Sea King HAR3

[depressed lemur]

Hi Guys n Gals.

it has been quite a while since I posted something on here, so I thought I would post up something new.  Two reasons, first I need a bit of a KUTA as I seem to have stalled quite a bit recently and I thought that having to keep posting would help me move faster than my usual pace similar to an asthmatic ant with a broken leg. Secondly I want to have this ready for Telford to show on the Training Aircraft SIG table.  For this build I have chosen the new Airfix Sea King H.A.R.3 which I will be showing in the colours of 202 sqdn. as one of the four airframes assigned to the Sea King Training Unit (there goes the training link).  As a happy coincidence, the airframe I intend to do is the same one which is currently residing at Hendon and I recently took a few photos of for a walk around which will give me some references.  I have tried to source the serial number and 202 badge locally, but plan B will be to print my own.

 

With no more ado, on with the show.

 

First up is the obligatory box shot.

 

Yes, this is the starter kit, but has most of the decals I need. I do not think I will have all the doors etc. open so do not intend to go to town on the interior.

 

Speaking of which, the first hour was spent knocking this little bit together.

 

Normally I paint as much as I can on the sprue, but reading reviews which suggest that tolerances are so tight that paint can affect it, I thought I would try something new.  I must say that so far I am very impressed for this kit, surface detail is good and the interior looks sufficiently busy for anyone, for the super detailers I suggest this is a very good starting point.

 

It is a bit difficult to see in this pic, but the main interior colour is a light grey with a slight green tinge.  Airfix instructions suggest that everything aft of the front bulkhead should be this colour.  I mean everything, seats, floor, walls ceiling etc.  I recall as a cadet going on a few aircraft in the eighties and I seem to recall that most had a sort of blue/grey canvas arrangement so decided to go with this to liven things up a bit.  I also decided to add a bit of scuffing near the door as I suspect that the winch-man would spend a bit of time down there and it would get a bit dirty.

 

 

That's all for the first instalment.  Thanks for looking.

 

Ian

 

[depressed lemur]

Did a little more work on this last night, and again I must say that so far I am very impressed with the build and fit, well done to Mr Airfix.  I also found just how tight some tolerances are when I fitted the windows as these needed all the paint on the fit surface removing before I could get the pieces in place.  Guess that shows my approach to the interior was correct this time.

 

But enough of the waffle (mmmm waffles...) on with the build.

 

With the interior mostly done, the instructions press on to the fuselage preparation.

 

Typical of multi use moulds there are a number of holes need drilling.  In the good old days I would have resorted to nicking one of my mum's sewing needles, heating it up and pushing it through the plastic, probably not even bothering too much about the clean up either.  Of course in these more modern times I use my simple twist drill set.

 

 

Hopefully the hole at the top is the right on .  You can also see the rather hideous colour I ended up on the interior.  The plus side is it will not really be seen.

 

The next couple of stages have you stick the interior into the sides, so far the fit is good (again), fingers crossed for the joining of the halves.

 

 

 

 

 

One last look before it disappears forever.

 

 

When closing up the halves I used the tried and trusted method of starting at the tail and slowly moving around the seam. 

 

More to follow soon

 

[heloman1]

Looking good, swift progess too...

 

Colin

[depressed lemur]

There has been a short hiatus in progress as yesterday SWIMBO insisted that I attended a wedding  just because it was a relative.  I mean, more important than modelling??

 

Well, today I managed to get back to the bench and some more progress has taken shape.  As you recall, lat time we had just seen the fuselage halves joined.  Today was adding all sorts of aerials and bit and bobs etc. resulting in a position as below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, progress has been, well, progressing.  It was at this stage I noticed a bit of a boo boo on my part.  I believe that I placed the ceiling console too far to the rear of the canopy with the end result that the final piece of the canopy was about 1mm out of whack.  A small amount of head scratching lead me to believe that buchering both the bulkhead and the overhead console would do the trick.

 

 

 

 

 

It may look a bit messy, but the clear piece subsequently fitted correctly.  Again, Airfix got it right, I got it wrong 

 

I think I am now about ready to start sticking some paint on this beast, so next up was about two hours of therapeutic relaxation, otherwise known as masking.

 

Much time later

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst I was playing with the kabuki tape I thought I would try a new technique.  I decided that I want the matt black sections to be done with paint rather than decals, so i thought I would try to make my own masks based on the decals.  My first thought was to remove the decal and apply to the tape allowing me to cut out the shape.  Fortunately, just before I did this, a new idea struck me.

 

 

 

Stick the tape to the decal sheet and cut round it.

 

et voila

 

 

 

not too shabby.

 

We shall see how this works later.  On the plus side, I still have the decals as a plan b.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Terry1954]

Nice and speedy start there. I love a good Sea King build!

 

Terry

[depressed lemur]

Thanks Terry 

[Terry1954]

Also forgot to say, I like the mask cutting technique!

 

Terry

[depressed lemur]

Hi Peeps,

 

First of all I would like to apologise for the lack of progress on this build.  I, unfortunately spent a few evenings at the local hospital looking after my dad (you know, getting decent food, providing reading material, videos, and generally being there for him.  I am please to say that a) he is much better and finally home, and b) I have managed to look at the Sea King again.  There has not been much in the way of progress since the last post, but the final masking has taken place.

 

And I must say it looks quite handsome in black.

 

Unfortunately this is not to be the final scheme so some further masking has taken place before the next coat is applied.

 

 

All white does not look much better in my eyes.  So tomorrow (later today) I will be digging out some yellow paint to try to make it more presentable.  After that I suspect that some varnish may be in order before adding the generic decals.  A secondary coat of varnish before I get the appropriate squadron decals for the kit.  Only then will I find out if my dodgy masking has been worth it.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Ian B

 

[Terry1954]

This is coming along nicely I would say. I like the approach to getting a good base for the yellow. You should get some good effect from the pre-shading approach there. Fingers crossed!

 

Good news your Dad being out of hospital.

 

Terry

[depressed lemur]

Today has mainly been concerned with changing the colour of the Sea King again. Now she is starting to look a little more recognisable in a more usual yellow.

 

 

 

 

Now to let her dry before adding some varnish and decals.

 

In the meantime I have been allowed to cook tea tonight, so I have gone for the fakeaway chicken kebab.

 

 

 

Doesn't look much at the moment but improves after cooking.

 

[bzn20]

Looking good , how many coats of Yellow have you done to cover the Black ? The radar screen guy gets his own room ? It was just the screen and seat in 94-96 when I was on the prod line for the last 10 Sea Kings built including this one  XZ596. When did that happen ,anyone know ?

As for your Chicken (scared me when I 1st saw it !) How do you cook that ?  I want some !

 

PS Glad your Dad is out of hospital . Speedy recovery !

Edited September 8, 2018 by bzn20

[depressed lemur]

Hi Bzn, thanks for the comments. I only have one coat of yellow but I did mist three coats of white on first.

 

as for the chicken, i cooks with difficulty. The damn thing has fallen over twice. Mental note, next time use a potato for the base rather than an onion, should be more stable. This will be served with wraps, filling and potato wedges. I will take a pic once it is out of the oven.

[Lord Riot]

What yellow did you use?

 

Anyone know if a Sycamore, Whirlwind and Wessex would all be identical yellows?

[Bigdave22014]

It's a bit late now (sorry) but a good base for painting yellow is actually pink!

See @The Spadgent's BF109 build. 

 

[Harry_the_Spider]

Watching with interest. Just bought this and the Xtradecals to do the Royal Navy SAR version, after having driven past one outside RNAS Culdrose about a dozen times over the last two weeks.

[bzn20]

51 minutes ago, Lord Riot said:

would all be identical yellows

I always thought they were but you know what thought did !

[bzn20]

24 minutes ago, Bigdave22014 said:

actually pink

After a bit of use,  they all look a bit Yellow with greyish/black ingrained tinge

[ejboyd5]

Here's a conversion I did well into the last Century following an Alan Hall article to replicate one of the first Sea King deliveries to the RAF (prior even to the introduction of the engine intake shield).  The picture is included to show what was required to be added back then by the model maker compared with what is now standard equipment in the kit.  If I remember, the domed observation windows were made from an Airfix clear plastic stand.  I'm so impressed with the parts in today's issue I might have to try again some 40 years later.

[Jonners]

5 hours ago, bzn20 said:

The radar screen guy gets his own room ? It was just the screen and seat in 94-96 when I was on the prod line for the last 10 Sea Kings built including this one  XZ596. When did that happen ,anyone know ?

On the RAF Mk3 and 3As the radar operator had his own little cabin (the 'radshack') which was there to eliminate glare on the original cathode ray tube radar screen. It had a roll-down fabric door and a similar window blind, all in shiny-ish grey vinyl-type material.  It wasn't so necessary once the radars had been updated to have processors and TV-type screens (that happened on the Mk3s with the FLIR camera upgrade in about 2004 or 2005), but the radshack remained as a fit. The RN SAR aircraft didn't get the processed radar mod and, as far as I'm aware, latterly didn't have a radshack - just the old CRT display. Incidentally, the Portland-based Heliops aircraft also don't have the radshack fitted.

 

3 hours ago, Lord Riot said:

Anyone know if a Sycamore, Whirlwind and Wessex would all be identical yellows?

Don't stress about yellow shades on RAF SAR aircraft. There were significant variations between aircraft, and some had several distinct shades on different parts of the same airframe.  The starboard/right side of the Sea King always picked up more soot and grime than the port/left side - it was almost impossible to get them properly clean, and absolutely impossible to keep them that way!

 

Jon

Edited September 8, 2018 by Jonners

[depressed lemur]

The yellow I used was Tamiya gloss yellow X8, mixed with X20 thinners. I am hoping that the morning will see varnish going down and the main decalling.

 

Tea tonight was a success with the kebab thing in wraps.

 

 

 

 

 

More work tomorrow

[perdu]

I understand the yellow on the RAF aircraft is BS 381c 356 Golden Yellow, presumably the colour stayed the same when BS4800 came in

They 'look' the same on colour chip cards to me

 

The HAR3 kit looks to be a very nice one to build, I'm trying to get up the nerve to tackle my HC2 which has some slightly different 'runner frames' in its box

 

Did I get that right Hendie

 

 

 

 

 

Edited I like your HAR3 ejboyd, lovely work

[depressed lemur]

Goodness me I really should get a move on with this. Over the past few weeks I have been adding decals and several layers of Klear whilst waiting for a set of decals for 202 squadron.  Today they turned up so I plowed on to get to this 

 

 

 

A little bit of waiting before I get to the part of modelling I enjoy the most.

Removing the masking.

I like the therapeutic qualities of masking a kit, and removing it is the final act, sort of coming out of a cocoon and hoping that you didn't botch it.

 

So, a little later tonight I removed the mask for this.

 

 

 

 

 

I am quite happy with the end result.  Next step, minor detail painting before sorting out the rotors.

 

Thanks for looking

 

[Jonners]

Looking good, DL. As I see you are modelling XZ596, you might be interested in these photos from my logbooks:

 

1. XZ596 aboard RFA 'Grey Rover' in Falkland Sound, 4 July 2000. Deck landing practice, as RAF crews did very little of that other than in the Falklands! I am in the co-pilot's (ie left-hand) seat:

 

 

2. XZ596 in the Peak District this time, at a place called Broadlee Bank Tor on the southern side of Kinder Scout. The photographer (the winchman!) is standing at the 1937 crash site of a Leconfield-based Handley Page Heyford; we were based there, coincidentally. I'm in the right-hand seat peering at the camera!

 

 

3. Final XZ596 pic: having said that RAF crews very rarely carried out deck landings, this one really wasn't too challenging! HMS Ark Royal, 17 Feb 2004, for a phototask off the Yorkshire coast on the occasion of the final departure of 800NAS from the ship. I was the aircraft captain in the right-hand seat. You might even be able to see a trial Harrier GR9 in the background:

 

 

If I ever find my Mk3 walkaround photos I'll post them in the appropriate BM section.

 

Jon

Edited September 30, 2018 by Jonners

[depressed lemur]

Fantastic Pics Jonners, thanks for sharing.  I must say there is a heck of a lot of exhaust staining there, not something I have noticed before on the yellow airframes.  I guess that these are kept fairly clean in the SAR role.  It is also interesting to see the undercarriage is white, as the Hendon one I have been using for reference has a mid/dark grey strut colour.  Is this unique to this airframe or were the colours changed for display at Hendon?

[Jonners]

I only remember white undercarriage legs, and the wheelbay interiors were also white (under the grime...) - but that was over ten years ago. Perhaps grey legs were fitted in the latter years, or maybe the Hendon aircraft has ex-RN undercarriage.

 

The exhaust staining was widespread across the fleet; the severity depended on the local approach to cleaning, by which I mean the amount of effort that was expended and/or directed! Some were usually filthy (especially those from the OCU, in my experience) and were very difficult to get clean as the exhaust and hyd fluid leaks combined to form a tar-like deposite that only a solvent could shift properly. It was very rare indeed to see a pristine yellow SK, and those that were cleaned to that standard didn’t stay that way for long. The starboard/right side was especially prone to soot staining. Don’t be fooled by the condition of any yellow SK in the background of a photo of royalty...😉