A few months ago, I put in an order with PKM for one of their OH-58D Fuselages. I ordered the basic fuselage and cockpit kit, with the tail opening on the left side. I was quite impressed by how it came out of the box. All doors are functional, and it came with a pre-wired nav light on the tail:
There are a few geometry corrections that I will be making it this build though. The back of the engine doghouse should be flat, and is rounded off on the model. I will also remove the front doors, since they were almost never attached on operational birds in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For the mechanics, I will be using a Trex 500ESP with a Hirobo 4 blade articulated rotor head. The biggest challenge on this end will be integrating one of the most distinctive features of the 58D, the Mast Mounted Sight (MMS):
The Mast Mounted Sight sits above the rotor head and provides imaging and target designation capabilities to the pilots. Since this is standard equipment, I wanted to incorporate it into my build. After seeing what Steve Hodges did with his Apache, I wondered if the same technique could be scaled down to work on a 500.
There are a few geometry corrections that I will be making it this build though. The back of the engine doghouse should be flat, and is rounded off on the model. I will also remove the front doors, since they were almost never attached on operational birds in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For the mechanics, I will be using a Trex 500ESP with a Hirobo 4 blade articulated rotor head. The biggest challenge on this end will be integrating one of the most distinctive features of the 58D, the Mast Mounted Sight (MMS):
The Mast Mounted Sight sits above the rotor head and provides imaging and target designation capabilities to the pilots. Since this is standard equipment, I wanted to incorporate it into my build. After seeing what Steve Hodges did with his Apache, I wondered if the same technique could be scaled down to work on a 500.
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