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The brief:

Take the cheap Italeri Merlin HM1 I picked up at one of the stalls at the Birmingham IPMS Show a couple of years ago and attempt the heavily varied colour effects seen on most of the Royal Navy's Merlin fleet after nigh on twenty years in service

 

 

The aircraft entered service in the Medium Sea Grey scheme and over the years various panels have needed repairs or replacement which resulted in a large number of versions of the Grey all over them

Much of the variation might be down to issued touch up and respray paints having various property changes in service, maybe some didn't get as mixed up as they should and maybe different manufacturers supplied 'off spec' paint

Who knows?

 

But the effects of the colour changes are visible all over the Merlin fleet, possibly on the Lynx/Wildcats too

 

I have not looked into their colours

 

Yet

 

Any road up, this is what I was looking for...

grey10.jpg

 

Pretty and intriguing for me

 

So I present for your critical eyes, with much help from Scimitar and Pinky Coffeeboat and many other helpful friends

 

ZH847 of 814 Sqn NAS

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The Un - Italeri details you can see dotted around are mostly thanks to kind efforts of Richard who sent me lots of pieces of etch and resin bits and later moulded alterations from redundant (I hope!) Revell kits which have far better detail added to the original Italeri mouldings

 

The cabin interior has its sonobouy launcher and ready use racking inside and also the sonar winch assembly has been scratchbuilt and added

 

The exterior Defensive suite has been scratchbuilt and popped onboard too as has the starboard side mounted FLIR Wescam

 

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Slight change of perspective

 

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More

 

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I hope you like it, I rather do

 

Thanks for looking

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That's a top result!

You've managed to pick up the subtle variation in greys you were after. It certainly looks the part. Never seen a Merlin up close, but the Royal Australian Navy and USN choppers I've seen on various ships definitely have that same look. 'Aftermarket' equipment scabbed on too. They must take a hammering from salt and weather.

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The gaffer seems to agree Tony, she made me put it on its little bread board stand on the sideboard surrounded by the trophy collection

 

:)

 

fame at last

 

After years of 'playing with little bits of plastic rubbish'

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1 hour ago, perdu said:

I hope you like it, I rather do

I certainly do. Stunning job there Bill. I need to get onto one of these myself!

 

Terry

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I managed to miss your build thread when it started, then when I found it I was way too late to catch up. Anyway: boy, you know your stuff about them 'copters! :worthy: :worthy: Impressive job! :clap2: :clap:

 

Ciao

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Excellent work Perdu, enjoyed this build :)

 

As to why the Merlins are many shades of grey (or many shades of green), I have been told it's because of the differing finish from the multiple material types used throughout the airframe.

 

Merlin_Airframe_Material.jpg

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Wonderful finish Bill.

I thought there was some masking tape on the side window.

On 4/15/2019 at 12:34 PM, perdu said:

 

P1140381.jpg

Then I saw it was just looking through to the other side. 🤣

 

Bravo sir. You have come up trumps yet again. 😀

 

Johnny.

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Ii am still not happy with my chaff and flare blocks so I have mounted the units empty for now

 

Thanks for liking the Merlin, I became more of a fan during the build 

 

👍

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