1/48 Trumpeter Seahawk FGA6 - Finished

[Chewbacca]

I know I'm joining this late and the model has been started but in my defence I only joined the site a couple of weeks ago and only came across this particular thread on Tuesday. 

 

So I'm going to be putting together the Trumpeter 1/48 Seahawk.  I actually started it on 7th April while we were on holiday in Wales - I though it might be a little easier to transport than a 1/48 Wasp, a 1/600 LONDONDERRY (from the Airfix LEANDER) or a 1/600 ALACRITY in a South Atlantic Sea State 10 which are the others on the bench at the moment.  Unfortunately I didn't take too many photos of the early build because the lighting in the holiday cottage wasn't great and in any case I didn't think I'd need them.  The only one taken during that first week was of the bang seat.  I'm basically building this out of the box so yes, I could have bought the Aires resin cockpit but this was going to a relatively fun quick build and so let's keep it simple.

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't do that so armed with photos of a MB Mk 2, I set about thinning the sides, adding the bar across the back where the curtain is attached which tips the pilot out of the seat after ejection and adding a bit of texture to the very plain seat back.  You can see the initial work below:

 

.  That was day 1 or 2.

 

I then went on to complete the rest of the cockpit, again largely out of the box but with some light embellishment such as the addition of throttles, sea belts (from wine bottle top foil) and paint the interior of the UC bays (and hence my interest in the other thread on that subject before it was too late to repaint if I'd got it wrong).

 

I got back from leave 2 weeks ago and set the Seahawk to one side in order to concentrate on the Wasp (based on the very aged and fairly crude Fujima kit being built as XT420, HECLA Flight in June 1982 in which I was serving as a fresh-faced Midshipman, straight out of Dartmouth).  But I'll swap over this weekend and see where the Seahawk takes me.  Haven't decided which aircraft to go for yet.  I'd like to look at doing WV908 in RNHF colours of 806 NAS but I haven't found any decals for that variant in 1/48 and I don't relish printing the white serials or ROYAL NAVY logo without access to a white printer, so I'll probably do one of the two Op Musketeer aircraft for which kit decals are provided.

[Basilisk]

Good to see another Sea Hawk getting build in this GB. So have you decided what colours you painting the Undercarriage bays? I think it depends from when the model is you are building. Early example are most likely in silver and later built aircraft have it in sky. They always say check pictures of the aircraft you build - unfortunately Undercarriage bays are always a bit hidden.

 

I am not sure if you have seen these two pictures of the MB Mk.2D seat. This is the seat as it is (should be) in the kit.

Unfortunately this seat is unequipped, that is without parachute and should look like this for a more comfortable ride.

 

But keep in mind that the seats got changed to later types towards the end of the Sea Hawk's use.

Cheers, Peter

[FIGHTS ON]

Shippers, I'll have a look thru my spares (decals) but I know I have numerous sized "ROYAL NAVY" in white and some black serial numbers. (No 806 Ace of Diamond s though!!)

 

I've got this kit in my stash, so I know what sizes to look for. Anyhow get on with the build & let us know if interested.

[trickyrich]

welcome aboard, you may be a wee bit late in starting but there's still plenty of time so glad you made it.

 

I didn't expect to see 2 of these aircraft in the build at all, but they were part of the early naval jet era and a lovely looking aircraft so it's nice to see them here.

 

good luck with the build, hopefully it'll be a trouble free one, and look forward to seeing her in the gallery.

[Chewbacca]

 

Thanks for all your comments.  My apologies for not posting for a few days, unfortunately my father-in-law passed away on Saturday so my focus has been elsewhere!

I did manage to get a little work done, so the cockpit is now installed in the upper fuselage, the rear fuselage put together, nose weights added and exhausts sprayed with Alclad.  I do have some photos which I will upload to Flickr and link to here when I can find the lead to connect the camera...

On ‎05‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 20:13, FIGHTS ON said:

Shippers, I'll have a look thru my spares (decals) but I know I have numerous sized "ROYAL NAVY" in white and some black serial numbers. (No 806 Ace of Diamond s though!!)

 

I've got this kit in my stash, so I know what sizes to look for. Anyhow get on with the build & let us know if interested.

Thanks for that.  I have now found a source of white lettering on an Xtradecal set so that's now on order.  I can print the Ace of Diamonds logo quite easily.  But I realised that one of the jobs I did while away was to open up the holes for the rockets, so I have decided that this will be one of the Op Musketeer aircraft, I've got another one of these in the stash so will finish that in 806 Sqn colours

[trickyrich]

no problems at all, very understandable.

 

Hopefully you can find the lead, it'll be interesting to see the progress you've made.

[Chewbacca]

Well having searched the study for over an hour on Wednesday with no lead anywhere to be found, I thought I'd try to take some new photos with a different camera and in going to the mantin where I knew the lead for that was, because I saw it on Wednesday, lo and behold there was the one I had been looking for all along.  I must have looked in that tin at least three times on Wednesday!

 

Anyway, progress to date:

 

Completed bang seat.  It wasn't until I took this photo that I realised that having fitted the bar across the top of the seat, I forgot to fit the "curtain" that attaches to it.  I also realised that I made an error earlier when I said that the seat belts were scratch built.  Getting confused with the Wasp that's also on the go at the moment.  Of course the seat belts in this are PE that come with the kit, though I would suggest that they are too small as when fitted in the correct mounting positions they are fairly taught across the seat.

 

Almost completed cockpit.  Still got to add the glass for the sight and some extra cabling up the rear bulkhead.  There was a lesson learnt here.  Don't do the shadow wash after you've done the silver drybrush as the wash picks up the silver pigment!  Normally I would put a coat of Klear on before the wash but for some bizarre reason I forgot.  I think it just about looks okay.

 

 Main undercarriage wheel well.  As you can see, I opted for sky but I doubt if anyone will ever see it when its finished as it will be on a dark grey base, no mirrors for me!

 

 

 

Nose weight added.  Interesting to see if this is enough - I'll give it a CG test before I finally secure the fuselage - as this was a departure from the norm for me.  I usually raid the garage for old nuts & bolts but there was so little space in there that I bought a 1kg bag of diver's lead shot weights from Amazon and put some of that in.  There's about 25g which I think should suffice but time will tell.  The CG test will be this weekend so watch this space...

Edited May 12, 2018 by Chewbacca
Typos corrected

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Im sorry to hear of your loss. 

[Chewbacca]

Thanks.

 

Inspired by reading Basilisk's thread on his Seahawk I though I too would open up the cockpit air vents because as he rightly says, they are very prominent.  I took a slightly different approach in that having cut away the existing moulding and put the two fuselage halves together, it was readily apparent that the rear bulkhead for the nosewheel came right across the intakes and would foul any deep intakes.  So I added a 10thou plasticard backing plate, shaved an equivalent amount off the bulkhead and then added the intakes from the top, again from 10 thou plasticard.

 

 

While that was all setting it was time to do the CG test to check whether there was enough lead weight.  So with the fuselage halves taped together, the exhausts added and the rear fuselage taped on, I checked for balancing point: at least 20mm in front of the undercarriage mounting points so should be okay there.  Therefore it was time to start putting the fuselage together.  Must be said the forward fuselage is not a great fit and there is quite a lot of tape trying to hold it together while the liquid poly sets!

 

 

As an aside, why did I spend a whole evening priming the jet pipes and then covering with Alclad gloss black and then burnt exhaust?  When they're fitted, there's barely any of the outside visible!

 

Now a question.  I'd quite like to display this with flaps and airbrakes extended, purely because I can and because it adds interest.  Yet I can find no evidence that they were ever parked like this?  in fact the only photos that I can find of Seahawks with extended flaps on the ground are those just about to take position on the cat and its a little late to be thinking about putting a pilot in there.  Does anyone have any evidence that might counter my research so far?  One interesting website that I did come across while looking for Seahawk images was this one: http://daiyee.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=597.  Never heard of them before but that looks stunning - wish I'd found it a few weeks ago.

 

Edited May 12, 2018 by Chewbacca
Corrected typos

[trickyrich]

nice progress with her and I'm glad you found your cable for the camera.

 

DreamModel do do some lovely PE bits, but my experience with PE flaps...... well if you like origami with tiny bits of brass!

[Basilisk]

Great to see the air vents in place and good to know that they interfere with the bulkhead for the nose wheel. As I use the Aires nose wheel bay, I don't have a bulkhead across the whole fuselage.

 

8 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Now a question.  I'd quite like to display this with flaps and airbrakes extended, purely because I can and because it adds interest.  Yet I can find no evidence that they were ever parked like this?  in fact the only photos that I can find of Seahawks with extended flaps on the ground are those just about to take position on the cat and its a little late to be thinking about putting a pilot in there.  Does anyone have any evidence that might counter my research so far?  One interesting website that I did come across while looking for Seahawk images was this one: http://daiyee.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=597.  Never heard of them before but that looks stunning - wish I'd found it a few weeks ago.

 

Yes the extended flaps and airbrakes do look cool. But as you already noted, they are normally not extended on parked aircraft. You can see the flaps down on taxiing aircraft or when on final. But then you also have to add the small part of the flaps on the fixed part of the wing and open up the auxiliary air intake behind the cockpit.

 

I actually haven't seen a picture with the airbrake extended. Only flaps are used on landing, so I assume the airbrake function was only used in flight on a bombing run to keep the speed under control.

 

Also note that the central undercarriage covers are normally in the up position on the ground, also during taxiing and when on a landing approach! So they open up to lower the wheel and then close up again. I assume this is due to the low ground clearance of the Sea Hawk. Yes there are pictures of aircraft on the ground with them extended, but this is most likely for maintenance reason.

 

Cheers, Peter

[Chewbacca]

Thanks Peter.  I'm glad that corroborates my research.  I was aware of the inner main undercarriage doors being closed on the ground but thanks for the reminder anyway

 

Best regards

[Chewbacca]

Shouldn't have criticised the fwd fuselage fit.  The aft fuselage fit is shocking.  I lined the upper faces up together and that left a step at the bottom of nearly 1 mm.  And if you line up the top two panel lines, none of the others align so will need filling and rescribing.  To think I believed it when a friend at our local model club said that the fit on Trumpeter kits was generally very good!

 

No more updates from me for a couple of days - got to go away on business for the rest of the week so no work on this after tonight until the weekend..

[Chewbacca]

After much sanding and rescribing, I think I'm almost there with the rear fuselage join although there still appears to be a slight bump as you transition aft even on the upper surface and I thought I had that aligned.  I'm hoping once it has some extra dark sea grey on it it won't be too noticeable! 

 

Got the wings fitted and they didn't go on too badly so I'm almost at the point of masking up the cockpit and wheel wells for the first coat of primer.

 

Now here's a question for those more knowledgeable than me.  The kit is going to be modelled on the deck and so it is natural to expect a plethora of remove before flight tags.  Yet I cannot find any photos of Seahawks with RBF tags fitted.  I've only found a couple with a intake blanks fitted.  Were they not used in the mid-50s?  Assuming they were, does anyone have any information of where they might be fitted?  I'd be expecting at least pitot head, static intakes, rocket safety pins, ejector sea safety pins etc.

 

Thanks

[Chewbacca]

After considerable fiddly masking around the undercarriage bays it was finally time to give it the first coat of primer.  I looked at trying to mask around the engine exhausts but quickly realised that it was nigh on impossible.  So despite all that effort about 3 weeks ago getting a nice finish with Alclad, I ended up having to re-prime over the top.  It should be easier to mask around them and respray the Alclad once everything else is complete.

 

 

Still a little filling to go around the fwd fuselage join just below the cockpit and at the wing root.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Chewbacca

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Chewbacca 

I am sorry for your loss. 

Great progress on the Seahawk.  I have just started one of those too. I look forward to seeing your model with paint  on. 

Keep up the good work. 

All the best 

Chris 

[CliffB]

My condolences too, to you and your family Chewbacca.

 

Your Seahawk is looking very nice - it is a beautiful plane though

[Chewbacca]

Thanks both for your thoughts. 

 

First coat of sky airbrushed.  Hopefully in this weather I might be the second on tonight as well and can then start masking for the EDSG

[Chewbacca]

I knew there was something that I would forget to do!  Brought the Seahawk in from the spraybooth to start masking for the EDSG and remembered Tom Cleaver's review on Modelling Madness when he reported that the fuselage Suez stripe decals don't fit and that you should spray the stripes first.  Bu**er.  My hat goes off to Tom for managing to mask around that complex jet pipe area and still get the stripes straight.  After over an hour, there is no way that I can get anything that vaguely resembles vertical.  Then I thought I would try another tack and cut the decals from the sheet and dry fit them to see how they fit.  Initial thought is that they don't look too bad - certainly I think there's a fighting chance that they will look better than trying to mask those complex double curves.  If not then back to square 1 and will have to mask.  You've probably gathered by now though that the thing I enjoy the least about this hobby is masking.  I rarely get it right.

[trickyrich]

mmm masking lines on complex surfaces isn't fun. It might be a bit late now, but maybe you could have traced the decal strips onto some tracing paper (or something similar) then use the tracing to help mark out reference points on the fuselage. Then you just mask to those reference points, it sounds sort of complex but actually it's quite easy and it'll help give you the straight/vertical lines you're after.

[Chewbacca]

Thanks Rich, hadn't thought of that  May have to do it if the decals are as bad as Tom C reports.  Note to self - must take tracing of the decals before immersing in water!

[Chewbacca]

Okay it's back from the spray shop and I must confess I'm not overly impressed.  The curvature on the demarcation running up to the tail isn't great so that will need to be redone and for some strange reason after I contrast painted a couple of the panels in EDSG with a drop of black added to break up the monotone, the original paint reacted to the Tamiya tape and went even darker.  Will have to respray that.  Plus a little bleed through to touch in with a 000 hairy stick.  And there was me thinking I'd be adding the first Klear coat tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

[trickyrich]

It doesn't look that bad. I would be looking up some inservice photos of them to see how the paint top surfaces held up to sea life. Grey was one of those colours those colours that reacted to everything so fading and discolouration are quite the norm, even with some of the tuff finishes. 

 

Don't talk to me about demarcation lines.....I have a real love/hate relationship with them at the moment!

[Chewbacca]

Thanks Rich.  I 'm very aware of the fading issue but most of the period photos taken around the time of Aden seem to show them being in pretty good condition.  What concerned me was the quite stark straight line under the Tamiya tape that had darkened; that did not look at all realistic.  But it was soon cured with a light blow over from the airbrush as about 5 psi to blend it all back in.  Unfortunately in doing so I then also lost the contrast panels that I was trying to create.

 

So its now had 36 hrs to harden.  Next step a couple of coats of Klear and let's see how the decals perform. 

 

Meanwhile, time to turn some attention to those 3 inch rockets.  I think it was Seahawk who said in his thread they were pretty nasty: he was right.  Arguably the least representative 3 inch rockets I've seen in a long time.  But since I'm doing this in a wings spread configuration and with the Seahawk having such a low ground clearance, I think I will get away with it.

[Chewbacca]

On ‎04‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 21:34, Chewbacca said:

I knew there was something that I would forget to do!  Brought the Seahawk in from the spraybooth to start masking for the EDSG and remembered Tom Cleaver's review on Modelling Madness when he reported that the fuselage Suez stripe decals don't fit and that you should spray the stripes first.  Bu**er.  My hat goes off to Tom for managing to mask around that complex jet pipe area and still get the stripes straight.  After over an hour, there is no way that I can get anything that vaguely resembles vertical.  Then I thought I would try another tack and cut the decals from the sheet and dry fit them to see how they fit.  Initial thought is that they don't look too bad - certainly I think there's a fighting chance that they will look better than trying to mask those complex double curves.  If not then back to square 1 and will have to mask.  You've probably gathered by now though that the thing I enjoy the least about this hobby is masking.  I rarely get it right.

Should've persisted with the masking.  Tom was right, the fuselage stripes don't fit, but then neither do they conform to the complex curves either wrinkling at every opportunity.  This is the top decal that is perfectly lined up on the port side with the top of the jet exhaust and in line with the aft edge of that, yet it's at least 2mm out on the stbd side and ripped in about 4 places.  None of these stripes would slide once they were in place despite a goodly coating of Microsol beforehand.

 

Furthermore, the wing stripes don't fit especially well either.  These are lined up with the fwd end of the flaps/airbrakes:

 

I'll finish the rest of the decals tomorrow, get a couple of coats of Klear over the top and then mask again and spray the strips.  It's a shame as the other decals went on really well.

 

Edited June 17, 2018 by Chewbacca