AH-61F Sea Eagle (S-67 for the USMC)

[Spino]

The Sikorsky S-67 has had quite an appeal to me for a while, so about six months ago I modeled one up and got started printing it in 1/48 scale.  So here's where I'm at now:

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And a decent representation of what I'm going for.  It'll be a bit different, with the radar mast and updated weapons, but otherwise it should look relatively similar to this:

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[NARSES2]

Looking good 

[PR19_Kit]

Sad memories, I saw that crash at Farnborough, and it killed both crew too.

But I always thought it was great looking helicopter.

[kerick]

That looks great! What will you use for the canopy?

[Spino]

That looks great! What will you use for the canopy?

Probably going to end up heat-forming some clear plastic sheet for it honestly.  Either that or make it slab-sided like the AH-1F.

For anyone interested, the white Sidewinder-like missile laying next to the model is actually an AGM-126, which in my whiffyverse is an evolution of the AGM-122 Sidearm, based on AIM-9X.  That will go on one of the wingtip LAU-7 rails, and an AIM-9 will go on the other most likely.  I'm tempted to add a third set of underwing stations so I can have two of each, but that might be a bit much since this thing will also be hauling four LAU-68 pods with APKWS and eight AGM-179 JAGMs.

[Spino]

Glued the JAGMs onto their launchers and printed up a Sidewinder to balance out the Sidearm II.  PSR on the model itself is still in progress.

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After some consideration, I decided to just keep the pylon configuration as it currently is, so four underwing and two tip stations.  I think it would look a bit overloaded with any more, and there's not a lot of space left under the wings anyway.  So the loadout will be eight AGM-179s, four LAU-68 APKWS pods (on twin racks), one AIM-9 and one AGM-126.

[Weaver]

Gorgeous looking helicopter: the American Hind in many ways. 

The IR jammer "lantern" on the drawing looks a bit close to the rotor plane.

[kerick]

I'm keeping my eye on this. It's a great idea!

[Spino]

A lot of work done today.  Installed the cockpit seats, rear instrument panel, pilot and CPG, as well as the 20mm M197 cannon turret.  The cockpit side braces had to be removed and then re-attached after I was finished working in there, talk about a fiddly job!

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Also added countermeasure dispensers to the sides of the forward fuselage, I may end up adding another set to the rear fuselage just forward of the tail boom as well.  I also put a coat of grey primer on it and added some of the weapons.  I'll have to tape those off when I go back over this thing, but the pylons and wings are the color that they need to be, so that's fine. 

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I'll also have to go back and add some other details like the antennae, IRCM lantern, and extended exhaust ducts for the engines.
She looks MEAN 

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[Dizzyfugu]

Cool, looking forward how this makes progress. 

[Spino]

While doing research on this bird, I found some rather interesting things, such as this rendering of an S-67 with six underwing pylons.

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Apparently the proposed production variant would have had a similar arrangement.

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The source for my wingtip Sidewinder rails.  Seems almost like a combination of the AH-1Z and UH-1Y with those Sidewinders and the troop compartment.

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An artist's rendering of a US Army version with the Longbow radar, Fenestron tail rotor, and a 30mm M230 chain gun like the Apache.

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And this one is just plain weird to me for a number of reasons, a diagram showing an S-67 with the radar and nose cone from an F-4E and four AIM-7s under the wings!

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 How that would work in practice I really have no idea, because helicopters generally want to operate at low altitude and the F-4's radar (particularly the F-4E's radar) didn't really do well at low altitude, and for that matter neither did the Sparrow missile.  Maybe it would have provided some stand-off capability against attack jets like the Su-25, but I doubt it would be useful for much else on a platform that is so slow (even if the S-67 was fast by helicopter standards, it makes the A-10 look like a speed demon!).  As an anti-helicopter weapon I really have my doubts about its effectiveness.  Who knows, it may not even be a real proposal.

[kerick]

That F-4 radar is really a whiff! Now if it had anti ship effectiveness and Harpoon missiles you might have something!  Check out the Sea Apache.

https://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/mcdonnell_sea_apache.php

[Spino]

That F-4 radar is really a whiff! Now if it had anti ship effectiveness and Harpoon missiles you might have something!  Check out the Sea Apache.

https://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/mcdonnell_sea_apache.php

Several interesting concepts there.  That actually presents a bit of an issue for me since the tail wheel on the S-67 is all the way out on the end of the boom (recessed in the ventral fin).  Can't exactly have a folding tail with that arrangement!  And the S-67 is so big that it would certainly need one to be used by the USMC.  And probably folding wings too!

[su27rules]

 

[Spino]

I actually would like to do another one of these in US Army markings (and with ATAS instead of Sidewinders), but that might be size prohibited.  This heli is Big, especially in 1:48 scale.  Here it is next to my Super Tomcat for comparison, and mind you the AH-67 doesn't have it's rotors fitted yet!  When it does it'll be longer than the Tomcat, by quite a bit too!  Storing helicopter models with their flimsy rotor blades is challenging enough, size like this makes the problem even worse!

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