We Three Kings...

[Head in the clouds.]

Well, the title says it all, I am mad and I am going to build 3 Westland Sea Kings. There, I have set the ball rolling so no stopping it now.

I am looking forward to this WIP as each Sea King is going to be very different from the others and following on from my very first WIP of the Marshall MA4, I now feel confident in my ability to do this and also supported by the membership of the forum to support me when needed. I decided a few years ago to build mainly British prototypes but this soon expanded to test and research airframes, the reason being that, like prototypes, their life can be short and for any given modification carried before being altered yet again or retired and scrapped. These airframes are not modelled often, for obvious reasons so I hope to reset this balance a little and hopefully shine a light on common airframes with uncommon colours or mods.

Each kit is going to be in 1/72 and will require some scratch building and inventive thinking, markings are also not common on most decals sheets and this can sometimes be a brake to the build, and of coarse the availability of research material can sometimes be no more than 2 or 3 pictures due to the fleeting nature of these airframes and what is sometimes sensative work.

 

I will now tell you what I have been babbling on about.

 

The first of the airframes is going to be XV371 which was one of the initial batch of 4 SH3D's delivered by sea in 1966 and used as pattern airframes for the Westland Sea King production, all 4 doing much test work and some having long and productive life's, of which XV371 was one such airframe. The start point will be the old Airfix SH3D kit, which is now around 45-50 years old and as such my example is showing it's age.

 

 

As can be seen from the contents above some of the blades are warped and the nose section has broken off on the lower fusalage section, add to that the vintage of the kit and while looking to be the simplest of the builds will no doubt require much work to scrub it up into a decent model. If my research is correct I should not need to do much in the way of mods as these were delivered and used as SH3D for there early lives.

Here is what I am aiming for;

Photo credit to FAST Museum.

I like the colour scheme, different and seen very little.

 

The next Sea King is going to be XV 651 while it was serving as a testbed with Westland for the new Sea Spray radar for the Lynx helicopter. This is probably going to be the hardest to build due to the new contoured section between the nose and cockpit, the transparency in the lower quarter of the nose is shorter so I will have to alter this without breaking it.

The start point for this build is 2 kits;

 

 

Not sure what happened with the picture but you get the idea.

 

This will be used as a donor for the nose, it was purchased for small change and so not a big outlay.

And this is what I am hoping to create;

https://www.flickr.com/photos/flickrway/25975832027

Image copyright of Ray Pettit

Sorry for the link but cannot seem to embed image.

This kit, being a modern boxing will have much better detail and fit but I will have some work to do just to turn it into a HAS1 from an HAR3, but, where is the fun without the adventure.

Bill, this one is for you 😉

 

The last of the 3 Kings will be ZB506, a MK4X with some substantial modifications to carry the Heli Tell optical system, this will be similar to an earlier build I did so I have an idea how to approach this but the Heli Tell will require some thinking. It will probably be in the raspberry ripple scheme and no doubt there will be lumps, bumps and aerials to research as this is a heavily modified machine.

This will be my start point;

 

Another modern kit so nice detail and here is what I am after;

Copyright FAST Museum.

 

The hardest part for me is to find internal pics for these machines, I think it will be nigh on impossible so I am not going to town on the rear cabin, I am however hoping to find the odd pic of the cockpit so I can hopefully embellish them as the bare minimum.

Again, with all three builds decal sourcing will be hard and I will print my own where possible, I may have farm this task out...we will see.

I will be visiting the FAST museum this weekend to hopefully get some more material on at least 2 of these airframes, ZB506 and XV371 so my visit is important to get that hard to find material.

That is my current plan, I hope you will enjoy it with me but please be aware, with work commitments and a wedding to plan this may not be the quickest of WIPs, I am not the fastest builder at the best of times but if you like a saga rather than a sound-bite please tag along.

 

Thanks for looking in.

[perdu]

Welcome to the SAGA club

 

I'm in and watching, enjoy

 

I'm sure we will

(I'm going to enjoy you comparing the noses on both varieties of Airfix kit, then steal all and any ideas you come up with for dealing with the er, differences)

[Brandy]

I'm in.

Not a huge helo fan, but always good to see something a little different, and how others approach the various challenges.

 

Ian

[Head in the clouds.]

On 5/3/2019 at 8:43 AM, perdu said:

I'm going to enjoy you comparing the noses on both varieties of Airfix kit, then steal all and any ideas you come up with for dealing with the er, differences)

You will never make a decent Catburgler Bill, you have just told me your coming 😁 Steal away, glad to be of service.

 

On 5/3/2019 at 2:42 PM, limeypilot said:

but always good to see something a little different, and how others approach the various challenges.

Thank you Limeypilot, hope you see plenty to fire your imagination.

 

I have had a little drive today to Farnborough to the FAST museum to rustle up some research material and I have come back with plenty so the 260 mile round trip was worth it.

 

Have to say, it is a fascinating little museum with much of interest and a good view over Farnborough airfield. The staff are wonderful and very helpful too, I had a very good trip, worth a visit if you are down that way.

[Rickoshea52]

Watching with interest. FAST is a little gem of a museum, Grantham is a long round trip to make for it though😳

[Head in the clouds.]

19 minutes ago, Rickoshea52 said:

Grantham is a long round trip to make for it though😳

Worth every minute I was sat in the traffic jam on the M1 for about an hour!

[Bugle07]

This is going to be a great project, if you need more pic's from FAST sing out as it's only a short drive away, and it's always good the have an excuse to visit!

 

Geoff 

[Head in the clouds.]

1 minute ago, Bugle07 said:

if you need more pic's from FAST sing out as it's only a short drive away, and it's always good the have an excuse to visit!

Thank you Geoff, that is very kind and I will keep your offer in mind.

 

It all started with a simple request as to whether I could use one of their images for my project and they said they had many more if I wanted to call in, so I did and I was shown into the photo library and it was like heaven for me. They are such welcoming people and could not do enough for me and like you I will be back.

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[Head in the clouds.]

On 5/6/2019 at 1:00 PM, andyf117 said:

An interesting selection of builds I shall be watching keenly..

Thanks Andy

 

We are spoilt for choice with Sea Kings, I was aware of the picture above but decided on the scheme for XV370 simply because I liked it and I was doing the Heli-Tele on ZB506 so I did not want any duplication.

I have done those girders before on my Sea King XV651 Merlin Testbed so I know what I am in for.

[Rickoshea52]

XV370...? Not to be confused with ZE370, that other stalwart of the Sea King fleet. 

[Pete in Lincs]

Gary,

You're a brave chap taking this lot on!

Drop me a PM with your address and I'll raid the spares box for Sea King bits.

I'm sure I have replacement blades for a start.

Cheers

Pete

[Head in the clouds.]

4 hours ago, Rickoshea52 said:

XV370...? Not to be confused with ZE370, that other stalwart of the Sea King fleet. 

Or even XV371 which is actually the one I am building....there you, gone to pot already!

 

2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Drop me a PM with your address and I'll raid the spares box for Sea King bits.

Thanks Pete, that is most kind, I did have thoughts of having a bath with the blades to soften them up so I could straighten them out but I like the idea of a PM better.

 

I found with my MA4 build that I started other builds when I hit a wall with something on the MA4 but these ended up taking up much time so my logic is with 3 of the same airframes much of the work can be duplicated in stages thus negating the need to start a production line of dissimilar builds sucking my time at the bench. Hope that makes sense.

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[Head in the clouds.]

9 hours ago, andyf117 said:

..so started a total of eight - and guess how many I finished? Yep, a big fat zero! 🤣

TORPEDO...STARBOARD BOW......BRACE,BRACE.........ABANDON........ cheers Andy😆😆

 

I know where you are coming from Andy , pressure is on as we all know how long a plan lasts but eight! eight! That was some target, respect for even thinking about it.

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[Head in the clouds.]

7 hours ago, andyf117 said:

neither plan survived first contact

Isn't that what the forces say about a battle plan, after first contact with the enemy any plan flies out the window.

 

Thanks very much for your kind offer, I will keep that one in the back pocket and PM you if I need them.

[Head in the clouds.]

First post in this WIP and I have managed a couple of evenings and several hours today to get off the starting blocks. As is well known from previous WIP builds the westland Sea King had several small differences to the SH3D on which it was based so I will not go into too much detail and repeat it all here, just a recap should suffice.

XZ371; After a general clean up of injector points 3 things stuck out like sore thumbs, the first being the shape of the fuselage under and to the front of the main rotor head assembly. There is a lip at the front where the row of grills sit which should not be there so that was removed to a vertical surface as on the real thing. This will allow the grill to sit flat to the airframe;-

 

Gone, a simple job but it will make life so much easier later on:-

 

All Westland Sea Kings have the bulge on the port fuselage, I think this was for a gearbox or hydraulic unit, can't remember, but this had to be made and attached so I had a rummage through the spares box and thought I could make something of this which happened to be the winch from the SH3D box;-

 

After much fettling and a generous amount of various fillers we had this;-

 

Just before this job was done I also tackled the first of the many mesh grilles that call the Sea King their home, those at the top of the fuselage behind the rotor assembly.  For this, and other jobs I raided Hannants for these handy PE packs;-

There was one bit of PE in the left pack which I just could not see on the pics I have of the Sea King that should go above the engines so I decided to cut it up and use the recycled

pieces. The airframe was drilled and the opening cut out and filed square and two little ledges fitted to support the grille;-

 

Mesh fitted and filled to finish;-

 

Something else hit me while I was fingering through the contents and it was the engine intakes, they looked like they had shrunk in the wash which will not do so I got my 2 brain cells to start talking to each other and they came up with this. take two rings that were to hold the vector thrust exhaust outlet from a Harrier kit and hollow them out, I did not know if it would work but it was worth a go. You can see the smallness of the intakes here alongside a set from the more recent Airfix offering and what I was hoping to achieve;-

 

The inlets are whittled out to shape, the old Harrier donor parts are above the finished inlets;-

 

Now the old inlets had to be drilled out trying not to destroy too much of the nearly 50 year old plastic, it was a close call, one side splitting along the whole length but this was repaired and we ended up with this;-

 

Me thinks I have just about managed it.

 

ZB506 and XV651.

 

Things have been a bit more simple here, the filling of all relevant windows, 2 on the port and one to starboard of XV651,  and 1 to starboard of ZB506.

ZB506 had the refuelling point moved further back along the starboard fuselage and XV651 having the one at the side of the door to beneath the same door.

XV370 also had the third fuel point fitted to port side. This needs reducing in size a little. Also refuelling point moved to new location under sliding side door.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The bulge is the No.3 generator to power the sonar

[Head in the clouds.]

Thanks  Ex-FAAWAFU, I had read it somewhere but could not remember. I am not an expert by any stretch on any aircraft so every little piece of info improves my understanding.

[Head in the clouds.]

Now that the windows have been blanked in where necessary I could move on with the internal detail which will be different on all 3 builds.

XV371, being an old kit and with transparencies that are, well, not very transparent, being rather thick and not particularly smooth will only have a coat of paint.

XV651, being the newer Airfix HAR3 kit has nice transparencies but I have no idea of the internal set up on this development Sea King so it will get the airframe stringers and a coat of paint. No doors will be open.

ZB506, again a new Airfix HC4 issue with nice transparencies will have the side door open and possibly the crew entry door open so will have a full internal fit out with airframe detail and test equipment in place so this will be more involved than the others.

 

To that end several hours over the weekend were gobbled up with doing the stringers on XV651 and ZB506, using Plastruct 0.5mm x0.8mm strip to end up with this;

 

ZB 506 will get more detail such as wiring, bracketry  and instrument panels as it progresses but one thing has come to light; seats. I do not have enough of them, I need five the same the pilots seat, there they are just below the left fuselage half. If I can get hold of some that will make life easy, if not they will be scratched as will the entire inside of the cabin.

This is what I have set myself;

Copyright FAST Museum.

 

Are those windows blacked out? They look like it and it would probably make sense for a test airframe. I do not know if this is XV371 when it was fitted with the Hele Tele system or ZB506 but I am fairly confident that the telemetry and test equipment would be the same, just being transferred from one to the other when the latter carried on with the programme.

 

The cockpit bulkhead is wrong for what I need, to be fair it seems completely wrong for any mark from pics I have seen so it was trimmed down and fixed in place.

Next up was the cabinet behind the bulkhead that held the ventilation unit and other magical equipment so this was also given a lick up.

The document holder was hollowed out and made to look more like fabric than aluminium and various other detail added to end up like this;

 

More soon, thanks for looking.

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[Head in the clouds.]

8 hours ago, andyf117 said:

From the width of the red stripe, I'd strongly suggest that's XV371 in the 'Raspberry Mivvi' scheme shown in #9...

Good eyes Andy, that little detail sailed right past me.

[Head in the clouds.]

First order of the day is to correct my mistake,albeit one of those mistakes which are easily rectified, I failed to fit one of the stringers to the inside of the fuselage of ZB506.

 

With that out the way and done it was time to turn my attentions to XV371, in particular the sponsons and undercarriage. As is well known the sponsons are hollow and have no detail so I set about giving some substance in the way of a well for each sponson made from evergreen sheet. There is not much in the way of detail inside these sponsons, but what I will do is to replace the plastic actuator piston for the main U/C leg with brass rod once the undercarriage is glued into each sponson:

Talking of undercarriage, some PE from the Airwaves set were fitted where the sterngthening web is located, first removing the plastic item;

 

Whilst working on the old Airfix kit I decided to look again at the transparencies and decided they are not as bad as I first imagined so with this in mind more detail needs to be added to the cockpit. First up for attention is the crew seats, the kit items having no detail so new seats had to be built, but the kit items would not be discarded, instead they were trimmed down to give me a basic canvas on which to start.

The seat and backrest were thinned down and two new sides for each seat made from Evergreen plastic. Then the drum for the seat belt was made and fixed, simple to do unlike the seat support which consists of a plate and two uprights to which the seat is fixed, these being made from brass rod and plastic. The seat cushions are made from plastic and roughed up with a curved blade, not sure if it will work but nothing to loose;

There may be two smaller rods to fit to the back of seat but I will check my pics first.

 

Turning away from the cockpit I decided to look at the grills that sit in front of the rotor assembly. I decided to remove the plastic where the PE mesh is to sit, not a problem but I maybe should have waited until the fuselage was glued together otherwise this happens;

 

 

Luckily I did not loose the missing piece so all is not lost.

 

Well that little lot has took several hours over the weekend to do, seems so little for so much effort.

 

More later.