Return of the King - Seaking HAS5 ZE419 of 820NAS, HMS Ark Royal 1988

[Max Headroom]

 

Yay!

 

Trevor

[heloman1]

Great to see you back on the Sea King build Crisp. I do like the MRH, good luck with the snakes wedding.

 

Colin

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

If this seems a lot of effort for such a small part... you wait till I get back to the rotor head!

 

The FlightPath set provides 2 weapon carriers (amongst other things).  I have 2 FlightPath sets, and can happily spare the second pair of carriers because my other Hasegawa Seaking is destined to be an 819 NAS SAR cab (so no weapons at all).  

 

Only 2 carriers gradually became a pretty standard fit for ASW Seakings, not least because over the years the RN crammed more and more gear into the back, which lead to issues with centre of gravity - we had to manage fuel carefully (i.e. drain the tanks in a controlled order) to keep CofG within limits if we were heavy.  For all these reasons, David Parkins @ Flightpath was being perfectly reasonable in "only" providing 2 carriers.  [And it probably goes without saying that it would make no sense whatsoever to fit carriers aft but not for'd; hang a weapon on that configuration and you'd have a nigh-uncontrollable aircraft!

 

BUT... ZE419 and all 820's aircraft at this period definitely had all 4 carriers fitted.  Here she is, ashore somewhere in Australia (Nowra?) about 3 months after my ditching, and Station 3 is clearly visible:

 

As you can see, the red weapon wiring is very prominent even from a distance (as are the rivets... which is why I went to all that effort last year!). 

 

You could say that I have made a rod for my own back by choosing to model a very specific airframe at a very specific time... but equally, how often do we get the chance to model something with completely unambiguous references?  And besides, I only ditched one Seaking, so it had to be that one!

 

Yes, Bill (if I understood your post correctly), my red wiring will be made out of the ever-trusty PlusModel lead wire - 0.3 (or maybe 0.4 - experiments are ongoing).  I am playing around with painting a test piece as we speak.  My cunning plan also involves some Albion Alloys brass tube and "Connecto", to represent the assorted T- & Y-pieces.  I know exactly what I WANT to do - the only question is whether I can pull it off...  [actually, I am pretty confident about the weapons stuff; it's the blade fold piping that is keeping me awake at night!]

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

 

[clive_t]

This looks interesting, I would like to peer over your shoulder for this one if I may?

 

It may be too late, or totally irrelevant to your quest, but back in August last year we members of IPMS Portsmouth were invited to look over the facilities at the RN Air Engineering and Survival School at HMS Sultan. We were also allowed to take photos without fear of prosecution/12 lashes/summary execution. I needed no second invitation on that front, I have very recently uploaded these to my Flickr account:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/42575748@N08/albums/72157667477640448

 

You never know, there might be something among them of use?

 

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Some intriguing pictures there, Clive - thanks.  I spotted at least 3 airframes that are in my logbook, but the most interesting one is 60 (can’t see the serial) towards the end.  6 bladed tail rotor, no barn door, original radar dome, no signs of ever having had Orange Crop aerials...

 

An HAS 2? ?  If so, wearing an anachronistic colour scheme!

 

Nice pic inside the nose bay of the Mark 4, though.  Hard to get clear shots in there

[Brandy]

Nice pics, but "Royal Air Farce, Rescued"

Methinks someone got at that one!

 

Ian

[Terry1954]

5 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

Nice pics, but "Royal Air Farce, Rescued"

Methinks someone got at that one!

 

Ian

Good spot Ian!

 

Terry

[hendie]

1 hour ago, limeypilot said:

Nice pics, but "Royal Air Farce, Rescued"

Methinks someone got at that one!

 

but they missed out the word "Needs"

 

 

oops... forgot ...  no politics!

Edited April 5, 2018 by hendie

[perdu]

Oh go on go on go on

 

Reminds me

"find skinny lead wire at Cosford on SUNDAY" 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

9 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Nice pics, but "Royal Air Farce, Rescued"

Methinks someone got at that one!

 

Ian

Well if you put a yellow monstrosity in a place where baby Naval engineers are taught to do significant panel bashing on aircraft, what do you expect?  ;-). Actually, looking at those shots again, I am struck by how fast the aircraft deteriorate once you stop looking after them.  There’s an old Prestwick cab [PW tail code] which is outside and looks desperately sad.

 

Still, you can’t keep a good geek down.  For anyone wondering what the compression strut hidden inside the sponson support loks like, you can see one clearly in those photos.  Complete with its aerodynamic fairing supports [Ha! Aerodynamic! Take that, @Fritag]

 

Onwards

[Dads203]

Just so you know fella , lead wire is a real pig to glue to any surface with CA glue so adding all the plumbing to your beautifully painted airframe might be fun. I found that cleaning it up with some fine grade wire wool did help, but once the oxidation sets in again it turned into a mare to glue.

 

i think I’d play with soft copper wire over lead wire to be fair you can also anneal it to make it softer 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

1 minute ago, Dads203 said:

Just so you know fella , lead wire is a real pig to glue to any surface with CA glue so adding all the plumbing to your beautifully painted airframe might be fun. I found that cleaning it up with some fine grade wire wool did help, but once the oxidation sets in again it turned into a mare to glue.

 

i think I’d play with soft copper wire over lead wire to be fair you can also anneal it to make it softer 

Ooh, thanks; that’s useful advice.  More experimentation required!

[Dads203]

I think Voyager models sells packs of soft copper wire in various diameters for such jobs, I bought a pack a few years ago but I was sent the wrong pack ( from Hong Kong )  the stuff I ended up getting was the larger gauge pack and I could of wired up the shed with the stuff.   Didn’t send it back as postage was more than twice the price of the item. 

 

I often strip down bits of old electronic kit just to harvest the wires from it, old telephone wire is a good source and for the really small stuff, I like old Iphone hands free headsets, knackered ones that no longer work.  They are also great for micro insulation, I used this stuff to good effect for the HF wire antenna insulator on my Sea King build.

[Max Headroom]

23 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Ooh, thanks; that’s useful advice.  More experimentation required!

Just a thought but instead of CA have you considered Revell’s Contacta canopy adhesive? I used it recently on a 1/72 Spitfire build and whatever it is, the stuff set rock hard! Obviously it takes longer to cure but a long as it’s not load bearing it may be worth a go?

 

Trevor

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Thanks, both.  My faithful Fulmar wing paint mule (veteran of this build, the Seafire 46, Gazelle & Vixen) already has the test run studs embedded in it (the lumps I added to the Seaking airframe to represent the connector points for this very wiring).  Once I’ve tested painting the assorted wires (& I have even toyed with the idea of seeing whether I could shape some plastic rod), I’ll also test assorted glue types.  As Trevor says, none of it is load bearing; it just needs to stay in place!

 

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Bigdave22014]

Well, after demanding politely enquiring when this would re-started it slips in under my radar!

Nice to see this one back on the bench and being restrained by rubber-bands. No scale-working tie-downs? 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I can't promise you working ones, but there will certainly be lashings, worry not!  Courtesy of the splendiferous ReedOak (still need cleaning up, but hook end is to the left); I built the tie-down points on the undercarriage with the loops at the appropriate angle to fit these, since I have been planning to portray ZE419 lashed down since the outset.  (Strictly these are US pattern chain lashings rather than RN, but the visible difference is minimal.  The chain is spectacularly good - the most convincing I've seen in any scale).
 

 

HT to @shark 64 for putting me onto ReedOak - thanks, Oliver. Their figures have to be seen to be believed - check out his astounding SH60 Seahawk build if you doubt me (though it helps if you can paint as beautifully as Oliver...) 

 

 

Anyway - back to my own build!

 

Fulmar wing weapon wiring experiment now awaiting dry paint.  Apologies for blurry photo, but you get the idea.  I'm pleased with the colours (Humbrol 174 & 99), though. 

[Hmm note to self; get rid of dust from paint mule!]

 

More soon

 

Crisp

Edited April 6, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Glue, wire & paint tests Phase 1 complete, and showing promise.  Gator's Grip glue, 0.3mm PlusModel lead wire, and Humbrol 174 (red) / 99 (yellow) respectively - and it seems to be holding fairly happily onto the combination of brass & styrene rods that I put into the Fulmar wing about a year ago as a test of how they looked as wiring attachments (the key point being that the wires should stand visibly proud of the aircraft skin).  The photo shows the Fulmar wing propped up [and has just shown me fairly clearly that the starboard sponson has a really nasty globule of hardened varnish underneath it!] - the wing is vertical and the wire showing no sign of parting company.

 

[Edit for anyone who is interested in the "how" stuff: the secret proved to be the way in which you glue the wire - you don't need very much glue at all (in fact I overdid it in places on the test), provided you make sure there is no tension on the wire (which is why lead works better than copper here).  It's a bit like gluing a dodgy fuselage joint; you get it as close as you can, glue one bit and hold... wait, then carefully bend the wire to meet the next stud, glue & hold... and so on; since lead holds its shape very well, you avoid the metal trying to tear itself off the attachment point before the glue is cured.  You need about 4 hands, but we're modellers, so we're used to that feeling!]

 

 

Phase 2 will include incorporating a joint, but so far I think it should work fine.

 

A slightly more forgiving and/or representative viewing distance shows the gap under the wire rather better:

 

Happy so far

 

Crisp

Edited April 6, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Today's other test run is the fit of the port aft weapons carrier (Station 4).  Impossible to balance this because of all the multitudinous curvery in the area, so excuse the tweezers... but it fits pretty well now - well enough for me to move onto painting etc.  

 

These FlightPath carriers were designed to take a white metal torpedo (hence the holes underneath) - but as I said yesterday, mine won't have any weapons on them; I have to decide whether it's worth trying to build four EMRUs (electro-magnetic release unit - the gizmo inside wot actually releases the weapon).  Sorry that this photo is so out of focus, but it's the only one I have that clearly shows the EMRU - the silver section on the underside, with the pairs of hooks (which are what actually hold the weapon in place).

 

I'll have a play and see whether it's worth it for what will be pretty hard to see on the final model (not that this fact usually stops me!).

 

On the whole, though the work of the last couple of days is paying off - in particular, addressing the geometry of the aft weapon stations and working out how to do the weapon wiring convincingly were two of the things that ground my mojo down a few months ago and led me to take a break from this build in the first place.  To have fixed them (or at least worked out HOW to fix them) so soon after picking it up again is very pleasing!

 

Laters

 

Crisp

Edited April 6, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Terry1954]

This work is amazing and certainly the last few days is paying off.

 

Cheers

 

Terry

[Martian]

This is all looing most impressive, keep it coming!

 

Martian

[Pete in Lincs]

And we're back at it again eh?

I was going to pull up a chair.

But, seeing as it was over 100 pages the last time,

This time I'm nailing up a hammock between the walls bulkheads.

Oh, and yes, Olivers' figure painting is amazing.

[AdrianMF]

Lovely detailing!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

the secret proved to be the way in which you glue the wire

 

I think there might be another secret Crisp in that the wire appears to need to have been painted first, so the glue is actually adhering to the paint. I was trying to use the stuff for brake lines on my P-47 recently & despite trying two different types of CA & Hobbycraft 'sticky' PVA the wire just wouldn't stay stuck. I didn't get this for a while as I'd used it many times in the past with no problem - it then dawned on me that I'd always painted it before gluing.....

 

Keith

 

Edit - forgot to say some more really nice detail work going on hereabouts!

[MarkdipXV711]

On 05/04/2018 at 9:15 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Some intriguing pictures there, Clive - thanks.  I spotted at least 3 airframes that are in my logbook, but the most interesting one is 60 (can’t see the serial) towards the end.  6 bladed tail rotor, no barn door, original radar dome, no signs of ever having had Orange Crop aerials...

 

An HAS 2? ?  If so, wearing an anachronistic colour scheme!

 

Nice pic inside the nose bay of the Mark 4, though.  Hard to get clear shots in there

I'm sure the has.2 was used as a background for our wings parade at Culdrose in 1991. It was gleaming back then and still looks good these days 👍