Airfix Westland Sea King HAR.3 1/72 'Starter Set'

[Bigkev]

Hi All,
Well the weather did me a favour and got some modelling done this morning. I have managed to get the whole airframe decalled today, the tail rotor painted black, then the red,white,red decals added to the previously painted white sections.
The tail rotor decals do not fully conform and the colours will need touching in when dry in the appropriate colours. All the other fuselage decals behaved impeccably, except the Port Side exhaust panel. Airfix have not allowed for the 'Westland Bump'. As a result I have had to cut the decal in a couple of places to get it to sit right. This inevitably left a small section of yellow where it didn't reach/conform. However after a couple of rounds of Microset/Sol it bedded down quite well, and I just need to a couple of scrap black decal sections from my spares to cover the yellow spots.
Some pictures of todays work:-

[Jonners]

The 'Westland Bump'! I've not heard it referred to as that before! I'm sure you know, but it was there to accommodate the third generator that powered the sonar kit on the naval variants. This genny wasn't present on the RAF SAR variants, so it was just a bump over an empty space.

The only time I ever saw a completely clean RAF Sea King was when I was the Valley Flight Commander and the engineers had spent a whole weekend fettling one of the cabs for a visit by the Prince of Wales. It was immaculate and looked...completely wrong. They got sooty (more so on the starboard side than the port side), grubby (especially the one that looked like someone had tried to Scotchbrite the tail section) and generally grotty (hydraulic runs were commonplace), and often the only way to get them properly clean was to use solvent. The OCU aircraft were usually the worst: when we got one from St Mawgan they always needed some serious work to look presentable. Having said that, I think the aircraft you're modelling was 'by Royal appointment' so some light sootiness from the starboard exhaust in particular would be appropriate. For an in-service aircraft, a perfect finish would be completely inaccurate!

[Bigkev]

Thanks for the info Jon. I remember our chat at the club, and had forgotten which side fared worse with engine exhaust, so your post was perfectly timed.
I won't be doing a pristine Sea King, but a slightly used one in my eyes, so some exhaust staining, some panel washes, and some streaks here and there, and wear around the tail meshing.
I hope it looks 'used' but not a flogged to death machine, though from your descriptions it probably should be to be totally accurate. 

[chriswil42]

Looking very nice Kevin. It would be a shame to 'dirty-up' your absolutely clean fuselage.

[Bigkev]

Thanks Chris.  I can now declare this one as finished. It will make it's first appearance at tonight's meeting. I will then post pictures of the completed Sea King here. I think it has turned out alright.

[kiwichappers]

It has definitely turned out alright Kev. A stunning result.

[zak]

It was great to see your model on the club night.

[Bigkev]

Thanks for your comments chaps.
Beaten into to 2nd place in the comp by Dave's fantastic ships, so no quibbles there.
I'll post some pictures of my own soon, just got back from seeing the Shuttleworth Collection in flight and I'm inspired to build something appropriate.

[Bigkev]

Thanks for all your appreciated comments. Here is a a few pictures of the completed model.

[chriswil42]

Absolutely superb model Kevin. I'm really impressed.