Rick’s 1/48 Airfix Sea King HAS5

[rickoshea52]

The way Airfix have designed these parts to ensure positive engagement and trueness is such a bonus to modellers.


The relief on the control panels is just awesome.


I’ve dry fitted the IP and seats here to demonstrate the detail.

[Waspie]

Are the upper cockpit panels as detailed, Throttles, rotor brake etc?

And if there are orange cables, my eyesights not up to that much detail, orange as you say is symptomatic of trials equipment.

[Waspie]

Some great pictures there.Really interesting Waspie,I went to see some friends in Redruth and went to Marazion and i was mire interested in seeing what was flying around culdrose.
Richard

I tend to stay away from CU these days. It was my training establishment when I was aircrew, (shiver). I was there in the very early 70's as a mechanic when it was a totally different place. All the Junglies were based there prior to their move to VL. Loverly area non the less.

[Guest]

That looks like one well-engineered kit.

[rickoshea52]

Are the upper cockpit panels as detailed, Throttles, rotor brake etc?

And if there are orange cables, my eyesights not up to that much detail, orange as you say is symptomatic of trials equipment.

It doesn’t look like it has the rotor brake handle but it does have something resembling throttles and fire extinguisher handles.

[Richard48]

Some builders are concerned of the cockpit glazing as its multipart constuction rather than one whole moulding.Interesting to see if there are any issues doing this.Knowing my shaky hands id make a dogs dinner of it if im brave to buy one.
Richard

[Guest]

Interesting to see they’re taking aftermarket detailling sets into account with that second windscreen. My experience is that plastic kit manufacturers don’t usually do this unless they intend to sell a set like that themselves.

[Waspie]

It doesn’t look like it has the rotor brake handle but it does have something resembling throttles and fire extinguisher handles.
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[ATTACH]489746[/ATTACH]

Laugh!! They remember the plethora of circuit breakers but forget the rotor brake lever!!!!
Just the look of them throttles bring back nightmares!!! Don't know if the RAF did it with back seat crews but in the RN we had to train and become competent and qualify as Manual Throttle Qualified, in the event of one pilot conking out and having a computer malfunction. One of the back seat crew would then sit in the left/right hand seat up front and operate the throttles keeping the engines matched and the NR needle with them too!!

[rickoshea52]

Some more shots of the surface detail, the more I look the more is see.
The tail fold bulkhead is detailed very nicely, look at the disconnect coupling (DCC) engagement cone, splines, unlock flag and tail rotor control rod bell crank! Beautifully recreated.


The mesh over the tail rotor gearbox (TRGB) and intermediate gearbox (IGB) will be difficult to improve on with etched metal. One tiny gripe would be the lack of oil level sight glass for the TRGB - the IGB sight glass is there.


The tail fold pole hole. During tail folding an angled pole is fitted into the small hole depicted here for the ground crew to use as an aid to control the movement of the tail pylon into the stowed folded position or spread and engaged position.


IGB oil filler cap.


The yaw pedals have two types, I’d have to check my references but I believe the pilots pedals are in the shape of the Westland logo while the 2nd pilots pedals are more plain.


The collective pitch levers look great but I think the 2nd pilots shouldn’t have as many nobs or the collective friction device.

[Waspie]

From memory Rick, I believe the two collectives were identical. This was due to either pilot could carry out all functions due to the length of sorties we flew. (We'd regularly do double bubbles - 2 x 4.5 Hr sorties.)

[rickoshea52]

I’ve assembled all of the interior role equipment racks. Next step is chucking some paint on it.
This kit uses an internal “shell” to house the cabin interior and there are very shallow ejector pin marks that I hope will be hidden behind the consoles etc. Other marks may use the troop seats to cover these up.

While the cabin and interior await painting I jumped ahead a little and assembled the landing gear bays of the sponsons. They go together so easily with positive engagement and are detailed enough to not require after market etch. Some modellers may want to add brake hose and harness detail.

[Waspie]

Regards the G/Box sight glass, how easy would it be to insert a piece of transparent plastic or such. I mean most sight glass was stained with oil anyway!!

[rickoshea52]

From memory Rick, I believe the two collectives were identical. This was due to either pilot could carry out all functions due to the length of sorties we flew. (We'd regularly do double bubbles - 2 x 4.5 Hr sorties.)

That may be the case for RN cabs and would make sense but I am not sure about the RAF marks. I need to see a photo or find my course notes to confirm.

[rickoshea52]

Regards the G/Box sight glass, how easy would it be to insert a piece of transparent plastic or such. I mean most sight glass was stained with oil anyway!!

I had a closer look - it’s there, just tricky to see.

[rickoshea52]

Some builders are concerned of the cockpit glazing as its multipart constuction rather than one whole moulding.Interesting to see if there are any issues doing this.Knowing my shaky hands id make a dogs dinner of it if im brave to buy one.
Richard

I can understand that but one build I have seen reports the fit excellent. I’ll find out for myself soon!