**** DONE: 1/48 Sea King Mk 50 – Home Country Modern Aircraft/Spitfire Marks GB

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks Terry, and your right there, I've a nasty ridge under the forward window to sort out and my window plug has miniscule gaps in the bottom corners.

Hope to post more later today.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good work Vic. Looks like you have some tricky sanding around the one filled piece with raised rivets and various bulges around it.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks Andy and I managed to sort it without too much of a mishap.

Moving on the doors were my next venture. First I applied dyno tape as a guide line around the doors before scoring and cutting with a fine saw.

Here the front door has been removed and arrowed is where I managed to scrape down a little too much plastic while sorting the window plugs. A spot of Mr Surface filler and a gentle rub back sorted this.

With the rear sliding door removed the sill had to be scraped back and a new guide rail added.

Here the rear door is shown with the replacement resin door temporarily positioned and the finished port side with front door opening and plugged windows.

The comparison of the kit steps (left) which I should add were for fitment inside the cabin on the back of the door and the detailed etched door steps (right) made up ready for a coat of paint.

 

[N4521U]

That door with the etched parts looks brilllliant. Although Crew very rarely used that door, we jumped in thru the big slider.
The closed up windows look great.

Another little story about the 3A. HS-4 was going out on ops with a carrier off the San Diego coast. Some of the electronics were not operating up to snuff and upon inspection of the aft area behind the fabric wall, at the tail, it was found some of the wiring had been cut. The other A/C in the formation on the way to the CV, some of the others found the same. All A/C returned to base. NIS showed up within minutes. The whole of the personnel were rounded up and were interrogated "downtown". Little chair, bright lights, 3 goons asking questions. Seems one of the ET's wife was doing a little hanky panky when he was gone, so he cut some non-critical wiring so he wouldn't be out on ops and leaving her to her vices. Boy, did He get into trouble. He never returned from the round-up.

Doin a great job Vic.

 

[Airframes]

Great job on the door openings Vic. I'm still surprised that a kit this size (and price!) is produced with the doors moulded closed.

 

[rochie]

great work Vic

 

[Wurger]

This is I like very much.... nicely done Vic.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks very much gents, I'm actually having loads of fun.

Great job on the door openings Vic. I'm still surprised that a kit this size (and price!) is produced with the doors moulded closed.

What a lot of work that would have saved Terry, crikey! If it had come with all the openings I could have been almost finished by now!!!!!!!

 

[Rogi]

She looks great so far I think I speak for all Canadians when I say "we'll buy your old Sea Kings from you Australia! They are never too dangerous for Canadian Pilots" I have no idea if we still have our Sea Kings in Service but it takes somewhere between 40-48 hours of service for every 1 hour of flight the helicopters log now a days :S

 

[Crimea_River]

Yes, they're still active as Peter Mckay's personal taxi service.

And NO, we won't take used Sea Kings, just like we should have thumbed our noses at Britain's bargain submarines.

 

[Wildcat]

Impressive work Vic!

 

[ccheese]

Wow ! Very nice work on the windows and door. Impressive.

Charles

 

[Airframes]

Can never understand submarines, bargain or otherwise. I mean, who wants to go on a boat which is designed to sink !!!

 

[ccheese]

Can never understand submarines, bargain or otherwise. I mean, who wants to go on a boat which is designed to sink !!!

What's wrong with subs ? I rode both the Hammerhead and the Tullibee. Extremely good duty for the single man !

Charles

 

[Airframes]

I think I'd prefer air beneath me, rather than water above me! But, each to their own I guess.

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far Vic!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks for the kind words folks and sure Igor, you guys can have what's left of our Sea King stock the RAN would love the extra $. Might help to keep the subs afloat as most of them cant swim!!

Moving on, most of the cockpit bits have been completed. This was a touch of PE (no Terry, not PE4) for the instrument panel but the rest is direct from the kit.

The instrument panel from very close-up which is Edwards older non-coloured stock.

The panel temporarily fixed to the centre consol. Was not happy with the recommended colour of the display screen. It needed a fix.

Centre console duly fixed and very close-up.

These next two are the overhead consoles. Eat your heart out Bill, my machine came with them.

Next up I'm going to attack the cabin so watch this space!

 

[A4K]

Will do... great work so far Vic!

 

[N4521U]

Screamin along there matey.........

 

[Rogi]

I love the detail on the panels keep it coming Vic

What's wrong with subs ? I rode both the Hammerhead and the Tullibee. Extremely good duty for the single man !

Charles

Charles the diffrence is that the subs we bought was that they weren't designed to stay under or over water when we got them and by the time we fixed 1 of them up it was determined that it'd of been cheaper to buy a new one :S but we still retrofitted them in style, now 1 can float but can't sink like its supposed to and we don't have a full crew compliment for here either