Speedman Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 (edited) Build 15OK, first surprise with this kit... It's NOT made by Sweet Anyone who's ever made a Sweet kit knows how good the mouldings are and how beautiful the surface details look. So imagine my confusion when I opened the bag the kit comes in and find "soft" surface details, flash, seam gaps and cloudy glazing! It turns out that the kit is actually the F-Toys "ready made" Sea King but in "snap-together" kit form. The only involvement from Sweet is an extra sprue to turn it into a rescue chopper and the beautiful decals. Despite this, the kit looks like it should turn out OK and I'll have a nice bright yellow helicopter to add to my collection. Price: £4.75 from HobbyLink Japan Edited May 29, 2014 by Speedman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzio Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 I got five of these sitting at home of various marks. I did think the moulding was totally different to the Hellcat/Zeros/BF-109's that they do make. I notice you've taken the fuselage halves apart, is that so you do not fall foul of the "no more than 20%" built rule? Will be watching. King Regards Dazz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 That's going to be a nice build when finished in yellow. I've always liked these so I'll pop over to the HLJ page and see if they still have any. cheers Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 The fuselage is together again, this time with glue and I've filled and sanded the gaps and sink marks. I'll be working on the undersides to get it looking more like a Mk3 next. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonners Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 (edited) Top tips: - fill the circular sonar well under the belly; Mk3/3As have no sonar. They have a blanking plate covering the well which is very slightly V-section along the keel line (I guess you know this already). - The kit is missing the rear 'bubble' window from each side of the fuselage that is a standard fit on RAF SAR SKs. - Remove that funny blister from under the tail boom; Mk 3/3As have an I-band transponder that looks like a potato-masher grenade instead. - That pair of blister thingys under the aft keel can be removed as they don't feature on Mk 3/3As. - All those bumps on the fuselage, especially on the port side, don't feature on the real aircraft so might benefit from being rubbed down. - You may want to add the fairly obvious long 'flange' (great word, that) which runs along the upper port fuselage to disrupt the rotorwash flow; should be pretty easy with some thin plastic card. Having said all that, I'm looking forward to seeing how this build progresses! Don't get to tied up about precise colour matches, Speedman; there's a fair variety of tones between aircraft. The starboard side is always more heavily soot-stained than the port side, though, but don't overdo it; they do get cleaned! Out of interest, what serials are offered for the 22Sqn option? Jon Edited April 15, 2014 by Jonners Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 I'd already removed all the underside detail and capped the sonar but cheers for the rest of the tips Most of the fuselage bumps are gone and the ones that remain will be sanded to get them looking more to scale. The bubble windows will have to wait until the decals are on as Sweet has "faked" them with a blue circle on a black window. I'm planning on turning a couple of bubble lenses out of acrylic rod and glueing on afterwards. As for the flange, either 5 thou card or Pepsi can... I'll experiment 22Sqn serial is XZ587. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonners Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Looking good so far, Speedman! Like the idea about shaping acrylic rod. To be pedantic (again), XZ587 makes the 22 Sqn option a Valley-based HAR.3, not a 3A as Sweet's instructions appear to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 Looking good so far, Speedman! Like the idea about shaping acrylic rod. To be pedantic (again), XZ587 makes the 22 Sqn option a Valley-based HAR.3, not a 3A as Sweet's instructions appear to say. Don't worry about being pedantic, I'm grateful for the tips. I've been doing some research but I'd not found info on which version it was. I'll change the title Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 17, 2014 Author Share Posted April 17, 2014 I've cut, scraped & sanded a lot of the original surface detail down, plus I've added a few bits that were missing (yet to be sanded) and started work on the top of the sponson strut braces. Super flange-tastic! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonners Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Cracking piece of flange! (Am I allowed to say that? ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 17, 2014 Author Share Posted April 17, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I've got six of those built and never thought to do that! Been modelling for 60 years and am still learning Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Ooh er. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share Posted April 23, 2014 I've been working on the rotor hub and blades to clean them up, straighten them out and get them ready for assembly. At the same time I cut down the tailplane (it came with the extended version) and fitted it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 25, 2014 Author Share Posted April 25, 2014 - Remove that funny blister from under the tail boom; Mk 3/3As have an I-band transponder that looks like a potato-masher grenade instead. I used my mini-drill and a scalpel blade to turn some acrylic rod for the "potato-masher" 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonners Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 Blimey...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 That's one way of doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 Wow......... Small! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 27, 2014 Author Share Posted April 27, 2014 Not the smallest thing I've ever made for a model but I do love turning things on my drill I painted the glazing from the inside today, I might paint the windows on the outside after I paint the rest of the aircraft to match the look of the decal "windows". I'll leave it until then to decide. The nose is now glued on and I've just got a few panel lines to go over before I mask and prime it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted April 30, 2014 Author Share Posted April 30, 2014 I worked on re-profiling the rotor hub yesterday. I used my mini-drill as a lathe again and a scalpel to shape it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedman Posted May 2, 2014 Author Share Posted May 2, 2014 The blades are on, I had to straighten each one out a little before I could bend them all together (hair dryer) to give them some droop. Aligning them when fitting was fun . The blade root detail was rather inconsistent blade to blade, so I filed it off and replaced it with some strip. I managed to cut out the space between the landing gear struts without breaking anything, but I did notice that part of one of the main struts was missing (Short shot or just not moulded?) so I replaced that at the same time. I then spent the better part of an hour masking the cockpit glazing. Can someone remind me why I do 1/144... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 Because you are mad!but great work so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Definitely madness. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Vale Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 +1 for madness. Lovely piece of masking work - did you cut it on or off the model? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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