1/72 Sea King - take two - FineScale Modeler - Essential magazine for scale model builders, model kit reviews, how-to scale modeling, and scale modeling products

Raven Morpheus

Member since
February 2013

1/72 Sea King - take two

Posted by Raven Morpheus on Friday, September 26, 2014 1:09 AM

Hey all

Just posting another build log.

Last night I got bored and assembled the 1/72 Fujimi Sea King I've had lying around since I bought it for detail parts for my 1/72 Jolly Green build. It's the only thing I currently have in my stash that doesn't require me to buy paints/decals or parts for...

I'm now at the stage where I need to paint the interior before I join the two halves of the fuselage.

It's missing some bits of the interior and other areas, especially the cockpit which is not present, because I robbed those parts for use on my Revell 1/72 Jolly Green build, and I've had to use the rotors from said Jolly Green build as I used the Fujimi rotors on that, in hindsight I think I shouldn't have bothered doing that.

Apart from that though this Sea King looks OK so far.

Well, except that I have made a bit of a mess of the side windows, as per usual. I just don't seem to have much luck with clear pieces.

I will be painting it and decaling it as per the box art with the decals provided, so it'll be a US Navy SH-3H in white/gull grey. I have all the paints I need, as far as I know, but my yellow for the band on the tail might be a bit too yellow (the same one I used on my other Sea King build) - I can't find a match for Gunze H24 in the Vallejo ranges.

Progress pics, dry fit seems to be OK, I get the feeling I'll have a few gaps to fill around the air intake, FOD shield, canopy, and little stub wings that go between the fuselage and the sponsons. There's also a couple of sink marks on the struts, out with the Mr Surfacer 1000 I think -

Weapons. I actually have no clue how to paint or attach these, I'll have to read the instructions further.

Tail roter, taken from the Revell Jolly Green

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Raven Morpheus

Member since
February 2013

Posted by Raven Morpheus on Thursday, October 2, 2014 10:02 AM

Small update.

I started seam filling with Mr Surfacer and painting the white coat today.

My seam filling seems to have gotten a bit better (thanks to some UMP Thinny sticks and buffers), but I think I've overdone the Mr Surfacer around the engine intake a little. I think I need to sand down the sides a little more where the join is/was.

I've also had a problem with my Vallejo White, it didn't seem to want to cover over the grey of the Mr Surfacer very well and I've had to put down several layers...

...and I've run out of said white with some layers still to put down in places where it's not covered the Mr Surfacer! Grr!

Anyhoo here's how this bird looks so far -

So far so good, I'm happy with this build at this point...

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Raven Morpheus

Member since
February 2013

Posted by Raven Morpheus on Sunday, October 5, 2014 1:29 PM

Did some more of this helo today, and I'm nearly finished it.

I ran out of good light, so couldn't take any pics to post.

However, whilst this has been easier than my other Sea King (both kits are easy to build, it's the paint that gave me problems on the RAF SAR build I did with the Revell kit) I'm not 100% happy with this build...

I don't know how old this Fujimi kit was but the decals seemed to have been a bit yellowed on the white parts whilst I was applying them, and they were a pita to get off the backing and to apply. A number of them, including one of the big Navy and "bars and star" decals, split up when applying them, a couple I managed to save but there's a few that just wouldn't cooperate so I've had to make as good a job of them as I could!!

...and as I came to apply the decals I noticed from the instructions that I've missed off a few bits on the underside, so hopefully I can paint those, attach them, and not need to do any filling...

Also I'm not overly happy with the paint on this build either. The yellow band on the tail was again a pita to do. The Vallejo Yellow I've got seems to be thinner than it should be and I just can't seem to get a good level/smooth/even coat of it, even on a small band as on this helo.

The grey I've used for "Light Gull Grey" FS16440 isn't correct either, but it's the best grey I had, my other two are either too dark/too green or too blue. I had to put a coat of each on the helo before I settled on the grey I have used, so I ended up masking the helo 3 times in succession because I took the tape off each time afterwards and then decided the colour was wrong!

However, despite all of the above I am happier with this build than I am my other Sea King.

Just those few parts I missed from the underside, the main/tail rotors, wheels and a final coat of Future to paint and I'll be finished on this one.

Will post pics in due course.

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Raven Morpheus

Member since
February 2013

Posted by Raven Morpheus on Thursday, October 9, 2014 5:33 AM

OK here's those progress pics -

I note that one of the numbers along the bottom seems to have moved out of place at an angle, didn't notice that when I applied it, and it also seems that I didn't get the right hand decals at the same level as the left hand decals in some cases, or I painted the grey colour higher up on one side than the other! Grrr!

I also seem to have a problem with getting dust and general grub sealed into my coats of Future whilst it dries/cures. Happened on my other Sea King also. Grr!!

The black paint seems to have run on the tail wheel, I will have to tidy that up, and I also need to paint the floatation devices on the sponsons in a darker grey/black colour.

And...

...on one of the windows you can see where I've left on the masking tape I applied to mask the windows off to paint the inside black. Seems I forgot that window before sealing up the fuselage. Doh!!

Still have some parts to do and I need to apply a matt varnish layer. I'm sure Navy helos are not gloss.

I will also be making my own decal for the black masking that goes around the engine exhaust on each side. I can't understand why model companies decal sheets (i.e. those who produce the kits) never give you that part!?! I would do it freehand, but I tried that on my other Sea King and it went badly wrong. A decal would be much nicer and more helpful I think.

Coming into autumn here in the UK though (rainy/overcast days have already arrived in my part of the UK), so light is at a premium, more so than usual in my house which doesn't have great light for painting at the best of times, but I plan on buying a daylight bulb and sticking it in the ceiling light above where I paint, that should help and hopefully I can get this finished this weekend and move on to other projects...