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SH-60J Seahawk


dswoofie

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OK, I'm officially registering my build in the unofficial GB :D

I'm going to do the Italeri SH-60J Seahawk that Jen picked up for me at the Bristol show. It'll be an OOB build, but I'll probably be putting it on a base with a Japanese ship deck under it. It'll have the rotors closed up and maybe I'll get some chains as well to show it tied down.

Here's the box shot, and the contents. Quite a big kit for me, I'm getting a taste for all this 1/48 stuff!

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This is what I'll be hoping it looks like anyway!

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Time to get building!

Karl.

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OK, I'm officially registering my build in the unofficial GB :D

I'm going to do the Italeri SH-60J Seahawk that Jen picked up for me at the Bristol show. It'll be an OOB build, but I'll probably be putting it on a base with a Japanese ship deck under it. It'll have the rotors closed up and maybe I'll get some chains as well to show it tied down.

Here's the box shot, and the contents. Quite a big kit for me, I'm getting a taste for all this 1/48 stuff!

ac579c38.jpg

d9555b98.jpg

This is what I'll be hoping it looks like anyway!

2438758580_e5ee530d31_b.jpg

Time to get building!

Karl.

Great pic Karl

All these Japanese aircraft pics go a good way to displaying the CORRECT colour of JASDF Hinomaru- why oh why do so many decals come up totally short in this respect

If only someone like Sfterburner would do a proper sheet of Hinomru :pray:

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OK, a little update at last! The interior has been painted up, and is almost ready to go into the fuselage for closing up. Nothing special, just the OOB kit parts.

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Seemed to take me an age to get myself going on this for some reason. Maybe once I close up the fuselage I'll get cracking on it!

Karl.

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A bit of an update...

I've put the fuselage together and started to rub down the seams. I've also began the process of attaching the parts around the cockpit. These are really awkward to fit and I'm doing it bit by bit in order to 'bend' them into the correct shape... I'm really NOT looking forward to trying to get the main screen to fit neatly into there! The windows are also very awkward as they don't have any lip to fix to, and just rest into the gap (or at least should rest in there!) Again this will be a PITA to do!

Here's the latest position on the workbench...

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I'll hopefully get some more parts on there later, and finish tidying up the seams and stuff. I have a feeling that dust inside the fuselage will be a problem from rubbing down... not figured out how to avoid that yet as there are too many holes.

Karl.

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Right, a little more work done and I'm beginning to realise that this isn't quite going to be the quick job I was expecting :lol:

I've fitted the covers on the engines at the top and they leave quite some filling, shaping, sanding and tidying to do! Here's the back one, which is not too bad, but leaves the joins a little rough, and the exhaust area is appaling.

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The front cowling just doesn't seem to want to fit properly, no matter what. It doesn't meet all the way around the bottom, and I had to attach it at a slight angle. If it is fitted flush with the back, it doesn't line up straight along the body and covers the corner of one of the skylight windows. I've attached it at an angle and am left with this to fill and shape :S

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The kit gives you the option of having one of the cockpit doors open, but it has absolutely no detail inside it and is just smooth so the best thing was to close it. The fit was a bit poor again and will require some work around the joins to match it to the moulded one on the other side :o

The moulded one...

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and the fitted one...

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Well, it's a challenge alright, but I'll get there. Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet and lose quite a bit of the raised details on there!

Karl.

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It's all fun really!

I've sorted out most of the above problems, apart from the exhaust yet... not got around to that one as yet.

Here's the filled and sanded bits on the engine cowlings. It looks pretty similar as I've used the CA/tacl filler for speed, so it dries partially clear. I can assure you that the joins are now filled and pretty smooth.

Rear cowlings...

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Front Cowling...

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The fitted in door, all filled rubbed down, rescribed, and new hinges made from tiny strips of card... It now pretty much matches the one on the other side.

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I've also fitted on the parts where the undercarriage attaches to. These were very vague as to where they were positioned, and also had some large gaps to fill on the joins. That's all done and rubbed down, just awaiting the undercarriage legs now...

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I've sprayed and fitted the engine intakes, and again am left with some messy bits to fill and tidy up. Not the easiest of places to work, but I'll get 'em done somehow!

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I'm hoping to get a real spurt on with this tonight, but depends on how much time I get.

Karl.

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Way to go Karl - nice save. What are you doing about the wonky bit round the window?

Depends yet, the glass is so loosely fitted in there it's going to be hard to do anything without popping it out again. Seems that the kit gives an outward shape there on the window, bt the real things have the frame lipping inwards. Should be easy to solve as long as I don't pop thw glass out!

I'm cracking on with other bits for now and will come back to that later!

Karl.

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Right, some more painful progress with the SH-60! I'm nearly all done with the construction side of things now, but it has been a rocky road to get here, and it very nearly fell from the path and plunged to a death! Luckily I kept my head and didn't do anything silly to it (YET!)

Every part that has been fitted to this kit has needed some form of filling and shaping around the joins. The only one that won't ned any is the pylon for the red/yellow sonar thingy on the right hand side, luckily that fits perfectly so I can leave it off until all of the painting is done.

The last major issue since an update was the sudden realisation that the 25 holes on the left hand side are not on any Japanese SH-60's. Although it's an easy fix, it required the filling of the holes, and possibly still a panel of 5 thou plasticard over the top to finish it.

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Everything is now filled and rubbed down apart from the glazing. I've done the skylight glazing, but still got the rest to work on...

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The glazing on this kit is unbelievable, it has got to be one of the hardest modelling jobs I've attempted in a while! None of the parts seem to fit the holes they are meant for, and the method of fixing is just to rest it in the gap and hope for the best :lol: There are no lips or recesses at all, just the tinyest of bevelled edges that don't really work at all. For example, I spent nearly 4 hours (yes, that long!) attempting to put in the left skylight window. It was a tiny bit too small and just kept dropping inside, so it was a repeat task of attempting to drop it in just the right spot to fit, and tipping it back out of the side door again. Eventually it dropped into the spot and stayed there, and I got some glue on it.

Once the glazaing was in I filled all of the gaps around the windows with CA and sanded them down to somewhere closer to flush. The skylights are done and I'm now happy with them. They had gaps of around 0.5 to 1mm in places :S I've still got to do some work on the others, and then fit the main screen, that I'm NOT looking forward to!!

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Anyway, the kit survived yesterday, which is probably the worst spell of work on it, so it's onwards and upwards from now :lol:

Karl.

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Guest snipersmudge

seems like your kits a bit of a sow's ear! the glazing looks a tough job. Maybe you could use white glue or canopy glue to fill the gaps

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seems like your kits a bit of a sow's ear! the glazing looks a tough job. Maybe you could use white glue or canopy glue to fill the gaps

Yeah, just hoping it doesn't still look a sow's ear when I've finished :lol:

I used CA to fill the gaps as it can be sanded and also dries clear. Had a ton of sanding to get all of the glazing roughly flush with the outer frames, but it's all done now. I've just finished masking up all the glazing so it'll be paint time tomorrow! YAY!

Karl.

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