SA330 Puma 1:32

[Mustang]

Ok.

So as you voted for it here is the SA330 Puma by Matchbox, I did do a 1/72 a couple of years ago in the Tiger scheme

viewtopic.php?f=172&t=6982

But this one will be in its normal military colours.

I bought this kit secondhand for £20 it was listed as complete but on inspection it's missing some of the control levers in the cockpit, so I'll have to sort them out but still not bad for the price I paid for it.

I first had one of these when I was about 8 or 10 it was a Christmas gift from my dads company, they used to do Christmas party's for the employees children (you don't get that today)

[Mustang]

So lets get this diary started.

The box art work has a civilian scheme


But I'll be looking at one of these as my build, there is another version also.

[Mustang]

The normal matchbox instructions

[Mustang]

The decals are a bit worse for ware.


But I'll hopefully try and hide any issues later if needed.

[Mustang]

So the parts...



The inside already has the pattern for the walls, but I have an idea I'll try when I get there.

[Mustang]

The perspex parts



They all look nice for there age except the main front panel, when they moulded this part they moulded a strut across the main window on the outside. But from what I have seen in photos this should have been on the inside. So I'm not sure if to leave it or try and remove it, I now if I try and remove it the perspex will need a lot of sanding to hide the marks and I've tried this a couple of times and failed and if I fail on this it will be wasted.

[Mustang]

These parts were all loose in the box.

[Mustang]

This is the level of detail in the kit.


Needs some work

[Mustang]

Thanks to Casper for supplying me with some wipers, these will be used on the front side screens.


Still trying to find a slightly larger on for the main screen

[Mustang]

I've had a little shopping for parts.

[Mustang]

And I've had a good rummage in my spares box.

[Mustang]

The first area is of course the cockpit, and as you can see from the photo theres some bits missing.



These where just dry fitted for the photo, all I need to do now is possible redo the seats and redo/make new control levers.

I'll be back once I've finished

[casper]

Great start Ian never built a Matchbox kit before what's the quality like, It looks fairly big for a 1/32 scale as well. You did a fantastic job on the last Puma mate with the foil interior brilliant watching closely
mark

[Mustang]

Hi Mark, thanks for dropping by.

Matchbox kits are not that bad for there age seeing as they where 1970-80 kits, a lot of there moulds where brought by Revell who did some enhancement like on this kit they redid the seat and gave them runners and more detail instead of just a flat side like this one has.

If I had a choose between Matchbox and Revell back then it would have been Matchbox only issue was they only really did small military kits.

As to size this piece is 9.5" long


So quit a beast, one reason why I stow my blades if I can, plus I have another 4 or 5 helicopter at this scale to do

I have some ideas for the interior like the last one, but for some reason it seams harder to do this one then it was to do the 1/72 version my be I'm over what I can do to it.

[Mark]

That's a nice big kit. I recall that Matchbox weren't bad kits. Far better than Revell at the time. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this one.

[Mustang]

Thanks Mark for looking in.

Spent a little time on this today still not sure what if anything I'll do to the seat sides. so I looked at the joystick which I only had one of so I needed to make one but I stead made two new ones.


Did a bit of research and these where the closest control units to what the Puma used.

[Mustang]

I also looked at the seats and decided to remove the seat belts and replace them.

As the kit comes except for the front seat section which I file'd out.


Removed the moulded belts


And will be using these instead, once I've decided what I'm doing with the seats.


Theres 23 parts to make these little (I must not use naughty words), there not the right ones I know but there not far off.

[Mustang]

Seats finally decided what I was going to do with them.

First up cut them down, so removed some from the back and the bottom parts.


Then made some new seat frames.

[Mustang]

Old seat.


New seat.


Add some brass rod to the rear and new runners.

[Mustang]

Stage one made


New collectives and throttle control's and new cyclics