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Aaand we're off again on another wild adventure, this time in foreign lands. For those of you that know me and my wanderings, surprisingly this is not a 28 Sqn machine for once, though there is a rather tenuous connection... Sek Kong. Ah... Sek Kong ping fong! After the British vacated the premises back in '97, Sek Kong went through a few changes - housing Vietnamese refugees for a while, before latterly being inhabited by the Chinese PLA (People's Liberation Army). As far as I am aware, the current inhabitants are the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Helicopter Regiment 39968. I decided that tenuous though it was, that was enough of a connection for me to model one of the current aircraft situated there. The nice PLAAF folks operate a number of Changhe Z-9B's (Haitun). A quick search found that both Kitty Hawk and Trumpeter do 1/48 versions of the Z-9, but Trumpeters is a Z-9G, while Kitty Hawk do a Z-9B/C/W all kitted in the same box. This box to be exact... Those of you with the requisite cognitive abilities will be saying "hold on, that's just a Dauphin!" Well it is, sort of. The Chinese started building copycat Dauphins on licence from Aerospatiale. Then the contract/licence ended... and guess what? The Chinese continued to make more and more Dauphins, or Haitun's (dolphin in Chinese), and started modifying them for different roles. Surprised? Nope. I think Aerospatiale complained but really? Where do you think that got them? Here's one of those Chinese Dolphins grazing at Sek Kong Anyways. On opening the box I was greeted with a large number of bags containing an even larger number of parts, all well packaged. It also had a nice little PE fret, some transfers, and a nice little instruction book Initial examination proved quite encouraging - there was lots of lovely well defined detail in the moldings such as this instrument panel. Dontcha just love painting buttons? However, all is not well in the state of Hendieville. Research proved a touch challenging. Would you believe those nice PLAAF folks don't appear to have allowed us modellers to take lots of detailed photos of the nice dolphin? Not a single walkaround to be found anywhere. Even finding photos of a Z-9B wasn't the easiest thing. I've squirrelled away what photos I could find, thankfully some of them are decent quality resolution, however, I cannot find anything of the interior - no cockpit, no cabin, nothing nada, zilch. So I may end up switching between Dauphins and Haituns for reference as this build progresses. I can find only one other build of the Haitun on Britmodeller and the OP appears to have given up before finishing (maybe I should heed the warning?) Funnily enough, I think my very first aircraft build on BM was the RHKAAF Dauphin I just hope my modeling abilities have got better since I did that back in 2014. It's debateable. Moving on. More research - what little I could accomplish - started giving me the heeby-jeebies. Complaints about parts not fitting and confusing instructions. For example, Kitty Hawk provide two different Fenestron arrangements, but no direction in the instructions as to which version is applicable to what aircraft. (I think I have that one figured out now, at least). But more concerning is Kitty Hawk's rather novel (for "novel" read alarming!) approach to the engineering of the kit. There's no fuselage! WHAT? Yup, no fuselage. Well there is but not in the normal sense you would so rightly expect to see. I don't think I've ever encountered a model aircraft kit that doesn't supply two main fuselage sections. Kitty Hawk? Nope. Kitty Hawk have decided for whatever reason to have you construct an internal structure, then clad it with various fuselage panels later to complete the outer shell of the aircraft. Tolerance stack-up anyone? What could go wrong? Here's most of the internal structure (dry fitted) to give you an idea of what we're dealing with here. That structure is made up of 12 individual components, yes... 12 (should have been 13 but I forgot one panel). Get one of those components out of alignment and you have a knock on effect for the rest of 'em. Dear lord. Now, as I mentioned above, the detail on the molding is top quality for this price range. It's just a shame the parts don't fit. The first two components I tried to mate together didn't fit. Neither did parts three and four. Or even parts five and six. Help! All the slots I have tried have been too small for their respective locating tabs. Where pin and hole method has been employed, the holes are too shallow. THen we encounter issues like this... see that gap? Is it supposed to be there? I would imagine that the bulkhead should sit directly on that ledge, wouldn't you? The problem is: Do I add a filler piece? Or do I file the bottom off the bulkhead until it sits flush? Which one is correct? If either. Whatever option I go for has an effect on the finished height of the roof section there - which in turn houses the transmission and engine bays - which in turn are clad in those numerous exterior fuselage panels. Just what am I getting myself into here? So far I have to say that it has been quite enjoyable though most of my time has been spent wondering what I can actually assemble without potential detriment to assembly further down the line. This little sub-assembly has 7 components so far with another dozen or so to be added. Luckily most of it is one color - according to Kitty Hawk though I am becoming less and less confident of their internal color scheme. So instead I just grabbed a number of parts and colored them in with primer, and called it a day while I ponder more. I think this could be one of those roller-coaster rides folks. Y'know, I could end up really Haitun this build Okay, I'll get me

Seen on IPMS Philippines http://ipmsphilippines.com/test-shots/testshot-hobbyboss-35th-eurocopter-as365-dauphin/ 1/35 - 05106 - SA.365N Dauphin II - 05107 - HH-65C Dolphin - 05108 - AS.565 Panther - 05109 - Z-9WA Haitun V.P.

After the SA.365F/AS.565SA Dauphin II kit - ref.KH80108 http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234952105-aerospatiale-sa365565-dauphin-ii-148-kittyhawk/- Kitty Hawk is to release the Chinese version from this helicopter, the Harbin Z-9B/C/W "Haitun" - ref. KH80108 (same ref. number as 1st boxing!) Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=909570175761936&id=736521713066784 V.P.