Boeing P-8A Poseidon, 11SQN RAAF

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I will be resurrecting this build from last year's Maritime Patrol GB

 

 

I got hung up with the weapons bay and figuring out how to hang the doors.  Still some external details to add like the weapon pylons and various sensors.

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Ray

Great to see this one making a reappearance, more power to your elbow sir !

Cheers Pat

[PhantomBigStu]

Good to see this reappearing, not least as my smaller version from the same GB never made it 

Edited June 2, 2020 by PhantomBigStu

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

After my dabbling with a couple of of other shelf queens builds that are now on the display shelf it is time to dabble again with the P-8. I had put it a side as there was a lot of fiddly parts to be made up.

 

It started with 17 (I only actually needed 16) hinge brackets for the weapons bay doors, I had to figure out the basic shape and then adapt it for my weapons bay. I made up the first to get a general shape and then began to copy them. Then the doors were lined with an inner sheet of styrene card and the hinge brackets attached, they will require some tidy up before the doors fixed on for good. I might run a riveting tool over them to break up the blank space.

 

Then it was onto the various shaped sensor blisters on the lower fuselage, I also started to reshape some kit supplied blobs that had no real resemblance to the real MWS sensor fairings. Basically one of each done the others to do

 

The flap actuator fairings were cleaned up and some putty applied and then installed onto the wing

 

And a finally a test fit of the outer weapon bay doors which will need the hinge brackets adjusted to get the correct angle.

 

So some more exiting filing and sanding to make up the remaining sensor blisters, now that this part is almost over I again wonder why I did not just get onto it and get it finished earlier

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Some time consuming progress to report.

 

Next up were the wing weapons pylon mounting pads, I made them out of card and had to fit them so they were parallel to the ground making the (to be made) pylons perpendicular to the ground when the aircraft is on its wheels.

 

and installed

 

I have also attached the MWS sensors which were reshapes from kit supplied resin lumps, I think they need a little more work to get the shape right

 

and finally a size compare with a P-3

 

[PhantomBigStu]

Good work so far, on the mounting pads assuming you’ve got the references as the ones on the 1/144 resin set I used on my (failed) bid last year are shaped quite differently, nice to know as I’ve have to scratch them and the pylons  if I make a 2nd attempt 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Thanks Stu,

 

Yes I have been referring to a lot of underside pictures, I have got the shapes pretty close, they might need some more minor refinement, once the pylons are on you won't see too much.  I have seen a 1/144 build by a chap at our club and the mounts supplied in the conversion he used looked simplified, just like a lot of the parts in the this kit that I have had to rework.

 

Link

[CliffB]

Nice work Ray, with plenty of 'lumps & bumps' to keep you happy 

 

Cheers 

[Learstang]

Excellent work! Compared to the massive bomb bays on the Shackleton and the Nimrod, that on the Poseidon seems little more than an access panel to me!

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Thanks guys, I am cleaning up some scribing work at the moment, time to get this one rolling again.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Some more progress, the poorly done re-scribing has been filled and sanded and I have gone over most of the model to remove any rough areas. It it time to sort out some missing detail and start final assembly, I have added the engines and filled gaps

 

And started the process of correcting the NACA shaped intakes on the lower fuselage, Welsh's portrayal is not much like the prototype

 

And because I can't work on one model at a time, hear is a shot of the active builds on the bench

 

 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Next I grabbed the kit antennas and gave them base plates

 

and added some detail on the lower fuselage in the form of other antennas, vents and anti col beacons

 

and finally started to figure out how to fit the main wheels and doors in the closed position

 

[Mjwomack]

That's very impresive work indeed- awestruck

 

[Col.]

Having not been paying enough attention to what's happening in this GB I've missed all your updates but that's really nice progress on this one Ray

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Thanks Col,

 

I have been getting stalled on little technical issue with this one, slowly sorting them and I realised I need to drill more holes for yet another two doors just behind the wing roots, so another update will be on its way soon.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Slowly closing to the finish line, I spent yesterday morning adding a couple of more vent doors behind the wing root, tidying up some scribing and adding more antennas on the lower and and upper fuselage.

 

Primed

 

Post prime filling

[Col.]

Nice progress Ray. With the Poseidon entering RAF service I'm sure your project will be of inspiration to a few of us looking to add one to our own collections.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I am finally inspired to finish this off, I suppose it was after post on the Welsh Models Facebook page of a chap adding the weapons bay to his (not as far along as me) I decided I would get this finished. I took it down from the shelf to remind myself how far along it was

 

After the last prime some more filling was done and that has been sanded off.

 

I have also been adding more detail as I have been seeing it

 

Including the the front and rear walls of the weapons bay itself. The first bay door has been installed and needs some clean up once the glue dries

 

I am now looking at the weapons pylons and modding some Hasegawa MK46 torpedoes to MK54s (or closed enough)

[vppelt68]

Nice to see you're still working on this one! That's a truly impressive looking aircraft. V-P

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Leading edges and other bits painted and masked

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

The build is being continued here: