We Three Kings...

[Head in the clouds.]

20 minutes ago, andyf117 said:

Apart from XV651 apparently still morphing into XZ570

🤔 Still not sure what is going on there Andy,, I shall have to see if I can edit it.

 

22 minutes ago, andyf117 said:

..the picture sequence doesn't match the description(s) - no nose panel visible in this pic, but it's in the one above?

Yep...bang on the money, a slip of the editorial finger.

 

33 minutes ago, andyf117 said:

Or is it the current lack of vertical grilles on the front corner of the engine housing

Strangely neither the Airwaves external for Revell  PE set or the Eduard for Airfix PE set seem to have this grille on them so I need to get creative.

 

52 minutes ago, andyf117 said:

I'm not counting the inner framework protuding into the door area - that's a simple fix.

😓 phew, the door will be shut now so I would assume they need to stay to locate the two part door as they ae part of the kit mold.

 

36 minutes ago, andyf117 said:

PS: Third undernose spotlight needs adding...

Was not aware of a third undernose spotlight, there are not many underside views of ZB506, the only one I can find is this, is it the white spot in the centre between the two dielectric panels?

 

I was not thinking of four misdemeanours Andy, I am now standing at the back of the classroom with my head hanging in shame.😉

 

 

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Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...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

1 hour ago, andyf117 said:

XZ570 got mentioned earlier on from your previous build as the Kestrel test-bed - it is a similar Platypus look to XV651!

I think next time Andy I shall build one at a time🙂

 

1 hour ago, andyf117 said:

ou've mentioned an Airwaves set for the same area back in post #62 - guessing that was for the old Airfix?

Indeed, the other two are missing that very obvious item, strange indeed.

 

1 hour ago, andyf117 said:

retractable landing light

I have just looked at the hull and I can see it, engraved into the plastic. A little hollowing of the plastic and I shall use one of the spares from the XV651 ( yipee!) build to better represent it. 👍

 

I know it is a long way for you but are you going to SMW?

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Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...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

This thread has had more resurrections from the dead than Status Quo, well....nearly, this being the second.  Had a busy time since my last post, some family stuff, getting ready for our display at Telford and being host to this winter bug for 4 weeks during which I felt like I had been pulling buses up mountains all week. With things calming down I actually felt like doing some modelling today so here is a quick post of todays proceedings.

 

Having not sat at the bench for a while with  my 3 Kings I lined them up to refresh myself with where I am up to with each, I decided to try and get them all up to the same build point

 

Looking at ZB506 I noticed the engine bay and the grilles on said bay. Strangely, Eduard missed the vertical grille on the left bay, supplying only the two small triangular sections as shown in the instructions. Bit of a glaring oversight and not what I would expect from Eduard.

 

With this in mind I had to find something to represent the vertical section of grille and the best I could find without spending more money on extra PE sets was to cut down one of the mesh grilles used on the later box type air filters which I have no use for on this build. So out with the knife;

 

and fitted accordingly;

 

In the absence of other options I will take this as Ok.

 

Now onto XV651.

With XV651 being an early Sea King all the extra bits that grew on the HAR3A needed to be shed so I put the hull section on a diet, after which filler was used to repair any new holes in the hull and this is where it all went south. Why did I do it? Why oh why. To move things along a bit quicker with the drying of the filler I left the hull section on the radiator thinking it would be Ok as the heat is not too aggressive.......wrong! When I came back to it it had warped and shrank but I did not know by how much until today.

 

 

The warping can be sorted by gluing it down in sections but that will be of no use as the tail wheel locater is not where it needs to be. After putting the hull on a diet I am now going to binge feed it. My plan is to cut the hull in half just after the sonar hatch, fit a bridge support to the inside of the hull, fix both sides down in the correct position and infill with plastic card. No wonder my builds take so long, I basically do them twice over. Anyway, that will be my next job so until then,  tatty by.

[Pete in Lincs]

Good to see you back and that you've survived the lurgy.

[andyf117]

Aaargh! But panic not over that hull section, all is not lost - it has warped, yes, but it has not 'shrunk', it just looks like it has because of the warpage...

....and even if you can't restore it to it's original shape with some judicious use of a hairdryer/hot water etc., then you could ask Airfix for a replacement...

[OutcastJoel]

Ooh that sucks. I am sure you will sort it out though. 

 

And once it is done it will make a better story!

[Head in the clouds.]

On 11/18/2019 at 9:24 AM, andyf117 said:

but it has not 'shrunk',

Oh how I wish that was so Andy, no matter what I tried I could not get it to fit satisfactory, especially in length. Once  cut it in half there was a gap of 5 mm so unfortunately it had shrunk  but no worries, I hope to post a little update later this weekend. 

I just can't seem to build much modelling momentum at the moment so everything is in dribs and drabs so thanks to one and all for hanging on in there.

On 11/18/2019 at 9:40 AM, OutcastJoel said:

And once it is done it will make a better story

It will indeed @OutcastJoel but not a story I want to revisit again......🥴

[Head in the clouds.]

At last, bag in the hot seat, and with no further ado;

The time has come to cut the hull in half and see what is needed to correct my foolish, never to be repeated mistake. The cut was made about1cm aft of the sonar buoy opening;

To try and take out some of the warp I clamped the two halves overnight;

When offered up to the fuselage both sides of the hull where warped downwards at the point of the cut and toe inwards.

 

To try and get around this issue I fitted 4 little pillar supports to the underside of the cabin floor at the point of the cut to give (a) support and (b) something extra to glue to, although I failed to take a pic, sorry. The hull was then glued from the front going aft about 5cm at a time,this allowing me to try and straighten out the twist and droop a section at a time. After all was fixed we had this;

 

As can be observed, we have a gap, no big shake though, a piece of Evergreen fixed in place and plenty of Green filler gave a satisfactory result;

 

After that little episode I thought I would go for something a little different so I turned my ham-fisted attention to XV371, and in particular, the appendage under the nose as seen here;

(Copyright FAST Museum)

I do not know what it is but I do not think it is a mount for other items, probably an electronic sensor of sorts but next time I am down the FAST museum I shall try to find out.

It consists of 2 items attached to the underside of the nose by a motorised shaft which I assume will rotate it.

To make this I simply made up blocks of plastic from Evergreen flat stock, filed,scraped and chiselled until I had it. I don't think you want to see photos of layer upon layer of card but I have a pic of the nearly finished article;

 

Once I mount it I shall see if my measurements are correct and it is the correct size. Both items took some trial and error, adding or removing material as needed.

 

Whilst XV371 was in my hands I noticed a few omissions, I noticed the little humps in the airframe that were missing or wrongly moulded, see this pic from earlier;

 

Left of the window are two little humps, there should be three, also, to the right of the window is a moulded on disc( near the edge of the pic). There should be two here also, they can just be all seen in this pic;

 

These have now been added, a little piece of plastic fixed to the airframe, I am continuing to whittle away at them until I feel they are the right size, at the moment they are a little to prominent;

 

You may also notice that while I have been hacking away at this kit much of the raised details, rivets and panel lines had disappeared so I smoothed off the whole airframe and re scribed the main panel lines, the rivets, well ,I don't think you could get a good scale effect so I will be leaving them off, for better or worse!

This pic tells another story, in my keenness to chisel out the hand/foot holds I made them too large so this was rectified thus;

 

These will be sanded down and repeated on t'other side. ( yes, the pics in the wrong order again)

Last up today is the crew door. I have decided to have ZB506 with an open door so as to use some of the etch that would otherwise not be seen.

I built up the etch steps/door;

 

The top piece of etch was fixed to the door and the door then split.

When I offered up the top section of door with the etch attached to the kit door it looked way to thick;

 

The etch was removed and the door sanded down to a more respectable thickness, not perfect but much better, I did take a pic this time but not sure if you can see any difference, there is about a 50% reduction, trust me!!!.

 

Thanks for looking in.

[andyf117]

12 hours ago, Head in the clouds. said:

When I offered up the top section of door with the etch attached to the kit door it looked way to thick;

 

The etch was removed and the door sanded down to a more respectable thickness, not perfect but much better, I did take a pic this time but not sure if you can see any difference, there is about a 50% reduction, trust me!!!.

Along with a 50% reduction in port side windows, and removal of the orange seat cushion covers!

Was that upper door etch supplied as a single piece? I've got a set that has two sections to be laminated, with a clear film sandwiched between them...

 

Nice save on the underside, though I still don't understand how it appears to have actually shrunk, and only in one dimension in the process...

....undernose gubbins is looking good - have you got details of the things fitted each side of the nose? I'm guessing they're probably cameras...

 

[Head in the clouds.]

10 hours ago, andyf117 said:

Along with a 50% reduction in port side windows, and removal of the orange seat cushion covers!

Was that upper door etch supplied as a single piece? I've got a set that has two sections to be laminated, with a clear film sandwiched between them...

 

Nice save on the underside, though I still don't understand how it appears to have actually shrunk, and only in one dimension in the process...

....undernose gubbins is looking good - have you got details of the things fitted each side of the nose? I'm guessing they're probably cameras...

Nothing gets past you Andy!

When you have a flight of Sea Kings on your bench it is easy to pick up the nearest(and wrong) one, it was only for illustration anyway so no harm done.

 

Thanks, it seems that styrene shrinks although I did have some filling on the sides but nothing too outrageous. I have some pics of Sea Kings with the attachments to the side and I, like you seem to think they are cameras but a close-up clear pic would be nice.

 

The etch is the Eduard set and the top part of the door gets 1 peice of etch while the bottom section is replaced in it's entirety by the etch item which is why I had to put the upper section of door on a crash diet so neither stood out like a sore thumb. No clear film is suppliedwhich is a pity as it would have saved much time sanding and polishing.

 

 

[andyf117]

2 hours ago, Head in the clouds. said:

The etch is the Eduard set and the top part of the door gets 1 peice of etch while the bottom section is replaced in it's entirety by the etch item which is why I had to put the upper section of door on a crash diet so neither stood out like a sore thumb. No clear film is suppliedwhich is a pity as it would have saved much time sanding and polishing.

Shame that they didn't do the same in the set for the Airfix kit as they did for the Revell:

[Adam Poultney]

This is looking good. Like a helicopter build every once in a while, I need to do one one day....

[Head in the clouds.]

20 hours ago, Adam Poultney said:

I need to do one one day....

Or 3 Adam🤔

[Adam Poultney]

1 hour ago, Head in the clouds. said:

Or 3 Adam🤔

Don't tempt me......

[Head in the clouds.]

I noticed almost immediately at the start of this build that the dear old Airfix SH3D was showing it's age, being about as old as myself , so I know how it feels, some things do not seem to be the same shape as when we started life. The point in question are the exhaust ports on the side of the engine bays, they are missing some styrene( not sure if it was a short shot) on the sides and they also extend into the top of the engine housing and when seen in plan it is very obvious. The pic below shows what I am talking about;

 

As can be seen I have started to try and correct this, making an insert from thin Evergreen, shaping to to fit inside the opening and glueing into place. I was hoping one day it may fix itself but after kidding myself for months I just had to jump on it and have a crack at sorting it;

Once both sides were done I then started to build up the top of the engine bay with Mr Hobby 1000 filler, a process that is still ongoing. I us this because being semi fluid it has a degree of self levelling but you have to be careful that it does not run to far down the sides. Another bonus is it can be wiped away or removed with a cotton bud soaked in Mr Hobby Levelling thinner for those hard to reach areas. This is where I am up to;

It looks awful here but it should all clean up nicely and improve matters. With this filler, being deep-ish, it does need time to cure and harden.

 

Flipping over to ZB506, the two over scale aerial antenna shown here are now gone, being replaced in the future with wire;

 

I thought it was maybe time to get the transparencies masked and the green-ish colour panes sprayed. For the first time on a build I used some pre cut masks. They worked well but I had a running battle trying not to get more on my fingers than on the model;

 

 

I only had one pack of pre cut masks, but can you tell which is has them and which has my own home baked masking effort?

 

Come to think of it I can't tell....

 

Anyhows, one of the biggest jobs on these builds is fast approaching so I really needed to apply some time as to how I am going to get Brexit the job done.

XV651 was the testbed for what would become the Lynx/Seaspray combination that has worked very well in past conflicts. I only know of 3 pictures and 1 artwork of XV651 in this configuration so I do not have much to go on, my main aim is for it to look right rather than being too dimensionally critical, however, I have sent a letter to those nice folks at Leonardo UK (Westland to you and I) asking for anything they may be willing to supply me. BUT, I need a plan B.

To this end I have been using the Warpaint plans and my meagre supply of research material to come up with an approach to this problem.  After an hour and a half of measuring and erasing I came up with this quick hand drawn pic to illustrate my thoughts;

 

It is not to scale but it should be in proportion( more or less).  Section A/A derives from a line of rivets shown on the Warpaint planes, I know they can't be trusted 100% but I gotta start somewhere.  This line correlates to pics where the new modification is fixed to the airframe so I am assuming this to be the first airframe member, please correct me if I am wrong, but it would make some sense to fix here if it is.

My initial thought is to transfer these details to a scaled pic, always being mindful of checking for consistency,then building a frame from Evergreen and fixing thin plastic sheet in sections, filling any gaps then sanding to finish. There is not a hope in hell that I can work out the contours on paper( using Primary school maths 😉) and make it in one piece so I think my Heath Robinson method may just work.

 

First plastic has been cut for this excercise, can you remember the first few pics, one was of an old Frog boxing of the Lynx prototype and it came with 2 nose cones. I needed the Navy radome but on looking at it seems all is not what I had hoped for. I was going to simply fix it to the new airframe but it is the wrong shape, it is more or less flat on the lower aspect and looking at the pics the radome fitted to XV651 has a more equal taper. Bugger. See here;

 

Compare to the drawing above and you see what I mean.

 

My next cunning plan was to fix the two half's together and fill with CA so I have a solid block to form to my desired shape. Well, that was the plan, the reality was that the CA did not set as it was too deep, not even with accelerator, so I dug out all the CA and using a Dremal type tool removed any that had dried. Not being ready to throw in the towel I went old school. Get glass jar, mix 1 part styrene tree to 1 part thinners and leave overnight at room temp. We ended up with this;

 

A nice mix of plastic that will be poured into the nose and left to set, thereby giving me a solid block of plastic to shape as I please. Will it work, I have no idea but it is worth a punt.

 

See you next time time when I shall have the results of this little experiment.

Thanks for looking.

[andyf117]

Proper old-school modelling!

[Pete in Lincs]

Good to see these three kings back on the assembly line!

[Head in the clouds.]

22 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Good to see these three kings back on the assembly line!

Indeed Pete, whether or not they end up looking like Sea Kings is another matter😁

[Head in the clouds.]

After a somewhat indifferent Christmas due to pain and plague I am back up and running and realising that this year is the same as last. I spent nearly 2 hours last night on an update only to see it disappear into the ether, something that no doubt has happened to us all.

I managed to get some time in on Thursday and a good day on Friday at the bench so some progress has been made.

One of the first jobs was to close up the cockpit and fit the glazing to ZB506 and XV651. With the glazing masked up the transparencies were fitted and while they presented no real problems I did feel there was room for error both earlier in the build and at the point when the transparencies are fitted. If the fuselage and cockpit area are not perfect this will present itself when trying to line up the 3 separate pieces, I had a couple of minor issues, some down to my own doing but a one piece item would have been nice, some however maybe like the 3 piece set up...horses for coarses I suppose.

Anyway, they were both fitted although I forgot to take pics I am sure you can picture it in your minds eye.

One pic I did take however was the side door.  On the bottom right of this door is what looks like a bracket for a guide wheel that should sit in a runner, after looking at many pics I could not see this bracket so off it came. It can be seen in this pic;, bottom right on the door;

 

And fitted;

 

While fitting the transparencies I used some of these for the first time and I thought they worked well but I will not be rushing out to buy a set for every kit I have, I think tactical buying will be the order of the day;

 

The last job I did before being struck off for Christmas was correcting the exhaust ports on the old Airfix kit (XV371), when I last left it I had used filler to build up the top of the engine bay, this has now had a couple of weeks to harden and after a sanding session it started to look much better, the exhaust port did not protrude to far into the top of the engine bay as they did before, While it is not perfect I feel it has improved it and that is a step forward;

 

And this was before;

 

That is it for now, I am doing smaller updates for a while and another will follow shortly.

 

Cheers.

[andyf117]

51 minutes ago, Head in the clouds. said:

That square lump adjacent to the window needs to come off too, Gary - it's something only seen on late HC.4's, as far as I can tell (as was the triangular protrusion you've removed)...

[Head in the clouds.]

Back on the update trail, not long before Christmas I thought I had a cunning plan to get the Seaspray radar radome for XV651 started, well, start it did but it did not end well. After poring in my home made plastic concoction I left it to set but set it did not, for 2 weeks it remained soft in places until a couple of days ago and we ended up with this;

 

Now I don't know about you but using prunes as a modelling medium probably isn't going to end well. The problem me thinks was in the thinner I used, rather than a cellulose or lesser thinner I went for Alclad airbrush cleaner.....I know, I know, another 'why oh why did I do that' moment. It melted the tree in no time but in my haste  I did not let it stand for long enough to let some of the thinner evaporate and poured it in one go and if I had my brain in gear I should have realised that what it did to the tree it would do to the plastic.

More experimentation needed.

But I am not giving up on it, I shall fill the outside with filler, build it up and see if I can still sand to shape, I do have another from a second kit but do not want to use it at this time so this little job is on the back burner, which is not a bad thing as it will give me time to see if those nice folk at Leonardo UK reply to my request.

 

Moving forward, the time was coming to spend some time on the undercarriage/sponsons and struts.  The 2 modern Airfix kits should present no issues but the older kit has some issues, some of which I have already addressed, now it is time to look and the u/c leg and sponson struts.

 

Last time I left it I had inserted a brass rod in the bottom of the u/c leg after first removing the axel support for the wheel assembly;

 

 

What I now had to do was work out how much of the brass rod needed to be removed.....non, as it turned out. Allowing for the wall thickness of the removed axel mount and the depth of the axel on the wheels this left me with 3.5mm, so a piece of brass tube was cut to length and slid over and secured;

 

 

Sorry for the fuzziness, I can't even blame the fine Ruby Port just my poor photographic skills. I did not notice until now that there is no aerial on the port sponson so while I had them in my hands I thought about doing it. I found a piece of PE that was not need and it fitted the bill almost perfectly;

 

A slot was cut to receive it;

 

And fixed;

 

What are the chances of this still being in place in 6 months time? I think that will pass in 1/72.

 

With that done it was now the strut that demanded attention. When I looked at the struts more closely I noticed, when compared to the current offering, that the old kit item seemed undersize so donning my Dear Stalker hat I investigated.

On the superb 'Tailhooks' site it shows that the SH3A had smaller struts than the SH3D so it may have been possible that Airfix followed the early style;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L-P9BjjHiNc/UT4anJ9uJpI/AAAAAAAAEwM/LKtXs-vhGdo/s1600/SH-3+Sponson+Strut+Comparison.jpg

Not satisfied I measured what lay before me using my old Vernier Calipers.

SH3D   width=2.2mm   length=17.4mm  1:1 scale =158mm ( just over 6" in old money)

HAR3   width=3.5mm   length=22.4mm  1:1 scale =252mm ( 9.9")

 

6" seems pretty flimsy to me for the job it has to do whereas nearly 10 inches would be more like it. The only drawing I have of the Sea King is the Warpaint 3 view in 1/72, these measure approx 3mm, which does not help and I am mindful of the errors that are in these types of drawings. So as a last comparison I used the Mk1 eyeball, the old strut was put with the new sponson and vice-versa;

 

That confirms it to me, the old strut is way under size yet the new one looks much more to scale, and if anyone is wondering, yes, I measured both sponsons and they sing the same tune, both being 37.7mm in length. If any Sea King gods would like to correct/enlighten me please do if I am wrong, everyday of life is a day in the classroom after all.👍

 

Now I had to correct the mistake that had been waiting for me to find it for 50 years.

 

Twp pieces of Evergreen plastic flat stock were cut to length, I have to admit here that the length was some measuring but mainly gut feeling, time will tell if I was wrong.

Using the HAR3 strut as a pattern;

 

Taking measurements off the newer item the outline was marked in pencil on the Evergreen;

 

The next half hour was spent carving and sanding creating the basic shape and the aerofoil of the strut itself;

 

The top part of the strut is thicker and has a taper on it to sit flush on the side of the airframe, this was achieved by cutting and fitting a small square piece to each strut greater than the size of the kick at the top and sanded to match;

 

Some minor clean up and I am happy with them (as long as they fit!)

 

The old strut was put to good use as I now had a large locating hole in the sponson that I no longer want so the old strut was glued in it's place ready for cutting and sanding to match the sponson shape;

 

Zb506 has had it's sponson fitted, these presenting no problems. After looking at pics of the HC4 strutt where the strut meets the airframe, it is fairly smooth at the top but more ragged at the bottom so some filler was applied to smooth it in at the top as can be seen here;

 

 

 

Bit of a clean up and refill if necessary and we are good.

 

Some of you( yes @andyf117 😀) may have noticed that the PE seems to be fitted where no mention of it has been made, with three almost identical airframes to do I thought it   lazy prudent of me to just fit it as I go and only mention it if it is of interest or offers any resistance. 

 

That for now is the sponsons done, next up is fixing the sponsons to XV371 and XV651 to do, that will be done after the nose modifications have been finished.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Head in the clouds.]

1 hour ago, andyf117 said:

That square lump adjacent to the window needs to come off too,

Thanks Andy, I never even noticed that.

[Head in the clouds.]

While I have been beavering away my mind wandered to the base plate for the HAS5 Searchwater radome. I looked in my spares box and found a retractable radome from a Fairey Gannet but on closer inspection it was found to be too small. Bother. So I put out a request to the BM family and I was rescued by @andyf117 who sent me this little gem;

Thank you Andy.

For my purposes it is going to be cut just above the second panel line and filed level as it is only the base plate section I need. Dry fitting it looks good, only a little filler is needed around the contour of the airframe;

 

This was fixed in position and a measurement of the outside diameter taken, this was the size of the disc needed. For this job I used a simple circle cutter which did the job, the inner circle was cut out using my punch set from my can making days;

 

This tool comes in very handy and seems to match many of the requirements I ask of it, glad I liberated it when the place shut down. Anyhows, I have no measurment for the inner circle so it was a case of judging it from the few photographs I have of this item. So, hole punch out;

 

My next idea was to mark out the disc into quarters and then each quarter into thirds, again, I had no hard measurements or pics of sufficient detail to draw upon so went with my best guess. Each line had a score run down it, my hope was that I could apply light pressure to the middle of the disc and create a shallow angle. However, trying to get an even angle did not work so I thought how about cutting it in half;

 

This allowed me to cone it out a little as I had planned;

 

As can be seen, I have only done the left one but the angle is very shallow. Dry fitting the two halves highlighted another issue, where the two halves meet there is now a small gap, too big for what I want;

 

To get around this I simply removed a tiny triangular slither from opposing sides to close the gap up. It worked a treat but to be honest this whole idea was seat of the pants stuff as I did not know if it would work or not.

Once fitted I needed to fit a ring around the top of the base plate, for this I used my thinnest flat plastic and bit by bit wrapped and glued it a section at a time;

 

That plastic trim looks way too thick but in reality is much thinner. The last job was to measure the small hole and using my old school punch set knock out another disc and fit into place. A little clean up needed but I am happy with the result, I really thought this was going to be a problem area but it went well in the end;

 

I have no pics of the real thing but there is one on Airliners.net, type in Westland Sea King and it is pic 188....if you want too, it gives an idea of what I am after. This site does not allow direct linking hence the prompt. Talking of which, I have noticed of late that some of the pics I have saved from internet searches no longer load properly, ie, blurred, or the link takes you to an error page. Once upon a time these links worked fine, are more sites stopping direct linking because if they are it seems like shooting oneself in the foot?

 

This brings me bang up to date, hope you like it so far.

 

Cheers

Gary