easier to contend with.

The fuselage can now be fitted to the mechanics.

Two M2 allen screws are used to hold the canopy in place, position th efuselage accurately before marking and drilling the two holes,

The rear mounting point can be seen here.

Check around the openings in the top of the fuselage for both rotor mechanics, if necesary mark out and enlarge to suit.

Mark out and drill holes for the rear undercarriage legs in the sponsons then glue them in place carefully.

The wheels unscrew to allow removal of the fuselage.

The kit comes with a good set of window masks which are applied after giving the fuselage a good wash with warm soapy water and drying with lint free cloth.

Join the two halves together for painting.

Note the hole cut for the bubble window which needs to be done carefully with scissors then filed to the line.

The fuselage is then given a couple of coats of base colour.

I used Tamiya acrylics thinned down in equal parts and applied with my airbrush.

The base colour in my case is XF-54 Dark Sea Grey.

After this has dried I marked out in pencil the camouflage pattern refering to a couple of photographs I had of a USMC CH46.

The mid colour camouflage pattern is now applied using a small nozzle on the airbrush and following the pencil lines initially.

For this colour I used XF-62 Olive-Drab

The dark colour camouflage pattern is now applied using a small nozzle on the airbrush.

For this colour I used XF-69 NATO Black.

I did some weathering around the intake and exhaust nozzles using XF-4 Flat Black.

The window masks can now be removed.

I didnt like the completely clear windows as it showed up the mechanics too much so from the inside I sprayed one light coat of PS-31 Smoke.

I used a series of different sized draughting pens to draw in the lines around access hatchways etc. To help keep these straight I used an old flexible steel erasing guide and some double sided tape to hold it in place whilst drawing. I used a radius stencil again held in place with tape for any curved elements.

To seal everything I gave the model a thin coat of X-22 Clear, the camera shows a shine on the model due to the flash but in reality the colours remain matt.

None of the supplied decals are suited to the colour scheme chosen so I decided to make my own.

I drew up and sized what I wanted in CorelDraw.

The Star and Stripes emblem on the supplied decals has a white background, the copied CH46 has almost a transparent version, therefore I scanned the decal sheet and scaled up the emblem to the correct size.

I printed the graphics onto InkJet waterslide decal paper, gave this three coats of acrylic clear and left to dry overnight

The decals where then applied to the fuselage after soaking in water for 30 seconds

I gave the whole fuselage another coat of X-22 clear to complete.

More pictures are available on the pictures page