Charlie's move this week made the front page of our local newspaper, the
BONNER COUNTY BEE
BONNER COUNTY BEE
The day after the move, we went out and removed ALL the extraneous materials that had accumulated over the winter, when stuff just got thrown into the helicopter in a hurry because of the cold weather. In our new warm, inside work space, we can begin to work on the final details of our relic and make her as beautiful as a helicopter of 55 years can be.
A gigantic THANK YOU to A-1 Sandpoint Helicopters for the space to park her.
Hey, may I make a suggestion that might help? If you can get good, closeup, original, vintage photos of CH-34's in proper markings, then I can help by making the authentic-looking lettering and stencils, using Adobe Illustrator, then we can use THAT to have a computer-driven stylus blade cutter (like what people use to cut-out truck decals, only, INSTEAD OF cutting out decals, we'd use the same machine to cut-out MASKING MATERIAL. Then, you apply that to the fuselage, and just hit it with black paint (for the U.S. MARINES) or in yellow, for a RESCUE arrow, also cut-to-shape. This is doable. Also, there's a place farther south in Idaho and another place just north of Los Angeles, in Valencia, that restores radial engines, if you ever want to go beyond a nice static display, but the idea I shared about the insignia job would be a fairly modest effort, and would really set-off the OD paint job you guys have already accomplished. Good for you! I have family in Sandpoint, so this isn't just out of "left field," but I heard about Charlie from an old CH-34 and CH-53 driver who I shoot with.
ReplyDeleteTo see if it looks like I could really do the markings, check out my old aviation renderings: http://http/://graphicommunication.com/
http://graphicommunication.com/illustration/corsair-alley/