Thunderbirds Police Car/Helijet WIP

[HUNCH]

First off yeah, I know there was no TB police Helijet on the show. But since I was building a police car (the AMT Silhoutte one) I thought it would be fun to do a fictional Police Helijet, and it should look pretty sharp when its finished.
For the helijet, I will be using all of the information I found in the helijet thread coupled with things I have worked out on my own so it should be a good representation of how to build one (although not perfect). I'm still pondering putting the "pipes" on it that stick out of the top sides. The green one I built previously had some scenes with pipes and some scenes without. I thought the version without looked to be the superior build in that episode (city of fire) so opted for that, but since I have plenty of plastic tube laying around...who knows.
I am in no way trying to take credit for all of the folks on here that kit spotted in the helijet thread, for without them I would not have been able to build one.
If anyone cares to add anything, or dispute how I'm doing mine please do. Any new info that comes to light can only help people in future builds.

So, lets start with the helijet.
I noticed on the first one I built that after I glued the main body halves together there was a slight "step" on the top rear pcs. For this build I'm removing the pin in the back to better line up the parts and eliminate all the sanding I had to do on the last build. This is the Testors issue Huskie, but I cant say that the earlier Hawk kit had this problem, so a test fit would be (and always is) a good idea.
This is the pin in question.

Just get rid of it and line the parts up by eye when you are ready to assemble.
Next I will shorten the back parts just a bit to get the right length.
Removing the "Hump" on the parts will also make for a sturdier fit. Now some of you who built a helijet already may have done it different, but it seems to be pretty close to the length on the blown up pic I matched it to. Note how the parts on the left line up better than the ones on the right where the pin is still in place. A noticeable "step".

As I said, if anyone KNOWS this to be inaccurate please chime in as I have not cut mine yet.

Now I'll be removing the triangular parts of the cockpit window as I know this was at least done on one of the green ones in "city of fire". I guess it would look cool whatever way it is done.


While the main body parts are still not glued its a good time to get rid of the bubble section on the front top of the cockpit, I used a dremel and cut off wheel to get it done fast. I'll sand it down smoother once I glue it together but heres the area I'm talking about, also showing the triangular side parts to be removed.
*Remember you will need TWO Huskie helicopter kits to build ONE Helijet and you will only need to remove the top "Bubble" and cockpit side "triangular" parts on one kit, not both.


Since I'll be doing two builds at once (at least I wont be bored) I've moved over to the police car for a bit. First I messed around with the positioning of the front wheels because they are definately set higher up on the TB one as compared to the Silhouette model kit. I wont be using the supplied chassis (Might need that for a future build ), but will be using the bottom part of the suspension, the springs and the kingpins (thats the call out on the instructions). Here it is taped together.


Both of the vehicles will be lighted (did I mention that?) so I'll be drilling out the headlights. I started with a tiny bit in a pin vice to be sure the holes were good and centered and made a little dent so the larger drill bit would not skip around when I used the dremel. And of course the hole on the right in the pic got screwed up anyway . Sorry for the blurry pic.


Looking at the back of the car I realized you wont be able to see a thing in regards to the rear suspension so I'll leave off the differential parts (on left in pic) and replace with some styrene tube. That makes life a little simpler.


I'll be going down to my workbench/bar to start on the electronics for the headlights. Should have something to show later today.

Jim

[HUNCH]

Got a bit more done today. Soldered the resistors to the headlights but had to tape them down 'cause the coffee made me a little shakey.

Not the cleanest soldering job I've ever done, but it will suffice. The wires will all lead to a point just in front of the interior where they will be connected to a female jack.

And the light test before I move onto the tail lights.



Hopefully I'll get the tail lights sorted out tomorrow, the flashers will be more difficult because of placement and wont go on until later in the build. Want to get the helijet legs on soon as well. This should be a rather quick build if all goes well.

[healvis]

I only just noticed this thread Jim. More Helijet build pictures please...

[delta tango]

interesting to see the police helijet. How about some time in the future a fire department helijet? can't wait to see that police car Hunch.

[HUNCH]

I'll have plenty more Helijet build pics coming up Healvis, hopefully tonight.
And thanks for the interest Delta, and yeah, a fire dept helijet would be neat!

But first, I've got to get the Police car done a bit more. I've made a quick copy of the front of the suspension that will replace the kit part I want to save. Styrene strips make light work of the job.


Test fit...


And paint.


After looking at the screengrab of the car from above, it would seem that there may be an engine in place but painted dark grey? It is certainly a lighter color than the gloss black areas around it, so I might build it with the engine in place. There also seems to be one roundish chrome part stuck on there. What do you think?


O.K. , surgery time. I've cut off the bottom of the trunk to install the tail lights. I've also removed the area that the clrear red part glues to on the trunk to allow light to escape.


The trunk was then glued on (using a lot of glue to be sure to fill any gap that light may escape thru) and the hood as well. Ready to move on...


I made a new bottom for the trunk out of styrene sheet that the lights will mount on. Here it is sitting in place.


Here is the part configured with the lights in place and

then painted, again to stop light leaks.


Now, after looking at screen grabs it would appear there are two chrome bits stuck on the top of the (what would be) head rest. I'm assuming these are supposed to be lights of some sort, but there is definitely some chrome bits on there.



I'm going to use the headlight mounts from the front of the kit for these parts since I won't be needing them.

Heres where one of my crazy ideas i've been kicking around comes into play . I really wanted to put lights in the little top part, but how could this be achieved? A couple of months back, while finishing up my green helijet I came up with this wacky notion and decided I had to somehow make it work.
This pc is very small and fragile, seen here in blurry pic.


I've removed the "bars" that hold the lights (headrests) up and fashioned a slimmer one out of metal. This will allow me to run wires down it and then putty it back to shape.


Using my trusty patented "Deluxe Soldering Station" (available for the low price of $19.95 plus P&P. Check or money orders only please )

I soldered the tiny resistor on the tiny led and ever so gently folded the works up like an accordion so it will fit in the area needed.. Notice also that I notched out the to chrome bits that will hold the bulbs. Lot of filing needed for that.


Then I drilled and filed out the area that holds the wire and resistor (the accordion shaped part) and might I add it was a real pain. A job best suited for a dentist!

Finaly, I test fitted the assembly to be sure it would fit. Thankfully, it did.


I'll be back soon with some of the helijet build (lots of lights there as well), so stay tuned.
Jim

[delta tango]

It's looking good!

[Air Terrainean]

Excellent thread Hunch - and nice idea to build a police version of the helijet.

[MkIXHawk]

Best way to make things light tight is to spray them with metallic paints - far more opaque than ordinary paints on account of the metal flakes which give the metallic finish

[HUNCH]

Originally Posted by MkIXHawk

Best way to make things light tight is to spray them with metallic paints - far more opaque than ordinary paints on account of the metal flakes which give the metallic finish

Words of wisdom. Also sealing around the bulbs with black silicone sealer never hurts.
Because there will still be primer and paint over the outside of the kit I thought I'd use up some of my flat black that I have tons of, as I had to use it on the inside bottom to hide lack of detail where the engine is/will be.

[HUNCH]

Onto the Helijet section of the build for now. I will refer to the two Huskie kits as huskie front and rear. Below is huskie rear, where I have removed the bulbus (light?) pc from the bottom. I will be putting a red light here at the bottom back and thought it a good idea to get rid of it now before I glue it.


Next I will do the landing legs. These are the tail boom pcs from the huskie kit. On my first green helijet build I made the legs 2 1/2 inches long and positioned them at a 45 degree angle, 90 degree to each other (if that makes sence). If anyone has a better, more accurate length/angle please speak up now or forever hold your peace .
I just KNOW the second I cut them someone will pipe up with a better measurement!

Here is one of the legs with pencil marks to show 2 1/2 inches. Above is a 3 inch bolt I got (X4) at the hardware store to keep the legs from bowing. As you can see, I've cut the head off with a dremel. On my last helijet build I used metal rod but dont have anymore so grabbed these bolts up.


I've taken the bolts over to the bench grinder and ground down 3/4 of it so it will fit snug between the kit parts. Dipping the bolt in cold water every few seconds keeps it from getting hot so it doesn't take all day.
The bolts will be glued inside the leg sections with 2 part epoxy and then styrene glue around the edges to cement the plastic.


Lastly for today, I've glued the huskies up- front and rear. I've also removed the little semi circular tabs from the bottoms of both as they will be covered anyway later on.


More soon.

[HUNCH]

Back with an update. I've removed the "humps" off of the huskies front and rear. After a bit of sanding, they will be ready to be connected.


After laying a ruler along the center seam from front to rear I see that it is nice and lined up.


I have taped mine together, and am lining up the sides using the window (door) rim as a guide.


Now I grabbed a measurement (mine is 36 mm) and have cut some plastic about 4 centimeters high to fill the gap either side.


I've removed the four pins (both sides) and left the three pins on the inside (both sides) intact. This will give me something to hold the plastic card in place while it dries.


Here it is in place. I used two on each side to thicken it up (pretty thin card) and at this point if you wanted to you could go on and glue it. I'll wait as I still need to get in there for lights etc. You can see I've added a little triangle of styrene to the huskie rear window. This will hide the gap that will be there when the vertical Hustler wings go on later.


By adding a piece of card on top of the first one it is now high enough to reach the large huskie tail fin that will go there later.


Next I've made a template out of cardboard that will be used to line up the legs later. I'm pretty sure they were shooting for a 45 degree angle with the legs but in screengrabs its all over the place.


More later.

[healvis]

Jim, This is excellent. Keep it up mate...

[HUNCH]

My PC was giving me all sorts of internet problems, but seems to be working for the moment. I've got seventeen years (nearly) out of the old girl and I fear it is time to put her out to pasture! But while its still somewhat running I'll do an update.

I've gone ahead and cut out my template to fit the body of the heli. This will allow me to drill holes at the proper angle and the should be pretty even when done. Also this will be VERY handy when I finaly epoxy the legs on as I'll be able to use the template as a guide to be sure they are the perfect angle.


Notice the round file in the middle of this pic. I've run the top of the leg over this to get a curved shape to fit the curve of the heli when I connect it. The blue tape was used to drop a line where I'll cut the legs. There is a little tit about 3/4 of the way up the leg that is my marker for the top cut. About 3 1/2 inches down there is a row of rivets that is my second cut marker. If you have the Huskie kit you'll see what I mean.

Here is one leg cut. Notice the bottom slimmer area is cut at an angle.

To explain why this is done I've used the paint program (only high tech for this modeller). This shows the angle of the cut (for bottom of leg) and why it works by giving the bottom area more "meat" for attaching the feet.


A test fit to show the legs bolted on and ready for epoxy. I wont be putting the legs on just yet as I've still a bit of work to do to the interior and such, and with them in place it would become too cumbersome.
Lined up pretty good here.


This shot shows the plastic card "spacers" I showed you earlier, only now I've added a plastic strip to the inside top to fill a gap that I know will be visible later. Figured I'd nip it in the bud now!


My interior will go further back than the floor pc allows so I've added an inch of card to accommodate. Its been sanded so it curves inward (shape of the body) but thats not shown in pic. Blah, blah blah...


The interior floor pc was warped pretty bad, and after muscling it it still has a bit of curve so I added some plastic strips to the inside of the heli to give it something to "seat" on.


As usual, I've gone a little overboard with my interior plans so in order to better see whats going on in there when the model is finished I've opened up the cockpit wall for better visibility. See before and after.

I do have another floor pc that is nice and straight but will need it for the back of the heli, more on that later.

With a dremel grinding wheel I've removed the plastic "risers" where the seats go in order to position the seats lower, again for a better view into the bird. I've also got rid of the stuff going on in the middle of the floor (a hasty job I might add but you wont see too much of it so...) to give a nice path for the little cops to go from the cockpit to the cabin more realistically (sp?) .


Here you can see I'll be spreading the seats out wider to open the area up.
Nothing is glued at this point.


I've got some interior detail to work on and more lights to solder up today (there are plenty of websites that can show you the ins and outs of LED wiring so I wont go into an Ohms law tutorial here) so if my PC doesn't die I'll be back with an update, but the old girl sure is running sloooowwwww .

Jim

[healvis]

Looking good Jim. Their are plenty of free apps for bringing your computer back to life.

[HUNCH]

Theres not much life left in her John.

[HUNCH]

OK, back with a small update. Managed to get some more resistors soldered to some more lights, but thats not worth showing.
What I did manage to do was make the explosion proof light fixture.
Why would I want an explosion proof lighting fixture in my police helijet? Mainly, because I'm an idiot.
The other reason is, I've had this idea bouncing around in my head to have a red emergency light inside the body of the model so it has that ...well, emergency look! Having just a red LED hanging from the ceiling like a meatball didn't jibe well with me, so I thought the explosion proof cage would give it a more official look. If this doesn't make sense please see the first explanation.
This tiny stuff bugs me, I dont know why I bother. But anyway, off I went. First I got a width off of the bulb with my caliper and found a drill bit about the same size. I wrapped some thin styrene rod around the bit (tight) several times and wrapped that with some tape to hold it. That lump under the blue tape is the "coil".

Next I hit it with a heat gun, turning the bit to heat it evenly and ran it under some cold water before taking the tape off. And heres the coil.

I then cut the coil lengthwise from the inside to make a few rings. I've glued the seperation of the two rings together and added a half ring onto the top of one. Then two quarter rings etc.

Next I added some straight rod to the bottom of the fixture. I left them a bit long to fit over the buld and draw my cuts.

The finished product is far from perfect, but should look cool when in place and lit.


Next I'll be making a shelf and a gun cabinet to fill up the inside detail. More than likely I'll make a long seat that will go under the ripmax window and some hand holds for around it (in case the pilot flys like carter).
More soon.

[HUNCH]

Small update.
Puttied the the little holes on the heli and filled in the holes on the floor pc.


I've since sanded and primed the floor. While that sets up I thought I'd move on to the back. The back pc on the rear of the huskie will double as a battery door. I'll be useing most of the other floor pc. , the one that was less warped.
In the pic I've made one cut and the line (arrow) will be the second cut. That will be the back floor pc.

I've noticed from staring at many pics of the helijet that it appears that the little floor pc is upside down, so that is how I'll glue it (when I do) but for now I've glued a small pc of plastic to the bottom to help suppot it.


Here it is resting in place, and you can see I'm beginning to remove the little floor detail parts that I'll use on the top rear where the clear parts would go.


Now I've fitted the flat larger pc of the floor to the back to get a measurement. As you can see both little detail parts have now been cut.


After some trimming and sitting the top part on I've got a pretty good fit.


Heres the top part with the detailed rectangles placed on the inside of the pc.

And heres what the top of the pc will look like. Notice there is not much left of the original floor .


Before I glue too much onto the back I did a quick light test for the bottom rear. Its a diffused 3mm LED.


Works good, more later.

[delta tango]

Hunch, A Police Helijet appeared in the Thunderbirds episode Terror In NewYork City. If you go to The A.M.T. Silohette 1/25 scale in Thunderbirds,on this site. Page 1 photo 3 you'll see it grounded to the left of the photo. The Helijet appeared in other episodes of Thunderbirds but it was never seen flying.

[delta tango]

Originally Posted by delta tango

Hunch, A Police Helijet appeared in the Thunderbirds episode Terror In NewYork City. If you go to The A.M.T. Silohette 1/25 scale in Thunderbirds,on this site. Page 1 photo 3 you'll see it grounded to the left of the photo. The Helijet appeared in other episodes of Thunderbirds but it was never seen flying.

My mistake,to the right of the photo.

[HUNCH]

Wow! Very cool, never noticed that before. looks like it was made from a car model or something. The one I'm doing will have to be the more familiar helijet type as I'm too far along allready.