Fujimi 1/72 SH-3A Sea King - USS Essex Apollo 7 Recovery - RIP (Rest In Pieces)

[Jabba 2,090]

2 hours ago, andyf117 said:

If you're referring to the 'Stealth Duck' decals pictured above, they're not supplied with the kit - they're home-printed....

Yes that I was referring to. Well done with the printing.

[andyf117 1,228]

Not a huge amount of progress with this build - the parallel RAF 100th HAR.3 has been occupying most of my time - but I have attached the sponsons, applied a couple of coats of grey to the lower surfaces to give a good, even base for the very thin Humbrol Light Gull Gray, and put together a small, but significant detail item, namely the camera-mount frame aft of the cabin door. Working from photos, it was constructed from plasticard and rod, along with a section of stretched sprue representing the wiring leading to it.

 

The fun part will be trying to avoid knocking it off every time I handle the model, but it needed to go on before painting....

[trickyrich 7,273]

nice scratching building work, but you're really tempting fate! I'd be bound to knock it off into the jaws of the ever waiting carpet monitor!

 

Though you could fit a wee pin to her, that way you can paint it them remove to somewhere safe until you're ready to refit it?

[Romeo Alpha Yankee 3,566]

Wow, Andy! just came across this build. I have a couple of these buried in the stash and this is an excellent detailing and updating tutorial for them.

 

Keep up the great work! 

[Colin W 1,145]

That's a very fine camera support. 

I don't think I would have expected this to survive on one of my builds. I would have made all or part in brass to give it a chance. 

Here's hoping that it's still there at the end. 

 

 Colin 

[andyf117 1,228]

9 hours ago, trickyrich said:

nice scratching building work, but you're really tempting fate! I'd be bound to knock it off into the jaws of the ever waiting carpet monitor!

 

Though you could fit a wee pin to her, that way you can paint it them remove to somewhere safe until you're ready to refit it?

Hopefully it'll survive - though at this stage fitting the cameras as well would have been testing my handling skills to their limit, so they're staying off until the end!

[andyf117 1,228]

Seemingly small, but actually significant progress...

 

....back in post #8 on the previous page, I showed the cockpit transparency with its thick and inaccurate side window framing. I eventually opted to sand it off, so after some considerable time with a four-way nail block, I succeeded in removing the moulded framing and re-polishing the windows to the point where a coat of Klear brought them back to an acceptable level of clarity. The transparency itself was not the best fit, sitting somewhat low compared with the fuselage immediately behind, so the horizontals all received plastic card shims to raise it slightly.

 

The Light Gull Gray lower surfaces look fine after a couple of coats over the grey base, so the masking's been removed ready to tackle the white uppersurfaces. I've added mounts for the mission-specific Yagi antennae to the struts - made from sections of Revell Orange Crop antennae - and so far the camera mount has not taken any knocks!

Edited June 4 by andyf117

[trickyrich 7,273]

I've got my fingers crossed for the wee camera mount, the cockpit area looks great with the tinted windows.

[andyf117 1,228]

Slight, but nevertheless significant progress again....

 

As I brush-paint, white can sometimes prove troublesome - but as the two coats applied so far went on reasonably well with a week's drying time inbetween, I'm fairly confident that a third will produce an even finish ready for decalling. Also pictured are the salvaged and donated parts forming the folded rotor assembly, which is now ready for some wiring detail to be added to the head.

[trickyrich 7,273]

she's looking good, white is a hard colour to paint no matter what!

[andyf117 1,228]

With a final white coat applied, along with the yellow tail band, red tailplane tip and fuel filler areas, and natural metal surrounds to the exhausts, a couple of coats of Klear sealed it all. Then, prior to attaching a couple of mounting arms for the Yagi aerials, a couple of minor mishaps occurred. Firstly, in the process of fitting the main wheels, one undercarriage unit sheared off at its locating points inside the sponson - fortunately, it didn't prove too difficult to repair.

 

Secondly, when preparing a set of exhaust area and grille decals, I realised that the kit has a set of three square grilles moulded each side of the engine housing (very clearly visible in post #32 above), when only the rearmost should be present. Despite being shallow recesses that should have been easy to fill, a 'quick fix' using Tippex turned out anything but, as the coats of white paint and Klear applied in anticipation of using grille decals meant that the Tippex wouldn't grip and simply came out each time I tried to sand it flush - it took four attempts to get a smooth repaint!

 

Finally, I discovered that despite having a considerable stash of Sea King decals, there were some basic markings I simply didn't have - such as the yellow emergency rescue instructions for below the cockpit and cabin windows, and above and below the door windows. I was, however, able to make some up and print onto a spare section of clear decal film, along with a few other red warning markings.

 

But, finally ready for decals, the model currently looks like this:

 

Much less of a drama - so far at least - has been the folded main rotor assembly, which has gained some detail by means of copper wire secured with superglue and then twisted, twirled, and wound around to create something of a bird's nest effect, The head has been painted Engine Gray with lighter grey detail, and the rotor cap is finished in True Blue:

 

Edited June 27 by andyf117

[andyf117 1,228]

A couple of hour's work at a time over three sessions has resulted in all the grilles, exhaust, walkway and step areas, stencils, rescue, and danger legends being applied. The former were all home-printed, as were some of the stencils, danger markings and the fore-mentioned rescue legends around the windows. Some stencils came from a spare Modeldecal RAN Mk.50 set and some from an old Microscale sheet - the fun part was laying home-printed black surrounds over a set of rescue arrows from the old Airfix kit!

Edited July 2 by andyf117

[stevej60 21,626]

Coming on a treat Andy.

[andyf117 1,228]

Another few hour's work in a final decalling session, and now applied are national insignia taken from the same Microscale sheet that earlier yielded some stencilling, along with home-printed titles, codes and BuNos, and HS-5's checkerboard fuselage band - note the lower checks in gray, rather than white, in keeping with the original.

[FIGHTS ON 485]

I do like that white over gull grey look on a SeaKing. I see from your signature block you are either a purist or a sucker for punishment in your dedication to building them. In my ignorance I assume this SH-3A has aluminium blades as opposed to the composite ones the Westland ones have??

[andyf117 1,228]

1 hour ago, FIGHTS ON said:

I assume this SH-3A has aluminium blades as opposed to the composite ones the Westland ones have??

In US military service, the Sikorsky H-3 was only ever fitted with metal blades - the exceptions being the VH-3Ds of HMX-1 which began to receive Carson blades in around 2013.

[Jabba 2,090]

Now with the decals applied this is looking rather special.

[trickyrich 7,273]

gee she looks great with her decals on. And the wee antenna's still hanging in there!   I would have knocked if off 1/2 dozen times by now....and jumped on it in frustration....

[Dermo245 3,047]

Yep,. looks terrific with the decals on! 

 

Dermot

[andyf117 1,228]

Final details added prior to applying a topcoat of satin varnish comprise: 1. Pitots, as per kit 2. YAGI aerials, made from scrap plastic and stretched sprue 3. Winch assembly, as supplied but with an additional diagonal bracing strut 4. TV, 16mm Cine and 35mm still cameras, made from scrap plastic with cables from copper wire 5. Aerial posts made from scrap plastic, with a wire antenna to be fitted after varnishing is completed - anti-collision beacons and nav lights will also be added and painted then.

[trickyrich 7,273]

she looks the part now.

[andyf117 1,228]

The model has now been finished with the application of an overall satin varnish followed by matt on the exhaust, anti-glare and walkways; fitting a stretched sprue antenna on the starboard rear fuselage; painting the nav lights on the sponsons; attaching upper and lower anti-colision beacons made from clear sprue and painted with Tamiya Clear Red; and finally glazing the spotlights under the nose using PVA glue.

 

So I present my first completed GB build:

 

Photos in the GB Gallery - thanks for looking, and for the comments along the way!

Edited July 9 by andyf117

[trickyrich 7,273]

well done Andy, I've just been looking at the photo in the gallery, she looks amazing, well done. 

 

It's been a great build to follow and I love the attention to detail you achieved, even to my favourite wee frame with the cameras attached, a nicely built model.

 

I'm glad you could join us for this build, it was a pleasure to have you along, I hope you enjoyed it, you have a fine model to add to your collection.

[Dermo245 3,047]

Great stuff Andy - really like all those extra details you've added to it. 

 

Must get on and finish mine!

 

Cheers,

Dermot

 

 

 

 

[Jabba 2,090]

Well done with this one, especially with the modifications that really make the model.