Return of the King - Seaking HAS5 ZE419 of 820NAS, HMS Ark Royal 1988

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Time I picked this up again (as several of you have hinted in not entirely subtle ways of late...)

 

It's been 6 months since I last did anything to this model, so some of you might not even be aware of it.  If so, I hope you have some spare time, because if you are really interested you have a mere 103 pages of build log to get through...  "Fill yer boots" as they say in the Navy.

 

 

The original build has already walked through:

 

a. the back story (I ditched this aircraft in July 1988, flying from Ark Royal just outside the mouth of the Med);  

b. the planned configuration of the eventual model (RAF Blue Grey paint job, folded tail, folded rotors, engine blanks, lashed down);

c. lots of banter with the much-missed Debs (@Ascoteer) about Cold War ASW;

d. some basic explanations of rotary-wing aerodynamics (and push-back against the inexplicable myth that Plank-Wing things that go whoosh are more attractive than Useful Aircraft);

e. droop stops, what they are for and how to build them from brass;

f. a great deal of discussion of rivets; whether to add them to Hasegawa's entirely smooth fuselage, and if so how.  The short answers for those who want to skip the 103 pages is "yes" (because the Seaking has a pretty bumpy skin) and "using HGW rivets".  HGW rivets are absolutely superb but be warned; they are not easy to use.  I ended up doing them badly once, stripping them off and doing them better the second time - after having to visit Yeovilton and produce my own drawings (Fearless wasn't the first!) to work out where to put them.

g. the difference between Sikorsky seats and Westland ones;

h. weird Seaking details like the collector cans, pee tube, sonar snub ring & sonobuoy chutes;

i. in-flight refuelling from ships (HIFR);

j. a minor diversion into restoring an earlier damaged Gazelle model;

k. discussions of SACRUs, "Coke cans" and other such load-lifting goodies;

l. correcting Revell's Sea Searcher radome (which happily Hasegawa got right);

m. the relative merits of masks vs decals/transfers/stickers (& how excellent Maketar Masks are);

n. building a tail rotor gust lock & what it was for;

o. me being persuaded into adding sliding pilot's windows & other such mad details;

p. the joys of a proper micro-chisel in embedding PE convincingly;

q. embarrassing accidents involving Seakings landing on top of Sea Harriers;

r. the right recipe for RAF Blue Grey paint in Gunze Sanyo lacquers;

s. the superb-itude [which isn't a real word, but should be] of the FlightPath 1/48 Seaking conversion set;

t. custom-build apparatus for extracting windows which the ham-fisted modeller has shoved into an already sealed fuselage;

u. red & yellow engine blanks and how to build them;

v. just how sexy a Seaking looks in all black;

w. nylon & chain lashings on RN flight decks;

x. a second diversion, this time in building a flight deck tractor to tow my aircraft;

y. oil dot fading; and

z. John Beattie ditching the RNHF Sea Fury...

 

Just to remind you and/or give you a clue about where I'd got to:

 

The tail pylon, Barn Door and tail rotor (complete with gust lock) - plus the beginnings of some weapon stations:

 

 

Engine blanks!

 

The exquisite FlightPath rescue hoist:

 

A Flight Deck tractor:

 

The rotor head (very much still a work in progress):

 

...and the aircraft itself (this one wasn't taken today, because it shows the cab before I re-applied masks to the windscreen)... and before I knocked the tail wheel off for the umpteenth time!

 

As she looks today (glossy in preparation for further oil dot fading etc:

 

 

Still to do?

 

Three main things, all quite complicated:

 

1. the rotor head (specifically, the snakes' wedding of hydraulic pipes and wires around the blade fold);

2. the weapons stations and associated wiring;

3. the Forth Road Bridge gear

 

...plus putting it all together.

 

I have just had 6 months away from it, but even before that it had taken me well over a year.

 

Take your seats, Ladeez 'n' Gennelmeeen

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Hamden]

 

I'll take a seat for the remainder of this build if that's OK?

 

  Roger

[Massimo]

This is a very waited and welcomed come back!!!!

Hope ypu're well now and ready for battle!!!

[Foghorn Leghorn]

[keefr22]

So, did the Seafire & Seafang ever get finished Crisp? Just asking....

 

Seriously, it's seriously good to see this one back in the limelight!

 

Keith

[At Sea]

Great to see you mended. 

 

Great to see this progress. 

 

Love the rundown of 'The Story so Far".  

[perdu]

Thanked you for thinking of us and getting the Old Dear back on the production line

 

I will of course, be hanging on every syllable and foible and likewise regretting the other 'ol dear' taking a powder

 

On and ever onward

 

[Martian]

You may proceed in our own good time! 

 

Martian the Patient

[qn30jEkPz7]

103 pages of waffle beautifully condensed down into 26 bullet points! Could you summarise À la recherche du temps perdu next? 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Waffle?  WAFFLE?  "Philosophical gems, Matey!" [to quote Tony Hancock - my Dad told me about him, honest].

 

Anyway, it's nice to back handling yer actual styrene, brass and glue, rather than dealing with a computer.  Where to start?

 

First up was to restore one of the droop stops that had become detached from the rotor head at some stage in the past 6 months.  All now present and correct (it's upside down if you're struggling to get your bearings!):

 

Then a bit of work fettling the weapon station connecting brackets.  FlightPath presumably assume you'll only ever fit them to Stations 1 & 2 (under the stubwings), where the fuselage wall is relatively flat (though even there the real thing has a pretty wacky shape).  But I am fitting all 4, and back aft the shape of the fuselage / boat hull means you need to some pretty odd shapes.  Believe it or not the one on the left is probably only a few minutes of fine adjustments away from being the right shape to fit.  [Again, to help orient you, you are looking as though from front to back of the starboard aft station).  The one on the right is one of the forward stations, whose brackets have a pronounced scalloped face (hard to see here, but I am quite pleased with how it looks in real life) as well as an upward curve.  Three dimensional curves...  don't we just love them?

 

Finally a shot of the whole cab, just because I can - it isn't to illustrate any particular piece of work today, though you can see what I mean about the way the hull curves just behind the cargo door (which is where that weapon station is destined to be fitted).:

:

 

More soon

 

Crisp

[Martian]

That's better! very nice! Keep at it! 

 

Martian the Merciless 

[hendie]

7 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

and push-back against the inexplicable myth that Plank-Wing things that go whoosh are more attractive than Useful Aircraft

 

 

 

great to see this back on track again Crisp

[CJP]

Fabulous - I've missed seeing your Sea King come together

CJP

[hairystick]

Huzzah!

"Part two - The short journey to the finish line" begins. Yay!

 

I'v already learnt something too, with the use of rubber bands to hold the fuselage onto that stand-thingy. Very cunning!

[Richard E]

8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Time I picked this up again (as several of you have hinted in not entirely subtle ways of late...)

Was it the baying mob with pitchforks and burning torches that finally tipped the balance Crisp ?

 

Glad to see you've recovered sufficiently to restart this masterclass, if I may I'll dust off my seat.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Richard E

[Brandy]

Excellent! Glad to see you back on this one. 

BTW I have heard that "in the Navy" (I now have a horrible song in my head that I can't get rid of), nylon and chain lashings were not restricted to the flight deck......

 

Ian

Edited April 4, 2018 by limeypilot

[Harley John]

I'll tag along if I may.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

8 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Excellent! Glad to see you back on this one. 

BTW I have heard that "in the Navy" (I now have a horrible song in my head that I can't get rid of), nylon and chain lashings were not restricted to the flight deck......

 

Ian

Swarfega, too?

8 hours ago, hairystick said:

Huzzah!

"Part two - The short journey to the finish line" begins. Yay!

 

I'v already learnt something too, with the use of rubber bands to hold the fuselage onto that stand-thingy. Very cunning!

The stand-thingy even arrives pre-fitted with rubber bands.  It’s like a sign.

[corsaircorp]

Hello crisp,

Nice to see you back at the Sea king !

I'll take my place near the bar if you don't mind.

So I'll learn rivet's use....

Sincerely.

CC

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Station 3 (starboard aft) brackets complete.  Seen from above you can really see the compensation for the shape of the boat hull:

 

From ahead:

 

...and from behind:

 

Now I have to produce a mirror image for station 4...

 

More soon

 

Crisp

[Terry1954]

On 04/04/2018 at 2:47 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

It's been 6 months since I last did anything to this model, so some of you might not even be aware of it.  If so, I hope you have some spare time, because if you are really interested you have a mere 103 pages of build log to get through...  "Fill yer boots" as they say in the Navy.

 

 

I'll be another new joiner here, and as I follow, I will also take some time to do a retrospective bit of back reading on the 103 pages of history around this one. How fascinating. The Sea King is on my list of 1/72 must builds (several actually, perhaps 4 to be honest), and I do have a 1/48 Hasegawa in the stash, bought for me by a lady that wanted to encourage me to go bigger ........... enough said about that 

 

Anyway, I am sitting comfortably and ready to watch and learn.

 

Cheers

 

Terry

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

All welcome, Terry (& you can never have too many Seakings)  _{^{[though it will only when I get round to building it that my One True Love was actually the Lynx...]}}

 

Getting there with matching up this bracket which seems to curve in every available plane...

 

The micro chisels demonstrate their worth for the umpteenth time

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

P.S. Front bracket done.  Once everything is nicely cured I will attach the final piece of (very delicate) PE and then repaint.

 

Incidentally, if you are wondering what on Earth I am trying to reproduce here...

 

From the rear:

 

From the front:

 

The red wires will be lead.

 

Edited April 5, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

...and now done.  Original (Station 3) on the left as you look (they're both upside down here), with today's reproduction on the right.  Experience has taught me that the final fettling is best done with the entire weapon carrier, with obsessive test fitting until the sanding gets it nice & snug; judging angles exactly is way better done using trial and error rather than attempts to measure (after all , the entire weapon carrier is about half an inch long).

 

Happy.  [Though re-posting that picture of the original has reminded me that i need to find some v small (probably 1/72) white NO STEP transfers]

 

Crisp

 

 

[Courageous]

49 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Incidentally, if you are wondering what on Earth I am trying to reproduce here...

I must admit I didn't have a clue but all becomes clear. A lot of effort for such an itsy-bitsy part but as we keep saying 'it's all in he detail'. 

[perdu]

Did you was you saying the red leads will be wire?

 

I am so confuse...

 

Or simply

 

 

 

 

 WOW

 

😈