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1/72 Airfix Sea King HC.4 - TimV1969


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  • 3 weeks later...

Quick update on this. Last I assembled the fuselage, fitted the glazing, masked the glazed bits, filled the door apertures with foam, and primed:

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which showed a bit a gap around the cockpit, which I filled, then airbrushed Humbrol 116 - not an exact match for BS381C 298 Olive Drab by any means, but looked close enough to my eye to the colour of the early machines, especially with a coat of gloss varnish. Which took a while to dry, and longer to sand and polish to what I thought was an acceptable sheen. I also assembled the tail and undercarriage mounts, and painted the doors and troop step at the same time:

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Tonight's work has been putting on the black decals around the steps (which really need to be on and settled before attaching the undercarriage and supporting struts), and the black decals behind the exhaust, and the fuselage roundels (I have a feeling the larger-size original roundels came from an Italeri Wessex, or maybe a Revell one) - less of a reason to put these decals on before final assembly, but it gave me more of a sense of progress. Photos of those tomorrow when the Micro Sol has worked its magic!

Tim

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Another short update - some of the major decals applied, including the large 'ROYAL NAVY' lettering from a generic Xtradecal sheet, undercarriage attached, and Decca antenna and troop step fitted:

IMG_9308.jpg

Next steps are attaching some of the other aerials, and more decalling...

Tim

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Bit more progress today: more of the major decals on: Fuselage and tail codes (from a Modeldecal/Xtradecal generic sheet), 846 Squadron badges (from a Wessex sheet), Engine intake warnings (from a Model Alliance sheet for the Sea king, but with a plain white decal applied under the red 'Danger' lettering and the kit decals for the red rectangles. Various aerials fitted, including drilling holes for the two downward-pointing aerials under the nose which inevitable broke off during painting, and are now replaced with 0.5mm brass rod:

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oh, and a bit of work was done earlier on the tail-fold - appropriate holes drilled/extended to match reference photos, and a representation of the tubing connecting them:

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next steps: more decalling (I haven't got a specific set for the early HC4 so am scrounging left-overs from other sets. So far, so good!) and fitting the main rotor blades...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Making slow progress, but getting there... main rotor blades fitted, hopefully at the right angles, HF antenna fitted, railing for the crew steps fitted (0.5mm brass rod bent to shape for the support, 0.3mm plastic rod painted with Revell 91 Steel for the railing itself) and various decals scrounged from other sheets, or generic sheets for the lettering - Wessex sheets have been quite helpful for the white stencils for fuel and earth points, yellow for emergency release, etc. The port side is nearly done - see photo below - but making slower progress on the starboard side, because, having painted everything, I realised that the sliding cabin door needed modifying - there was a raised bit aft of the window, and an attachment on the forward lower corner, neither of which are apparent in photos of the early aircraft. So I removed both of these but it is taking a while to fill and repaint the door to my satisfaction. So for now, the port side looks like this!

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and a view from above:

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Next steps - finishing repainting the cabin door, fitting that and finishing the decalling...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just about finished, I think! finally repainted the cabin door to my satisfaction (having first sanded off the lumps that shouldn't be there, and thought I could get away by just spraying over those parts - a waste of time and I'd have been better off doing straight away what I ended up doing - stripping the paint back to the primer, sanding, re-priming and painting again), and found enough yellow/white decals - the dashed line and lettering around the cabin window I made up dash by dash and word by word from left-over yellow lettering from the Airfix Valiant! Also fitted the pitot tubes, and the VOR/ILS antennas which I'd forgotten about earlier - mine were left over from a Revell Sea King, or possibly a Wessex? I think that's all I did since the last update, anyway. Will post in the gallery later, but for now:

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Lovely! It's just bristling with interesting details. I can also see from your photos that there is a vast difference between the cockpit and nose of the old kit and this one. I like the folded rotors too - very good for shelf space!

Regards,

Adrian

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Lovely! It's just bristling with interesting details. I can also see from your photos that there is a vast difference between the cockpit and nose of the old kit and this one. I like the folded rotors too - very good for shelf space!

Regards,

Adrian

Yes, inspired by your build of the classic kit I've started restoring/rebuilding my kit of one (first built over 30 years ago!) and had learnt from your thread about the inaccuracy in the engine intakes (and exhausts) but had noticed, alongside the new kit, the difference in shape of the lower windows. I have a plan...

I was glad that the new kit came with the option of folded rotors for exactly that reason - I had thought when I finished my second Sea King a couple of years ago (a Revell one, built as a HAR3) that I couldn't keep on building them as I would run out of shelf space! As it is, the HC.4 just fits it on the edge of a shelf.

Tim

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Thanks everyone for your kind words, advice or assistance (especially Jon - 06/24 - for the Revell rotorblades, much easier to backdate than the Airfix ones). It's been a pleasure building it (not that I need much encouragement to build a helicopter...)

Tim

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Thanks everyone for your kind words, advice or assistance (especially Jon - 06/24 - for the Revell rotorblades, much easier to backdate than the Airfix ones). It's been a pleasure building it (not that I need much encouragement to build a helicopter...)

Tim

Glad I could help :goodjob:

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  • 3 weeks later...

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