From studio to hangars: Scale artist paints Army helicopters

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) Taiwanese award-winning scale model artist Fan Cheng-pin (樊成彬) has taken his craft beyond the studio by volunteering to paint Taiwanese Army helicopters for public events.

Fan's most recent work featured an Army Black Hawk helicopter with "new power" and "new army" slogans and hawk emblems, showcased at the Kaohsiung International ACG Expo venue at Pier-2 Art Center in December 2025 for a special manga-military exhibition organized by the Ministry of National Defense.

A well-known figure in Taiwan's modeling community, Fan has won numerous international awards, including the Best of Show award at Hungary's Moson Model Show, and founded the annual Reality Fancy model show in 2016, which has grown into one of the largest modeling events in Taiwan.

Fan told CNA that his collaboration with the Army began in 2023, when he was invited to design special paint schemes for helicopters at an open house at the Hukou Army Base in Hsinchu County.

After being informed of budget constraints, Fan offered his services for free, saying he believed military aircraft can serve as a "powerful communication tool" to the public and wanted to help spark interest in the military.

That led to tiger-stripe and shark-tooth designs on an Apache helicopter for the Hukou open house, followed by Black Hawk artwork in 2025, including the aircraft featured in Kaohsiung.

Fan said that painting full-size helicopters is physically demanding, requiring constant climbing in hangars and following a 10-day schedule aligned with the routines of soldiers.

He added that the curved fuselage causes visual distortion, forcing him to sketch guidelines in charcoal and adjust patterns on site to ensure balance from all viewing angles, despite careful computer simulations beforehand.

All work is carried out under military regulations using only Army-supplied paint, with Fan alternating between industrial spray guns for large surfaces and ultra-fine 0.2 or 0.3-millimeter airbrushes for details, a method he called "big guns and small brushes."

Fan said pilots who have flown the painted helicopters responded positively. The designs boost pride in their equipment and unit identity, a morale lift officers jokingly described as "adding 10 points to spiritual combat power," he said.

Asked about future plans, he mentioned exploring "localized camouflage," noting that Taiwan's Apache helicopters use "North American green" despite the island's warmer subtropical forest tones.

Fan hopes his painting experience can inform discussions on adapting camouflage to local environments, contributing to functionality and aesthetics.