Westland Sea King HC4

[825]

I'm joining in with this 

 

 

Airfix's Sea King HC4. A proper 'Junglie'. It's a nice kit with 5 sprues of crisply moulded grey plastic. Though there is is a lack of rivets compared to older Sea Kings. 

 

 

 

Also a single but fairly busy clear sprue. A little different from my recent Seafires with a canopy and a couple of other small parts. 

 

 

Usual modern style Airfix instructions. A number of options in the box, the biggest being the option of a folded tail and folded rotors. 

 

 

Comprehensive transfer sheet with loads of stencils and two options. 

 

 

I'll be doing this one. 

 

 

Now for the paint. 

 

[Andwil]

I’ve never built this kit, why are there 9 rotor blades?

 

ATw

[JOCKNEY]

35 minutes ago, Andwil said:

I’ve never built this kit, why are there 9 rotor blades?

 

ATw

Ha Ha, that exactly what I was wondering !

 

I do hope you are doing the stripy one ?

 

Cheers Pat

[Col.]

Spread or folded options boys  

[825]

 

On 6/28/2020 at 9:52 AM, JOCKNEY said:

Ha Ha, that exactly what I was wondering !

 

I do hope you are doing the stripy one ?

 

Cheers Pat

Going for the plain one Pat I don't think I've the patience for the stripey one. There is an end date to the GB remember. 

 

On 6/28/2020 at 9:15 AM, Andwil said:

I’ve never built this kit, why are there 9 rotor blades?

 

ATw

 

On 6/28/2020 at 11:07 AM, Col. said:

Spread or folded options boys  

@Col. has the answer, there's a folded blade option provided. 

 

Theres now some paint on. I started the interior parts with Medium Sea Grey which Airfix suggest but it's too light and too grey, there should be a bluish tinge according to the photos I've seen. A trawl through BM suggests that Westlands used Dark Admiralty Grey so I've gone over the MSG witH that and it looks better. 

 

 

I put a coat of Revell's NATO Olive onto the exterior as I thought it would be about right I'm not so sure. I've used it a lot for seat cushions and my deck tractors and it seemed quite a green shade but when it's over the whole side of the airframe it has a distinct brown tinge to its olive. 

 

Therefore, I did a little test with these four. A second coat of Revell 46 Olive, Citadel Death World Forest, Revell 361 Olivgrun and Akan Olive Drab. 

 

 

The paints are in the same order and the Olivgrun looks the best match to my untrained eye so that's what we'll go with. 

 

[825]

Ive done a bit more painting including all the major parts. Partly as I hate masking and partly to speed tings up eventually. The Olive green does look pretty good and the silk finish gives just the right amount of sheen. I hope it's good enough for the transfers. 

 

[825]

Some work on the interior. I plan it to be OOB apart from some harnesses for the pilots" seats. There's a little more to do before it's complete and ready to be inserted into the fuselage sides. I've dry brushed some Aluminium paint on the floor but I think a bit more is needed around the door area. But that can wait. I've followed the instructions for the front end of using Humbrol 85 which is a satin Coal Black. I think it's a bit too shiny and possibly too black. I'll have a think about whether I should tone it down somehow. 

 

[Col.]

I'd say give the Coal Black a good dry-brushing with matt black then some greys to give wear and highlight effects.

[825]

53 minutes ago, Col. said:

I'd say give the Coal Black a good dry-brushing with matt black then some greys to give wear and highlight effects.

Thanks Col, good idea. I'm thinking that for my next one using matt black and then dry brushing first with Aluminium to give a bit of wear and then Klear to give a sheen. That's something great about being on BM; always great advice and help, as well as learning new stuff all the time. You're suggestion is great and I'll use it to tone the coal black down. On the other hand it looks ideal for the tail rotor and all the rotor gears. 

[825]

Ive taken @Col.'s advice and distressed it somewhat, including the rear section with some dry brushing and it's both dulled and lifted it a bit. I'm waiting for the seats to dry before adding some belts, then I'll get going again. 

 

[modelling minion]

That looks much better after the drybrushing, very nice work.

[Tim Moff]

Looking nice - seems I have a 'dit' regards most of the UK/US mil helos in this GB....

 

Spent a lot of time in Junglies, best crews about. Had a mishap in 1 though, we were so heavy we could not lift from the Mull of Kintyre so the Navy Crewman shoved 2 blokes off, allowed the aircraft to lift, hovered just off the ground whilst they climbed back on....no seat belts on, no life jackets, bergan rucksacks packed to the front. We struggled off and made our way out to sea towards the Ark Royal...the the old fashioned alarm bell rang....the crewman explained that we had lost an engine and we were returning to the beach for an emergency landing...the Navy flew single pilot....crewman was v calm....we were not, remembering the loss of ZA294 in the South Atlantic with the loss 19  22 SAS Regiment badged and attached soldiers, 1 x RM crewman and an RAF FAC. 

 

We braced as commanded and we slammed into the ground. I remember thinking at least we are not in the water, but then waited to see if we going to roll over....thankfully we didn't, pilot shut down, just some damaged undercarriage.... we then  awaited an RAF Chinook to arrive, jumped on and carried on our way to Ark Royal.

 

Thank you to that pilot and crewman!

 

Anyway will watch along, apologies for the hijack story...

 

 

[825]

Interior now finished. I added some seat belts from painted Tamiya tape. 

 

 

[Col.]

Everything looks good in there

[Jabba]

The interior is looking very good.

[825]

Now the interior is inserted and the cabin roof attached. The roof also acts as part of the upper body at the front. 

 

 

The airframe is closed up and it all went together well. Care was needed to ensure that the mating surfaces were clean and free of paint as is usual with Airfix now. The assembly is a little unusual with a fair amount of individual parts building up but it didn't cause any problems apart from a very small potential gap on the underside of the tail boom which needed pulling together with some tape. 

 

 

[825]

A bit of cleaning up of a couple of joints was needed. Smoothed off and repainted. 

 

 

All the remaining transparencies masked using an Eduard mask set. 

 

[825]

Work has been going on bit by bit, the paintwork has been tidied up on the parts that needed filler, the transfers around the sponson supports added and the sponsons glued on. These took a lot of trimming to get a fit, though to be fair the trimming was in the holes and pegs, not the parts themselves. A few of the sticky out bits added, and there are quite a few. The tail rotor has been painted with a strip of red at the end and at the base of the blades. 

 

 

The canopy is also on. And the fit was beautiful, not like the nightmare of the older moulding of the AEW. 

 

 

Probably ready for transfers soon and that will be a bit of a marathon I fear. 

[Jabba]

Looking very good.

[desert falcon]

Starts to look like a proper Sea King 👍 

[825]

Now with added transfers. 

 

[825]

I seem to be doing a lot but not really getting anywhere. The airframe is done but I've still to sort out the air intake, the rotors, wheels and aerials. Finished for the day with the door on. 

 

[Tim Moff]

On 7/19/2020 at 3:27 PM, 825 said:

A bit of cleaning up of a couple of joints was needed. Smoothed off and repainted. 

 

 

All the remaining transparencies masked using an Eduard mask set. 

 

 

 

Cool stuff, gotta love the old Junglies....I've some great pics from Ex Purple Warrior, I just need to find them...

 

Can I ask what paint you used for the green area on the glass -  is this standard on most Helos?

[825]

6 hours ago, Tim Moff said:

 

 

Cool stuff, gotta love the old Junglies....I've some great pics from Ex Purple Warrior, I just need to find them...

 

Can I ask what paint you used for the green area on the glass -  is this standard on most Helos?

It's Tamiya's Clear Green. It's not easy to use brushing on as it dries almost immediately so you can get streaks if you go over it again. I tend to use a minimally charged brush and work in quick but careful strokes. As it dries quickly another coat can be added about an hour later. The more coats the darker it gets. 

[Dads203]

6 minutes ago, 825 said:

It's Tamiya's Clear Green. It's not easy to use brushing on as it dries almost immediately so you can get streaks if you go over it again. I tend to use a minimally charged brush and work in quick but careful strokes. As it dries quickly another coat can be added about an hour later. The more coats the darker it gets. 

If you can find the Tamiya branded retarder for acrylic paint, it will transform the brush abilities of Tamiya paint fella. It’s not very expensive and I found my jar on Amazon. It really will help.