Revell (Hasegawa) 1/72 Lockheed P-3C Orion

[klr]

Well, this kit certainly is big, the biggest I've attempted for sometime. First released by Hasegawa in 1979:

 

My kit is the Revell 2006 re-box:

 

The kit doesn't look that complex, although such size always brings its own (potential) issues:

 

 

 

I will probably go for the USN aircraft. The prospect of hand-painting the entire airframe with two coats of paint is one of the reasons why I am allowing myself as much time as possible for this build.

 

[JeroenS]

Wow, almost half a meter of aircraft. Buy some extra brushes 🙂 

 

Good luck with your build!

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Good luck, it goes together nicely. The moulds are old so expect some flash and I would suggest reinforcing the upper fuselage seam, it has a habit of popping from too much handling.

 

I am just finishing one off (as a RAAF machine) and too far along to include it here.

 

[JOCKNEY]

Great to have you and such a Classic kit with us.

Best of luck

 

Cheers Pat 

[klr]

Ok, I've started with what should be the easy bit: The wings and engines. The fit of the nacelle parts and of the assembled nacelles to the wings wasn't that great, but nothing I couldn't handle. The instructions recommend attaching the rear exhausts after putting the wings together. As these exhaust parts are a loose fit, and easy to drop into the wing, I attached them and filled in any gaps before assembling the wings:

 

One curious thing, to me anyway: The engineering has the trailing edges molded into the upper wings. On the lower wings, this results in a join line that does not look as if it should be there, at least in certain places. Obviously, these can be removed with some time and effort.

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice start, I agree the engineering on the trailing edge of the wings (and with also the tail planes as you will find!) have seams in the most awkward places.

[klr]

On 5/29/2023 at 11:44 AM, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

Nice start, I agree the engineering on the trailing edge of the wings (and with also the tail planes as you will find!) have seams in the most awkward places.

Thankfully, I don't mind the cleanup work, it's just finding the time. Hopefully, I will resume work on this kit later in the week. I won't be going nuts on the cockpit, but the propeller blades will get a lot of attention.

[JOCKNEY]

Great to see this one underway 

 

Cheers Pat 

[klr]

The good news I have finally made significant progress on the airframe. The bad news is that there is no way I can paint and decal the thing in the week before the gallery closes.

 

Anyway, there was no need to go overboard with the cockpit, much of which won't be clearly visible once the kit is assembled. Based on photographic research. I painted the seats orange, which is not what the Revell instructions specify, although some of the older Hasegawa instructions suggest orange, IIRC.

 

 

Next up, join the fuselage halves, and immediately attach the wing assembly, which helped in keep the fuselage halves in place while the glue set.

 

The tailplanes have quite a bit of dihedral. Exactly how much is hard to say, so it was just a case of skill and judgement.

 

The one-piece windscreen slips into place, after trimming the fuselage slightly. I still used some glue just to be on the safe side. I had already put some filler in the nose for ballast, but more would have been required. I decided to not go down that route, at the kit includes a stand to prop up the rear fuselage.

 

The sonobouy bay was a far from perfect fit. Even after much cleaning up, it was still some way from acceptable. I have done more work since. One thing I am not sure on is whether the hatches should be painted a different colour to the fuselage. The instructions say nothing about this, but I am going to do more research.

 

The unusual engineering of the main wing trailing edge was replicated on the tailplanes/elevators. It was by no means clear how to clean these up.

 

 

Finally for now, the propeller assemblies. For three of the four engines, the propeller shaft was so "loose" that I didn't want to attach the propeller so that it could freely rotate. So I glued three of them in place with the blades at 45 degree angles. The only "good" engine was the inner starboard engine, so the propeller will rotate on that.

 

 

More pictures tomorrow.

[Grandboof]

Great work so far 

Martin H