Meng 1/35 AH-64D Saraf: update: 10/14/24: Details, Progress and Frustrations.

[Peterpools]

Thanks PW, very much appreciated and nothing like now feeling the pressure. 😉

[Peterpools]

DETAILS, PROGRESS, & FRUSTRATIONS

Slowly making some progress. I’ve reached the stage of the build where nearly all the fuselage subassemblies are done with some being glued onto the Saraf and others painted and stored away for later on in the build. None of the armament sub-assemblies, including the M230 Chain Gun have been even started yet. I haven’t yet even reached the main rotor or tail rotor assemblies – as there is just still so much work to do on the Saraf. I can now see the Saraf taking a good few more months to complete and maybe even a few more after that. When time has allowed working at the bench, the Saraf sometimes feels like a grind to keep moving forward.

The TADS – Target Acquisition and Designation Sight daylight scanner and PNVS - Pilot Night Visual Sensor assembly has been built up and is being tested fitted at this stage. All the small glass windows need to be masked before painting and I didn’t see any on the precut mask sheet in the kit, so time needs to devoted to masking and then painting this assembly. Of course, the assembly won’t be added until after the Saraf is painted and decaled. Colors for this assembly should be Nato Black, Dark Oliver Drab and flat or rubber black. 

An incredible number of fuselage sensors, piping, antennas and assorted lumps and bumps still need to added. I’m trying to add all those before painting that stand a good chance of marring up the paint if added after painting and decaling. Knocking them off is a whole other matter.

I’ve also discovered the seam on the top of the Saraf, which I filled and removed, should actually be there, so I had to scribe it back in – badly the first time and then after filling and sanding, a second attempted seemed to do the trick.

At this point in the build, the instructions are becoming less friendly, with some of the small part drawings being vague in both location and orientation. I’ve needed to spend a lot more time studying dozens of photos in the IsraDecal Saraf book, trying to locate the parts in question and how they should be installed.

Right now, I’m leaning towards having the canopy access doors in the open position (right side) and the canopy after some tweaking is starting to work nicely into place.    

One area the kit that is falling short, is the PE.

There is none provided for the grills and mesh screens and Meng decided to represent them by just scribed plastic on the fuselage shell. Geeze for an expensive kit, these should have been PE.

The PE provided is on the thick side and a bear to bend. I failed miserably with the stabilizer trim tabs, needing a tack hammer to actually bend them and then, I actually dropped and lost one. I scratched out a pair from thin sheet and off to the races. 

I searched for any available PE exterior detail sets for the AH-64D Sarah or Apache and there are none with the mesh screens needed or replacement parts for what I lost.

 

 

 

[belugawhaleman]

All closed up and coming along nicely Peter!

[Peterpools]

Thanks Paul very much appreciated. The Saraf is starting to come together and hopefully in a few weeks, I'll have the fuselage painted and decaled and then onto the other major subassemblies.

[BlrwestSiR]

Some decent progress there Peter. Looks like you were able to solve the canopy fit issue that some folks have run into. 

[DocRob]

This is all looking very good Peter, despite the issues you had. That no PE is supplied for the mesh screens is a shortcoming, indeed. If the supplied PE is too rigid and made from brass, you can anneal it with a candle or a lighter. Heat it until there is a blue hue visible on the brass, not more. This erases the tensions in the crystalline structure of the brass and bending becomes easier afterwards.

Cheers Rob

[Martinnfb]

Really nice Peter, this is going to be a stunner. Almost there, keep it up my friend.

M.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Carl. Agreed, that so far, the canopy only needed a bit of tweaking, and the fit was fine with no gaps - just got lucky.

Progress has been slow with so much medically going on but I'm starting to spend more time again at the bench and maybe by the weekend will start looking at priming the basic fuselage. See how it goes. 

[Peterpools]

Rob

Very much appreciated, and I totally forgot about annealing the brass and for the small balance of PE left, I'll absolutely anneal. them, which should make it easier to work with. I was surprised at how little PE actually came with the kit comparing it to a much less expensive Academy Viper kit, but it is what it is.

 

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Martin, plugging away and I'm getting there slowly but surely. And to think when I started the build, I had no idea how much would be involved in an OOB ... just goes to show how smart I am.