Sea King/Commando with Exocets -Qatar Emiri Air Force

[alex]

Amazing build, I like it very much.

Alex

[Reini78]

well, that´s something rare...

lovely work and finish!

[Viking]

That has to be one of my favourite models of the year. Beautifully done, off the beaten path, and looks superb!

Cheers

John

[Latinbear]

That is mega. I can't really add anything to what others have said but I would echo previous comments about the photographic backdrop which is imaginative and adds to the quality to the presentation. Well done.

[chris148]

_{superb build,great scheme}

[Colin1967]

A beautifully built model with interesting decals too! Your pictures persuaded me to join to BM so that I could leave you positive and appreciative comment on BM - I also Wish my models turned out like yours, thank you for sharing your work and model with us!

[F-32]

That's nice and different, great work

[thorfinn]

Thanks to all for the positive feedback. I know the printed backdrops can be a little hokey, but it's fun to try to put models in their "natural environment."

A beautifully built model with interesting decals too! Your pictures persuaded me to join to BM so that I could leave you positive and appreciative comment on BM - I also Wish my models turned out like yours, thank you for sharing your work and model with us!

Wow! I appreciate your enthusiasm, and your support. I hope you enjoy your time here on Britmodeller (as I have). It's a great group of folks here, very willing to share their experience and provide help and lots of inspiration (as well as more than a few good-natured chuckles). Dive in and share your work as well. I think you'll find a warm welcome.

[heloman1]

Congrartualtions, I like it a lot, I do like your setting pics, most convincing.

Colin

[Colin1967]

Hi Thorfinn thank you for your personal reply to me, I definately will, my current build is the 1/72 KP Piper Cub in Indonesian colours, I will post it when finished, please bear with me, thank you Colin.

[Rodders154]

Brilliant superb build I hope that oneday I might be able to build to this standard

Rodders

[thorfinn]

Thanks, Rodders! Your very nice Pakistan Navy Sea King, which you posted earlier this year, was one of the major motivations to jump-start this project. I'd been waiting/searching for those "perfect" photos of the Exocet mounts, but i figured if you didn't find them, neither would I, so I also just went ahead with a best guess. I appreciate the inspiration.

[MartinSK]

Excellent Seaking in very nice&unusual scheme. I am still tempted to buy Hasegawa in 1:48 and make it in some unusual colours too.(but so many models..so little time)

[thorfinn]

Thank you, Martin!

(Talk about 'back from the dead'...I saw the subject heading in 'New Content' and thought "Ooohh...I did one just like that, a couple of years ago....")

[Baldy]

Back from the dead it may be but a beautiful build and I wasn't round back then!  Lovely colour scheme and great detailing, finish and presentation.

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm 

[tonyot]

Superb,...... what a good job you have done of it,........ I remember you saying ages ago that you wanted to build this machine,...... as you say, well worth the wait and I love the scheme too!

 

Cheers

          Tony

[Head in the clouds.]

Worth the wait, very nice indeed.

[CT Modeller]

Really nice to see a finished Commando Mk.3 model. This one had me searching out my flying logbook as I was Project Flight Test Engineer for the Qatari Mk.3s back in 1982 when I was working at Westland Helicopters (still can't get used to it being Leonardo Helicopters!). I was aboard the initial flight of QA30 on 14th June 1982, and went on to run development and production flight tests on QA31, 32, 34, 35, 36 and 37, but some reason QA33 seems to have eluded me. I think the reason was that we were doing Nigerian Lynx and Westland 30 work at the same time.

 

Anyway I've always had this one on the to do list. I have a couple of Exocets from Heller Super Etendards hidden away somewhere all ready for it. Well done on the colours - it looks just right. By the way the first aircraft (QA30) was originally painted in greater contrast colours but the Qatar Emiri Air Force wanted their own colour scheme and it was repainted, so if you see any pre-delivery photos of QA30, don't be surprised if the colour scheme looks different.

 

My log book has also reminded me of some test flights we did in Qatar in November 1984 to sort out some search radar issues - but that's quite a long story that I would be happy to recount if you're interested.

[thorfinn]

Wow! Always most appreciative of feedback from anyone with genuine 'hands on' experience of a project's subject. Sounds like very interesting work!

1 hour ago, CT Modeller said:

My log book has also reminded me of some test flights we did in Qatar in November 1984 to sort out some search radar issues - but that's quite a long story that I would be happy to recount if you're interested. 

By all means, feel free to 'recount' away!👍 That's the sort of thing you just can't get from books.

Cheers

[CT Modeller]

1 minute ago, thorfinn said:

Wow! Always most appreciative of feedback from anyone with genuine 'hands on' experience of a project's subject. Sounds like very interesting work!

By all means, feel free to 'recount' away!👍 That's the sort of thing you just can't get from books.

Cheers

Somewhere I have an article I wrote at the time about colour schemes on these aircraft. When I've found it I will scan and add it to this thread, then carry on with the Qatar story (hoping I can find it in the next few days but not sure where to look at the moment!)

[CT Modeller]

Surprisingly, I found the article on the Commando Mk3 that I wrote in 1984 – here it is:

 

 

 

 

As far as I remember, the ‘development’ flight testing (i.e. the testing the new items on the Sea King, as opposed to ‘production’ flight testing) was fairly straightforward. The Exocet had been integrated with the MEL Search Radar on the Pakistani Mk 45 Sea King, so there was limited development on that, and I think the rest was limited radios and nav kit. This included the standard EMC, vibration and temperature tests on avionics boxes that were in new positions on the airframe, and this was done on QA30 and QA31, flying from Yeovil airfield.

I think all the aircraft had been delivered to Qatar by the end of 1983. They were loaded into a Heavylift Belfast and flown to Doha, where they were put together and re-tested. Westland sent a test pilot, flight test engineer and aerodynamicist to test each aircraft in country. This included a performance demo to the Qataris.

During summer 1984 the Qataris complained to us about radar interference when flying over the Gulf. So a team of 4 of us went to Doha to sort it out. I remember being taken by taxi from our hotel to the military entrance of Doha airport, which was basically out in the desert. An aggressive looking Arab insisted on taking our passports at the gate. So there were 4 Englishmen in lightweight suits standing in the desert with briefcases but no passports! Sometime later he returned and drove us to the Head of the helicopter wing. He had a sword in his belt. We listened to him.would be used to ta

Back at the hotel we had a long meeting and concluded that the problem was just the large amount of I-band transmissions from all kinds of sources in the Gulf. But we had been told we had to fix it before we got to go home! Our first test flight to have a look at the problem was on 1st November 1984, when we literally flew over shark infested waters (we could see them!) off the coast of Qatar. Thankfully, we had some clever avionics engineers with us who fiddled around with the radar until all was OK. All the time we were aware that these radars would be used to send target data to Exocets, so we were very careful about radar accuracy.

After 10 days and 9 test flights we boarded a British Airways Tristar (Club Class in those days) and flew back to Heathrow on 11th November a mighty relieved team of engineers.

Well I’m not sure that’s got much to do with modelling but I enjoyed writing it so I hope it’s of interest.

 

(By the way - I,m sorry the colour chips are missing)

 

[thorfinn]

1 hour ago, CT Modeller said:

Surprisingly, I found the article on the Commando Mk3 that I wrote in 1984 – here it is:

Many, many...many thanks, both for sharing the information, and taking the time to give your own personal story. I can only faintly imagine the smiles all 'round once your party boarded that BA Tristar homeward-bound! Kudos to your 'wizards' for solving the technical issue.

I must also confess to something like giddy joy reading your explanation of the camouflage colors involved! That answers much vexing thought I expended when doing my build back then, trying to puzzle out the mystery of colors that seemed annoyingly to change with every new photograph I looked at. 'Light Qatar Beige'...who would have thought it? [I am prompted to ask---entirely seriously---is there a 'Dark Qatar Beige' which the model-building world should know about?]

Also quite pleased (as in 'relieved') that my own 'checklist' for assorted antennae...largely drawn up from the perusal of pretty much every relevant photo I could find...essentially matches yours point-for-point. (Now I know what they actually are.)

Once again, thanks for your gracious comments and the generous sharing of your valuable observations. They are most humbly appreciated.

 

Regards

[CT Modeller]

Glad you enjoyed it. As far as I know there wasn't a Dark Qatar Beige. I remember seeing Alpha Jets and Mirage F1s in the shelters at Doha but as I'm sure you know they were finished in much darker colours.

[sailorboy61]

Great looking model! Not much ground clearance on those exocet fins for a 'heavy' bounce landing!

[thorfinn]

On 12/17/2018 at 9:15 AM, sailorboy61 said:

Great looking model! Not much ground clearance on those exocet fins for a 'heavy' bounce landing!

Mine's a little short, because I got the tailwheel a bit too 'squat'...but it's pretty close. Not much margin for 'rattle and shake'!