Faster than you can say “clearly classified,” Dragon has released a new double kit of the now near-mythical stealth helicopter from Operation Geronimo, Seal Team 6’s successful raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound. Reputed to be a heavily modified Blackhawk helicopter, the “Stealth Hawk,” as depicted by Dragon, vaguely resembles a simple origami version of the standard UH-60 with its multifaceted flat panels and the now-famous tail rotor assembly that tipped off the public.
The kits are simple, with heavily tinted windows — the interior is classified, after all — and little external detail, as befits the mysterious design. The detail that is there is delicately portrayed, including photoetched-metal intake screens. Options are few — gear up or down is about the only real choice, although I left the intake screens off of one model because of the difficulty in getting them to fit well. (Maybe they leave them off when they’re training. Who knows?) You can have your Stealth Hawk in any color, as long as it’s gray. The few decals included are duplicated for each helicopter.
I was a bit worried by the front windscreen being molded in one piece, crossing over the fuselage halves, but careful trimming of the sprue gates allowed a very nice fit, making assembly of the fuselage very fast. The upper engine housing fits very well and the engine intakes only need careful trimming of the gates at the edges to complete the engine assembly.
The tiny photoetched-metal intake screens are easy enough to bend, but the shallow curved edges didn’t seem to line up with the mating surface on the intake. This might have been my fault, but I decided to leave one set off because of this problem. I assembled the tail rotor mast and stabilizers as well, but left the main and tail rotors off until after painting and decaling. Be very gentle when removing the main wheels from the sprue and cleaning them up — the struts are very delicate. I attached the landing gear and doors before painting, as everything was going to be the same color except the wheels, and I could hand-paint them. I built the main rotor head, but left the blades off so I could paint them a slightly darker gray per my references (shhhh …). The tail rotor blades appear to be large, flat planks, but I didn’t thin them down — maybe they are prototypical.
I painted the choppers Testors dark sea gray, a suitably lighter color for the suggested gunship gray. A quick shot of clear, a couple of decals apiece, an oil wash, a flat coat, and they were done. The main rotors fit the hub well enough that they could be left unglued. Adding the main and tail rotors to my Stealth Hawks led to a couple of secret missions zooming around my basement — they were finished.
According to the drawings I downloaded from the Internet, the length is about 21⁄2 scale inches short. OK, I’m kidding — they look however a stealth Blackhawk is supposed to look, and that’s good enough. I spent a whopping six hours total building these two choppers. Even though they’re small and speculative, they grew on me. They are a refreshing change of pace, and not many people at a contest would be able to tell you they were built wrong. Now, where did I lay them? They’re kinda hard to keep track of …