Sea King stretch to S61

[Snowbird3a]

Greetings, I plan on using a Sea King and putting on a HH-3 nose in my quest to build a S61. Probably finish it as a Coulson Heli-logging machine from Port Alberni, BC.

Anybody done this before, tried the same thing ????

Any tips on what to look for, what to or what not to do is appreciated. I know of the rare S61 fuselage already marketed however, I will make this an in-house project unless someone totally discourages me.

Cheers, Tony, Comox,BC

[RotorheadTX]

A great many moons ago, there was a board member by the name of Sameer Haqqi (aka SAM747, now unfortunately saddled with the rep of being a very bad trader) that started in on one of these projects. I set him up with some fuselage parts, and he turned out some very good results. I've searched the forum, but cannot find his original postings with all the photos, which is a pity, as they probably would have been very helpful for you.

He took a slightly different approach, splicing two Sea Kings, so he ended up with some challenging work to do on the roof aft of the cockpit. He discovered, by accident, that the tail pylon of a Matchbox Wessex helped alot with making the more upswept tail of the S-61N.

I'll have a look on my other PC and see if I saved any of his photos - I recall saving some drawings relating to this tail-work, so check back in a day or so.

Regards!

Tony in Texas

[Snowbird3a]

Probably due to the hacker incident a while back...I think some older stuff was lost. Anyways, that was my thought as well....would think splicing two Sea Kings together somehow to achieve the fuselage length for the S-61 should work.....would be a lot of work though.

By the way, welcome to ARC Snowbird3a....are you currently with the team or a past member???? The S-61 sounds like an interesting project!

Colin, past member 90-91, remember the coloured smoke days?????

I was also a member of the Regina chapter IPMS during the late 80s-90s. Acouple of the older fellas will remember me fer sure.

The length of the cockpit on the S61 looks similar to the HH-3 Revell model that I picked up. I'm just starting to gather references on the subject. Obviously, doors and windows would have to be filled/changed to bring it to S61 config at the back end(Sea King end). I love the Coulson 'Thunderbird' Black and Gold scheme. It can be seen on Airliners.net

Tony, Comox,BC

[pingu1]

Transport Wings used to do a vac-form, resin and white metal S-61N conversion kit based on the Airfix 1/72 Sea King (but which also works with the much better Revell AG kits). It was pretty good, and gave you most everythig you needed except cabin interior fittings. I undestand that they intend to re-start production next year, so it may be worth hanging on. Here's a review:

http://www.helikitnews.com/issues/hkn103.htm

Cheers,

Chris.

[RotorheadTX]

Well, my apologies, but I've searched my other PC, and I cannot find any images of Sameer's build. I guess I was thinking that the info would always be available here, so I didn't save it locally. @%^&* hackers!!

Anyway, I found this one nugget of text:

"S61N and L fuselage length is 9'7'' from the main rotor shaft to the front of the nose 59' from nose to tail not including tail rotor for the L model and 59' 3.5''from nose to tail for the N model. Note the tail pylon on an S-61L is the same as that of the S-61A or SH-3 and the pylon of the S-61N is taller. (18'5.5'' from the ground to top of tail rotor blade @the twelve o clock position for the N model and 16' 8'' for the L and A model."

I also turned up some drawings that might be of some use - they're all of the long-bodied S-61's, not Coulson's "short bus" conversion. I'll email them to you if you like - they're simply too big to post here.

Regards

Tony

[hemspilot]

That picture of the Coulson S-61 depicts a standard lenght S-61A or D. They replaced the outrigger sponsons with standard "landlubber" gear as in the S-61L or the "commando" version coming from Westland.

Even the tail rotor pilon is the same as the standard H-3D.

You may want to check if they installed the new composite blades.

No need to stretch the kit for that bird.

Further, the cockpit section of the S-61N (I'm guessing you are refering to this variant), or all variants for what matters, is the same a the other variants.

To summarize, Sikorsky model S-61 has the following variants:

S-61A or D standard naval designation SH-3A/D/G/H Sea King, several being revamped with new rotor system and other improvement for use by Fire Fighting/Utility operators and some of the richest Californian counties for Law Enforcement.

S-61L land stretched version, no military use known to me.

S-61N "amphibious" stretched version, note that sponsons are wider in cross section than standard naval variant, no military use known to me.

S-61R, R likely for Ramp, military designation C/HH-3C/E/F/G utilized world wide for SAR or CSAR operations and popularly known as Jolly Green Giant (USAF) or Pelican (USCG, Italian Air Force).

[Randy Wise]

Colin, past member 90-91, remember the coloured smoke days?????

Hey Tony,

I won't reveal last names, but do you have a brother named "Gary"? His sibling served in the CAF and did a stint with the 'Birds. Early '90's is just about right.

Randy

[Snowbird3a]

"S61N and L fuselage length is 9'7'' from the main rotor shaft to the front of the nose 59' from nose to tail not including tail rotor for the L model and 59' 3.5''from nose to tail for the N model. Note the tail pylon on an S-61L is the same as that of the S-61A or SH-3 and the pylon of the S-61N is taller. (18'5.5'' from the ground to top of tail rotor blade @the twelve o clock position for the N model and 16' 8'' for the L and A model."

I also turned up some drawings that might be of some use - they're all of the long-bodied S-61's, not Coulson's "short bus" conversion. I'll email them to you if you like - they're simply too big to post here.

Regards

Tony

Tony, Yes please and thanks to you and hemspilot for all this valuable info. I worked part-time in the Coulson NDT lab a few years ago and once in a while was over in their hangar doing some pylon attachment inspections on some of their machines, both with sponsons and landlubber gear. They have a whole host of airframe types in their inventory.

send me a PM and I'll give you my Email address

Tony, Comox, BC

[GeejeeZ]

I've started a S61N conversion in 1:48. Imho there is no need to use two sea kings: just make an extra piece of fuselage behind the cockpit by using Evergreen plastic card.

As already mentioned in the HKN-review, the Transport Wings conversion set is partially useless. Only things of use are the S61N sponsons that go with it and they should release these without the fuselage halves.

As a matter of fact: this is where my 1:48 conversion-project came to a halt: after having used several kilos of putty I still have not been able to make acceptable sponsons...

Good Luck!

Gertjan