bianfuxia

Sorry to say I'm flaming out of this one. I had a family trip followed by a week-long business trip and another trip tomorrow. With everything, I haven't been able to get to these choppers at all unfortunately. good luck to the rest of you all!

Well, I'm finally off the starting line with these. First I set out everything to make sure it's all present - missing one tailfin but otherwise everything's there. From left to right up the back there, it's the three Sikorsky versions (USN and the two JMSDF) with the five bladed tail rotor, and then the two Westlands: the RAN with the small dome shaped radome and six bladed tail rotor, and the Belgian SAR with the big flat radome and also the six bladed rotor, plus the intake shields. A moment ago I was here - rotor blades all painted (each has a different colour scheme, all black underneath but different colours on top, based on the instructions). I also tried out a green on the Belgian one. The fuselages of the two Westlands were already glued together and the Belgian one is probably too far along to qualify for the GB but I'm doing them all as a batch. I won't put the Belgian one in the gallery (assuming any of them make it that far). I also painted inside the clear parts of each one. The USN 66 one needs some modifications - for example it had a movie camera mount on the side by the door - but other than removing some of the surface detail on some of them, I'm going for an OOB build on these. Not enough time in my life to do more I'm afraid.

Some great stuff going on in this GB! Well, I have yet to make much (ok, any) progress on this. Recently I was finishing up my ship in the 80s Asia Group Build, then I had a work trip and now my folks are in DC. So I took them to the Mall today and saw three Sea Kings fly past. Theoretically I could build what I saw from the kits I have. I won't. But here's a video of it just to show I haven't forgotten this GB! I'll get stuck into it as soon as my parents head home.

thank you!

Thanks! My only disappointment is I can't work out why the photos I uploaded here seem to be so low-res compared to the originals. Does the BM forum downgrade the images? I notice yours of your builds are super sharp. My pics were taken on a proper camera at 20MP (unlike the earlier shots in my build thread which I did with my phone). There must be something wrong in my workflow between camera and here?

Finished, and some more pics in the gallery. Thanks for watching!

Here's my finished - finished enough to roll into battle when the Asia Cold War suddenly turns hot, anyway - JMSDF Helicopter Destroyer (DDH) "Hiei". It's 1/700. This ship was upgraded during the 1980s to approximately the configuration you see here: ASROC and three Sea Kings are its main weapons, for anti-submarine warfare, along with two triple-shot torpedo tubes. It has two big 5 inch (127mm) guns up front, for anti-surface and (maybe) anti-air. And for self defence there are two Phalanx close-in weapon systems and an 8-pack Sea Sparrow Basic Point Defence system. The ASROC is the launcher behind the two gun turrets and the BPDMS is the one at the back on top of the hangar. The helicopters were not from this kit (which came with a Sea Hawk, no good for the 80s, as well as a Chinook and a Cobra. The Sea Kings are by Trumpeter. This is neither the best model I've ever built, nor the best photos I've ever taken (the originals were a lot sharper than these, I can't work out why they are so badly degraded here). But I've been pressed for time and I am just glad to have finished it (enough) to get it in, and I did enjoy it a lot. Congratulations to all for the great builds in the gallery above! Thanks for looking!

Well, I'm calling this one done. I will gratefully use the extension to get some nicer photos when I get back from my trip. I think the helicopter rotors look too high but I'm not sure I can really change it now. Better photos in the gallery soon.

OK, it's closing out to deadline time. I have a work trip from next Monday until after the GB ends so it's crunch time. The ship now just needs the pennant number decals on the hull. I lost the rear flagpole and one set of side torpedo tubes. Last night I finished the helicopter markings, except the red spot and a touchup where I smeared grey. So there's one more night in it - rotor blades, a little bit of touch up here and there, like the wheels, and I'm calling it done. It may not pass the spit & polish test in peacetime but hey, this is Frontline Asia 80s and I guess there's Russian and/or Chinese subs to hunt. So here we go!

Here is the kit - they mostly come in these plastic bags except for the twin-pack Japanese one which came in a box with cool cartoon box art. I still haven't started but I will soon. This decal sheet is for the USN 66 helicopter involved in the space program in the 60s, as well as a NASA version and Marine One (the President's helicopter). The sheet is indicative of the high quality of the other sheets I have, too. Each kit comes with two noses - one with the intake cover common to later Sea Kings. Each also comes with two variants of the side sponsons or landing gear. Some kits came with the larger alternative radomes, too.

Just a quick update from the flight deck. After a few frustrating efforts I have rebuilt the two Sea Kings - the parts broke when they came off the sprue because that clear plastic is so brittle. Then, of course, they also flew all over the workbench out of my tweezers too. But I got there. That's just the first coat of white on the Sea Kings. The underside will be light grey. For the Chinook and Cobra, I'll use a fine black pen to make the little black stripes. Slowly getting there.

Haha - ok if you like! I think I can probably get at least one of them done, let's see!

Well great minds think roughly alike! The Belgian cammo version is one of the three I plan to build, though I will use the more modern radome style which came in one of these kits. That's the sort of large flat round one as opposed to the little dome shown in these pictures. Like this (image free to use from wikicommons with this tag: © Ad Meskens / Wikimedia Commons The other two are going to be the two colourful Japanese ones - I guess I like the colourful options! I do like the German SAR one, but I'm going with the Japanese one for the dark grey/orange because I like that it was part of the Japanese Antarctic survey, as you can see from the box top of that kit by googling Sweet JMSDF Sea King - there's a nice cartoon style drawing of it (sorry, I can't find the box top to photograph). And, as noted, I will also do the RAN version and USN 66. That leaves no real reason to do the grey/white JMSDF version, and the white NASA one is kind of boring, and the all-green one? Well, I live in DC and see it, and more than enough other helicopters, pounding around the city at low altitude at all hours and you know what, it's just about killed my interest in helicopters! I see Marine One (or its identical siblings) more than I'd like to; also regularly (like 10 times a day) see a lot of Hueys (or I guess they're 212s), those Dauphin things the Coast Guard has once or twice a day, and fairly often, maybe once a fortnight, one to three Blackhawks in formation. Once I saw some AH-64s. And these are all at about 50 feet above the roof of the 6-7 storey buildings around here. Low and loud. I never thought I'd say it, being a big plane fan, but they are really annoying! Anyway, off to the workbench soon. thanks for the input!

Hello, I was in the last flying boat GB with a 1/144 PBY-5 - sadly I didn't finish it in the GB but I did finish it and now it sits on a stand on my Mum & Dad's piano, painted up in the markings of mum's father's aircraft from a mission over the South Pacific in 1943 (the plane that is not the piano). As I am almost finished my build in one of the other current GBs, I figured I might have another shot at the Flying Boats one. So I am going to build one or maybe two of these sweet little Sea Kings from the appropriately named Japanese brand Sweet. I have five of these, though two are too far along to join a GB. Here are the colour schemes - I've already decided for sure to do the USN 66 one, but not for this build because unless I can spray, I can't get much of a finish with white. And present living arrangements don't allow me to spray. That maybe rules out the RAN version, too, for which I will also reserve one kit, although the white area is smaller. Of the remaining three, I can do any of the following. I'll post a pic of the kit itself once I get started. Interested in your suggestions, though I hasten to add, this is a cheerocracy, not a democracy (Bring it On reference, for those who wonder WTF - haha). Looking forward to getting started - these are awesome little kits and relatively quick builds.

hello, does a Sikorsky Sea King fit into the GB?