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

[N4521U]

I hope the Chinese dinner was worth staying away from what is important!
But then I will be away from mine tomorrow, Work is getting in the way again.

 

[rochie]

amazing stuff Vic

 

[ccheese]

That interior is awesome ! Great work, Vic...

Charles

 

[woody]

Some really nice work Vic.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thank again folks for looking in.

Having finished the inside it's time to start looking at what's to do on the outside, and at first glance, a lot. First up I decided to get some of the unwanted external bumps, it seems that this machine I'm duplicating isn't a simple production run.

Having done this I started on the scratch building needed on the underbelly. No flare pods on this machine but there is a host of electronics gear and a bunch of aerials which I'll scratch up later.

 

[Wildcat]

Nice!

 

[rochie]

scratch building heaven in this thread Vic

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks Andy and Karl.

 

[Lucky13]

 

[Airframes]

Great stuff Vic - more scratch than kit, I like it !

 

[ccheese]

Very good work on the scratch building, Vic. Outta my league, BTW...

Charles

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Many thanks guys.

Moving on, it's now closed up and time to start adding some of the external PE bits.

The main ones are over the engine intakes and in front of the rotor. The kit has imprints of all these PE bits so I figure to get a good fit it's best to scrape these out and slot in the PE. Follows a series of shots showing this process.

 

[N4521U]

Yep, pretty much what I came up with for the screens on my HH-60.
I swear, this seems more like building "military" than A/C. Sure is less work in a plane. But then, these things are bigger than a bus!

Looking good mate.

 

[ccheese]

Great job on the PE. Really looks good.

Charles

 

[Airframes]

Heck Vic, it's looking the part already! Great work mate, going to be a stunner when finished.

 

[rochie]

looks great Vic

 

[Crimea_River]

Agree with all.

 

[A4K]

Great stuff Vic!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks guys for you kind words and as commented by some, it does look good but this is also where something went wrong. We all have these moment, everything is going along well, you're feeling very pleased with the results your getting and then………………………………………….."F*@#" I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT. "Damn and Blast it" or words of a similar nature more forcefully expressed.

I was checking photos of this particular chopper for all the external protrusions. The kit has bumps where they shouldn't be and also bumps that are missing. To my horror I realised that one of the PE pieces, the one that gave me palpitations was in fact "NOT REQUIRED". As a couple of you know I've been working a little in advance of my postings to the thread and it was not until last Friday that I made this heart stopping discovery.

In effect the air intake gratings on the top of the engine intakes are on this particular aircraft for some reason. As I've mentioned before this chopper was a replacement, purchased from the Royal Navy and then modified locally.

Having already spent a lot of time on this build, I knew I could not skip past this error and just let it be. So the PE piece was removed, a crude plug made to fill the hole and the area repaired and some scratch PE fitted as best I could to replicate the real McCoy.

 

[fubar57]

Excellent recovery Vic.

Geo