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Airfix Sea King HAS5 Blue Kestrel Testbed-photos reinstated.


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Thanks PB for my Saturday night spent reloading images. These have been up before but if you have not seen them, here they are instead of the annoying PB "sorry" board.

Hello all.

I was looking for something different to build and after a lot of head scratching and research I decided to build this variation of the venerable Sea King.

The model is of Westland Sea King HAS5 XZ570 modified by Westland as a test bed for the up and coming Merlin programme, it stayed as a test airframe for a considerable time until superseded by Sea King HC4X ZB506. The shape and size of the test equipment up front was continually changing through the development of the Blue Kestrel radar, both with XZ570  and ZB506 so that was a point to bear in mind when deciding which to build. I decided to build what I believe to be the second incarnation of XZ570, the reason being I liked the old colour scheme as it was a bit different with the day-glow and black/white calibration markings and I could only find one black &white photo of XZ570 as an HAS2(modified) but two photo’s, port and starboard in colour after modification to HAS5  this cemented my choice. These were the only two colour pics I could find of XZ570 HAS5(modified) and had to use the more available pics of ZB506 for detail of the sponsons  which remained consistent in design.

The base kit was the oh so not so good Airfix Sea King HAR3 kit which need a few mods to bring it to where I wanted it as follows;

Blue Kestrel Radar taken from ESCI Melin HM1 kit.

Top section made from Milliput and sanded to shape followed by hollowing out to avoid a nose sitter( how often do you hear that!)

Sponsons  made from Evergreen sheet and brass square bar for strength and fixing points made from Brass rod and left over PE.

HAS 5 sensors made from Evergreen stock.

Engine Barn door baffles altered and modified with filler and Evergreen.

Pitot tubes from Brass tube.

Fill in two observation windows

Round out and fit grille to APU outlet.

Fit Eduarde grill to tail section.

Rear tail boon handrails replaced with brass tube.

Holes drilled in U/C.

The glazing on this kit is poor but I did not attempt to rectify this.

Paints were Tamiya Acrylics ( self mixed for main colour) and Xtracolour Enamels for the Dayglo covered in Alclad Gloss coat.

Decals were sourced from several sources, however this I think is the weakest part of the build, the kit decal being very thick and the carrier film still visible on some, HAS 5 decals are not easy to come by in the old scheme. On the subject of decals the bird motif on the port side which was made from old red decals is only on this side, for some stupid reason I put one on the Starboard side as well and did not notice my lazy mistake until too late…..DOH!

I hope you like this unusual Sea King and thanks for looking

 

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DSC_0012_01_zpszpji3xf0

 

DSC_0015_01_zpssqdxhyhe(1)

 

DSC_0022_01_zpsdsrtfcr1

 

DSC_0026_01_zpsrtuwq8sr(1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Head in the clouds.
PB
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Hello,Gary - My full compliments to you on another beautifully built and finished subject. I love the 'Sea King' helicopter and your variant and chosen scheme make a resplendent looking tribute to this fine aircraft. Great work indeed! 

😉👍 All the very best,Paul.

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Superb work sir. That is just a pleasure to behold in terms of colour and structure. The child in me thinks that this is almost ready for an episode of Thunderbirds, with that exotic structure out front.

Tony

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10 hours ago, mcdonnell said:

Hello,Gary - My full compliments to you on another beautifully built and finished subject. I love the 'Sea King' helicopter and your variant and chosen scheme make a resplendent looking tribute to this fine aircraft. Great work indeed! 

😉👍 All the very best,Paul.

Thank you Paul, you have to love a Sea King don't you, I grew up with them after all.

 

9 hours ago, celt said:

A wonderful build of an unusual Sea King,love the colours.:clap2:

 

9 hours ago, Scimitar said:

That is really different.

Thanks for posting

 

Thanks Celt and Scimitar, that was the reason for the build, something a bit left field.

 

9 hours ago, spaddad said:

Tasty.

Can any of you Sea King fans point me in the direction of anybody who makes a set of folded blades for the Sea King, or any choppers comes to that?

 

I did think of that spaddad as one of my two photo's showed them folded but nothing jumped out at me on the aftermarket, especially in 1/72, there may be one 1/48.

 

8 hours ago, Ali62 said:

Very interesting model, and nicely made, well done, Ali

 

50 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Superb work sir. That is just a pleasure to behold in terms of colour and structure. The child in me thinks that this is almost ready for an episode of Thunderbirds, with that exotic structure out front.

Tony

 

Thank you both, I think there is a child in all of us Tony, the only thing that has changed is that I have found Ale and given up sniffing the Airfix glue :drunk:

51 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Yes, very nice indeed.

Masking must have been fun

Thunderbirds or airborne pass the parcel?

 

Cheers Pete, masking was to bad, trying to get the right base colour was a little harder as the photographs I had show it a lighter shade of Blue than standard for HAS2 and early HAS5.

Thunderbirds or airborne pass the parcel....how about pizza delivery?

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20 hours ago, spaddad said:

Tasty.

Can any of you Sea King fans point me in the direction of anybody who makes a set of folded blades for the Sea King, or any choppers comes to that?

 

Airfix includes them as standard in both their HC.4 and new HAR.3 boxings - you might be able to find someone who hasn't used theirs who'd be willing to part with them :)

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7 minutes ago, Head in the clouds. said:

Thank you Darren, the glazing is not perfect but was not sure what to do with it.

 

There's more than just glazing issues with the old Airfix kit!  Your build is very much a silk purse from pig's ear. I literally opened the box and binned my kit...!

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20 minutes ago, mackem01 said:

That's a great build. I have never seen this testbed before and I'm amazed. Wonder what effect the installation had on the CG?

Brilliant work.

Cheers mackem01, yes it certainly peaked my interest when I first saw it. I would imagine they had ballast somewhere in the airframe to centralise the Cof G.

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