Airfix 1/72 Westland Sea King HC.4 with Big Ed p/e

[WordenB]

Bit late starting this but I had to wait for Father's Day to be presented with a kit that fits the subject. I was very lucky to also get some extras which I hope will add some detail to the build including the interior which should be visible through open doors, but not take it past the finish date. I've not built a helicopter before so another first for me.

















The Big Ed set includes the interior, exterior and mask sets. Some parts look extremely small to me!

[WordenB]

Made a start on the interior p/e. I had wondered whether or not the p/e would be worth it but so far I'm very impressed and it does cover a lot of bare plastic.






I decided that the little shelf bit was a lot of work for little gain so left it out.


I haven't added the 6 little box things, being a different colour I wanted to paint the bulkhead first.






I painted the floor and anti slip.

[digger303]

Very nice, very sharp paint and the pe looks great. I can see you've been very fastidious .

[Twokidsnosleep]

Super awesome

One of my favourite big bird helicopters and you have LOTS of goodies for her

[BigWall]

Nice start1 I'll be watching your build for sure

[WordenB]

Very nice, very sharp paint and the pe looks great. I can see you've been very fastidious .

Super awesome

One of my favourite big bird helicopters and you have LOTS of goodies for her

Nice start1 I'll be watching your build for sure

Thank you very much guys, I've just noticed the photos were a bit dark, will try and improve for the next update.

[aur0ra145]

Neat helo, the extras look cool!

[WordenB]

Neat helo, the extras look cool!

Thank you Aurora, I think so far the extras are well worth doing.

This week I painted some interior parts and assembled the cockpit, instrument panel and started work on the seats.





With a total of 27 seats there are a lot of belts!


Looking at the reference pictures I have the seats are not quite right, they should be canvas and hanging from the frame. I don't have time to sort the seat backs out but I tried adding some painted 1mm masking tape straps to the bottom parts as shown on the left set. I think they look better so will do the rest.

[digger303]

Fiddly work , but comes up well.

[Tomcat64]

Ooops I missed you starting this one but just caught up - the interior work is really tidy.

Looking forward to seeing how this goes together

[WordenB]

Ooops I missed you starting this one but just caught up - the interior work is really tidy.

Looking forward to seeing how this goes together

Thank you Neil, been very slow updating this one myself, apologies but it is progressing despite real life distractions.

The interior was completed and the fuselage assembled, the fit is really very good. I'm very pleased to say that all the work on the seats, belts etc was not in vain as it is still quite visible through the doors that I will complete in the open position. With the fuselage together I moved on to the exterior p/e which is again several hours work but does add considerable detail.

Next up is much masking as I'm going to have a go at the box art tiger stripe cammo pattern.

[digger303]

I like the interior, looks great. The floor mats or whatever they are makes a dig difference to it.
Your Pe constructions are pretty good and once painted are going to spruce it some more. It's going to outstanding !

[Twokidsnosleep]

Ya awesome

[WordenB]

I like the interior, looks great. The floor mats or whatever they are makes a dig difference to it.
Your Pe constructions are pretty good and once painted are going to spruce it some more. It's going to outstanding !

Ya awesome

Thanks very much chaps, as long as I can do it justice with the exterior paintwork.

[Tomcat64]

Great to see you still making progress on this on - the interior looks absolutely superb

[WordenB]

It took many hours but I managed to completed the masking and painting of the main cammo. I found the easiest way for me was to stick bits of tape to the fuselage, draw on the pattern with a fine marker then remove it and cut out with a scalpel. I fully intended to take a photo before paint but forgot in all the excitement of finishing after 3 days work. I also masked and sprayed the black areas and tiny bit of red.







I also assembled some more of the exterior p/e parts shown with the plastic parts they replace, quite a difference!

[digger303]

Fine work and a big upgrade.

[WordenB]

Fine work and a big upgrade.

Thank you very much Mr Digger Sir.

[CJSomerset]

PE at 1:72!
My eyes are hurting just thinking about that.
Love that Camo paint work. Keep up the great work it looks amazing.

[aur0ra145]

Really nice paint job!

[WordenB]

PE at 1:72!
My eyes are hurting just thinking about that.
Love that Camo paint work. Keep up the great work it looks amazing.

Thanks very much CJ, the p/e has been at times challenging to say the least but I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone building this kit, it adds so much.

Really nice paint job!

Thank you very much AurOra, it turned out better than I thought. Just need to get the weathering right now.

[Tomcat64]

That masking really was all worthwhile - the camo job is absolutely stunning

[WordenB]

That masking really was all worthwhile - the camo job is absolutely stunning

Thanks very much Neil, I can assure you it was a lot more pleasurable taking the masking off than putting it on!

Ended up getting the dreaded virus which spread through the household so I've not done much over the last couple of weeks and what I did do didn't go well. However the decals are on and I'm starting to add the remaining parts and a bit of weathering with oils although I haven't photographed that bit yet as I keep wiping it off and trying again

.

[Twokidsnosleep]

That looks fantastic!