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Prompted by the Nigellicus creature, I decided to throw this WIP out here. I started this as light entertainment diversion after a couple of prolonged and complicated builds, the latest of which is still ongoing. As this is a diversion, I probably won't be updating regularly, and I am going to be doing this as much out of the box as possible (for me that is!). The plan is to complete this build as HKG-7 of the RHKAAF, an aircraft I actually (very briefly) had the controls of while flying over Hong Kong many, many years ago. (Those pilot people never trusted us groundcrew much!) In addition to the garish yellow plastic, I think everyone is very well aware of the strange girder like structures that airfix saw fit to slap up on the outer skin. Yes, I know I said out of the box, but there are limits! The first job was to remove those objectionable girders. We start with this.... and a few minutes sanding provides a much smoother fuselage skin. once the fuselage sides were smoothed out, next job was to fill a large sink in the undercarriage - still undecided as to whether to do something about those linkages. After the sides had been sanded the access doors sat proud of the sides. I had to shave some material off the doors in order to get them to sit better. Once happy with the fit, they were glued into position. The interior was then given a quick blast of white primer. Next step was to glue the wings together. It looks okay from this side but on top there is a large gap on one side. I may have to fill that and rescribe - it is a bit of a canyon. Then I decided to give George a run for his money in this incredibly complex engine build. This really puts George's typhoon engine build to shame doesn't it ? I haven't quite figured out how to handle the paint sequence with this - hence why i have not yet glued on the top of the nacelles. I did do some dry fitting and discovered that there are yet more canyons awaiting me on top of the wings when the nacelles are fitted. It looks like there will be some sanding and filing ahead in this build. and to complete this update, some interior parts were given a blast of grey primer. more to come at some point in the future....

This will be my first ever aircraft WIP. It follows on from some prompting, coercing and downright bullying from Nigel and company. My last few builds (3 in the SciFi forum, and one in the vehicle forum) left me somewhat battle scarred and traumatized and I needed an easy, trouble free build to relax me after pulling my hair out in the last few builds. I have wanted to do this aircraft for a while but it got pushed off to the side and overtaken by a couple of SciFi builds. Now it is time to give it the some attention. Not knowing much about the Dauphin, I looked at what was available and the closest kit to the aircraft I wanted to replicate appeared to be the old Heller kit. I've had it in the stash for some time and had actually started gluing a few pieces together a while back. While the kit has been neglected sitting on a shelf, I have been building a folder of reference photo's. Of course, once I really started looking at the photo's I realized there was quite a lot of work to do to the Heller kit to make it represent the aircraft I wanted to model. Starting with this screen shot of one of the Heller boxings..... Rotor Head: Kit is very basic and some scratch building will be needed to make it look better. Aerial faces wrong way on kit (easy fix) and the intake looks out of scale Some scratch building required in this area for bits hanging off aircraft Actual aircraft does not have spats. Heller kit has wheels molded into spats, so will have to find some alternative, and scratch build undercarriage More scratch building required to replicate more bits hanging off real aircraft. Heller kit tail comes to a knife edge - real aircraft has flat, blunt tail edge. Fenestron linkage is wrong Exhausts are completely incorrect. Kit exhausts are parallel with each other whereas the real aircraft exhausts are angled away from each other as they exit the aircraft. Additionally, the cowling around the exhausts on the real aircraft is markedly different from the kit profile. More scratch building required. Vents and access panels on kit cowling is different than the aircraft I am basing this build on. As mentioned earlier, this was supposed to be an easy, trouble free and relaxed build, and before I've even started, I have found a whole batch of things which need changed/fixed. Such is life I guess. Initial impressions of the kit are mixed. There is some finely molded detail which looks good, but on the other hand, there are raised panel lines (which, tbh, I really don't mind), but the biggest issue I have found so far, is the lack of positive alignment features for many of the parts. I have a few ideas of how to model the aircraft, (doors open, winch fitted etc.) but haven't fixed on a particular mode yet. As far as I am aware, there is no photo etch or upgrade parts available for this particular kit, so I'll have to make do with what I have. I should mention that I plan on doing aircraft HKG-1 of the RHKAAF around the 1982 time frame. Decals don't exist so I'll need to figure out how to do my own, and I think the paint job, though relatively simple, will be extremely difficult to get accurate. If anyone knows of a more accurate kit, please speak up before I commit myself too far down this tortuous path