SeaKing Stupidity or Utter Madness

[splash]

Chris the handrails on the tail are the VOR/ILS arials.

Keep up the great work, I'm enjoying watching you work your magic on the builds.

Regards Splash

[iggie]

A great effort so far juggling all three builds!

[chrism]

With this update tonight I will be calling this exercise in stupidy over. Since the last update:

the Revell kit: for whatever reason... could not get the wing stubs - ones supplied in kit, as was no longer using the Har5 upgrade set, to hold on and fit. I drilled into them, to fit brass rod to provide better support, but in doing so, split and damaged the kit parts; so I have called time on this one. I shall salvage what I can from it, for the spares box.

That left the other 3 for decals.... I had hoped to use the original ones with the old Airfix kit, but they disintegrated up; so, a quick modification to the old kit, - namely removing the barn door and fitting a spare sand box, and I was able to use a set of the new tool decals from another kit in stash;

It was a tad disappointing to find that Airfix had not supplied decals for the rotor blades with the new tool HAR3 S&R kit, but they did with the HC4 kit.

The decals supplied with the Fujimi kit, were the ones added to that kit.

So, aside from the niggle of the omitted decals, and the lack of "handles" aka aerials for the fuselage sides, the new took kit makes up nicely.

The 3 that got over the finish line:







Old Airfix


Fujimi






The two Airfix




Lastly, for comparison, here is one I did 6-7 years ago, using the decals supplied in the S&R boxing with the lifeboat.







Having built both variants of the new tooling, the earlier HC4 one goes together much easier than this HAR3 did. All I can think is that the extra bits and bobs of the interior stuff inside it, have caused the sides to sit a slightly little bit differently. It was nothing that a bit of filler - or in my case an extra bit of paint along the bottom couldn't sort, but it did match the comments that Jen Wright wrote about in the review she did for Airfix magazine at that stage of the build.

Will I build any more .... Well yes - as I do want to finish my Airfix "old-66" and will finish that this year, but just not this month... and I do want a nice red/grey HAR5, and I do have another Revell kit and a further new tool Har3.

[chrism]

With this update tonight I will be calling this exercise in stupidy over. Since the last update:

the Revell kit: for whatever reason... could not get the wing stubs - ones supplied in kit, as was no longer using the Har5 upgrade set, to hold on and fit. I drilled into them, to fit brass rod to provide better support, but in doing so, split and damaged the kit parts; so I have called time on this one. I shall salvage what I can from it, for the spares box.

That left the other 3 for decals.... I had hoped to use the original ones with the old Airfix kit, but they disintegrated up; so, a quick modification to the old kit, - namely removing the barn door and fitting a spare sand box, and I was able to use a set of the new tool decals from another kit in stash;

It was a tad disappointing to find that Airfix had not supplied decals for the rotor blades with the new tool HAR3 S&R kit, but they did with the HC4 kit.

The decals supplied with the Fujimi kit, were the ones added to that kit.

So, aside from the niggle of the omitted decals, and the lack of "handles" aka aerials for the fuselage sides, the new took kit makes up nicely.

I do not have the space to have them with the blades out, so a fiddle and a cobble and a strip of evergreen has enabled me to present them all with blades back.

The 3 that got over the finish line:







Old Airfix


Fujimi






The two Airfix




Lastly, for comparison, here is one I did 6-7 years ago, using the decals supplied in the S&R boxing with the lifeboat.







Having built both variants of the new tooling, the earlier HC4 one goes together much easier than this HAR3 did. All I can think is that the extra bits and bobs of the interior stuff inside it, have caused the sides to sit a slightly little bit differently. It was nothing that a bit of filler - or in my case an extra bit of paint along the bottom couldn't sort, but it did match the comments that Jen Wright wrote about in the review she did for Airfix magazine at that stage of the build.

Will I build any more .... Well yes - as I do want to finish my Airfix "old-66" and will finish that this year, but just not this month... and I do want a nice red/grey HAR5, and I do have another Revell kit and a further new tool Har3.

[Clashcityrocker]

Great looking line up of Sea Kings. Well done for sticking with it.

Nigel

[Stupot]

Great work and well done for taking them all on at the same time. What paint did you use for the yellow?

Stu

[jssel]

Fabulous work.

[ShaunW]

Great work Chris, those are really neat and tidy. A top little collection of SAR SK'S

[splash]

Well done Chris.

This has been a brilliant and information thread to follow, you deserve a medal for your perseverance.

Regards Splash

[Old_Tonto]

Very nice result Chris and very interesting to see the kits built side by side.
So which would you recommend?

[Colin at Freightdog]

What a lovely collection, well done!

Colin

[PaulBradley]

Nicely done, Chris!

[skypirate]

A grand project!
Very well done!

David

[iggie]

A great range of builds and some really useful tips!

[chrism]

Thank you to those who have commented. Certainly I am amazed at the number of views this has generated over past few weeks...

Answers to the questions a couple of you posed:

Stupot: the yellow is revell aqua yellow gloss - number 12.

As for your question OT... as to which I recommend ... depends on the modeller, their skill and what anyone want... early editions of the old airfix have good scope for building and fitting well, the later re-releases just did not fit anywhere without a lot of evergreen strip and filler... The new tool in the HAR3 variant, just has a few niggles for me with it, to want to build too many more. While it may well have been LIDAR scanned, I wonder which one and where they scanned and then used. Whereas the HC4 just seems to be "more right". The first two of the new toolings I built were HC4's and they just fell together effortlessly and seamlessly, whereas this one, while it went together OK, did have a gap or two underneath, (nothing that a good coat of brushed paint could not handle). For its age the Fujimi (the Fujimi is on a par age wise with the old Airfix) was a nice kit on the sprue, and if I did that one again, would certainly tackle differently and not put that internal back piece in, the only other consideration to be aware of with that one, was the decals and lack of them in some respects for the stencil type craft marking ones. New Airfix, is smooth, and rivert free, and has the tie downs moulded on instead... but there is an aftermarket set that Hannants sell that would give etch bits (if your eye sight is upto it) for these and a mirriad of other parts.

The Revell kit (and while I killed off one of these,) does just sort of still seem to be "right" in some ways that I cannot explain and if you want a well detailed kit, I tend to still feel that is the kit to be using,

At the end of the day ... you pay your money and ... a lot also has to be considered, on what variant anyone wants, as to whick kit they go for.

you haven't got all the bits in the Airfix kits to do a 5, but could do a variety of 3's, whereas the revell boxing has a lot of parts and bits n bobs to offer and I may yet try a cross kit with some of the left-overs from mine on the other Har3 I have (if I do I will share with you all, but it will not be something I have time for this side of the late-August BH now.)