This is where my collection of Microscale decal sheets came in handy. Back in the day, Microscale used to cram so many interesting subjects onto decal sheets. They could be inaccurate, they could be incomplete, but when you're a youngster and discover you're not bound to the decals in a kit, they're so exciting. I've squirreled away a few for nostalgia's sake, especially sheets for the SH-3 Sea King. The SH-3 is an old love of mine, and I have a stash of the dated but versatile 1:72 Fujimi kits. I found an interesting scheme on one sheet, dug out a Fujimi kit, and here's the result.
This is an SH-3G of HC-2 in Bicentennial markings. It was an offbeat subject, and I love Bicentennial markings anyway. This was built from a Westland Sea King issue of the Fujimi kit I bought at a model show about 10 years ago. It was molded in dark green, and you can imagine how much blocking primer I had to use. I didn't detail the interior, aside from adding seat belts in the cockpit, and didn't even bother to paint anything aft of the cockpit. I'm saving the full-on interior detail effort for one I'm keeping at home. I slid the big door open just enough to add interest.
Any Sea King model is a challenge because of all those rivets. The sponsons are molded in halves, and there's no way to get rid of that seam without destroying rivets. Having rows of rivet heads interrupted by a sanded seam wasn't acceptable, so I scribed lines where the rivets were and sanded off the rivet heads. Oddly enough, this made the sponsons look a little more realistic to me, since the rivet heads looked a little big anyway. I didn't do much else, aside from drilling out some holes in the landing gear struts, and drawing in some grilles on decal film.The markings on the decal sheet looked a little small to me, and the colors didn't look right. I also dreaded having to apply any decal meant to wrap around anything. I painted the fuselage bands and the tail colors. The stars were carefully cut from the decal sheet. The modex, serial and squadron markings were created on my computer.
Most helicopter models take up a lot of space; it's that main rotor. The Sea King has the virtue of folding up. But getting it to fold up is the challenge. I dove into the library, found reference pictures, and set to work. Brass wire, pins and super glue hold everything in place. The tie-downs on the rotor tips are brass wire, sheet plastic and Tamiya tape for a simulated canvas surface. Brass wire is fed through holes in the blade tips, super-glued down, and covered with plastic and tape. My tie-downs may not be absolutely accurate, but those blades aren't going anywhere. I made a little eyelet and attached it to the rear fuselage, and tied the tips down with very fine monofilament. This was done with considerable expansion of my vocabulary, but it got finished. The two blades hanging down the side droop more than I'd like, because I tied them too close inboard, but it's done and isn't completely inaccurate.
This is the third Fujimi Sea King I've built, the first in 20 years. And it's the first one that's really turned out the way I hoped it would. I'm sorta proud of it. Now it's off to the hobby shop for display.
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