What-If Sikorsky S-61/SH-3 Sea King WIP

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I have been working on this for quite some time, on again, off again with little to no progress most of the time.  The kit was acquired in a partially built/trashed condition from the collection of a modeler that passed away several years ago.  Not sure where Gordon was going with this model but it was in a sad state when it came home with me.  The main rotor was in a shambles and the tail rotor was destroyed so this was pretty much going to be a what-if, like it not.  Now some of you that have known me from the halcyon days of what-if modelers might recall that I had a similar situation with another Hasegawa Sea King that was eventually donated to another modeler on the forums as he had expressed an interest in the project and I was only too happy to share the idea and let him take it on.  Sadly he never did anything with that project and it may well be in a land fill by now.  That was a long time ago and my wallet still whinges about the amount of money I spent on postage to send the package off to that wanker.  Such is life. 

So having another Sea King in the stash that was off and running as a what-if had me looking for ways to fill in the void in the bottom of the Sea King fuselage where the dipping SONAR resides.  Having no desire to use that sensor I was more than happy to fill in the hole and managed to do that with a gun turret blanking cover/plate from the 1/48th scale Monogram (Revell) B-29 kit.  That required splitting the cover plate down the middle and then attaching it to the inside of the Sea King fuselage over the hole.  That took care of the inside but the outside was still a depression within the fuselage surface and had to be addressed.  Several months had gone by since I had filled the hole on the inside and this evening I was cutting up some of the plastic stiffeners from worn out sanding sticks after removing the foam and sand paper from the things.  I decided I was going to square off the rounded ends of the sanding sticks that I was working on and realized that I was getting a pair of semi-circular shapes from each of the sanding stick stiffeners and not wanting to just throw the things out I decided I had to check and see how the things would work for filling in holes such as the one that was on my Sea King fuselage.  The plastic stiffener is 0.75" wide and as luck would have it, the SONAR hole in the Sea King is also 0.75" in diameter.  Wow!  How things just fall in to place some days, eh? 

I did some quick fitting to make sure there was no excess overlap between the two semi-circular pieces and did a bit of sanding to smooth the outside edges and it was looking like we were going to have a quick fix.  Nah, the fuck-up fairy had to step in and the CA glue came out too fast and it ended up with fingers stuck to fuselage and the parts.  A quick clean up and some sanding of my fingers to get rid of the dried CA glue and then back to filling the hole.  Second time was a win and then it was time to start sanding the area flush with the rest of the fuselage since the thickness of the two pieces was standing proud of the surrounding surface.  Some rough sanding followed up with some wet sanding and soap got it to where I feel it should be, there is still a feeling under the finger tips when you run it across the repaired area but not severe enough to really worry about. 

Attached images to show the inside and outside of the fuselage along with close up images to show the inside and outside in more detail. 

***Edit: Subject title changed.--jjf

[Frank3k]

It looks like a good fit! Doesn't even need any more filler. You should check the joint by running a marker over it or putting some rub n' buff on it.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

It looks like a good fit! Doesn't even need any more filler. You should check the joint by running a marker over it or putting some rub n' buff on it.

Too late for that now.  I applied some water soluble putty to the area right after I uploaded the WIP images and it has been curing for almost a full day by now.  Will sand it down and see how it looks.  There were some small gaps on the outside that I could see with the cover in a couple of spots that needed to be addressed.  Hopefully the one putty application will sort that out. 


Addendum

I sprayed the area of the part with primer and it is now outside drying in the shade.  First inspection about an hour ago showed it to be drying rather well but the outline of the plugged area is still visible though that is not the concern.  I was more interested in getting the tiny gaps around the plugs to filled in to not be as noticeable which at this point appears to be accomplished.  Yay!

[apophenia]

...  Wow!  How things just fall in to place some days, eh?   ...

Doncha just love those moments of serendipity? 

Watching with interest ...

[Jeffry Fontaine]

...  Wow!  How things just fall in to place some days, eh?   ...

Doncha just love those moments of serendipity? 

Watching with interest ...

So you enjoy watching paint dry?  

I sanded the painted area down to bare plastic and left it for the night.  Just applied another coat of spray bomb primer gray to the part and it is now drying on the front porch in the shade. 

One of the other issues I had with the fuselage was the sponson/float attachment points to the sides of the fuselage several months ago.  This consists of two "pockets" on each fuselage half that are intended for the attachment pins from the two sponson supports.  While doing some check-fits, these things broke off and left me with a situation that for a time I felt was going to put the kaybosh on any progress to be made with the Sea King.  This too was another one of those "serendipitous" moments that resulted in a quick but awkward fix to the problem.  I had ignored the problem for quite some time and while working on something else that left me with a couple sections of parts runner that were a bit small in diameter I realized there might be some use to these pieces so I pulled out the Sea King and did some quick guesstimations and set about drilling each of the sponson supports to accept a length of that plastic runner.  The Cock-Up fairy must have been on a break as I was successful in getting the holes drilled and the runner sections glued in place without any significant issues.  I cut away the pockets on the fuselage halves to ensure I had an ample amount of room on the inside and glued the sponson supports in place.  The only real issue was that the original placement of the sponson supports left a small gap between the fuselage and the support and my repair left no gap as they are now attached flush to the fuselage surface.  Not sure if that will come back to bite me on the backside later but what is done, is done.

Attached images showing the effort made to fix the MLG support pylon issue on the fuselage (internal and external).   

[Ramba]

Coming along nicely.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Coming along nicely.

 
I wish it were so. 

While making the previous images I managed to bend the left side of the fuselage at a point where the clear parts connect to enclose the cockpit.  I was horrified to see that I had bent this to an odd angle and thankfully it had not completely severed from the rest of the fuselage half.  After unbending the part I hit it with some CA glue in hopes that it will give it strength and not repeat this in the future.  Yeah, that was kind of a warning shot over the bow so to speak at just how fragile some of these things can be if you are not careful.  Hasegawa plastic is not as flexible as some other brands of polystyrene and this was a good reminder of that. 

Additional images attached to show some work done on the interior bulkheads that are located behind the cockpit and at the aft end of the passenger compartment.  Both of these had been glued to the floor section by the previous owner of the kit and the cockpit bulkhead was broken at some point before I acquired the kit.  The rear bulkhead managed to break away after I obtained the kit and this just aggravated the whole situation as I was now faced with trying to reattach the cockpit bulkhead without the original supports at the bottom of the bulkhead since these were damaged beyond repair.  I used a piece of bulkhead from an old 1/32nd scale Revell UH-1D/UH-1H Iroquis/Huey helicopter that was in the spare parts container as a fix for the cockpit builkhead since it was tall enough to attach to the step between the passenger compartment and the cockpit proper.  Another section from the Revell Huey that used to be part of the engine compartment bulkhead became the cover for the rear bulkhead.  While the features on these is most likely not even going to be visible inside the Sea King it was nice to find a fix from the old Revell parts. 

The last image is the bottom of the fuselage with another coat of spray bomb auto primer gray paint applied.  At certain angles you can still see the outline of the original SONAR hole but it is a vast improvement over what was there at the start.  Possibly another light sanding but I am calling this pretty much done for now. 

[Frank3k]

With the sonar plug, you can always go the other way and even out the gap and make it appear as a bolted on plate to seal it off.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

With the sonar plug, you can always go the other way and even out the gap and make it appear as a bolted on plate to seal it off.

That option was one that I had not considered when plugging the hole.  I just wanted the void filled but now that you mention it, I probably could have gone with a square patch over the round hole and ended up with a better result in the end.  Maybe on the next Sea King? 

[Old Wombat]

With the sonar plug, you can always go the other way and even out the gap and make it appear as a bolted on plate to seal it off.

That option was one that I had not considered when plugging the hole.  I just wanted the void filled but now that you mention it, I probably could have gone with a square patch over the round hole and ended up with a better result in the end.  Maybe on the next Sea King? 

Yeah, run the back of a knife around the inside of the sonar cut-out (not too deep, though) & it'll look like a bolt-in plug.

Nice work, so far, Jeff! Like the Huey sound-damping mats. Don't look at all dis-similar to that actually used in the Sinking Sea King.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

With the sonar plug, you can always go the other way and even out the gap and make it appear as a bolted on plate to seal it off.

That option was one that I had not considered when plugging the hole.  I just wanted the void filled but now that you mention it, I probably could have gone with a square patch over the round hole and ended up with a better result in the end.  Maybe on the next Sea King? 

Yeah, run the back of a knife around the inside of the sonar cut-out (not too deep, though) & it'll look like a bolt-in plug.

Nice work, so far, Jeff! Like the Huey sound-damping mats. Don't look at all dis-similar to that actually used in the Sinking Sea King.

Hi Guy. 

The cover from the Monogram B-29 is much larger than the diameter of the hole in the Sea King fuselage so running a knife around the edge is no longer an option.  Yet another option I fialed to sieze upon in the moment.  The edge of the sanding stick plastic plug in the outside portion of the former hole is near as flush as can be obtained and works at getting rid of the offending hole. 

I am still in wonder at the price Hasegawa charged for this rather mediocre kit of the Sea King and how they could justify it.  No bloody interior save for the flight station and no doors that will open?  For what Hasegawas charged for this kit at MSRP you would/should expect to see detail features available that are pretty much standard on most other rotary wing aircraft subjects of this size. 

The main rotor assembly is a joke and is set up to break/fail from the start with the main rotor blades being fitted to small adapters that in turn attach to the main rotor hub assembly and are secured by a very small nubbin of plastic.  The hole into which these nubbins is to fit is also sketch AF.  While the kit provides you with the option of displaying with main rotors folded over the tail there are no rotor blade supports for the stowed position and even in the stowed position the main rotors will still be under stress at that point where the small nubbin of plastic connects to the main rotor hub.  The guy that was responsible for approving the tooling on this kit should consider Seppuku with a sharp piece of bamboo. 

[Jeffry Fontaine]

More WIP over the last couple of days.  Not a lot but still plugging along and I managed to get just a little creative with the passenger compartment on the Sea King. 

I did not want to make it too cluttered or crowded and decided it would be a good time to rid myself of some MiniCrap UH-60 Black Hawk passenger seats.  I had to trim the seat legs down just a bit as they were all far too tall otherwise.  These seats come in sets of four seats and are not the best looking on details as you can see but they do fill up the empty space.  I cut one of the seats from each of the quartet of seats to make them a little easier to install and give me a couple of single seats to position at the extreme rear of the passenger compartment and another one right next to the stretcher rack (more on that later). 

The other rack looking thing at the rear of the passenger compartment was thrown together using parts from several different scale models. 
The white bits in the center of the rack are Ski Boot carriers from an ancient MPC Pontiac Bonneville kit.  These were chrome plated pl astic and I removed 99% of the chrome finish to end up with the bare white plastic.  At the bottom of the rack are four plastic tubes that started life as Stinger MANPAD SAMS for an Academy 1/48th scale AH-64.  These Stinger shapes are horribly over sized for a missile that is supposed to be 70mm in diameter and are much closer to a TOW missile (@152mm diameter).  The front and rear of these Stinger bits had been removed to be put to use on some fictional AAM that I built a while back so this was a good use for something that was to be discarded.  There are two ladders from another ancient Tamiya Flak 38 Veirling kit that was mounted on a half-track vehicle on top of the tube shapes in that rack.  Tying it together are the two gray plastic bits on either side (front to rear) that came from the Tamiya Flak 38 Vierling and right next to this between the rack and the seats is a cockpit part from the MiniCrap Black Hawk. 

The gray plastic bits just behind the flight station are from a pair of Tamiya 1/35th scale FlaK 38 Vierling kits that had been scrapped for other projects.  The box shapes at the front were stacked to create an electronics equipment rack.  The smaller gray bits attached to the floor on the right and left side are also from the same Tamiya Flak 38 Vierling kits.  Purpose of those things is at this point undecided but maybe something to do with the ECS to heat and cool the interior of the aircraft? 

The rack looking thing is made from more bits from the some old Tamiya 20mm FlaK 38 Vierling, bits of an ancient Revell Germany 1/144th scale ISS (the white bits) and a strip of Evergreen plastic across the top and around the base to tie it all in.  I wanted something that looked like it could hold stretchers and the little squarish shape at the top could be a light to illuminate the patients and assist in triage.  the white plastic bits are there to clutter it up and look like parts that are stowed out of the way until needed.   

[Old Wombat]

 

[Ramba]

Good job filling in the cabin area. Looks nice and busy now.

[Jeffry Fontaine]

It has been a long while since anything was shared on this project. 

So far the only progress made was to remove all of the seats and other bits that were added to the passenger compartment area of the deck.  It never looked right to me and made for a very cluttered and confined interior space.  So all of the bits and pieces were removed.  There is a bit of scarring on the deck surface but overall there were no cuts, abrasions, or blood spilling on my part to accomplish the removal efforts. 

The next three images concern the main rotor blades and replacement main rotor hub.  The kit parts were all in a very sad state thanks to the original owner of the kit (RIP Gordon, you did try).  So some hard decisions were made and after much deliberation it was decided to find a replacement main rotor hub and rotor blades.  Having some excess Academy UH-60 Blackhawk kits helped in making that my first choice for replacement parts.  The down side of this choice is the span of the Blackhawk main rotor blades is about four-feet shy of the Seaking main rotor blade in span.  That was a small obstacle for me as it meant I would need to work on making all five main rotor blades longer in span and that requires three kits for the main rotor blades parts to make the five replacement blades.  This what-if just went over budget in a flash, c'est la vie. 

Image number two shows a comparison of the original Blackhawk main rotor blade next to the modified rotor blade.  Fortunately for me, the cut was easy enough but I am a little skeptical about the join between the blades in holding up under stress when further work is done to clean it up.  The first adhesive applied was CA cement and after that had cured I applied so Tamiya liquid cement.  Some light sanding was done at the kitchen sink with sandpaper and then left overnight to dry. 

Image three shows the kit main rotor blade (from another kit in the stash), the original Blackhawk main rotor blade and the modified Blackhawk main rotor blade. 

Image four shows the resin replacement main rotor hub from Model Details (MDR 48152) Mi-24 Hind Main Rotor and all three main rotor blades.  I decided on the MD resin main rotor hub since it was available.  My first choice would have been the resin replacement Seaking main rotor hub but at the time of this update that product is not available. 

[LemonJello]

Don't know how I missed this thread before now...but following along intently to see where it goes.

That's some fine looking whiffery going on, Jeff!

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Don't know how I missed this thread before now...but following along intently to see where it goes.

That's some fine looking whiffery going on, Jeff!

It has been almost two years since my last update to this project.  Not that anything was done in the interim but it was nothing worth providing an update to the thread.  The greatest obstacle was me trying to not go overboard on the rotor blades.  The original idea was to use the main rotor from a 1/35th scale UH-60 or AH-64 but that turned out to be stretching the limits of something believable.  The blackhawk blades are too long but the Apache blades are almost ideal in the sought after length for the replacement main rotor blade.  I may still go with using the Apache blades but that will require some careful surgery create a main rotor hub that can accommodate five or six main rotor blades.  The appeal of the 1/35-1/32 scale main rotors is that they are broader in chord which looks like a better performing rotor blade that could result in less noise during operation.  The current attempt using the 1/48th scale Academy Blackhawk main rotor blades is still a coin toss on success or failure. 

***Addendum***

Some additional comments on the Sea King what-if. 

I have yet to consider the nationality of this craft so for the moment, it is without a master.  One of the original ideas I had for this project was to try and find the Westland Commando landing gear for the Mk.5 version that has no floats and a more simplified main landing gear arrangement.  I finally gave up on this idea after considering other main landing gear from other models in 1/48th and 1/35-1/32 scale and decided that if the craft were to land on water the floats would be necessary so that finalized the path I was to take with this project.  Some of the other features that I would have enjoyed attempting on this model would be to remove the upper works for the engine and transmission and replacing it with the same features from the Sikorsky Blackhawk.  Since I was going to stick with the floats it was obvious I would have to use  floats that did not have the dedicated MAD device and ASW Smoke Marker features so I acquired the BelcherBits Sea King floats that are offered without these features as a drop-in replacement.  I liked these replacement floats enough to order two additional sets of floats for the two complete Sea King kits I have in the stash. 

Other options that have been considered were the incorporation of the Blackhawk/Sea Hawk main rotor and tail rotor as-is to replace the Sea King main rotor.  This came about because of the poor state of repair that the kit parts were in from the previous owner's attempt to build those components.  The main rotor was in a shambles and the tail rotor was broken and beyond repair.  While the main rotor could have been salvaged, it was testing my patience so I binned it and got on to other projects.  Returning to this project now has made me realize that I may have been too hasty with my decision to bin the problem parts (the main rotor hub and rotors) but the damage was done and it forced me to get out of my zone of comfort and explore anew alternatives that would look the part but in turn be purely fictional.  The most recent attempt to modify the Academy Blackhawk main rotors is the first step in that direction.  It may or may not be successful as the cuts have to be precise and the strength of the new main rotor blade have to be strong enough to withstand some further modifications to either be used with the resin replacement Mi-24 Hind main rotor hub or to be used with the original four-blade main rotor hub from the Blackhawk.  It all depends on how many of these Academy Blackhawk kits I am willing to destroy in order to obtain four or five longer span main rotor blades.  While I was fortunate in having "stocked up" on at the time relatively inexpensive Academy Blackhawk kits it pains me to have to destroy three kits in order to create five new main rotor blades. 

For now, unless I can acquire replacement Sea King tail rotors the current plan is to use a Blackhawk tail rotor to replace the now discarded kit tail rotor.  The Black Hawk tail rotor is a bit more robust in construction and does not impinge on the main rotor arc so it is a good fit and choice for a replacement. 





***Edit for spelling errors--jjf