a Sea King in a USAF Uniform

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Hello!

 

When I started my MH-3E lengthy build, I purchased a CyberHobby SH-3G to see if there was some pieces I cab retrieve from that one to put on the other one, specifically the rotor head and the canopy. When I opened the box, I changed my mind, scratch built the poorly shaped part of the Whirlybird kit and keep the magnificent Cyberhobby kit as it is for another build.

...and here I am! 

The kit is truly a masterpieces, except for the inner details in the cargo bay and the row of seats which are far too small, for liliput passengers. The rest of the kit can be done OOB, for a pretty fair result.

 

To stick to my theme, I made some researches and discovered that USAF used their own version of the Seaking, dubbed "CH-3B", a variant of the US Navy SH-3A with all the ASW gear removed, new radios etc. The type was used to supply the offshore "Texas Towers" a chain of Early Warning radars mounted on oil-rig style platforms. The system had short life, as one of them collapsed during a storm with the loss of all crew.

 

Let's start with the build: The interior. I had two solutions: 1/ some photos I found on Internet showed the cargo bay configured for transporting passengers, with a cushion-like coating, as found on civilian SeaKings.

2/ let the cargo bay as atypical military aircraft, showing all the inner structure. Having no idea nor solution to reproduce option 1, I decided to go for option 2, more easier for me. So I put some details into the two fuselage halves, and strangely CyberHobby forgo the roof. I had to make one from scratch, and add all the frame inside the cargo bay:

 

 

To respect the variant, the front window on the left side is removed.

 

 

The tricky part is to calculate the shape of the roof, to match the other half fuselage when it will come to glue the whole fuselage. 

After all details made, the result is painted USAF interior gray, with all cables and ducts painted as seen from the photos of SH-3A interior:

 

 

Next step: building the passenger's seats. 

 

 

 

[heloman1]

Great start...

 

Colin

[Mark]

Wowsers!! 😍

[HOUSTON]

PATRICK FR,

Outstanding  start to a beautiful Sea King.

I'm looking forward to seeing it in USAF Uniform/ colors.

 

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

On 19/02/2023 at 13:00, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

Hello!

 

When I started my MH-3E lengthy build, I purchased a CyberHobby SH-3G to see if there was some pieces I cab retrieve from that one to put on the other one, specifically the rotor head and the canopy. When I opened the box, I changed my mind, scratch built the poorly shaped part of the Whirlybird kit and keep the magnificent Cyberhobby kit as it is for another build.

...and here I am! 

The kit is truly a masterpieces, except for the inner details in the cargo bay and the row of seats which are far too small, for liliput passengers. The rest of the kit can be done OOB, for a pretty fair result.

 

To stick to my theme, I made some researches and discovered that USAF used their own version of the Seaking, dubbed "CH-3B", a variant of the US Navy SH-3A with all the ASW gear removed, new radios etc. The type was used to supply the offshore "Texas Towers" a chain of Early Warning radars mounted on oil-rig style platforms. The system had short life, as one of them collapsed during a storm with the loss of all crew.

 

Let's start with the build: The interior. I had two solutions: 1/ some photos I found on Internet showed the cargo bay configured for transporting passengers, with a cushion-like coating, as found on civilian SeaKings.

2/ let the cargo bay as atypical military aircraft, showing all the inner structure. Having no idea nor solution to reproduce option 1, I decided to go for option 2, more easier for me. So I put some details into the two fuselage halves, and strangely CyberHobby forgo the roof. I had to make one from scratch, and add all the frame inside the cargo bay:

 

 

To respect the variant, the front window on the left side is removed.

 

 

The tricky part is to calculate the shape of the roof, to match the other half fuselage when it will come to glue the whole fuselage. 

After all details made, the result is painted USAF interior gray, with all cables and ducts painted as seen from the photos of SH-3A interior:

 

 

Next step: building the passenger's seats.

CyberHobby provided a row of very little seats to fit into the cargo bay, so I replaced them by making my own. The challenge is to glue them at the right height, for the legs to touch the floor. Before that, I have to glue both halves of the fuselage (Yeeppe the roof matches !) and add the seats upside down:

...and finally glue the floor and bingo it matches! 

 

Once done, the hull is also glued and now the kit is easy fore the cockpit details: the seats are redone, the one provided y CyberHobby correspond to a SeaKing late version, more resistant to crashes, the left pilot rotor lever put in the right position (left side not ringside as indicated by CyberHobby, some holes drilled on each side of the front which are very visible through the canopy, and add a separation on the rear left side behind the left pilot seat.

 

Then I need to tweak the fuselage by erasing some bumps and lumps from the SH-3G version to stick to the CH-3B, more "clean", add some devices, do some riveting (the SeaKing is, like all old helos, full of them) and add some grids as well. To be noticed, all the grids on the rotor fairing are not present on the -3B variant, and the grids of each side of the engine cowling is shorter.

 

 

After that, the sponsons: the wheel wells given by CH are too shallow, so I decided to scratch build them to make them deeper. Also, the floatation bags are sanded and removed, they are not on the CH-3B (strange, these SeaKings flew long distances over the sea to reach the Texas Towers!!!). Then CyberHobby (like others) instructs to directly glue them to the fuselage, which is incorrect: In reality the sponsons are bolt-on and can be removed, which let a gap between the fuselage and the sponson's strut:

To do this on my model and to keep the sponsons rigid enough to support the model on its legs, I have decided to drill holes into the fuselage and the struts, put a little metal tube in each holes then glue the result to the fuselage by letting a space.

 

 

...Once done, before sending my Seaking to the paint workshop, I worked on the very fine canopy, adding the inner support, the top consoles with their lever and painting in transparent green its upper part:

 

I chose to paint my Seaking with a "Texas Tower Supplier" scheme, basically as were the US Navy SH-3A, Gloss Sea Blue with red (or Orange Dayglo) nose and tail. Interestingly, from the few color photos, some CH-3B showed a red nose, close to the USAF "Arctic Red", others in Orange Dayglo like this one (unfortunately the pix is blurred so the BuNbr unreadable):

 

The result of the painting shop was disastrous: for some strange and odd reasons, the nice clear canopy had few ugly deep cracks, which were impossible to remove, even after a careful sanding. The only option was to remove it, vacuform some, which I did but, after tenth of trials, I was unable to glue the resulting vacform canopy, whatever glue used to the fuselage!!! 

So here I am, CyberHobby is silent on my SOS call to get a new one, and I am brutally stopped in the building process of my SeaKing...Any idea ?????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 19/02/2023 at 13:00, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

 

 

 

 

[AlxBNE]

Sad to hear the project stalled.

Especially after the amazing work you did on the interior.

The seaking cabin roof is a pain in many of the kits available but you not only got it looking right you super detailed the exposed wiring etc to perfection.

I hope you find a good solution to the canopy problem so we can see what you do with the exterior as well.

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Hello Happy Modelers!

 

After long trials and failures, I finally sorted out the canopy problem I faced during the pait shop preparation work of my Sea King.

 

Getting no response from the fabricant for a new canopy, I decided to vacform one, an adventure for me used to vac form jets canopies, simple. During the process, I experienced two problems:

1/ The transparent plastic I used, coming from supermarket packaging reacted weirdly by becoming totally white. So I turned to what was available here in Abu Dhabi, thin transparent 24x36 PVC sheets from stationary which were OK for vacform...but way too thin, lacking some rigidity. However, having no other solution, I did tenths of them to have a good-enough final canopy.

2/ Gluing the Vacform canopy using "normal" kit glues, even Cyano, was impossible! I finally selected  two-component epoxy resin, very carefully put on the kit and the canopy. After some time it (almost) worked.

 

Last but not least, with the lack of rigidity of my new canopy, I elected to keep the upper part of the original canopy which was not damaged and glue the Vacform lower part to it. As a conclusion, I am not totally satisfied with the end result but this is it, to avoid a pricey kit to go to the bin. the bright side of it is that now one can see the perforated plate inside the cockpit, both side, which was not the case with the original piece, too thick. 

 

 

After having solved this annoying step, I painted the model. USAF Sea Kings had several paint schemes during their life, from standard US Navy blue to overall aluminum, then finally light grey. As stated above, my project is to represent an helo used to supply Texas Towers, because they are the most colorful.

Having no Gloss Sea Blue in my stock nor Dayglo, I mixed HU-77 "Navy Blue" with a little drop of black and finally the result, at that scale, seems OK for me for the Blue. However, the Dayglo nose and tail color was more challenging and finally I decided to use a bright orange with a drop of red, which seems to do the trick:

 

 

 

Having painted the model and sprayed some gloss varnish, it's time for the beast to have legs. The CyberHobby L/G are very basic and are inaccurate so I scratchbuilt my own, adding the nice DJPARKINS PE which really make the difference. Wheels are coming from aftermarket (RESKIT), the Kit's one are OK but also basic. Also, the CybberHobby L/G fits too low inside the sponsons, which I corrected with my new L/G. Her his the result:
 

 

 

 

 

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Hello! Back to work on my Sea King, I finally assessed that the Gloss Sea Blue was not the good choice, especially by closely looking to the few photos I have. After some deeper researches, I found that these six machines (three "borrowed" to the US Navy and three bought from Sikorsky) were coming from the early model HSS-2/SH-3A production line. So Sikorsky painted them originally in FS 36076 - Engine Grey, which explain the difference of the blue colors of the USAF roundel and the overall color in this poor quality photo:

 

 

Consequently, I carefully sanded and removed the Gloss Sea blue and painted the model with a mix of HU 79, 77 and white (60-30-10%), because IU found the Humbrol FS 36076 way too dark and not blueish enough. 

Here is the result:

 

 

 

I started to put the decals, all the little white markings and numbers come from the decal spare box, the USAF letters are painted. I think that the overall result is quite convincing, next phase will be a salty weathering before adding all the other details (doors, antennas, etc...)

[Johnson]

2 hours ago, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

I think that the overall result is quite convincing,

I agree, looks very good.

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Hello Everybody! 

 

I have almost finished the whole fuselage of my Sea King, by adding all the small (and big) details: antennas, fuel vent, tail rotor and left access door. I used, for that one, the DJ Parkins PE, which needs to be tweaked a little big because made for for the Fujimi kit. The weathering is light, photos show pretty clean helos. I put some RBF and covers in front of the engine intakes, exhaust and pitot tubes as I wish to show the helo on the ground with folded rotor blades.

 

Next, the main rotor, a lot of work to be done, the kit one is quite simplistic and needs all tubes and wires. The real stuff is very complicated, a true challenge for me! 

 

Thank you for watching! 

 

 

 

 

[HOUSTON]

Patrick, 

So glad that you overcame your problem and carried on...

Your model looks EXQUISITE  and your   workmanship is EXEMPLARY.

I like it. Its very impressive  to look at.

Bravo.

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

8 minutes ago, HOUSTON said:

Patrick, 

So glad that you overcame your problem and carried on...

Your model looks EXQUISITE  and your   workmanship is EXEMPLARY.

I like it. Its very impressive  to look at.

Bravo.

Thank you so much for your kind words, this adds more motivation to finish this kit. The hardest part just starts now, I will post some steps while building the main rotor.

[AlxBNE]

1 hour ago, PATRICK FROM THE SANDS said:

Thank you so much for your kind words, this adds more motivation to finish this kit. The hardest part just starts now, I will post some steps while building the main rotor.

Your work so far is superb. I especially like the interior which is detailed to perfection.

Very impressed by the rescue job on the canopy and the change in paint colour has resulted in an even better result.

Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the rotor head...... I suspect I will learn a few useful hints for future helos.

Thanks for sharing. I will follow with interest.

[stevehnz]

I hadn't caught this thread before but pleased to have done so now, some very nice modelling on display here Patrick & some great problem solving going on. I do like the look of what you have got so far, it is very convincing. 👍

Steve.

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

17 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I hadn't caught this thread before but pleased to have done so now, some very nice modelling on display here Patrick & some great problem solving going on. I do like the look of what you have got so far, it is very convincing. 👍

Steve.

Thank you very much Steve, not easy to have a fairly accurate replica of these helos as the photos are not plenty...next test will be the main rotor, hope I will pass it! 

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

Hello Everybody! 

As promised, some info about the modification of the Main rotor of my Sea King in blue uniform. 

This is a true challenge, as there is so much to do! The kit parts are, (as usual in that scale for most of helos kits) quite basic: two main parts, plus five blades attachments. Strangely, Cyber Hobby has omitted to give the main connecting rods to the rotor blades but has, hopefully, given five "articulated attachments" to display the model with the blades folded. We'll see that later.

First step is to enhance the swash plate, then to scratch build each of the five main blade "roots" mechanism which include many connecting rods, weight etc..(sorry my rotor vocabulary is very poor); CH has represented this in plain plastic, not nice...

Then, to have a flavor of what's to come, I glued the rear blade attachement and add as much as I could the wires and cables which seems hundreds... This is how the real stuff looks like and what I want to achieve (maybe...). Unfortunately the aftermarket doesn't offer any PE or resin kits to represent this. 

 

 

...and this is where I am:

 

 

Next, the "articulated" blade attachments, which are wrongly moulded by CH. 

 

Thank you for watching! 

 

 

[Galligraphics]

Fantastic detail on that rotor head, Patrick. I have just found this thread but shall be following from now on.

 

Nige

[AlxBNE]

Love what you have done with the rotor head so far. Is the plan to have the blades folded?

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

4 hours ago, AlxBNE said:

Love what you have done with the rotor head so far. Is the plan to have the blades folded?

Thank you much! Yes, this is the plan, folding the blades. I finally rejected the kit option to do so because the way they did it is unrealistic, so I have to scratchbuild each blade folding mechanism, time consuming! 

[AlxBNE]

Ah ha! You have my admiration, support, empathy and sympathy !!

I haven't tried the cybermodel kit but I am a huge fan of the Sea King in various scales and I have never been happy with any of the rotor heads on offer and have on my work bench an HC4 that will have folded blades but......not sure yet how to make them look realistic enough to make me happy.

Once again I am going to sit back and watch what you do and learn.

[junglierating]

This is looking fab and unusual....meanwhile my OCD is kicking in with some minor technical details which dont affect the work.....the electrical connection below the cabin door is the refuel point ...same on all varieties of Sea king except HC4 ....it moved because of the larger footstep.secondly the APU vent is the spill for the cabin heating ....better get a grubber to check that but still Sea king dont have apu ....power came from.flashing up Port ECU and putting it in to acc drive.

 

Sorry to be pendantry ...but im sure you might want to know.

 

BZ on the build so far

 

 

[Alan P]

Superb rescue work on the canopy. After all the extra detailing in the cabin it's great to see your work progress.

[PATRICK FROM THE SANDS]

1 hour ago, junglierating said:

This is looking fab and unusual....meanwhile my OCD is kicking in with some minor technical details which dont affect the work.....the electrical connection below the cabin door is the refuel point ...same on all varieties of Sea king except HC4 ....it moved because of the larger footstep.secondly the APU vent is the spill for the cabin heating ....better get a grubber to check that but still Sea king dont have apu ....power came from.flashing up Port ECU and putting it in to acc drive.

 

Sorry to be pendantry ...but im sure you might want to know.

 

BZ on the build so far

 

 

Hello! 

 

Thank you much for the compliment and all those precisions, shame on me not to have used the correct terms... and double shame, as a former military helo pilot son, I should have checked before writing!!! 

To go to bed less stupid than before waking up, can you tell me what "OCD" and "BZ" mean??? 

[treker_ed]

@PATRICK FROM THE SANDS can tell you OCD "Obsessive Compulsion Disorder" - psychological disorder that has you repeatedly doing the same things over and over for seemingly no reason (to outside observers), for example checking if a door is locked even if you have just come through it and locked it, and then checking it 4 or 5 times (but there other more extreme forms of the disorder). BZ can't say.

[Alan P]

1 minute ago, treker_ed said:

BZ can't say

Bravo Zulu is a short semaphore code for 'good job' or 'well done' 😊