Search the Community

Hello! After recently finishing my third lightning (and catching covid for the first time after avoiding it for two years🦠), I have decided to mix things up by not following the lightning with another lightning, but a sea king instead! Airfix's HC.4 to be exact. The specific scheme being ZA314. I'd like to thank @Julien first of all for the brilliant reference photos that have helped me so far throughout this build. interior One final look before closing it up. After fitting the fuselage, there is only one major issue, this fit issue Luckily, the box thing on top will solve it I was making the landing gear and the "strut" broke on both sides Luckily it could be fixed easily. My parents surprised me earlier today with a nice little surprise (as a "get well soon" for covid as well as a gift for doing well at school) should be very fun! I was not expecting it and it made my day brighter. Here's how the junglie is currently looking: Made a whole bunch of progress so far today, more tomorrow...

Hi Guys & Gals...I present to you, my lastest completion. The New Tool Sea King. It took me 3 attempts to get the camo half decent, the 3rd of which was achieved by 8 hours of masking.

Great book, well written and lively. Maybe some errors or exclusions but a nice first hand account of Wessex Op's down south. Reccomended. I read it just after Sandy Woodward's 100 days. Made a nice pair.

Well I can honestly say this has been one of the most enjoyable builds I've done in many years and I have stuck with this almost constantly without the usual distraction of another new kit arriving or loosing interest. Not quite the Out-of-Box build I'd intended, however the only extra I bought was an Eduard mask set for the windows, the rest of the changes were all scratchbuilt. Work-in-Progress thread here - http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234997923-airfix-seaking-hc4-almost-oob-build-fiddly-bits/ Airfix, well done on a great piece of work, a type sorely needing covered in 1/72 and I for one have another two of these, and two of the HAR.3's still to go! Alterations to the kit as follows:- - tape seat belts on all the seats, - additional cabin details including headset cords, sidewall linings, and emergency kit on the aft wall of the 'broom cupboard' - rotor head rebuilt with swash plate, pushrods and a representation of the folding rotor pipe work on the blades. - detailed the crew entry door with reinforcing angles, stiffeners and handrail assemblies, - underside cargo lifting slings and associated cables, and controls, - drilled out the lightening holes on the main door crew step and the IRCM mounts - added power cables to the IRCM boxes, - grab rail and additional support rods for the winch above the main door, - under nose antenna replaced with fine wire and cockpit side antenna fabricated from wire, - wire antenna along left fuselage made from fine mending thread. Couple of things I'm not too happy with:- - green tint to the upper cockpit windows is not pronounced enough, - the underside sling looks slightly under scale and could have been doing with slightly thicker wire for this, - overall finish is a bit too matt, looking at some of my In-progress pics it would have been better left slightly glossy (I'm NOT remarking that cockpit!!) Right, time for some pics. Just a few notes added to my instructions over the course of this build! All comments, good and bad, gratefully received, hope you like her! Rgds, Eng

Good day to one and all, and welcome to, I believe, my first RFI for 2016! I know I have been slacking so I do apologise. I built this in the Helo GB but display it here for those that don't frequent that far down. This is the Seaking MK4 from the newly tooled Airfix offering. I opted to backdate it to around 1990 when I was on 846 as a wee apprentice causing havoc. This depicts a Sea King that we were going to take into Egypt post Ex Dragon Hammer 90 but she had a main lift frame crack so was sent back to the UK for repair. It was the first to be fitted with a sand filter and we arrived back in the UK literally a couple of weeks before the start of the first Gulf War. I didn't go for that though as I was still a young apprentice and had to finish my course first. Now I must confess it turned out to be a bit of a half ars hearted build. First the decals in the kit don't provide for the stensiling of 25 years ago (jeeze that statement makes me feel old!) and I couldn't find anything anywhere! I had an old model decal sheet for a Seaking 3 that provided everything but it was yellow on a black background when it should just be yellow for this era. I also opted to do the mesh after the build was underway and I didn't do all of the mesh. Airfix do provide decals for all the applicable areas but this is black mesh and not green which would look a bit bizarre. If I do another I would cut out all areas, thin and then attach from behind. So what are the good and bad about this kit? Interior cabin is reasonable and a little embellishment will bring it all out, the cabin seats are overscale and not correct, Revell are much better. Cockpit is ok, IP decals are a little garish, the drivers seats are very nice and a good representation. I didn't like the strake on the kit (the piece of angle iron stuck to the left upper side of the rear fuselage) but lived with it. Tail rotor is fine if a little simple (separate star would have been nice), Tail fold detail is simple but a good base, To me the overall shape is decent and the fit is very good but a little tight in some areas. There are a couple of dodgy panel lines but overall I like it. It looks like a MK4 so that's good enough for me. Would I do another? Probably not a Mk4 but if a 5 or 6 was released then definitely and then I would spend a lot more effort on it. So the extras I added, scratched tail gust lock, tail fold detail, tips socks badly tied in to represent the 'snakes wedding' look of the real thing (never was a decent knot tier). Various handles and lashing rings added (but could have done more). Anti ice probes and OAT added to canopy. Rope from cotton, HF aerial from very fine rigging thread (it is there honest!), scratched main rotor swashplate and control rods, detail added to lower door steps, lots of lumps, bumps and holes removed/filled and finally a pee tube added inside. Painted with model master acrylics. Edit: She is displayed with the Revell sand filter as the airfix one is too simplistic and looks hideous with those decals! The only disappointing area of the kit for me. So I think that is about it. Thanks for looking Edit 2: She also has no number, I did apply one but it came off during handling so that is a 'follow up action!' Bob And with her Belgian cousin Finally a couple of shots of the real thing on HMS Intrepid, 1990 although the first one is VJ! And ..... just don't ask!

Afternoon all, With 848 NAS standing down today, bringing an end to 37 years of service for the mighty Sea King HC4, I thought I'd share a few images by way of a personal tribute to one of my favourite aircraft of all time. Having lived relatively local to Yeovilton all my life, the Junglie has played a huge part in my interest in aviation, and I'll miss it greatly. All the shots posted have been taken at various locations across the South West, with the final four taken as the aircraft set off on the Monday's farewell tour, the last time I'll see this wonderful machine fly... Westland Sea King HC4 ZD627/WO Royal Navy RNAS Merryfield 08/06/11 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZD627/WO Royal Navy RNAS Merryfield 08/06/11 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZD625/P Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 09/07/11 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF115/WV Royal Navy Okehampton Camp 13/05/12 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF119/WY Royal Navy Okehampton Camp 13/05/12 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF115/WV Royal Navy Okehampton Camp 13/05/12 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF119/WY Royal Navy Okehampton Camp 13/05/12 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZE426/WX Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 22/06/12 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZE426/WX Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 22/06/12 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF115/R Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 22/06/12 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZE426/WX Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 22/06/12 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZG820/I Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 12/07/13 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF214/L Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 12/07/13 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF214/L Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 12/07/13 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF117/X Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 13/07/13 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZA310/B Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 13/07/13 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF117/X Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 13/07/13 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF117/X Royal Navy Merryfield 25/06/14 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZE427/K Royal Navy Okehampton Camp 10/05/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZE427/K Royal Navy Okehampton Camp 10/05/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF116/WP Royal Navy Okehampton Camp 10/05/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZE427/K Royal Navy Merryfield 10/06/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZE427/K Royal Navy Merryfield 10/06/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF116/WP Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 09/07/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZF116/WP Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 11/07/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZG821/G Royal Navy SPTA 12/11/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZG821/G Royal Navy SPTA 12/11/15 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZA298/Y Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 21/03/16 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZA298/Y Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 21/03/16 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Sea King HC4 ZA295/U Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 21/03/16 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Westland Seaking HC4 ZA298/Y Royal Navy RNAS Yeovilton 21/03/16 by Shaun Schofield, on Flickr Farewell, old friend...

Not long to go now before these are retired so it was indeed a pleasure to see 4 x Sea Kings arrive at Newquay on Tuesday afternoon. They had been working on Bodmin Moor and came into Newquay for some fuel before returning to Yeovilton. For the number crunchers they are ZA299/D; ZA296/Q; ZF116/WP and ZF117/X.

Had this in my mind for a while and had a look around the net and couldnt find a chinook junglie so i figured why not give it a go, had great fun doing this and no real problems apart from ones i made!!!!!!!(accidently sprayed the inside of the glass! impresive eh) rivet counters run for the hills as this is wrong on so many levels lol Take this as it is a bit of fun ,lots of mistakes but lots of maybe ideas ! WIP HERE if interested http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234970961-chinook-148-with-a-twist/

Am having a go at my own WI, its going to be is a Royal Navy Chinook, my thinking is with the new carrier's there will be plenty room for these big beasts, but in another we twist I wasnt to do it in junglie white camouflage! would also like to thank a fellow member "skids" for gifting me a few royal navy decals ! like this,

After spending the best part of 5 months building this I am quite pleased with how it's finally turned out. During my time on the 'Junglie Circuit' I cut my engineering teeth on this airframe: ZF121 from 772 Squadron then I met her up again on 846 Squadron. Where I worked with it in Northern Ireland I hope you like her There are more images but didn't want to swamp all the bandwidth hehe