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SH-3H Sea King - references, pictures, etc.


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After having done a HH-3A, I got some serious mojo to do the original "Navy Sea King". I plan to modify a Revell Westland Sea King-kit to a SH-3H, using all the leftovers of my previous built of the Fujimi-kit to convert the british/german Sea King into the US Navy sub-chaser.

 

I´ll surely keep you posted, but will also start asking questions. For the start, I´d lke to know what color the external fuel tanks usually had on a sea King, as I plan to attach one and at least a single Torpedo as armament.

 

 

HAJO

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another curious question:

 

The Fujimi kit offers two slightly different types of torpedos:

 

aI4oLGl.jpg

 

To me it looks like the two above have bigger rudders and a chute, while the two below have no chute. Any ideas?

 

 

HAJO

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The torps are Mk 46's as to what type they are and have been in use shortly after the Sea King entered service. The parts that have the 'pancake' on the propellor end are the ones to use. They're configured with the Mk 38 Mod 0 or Mod 1 air stabilizer that makes up the parapack for use with helos. The others are the same torpedo but with the Mk 28 Mod 3 or Mod 3 air stabilizer for use with fixed wing birds such as the S-2, S-3, P-3, and P-8. Other aircraft might be cleared as well but the memory loss I've had thanks to a couple of mini-strokes I can't be sure of anything related to my time in the Navy. You should save these for a flight line diorama with one on the wing of, say, a Viking with the other resting on loading trolly from Hasegawa ready to be loaded. 

 

Sorry for any mistakes I may have made, I'm in the hospital I retired from with a very severe and painful kidney infection, so that makes it even harder to concentrate. One last thing, the ring for the Mk 28 configured one would need to be thinned out from the outside to make it look closer to scale. There are plenty of pictures and line drawings of these things as well as information aside from Wikipedia. I was able to pull up a copy of the AO3/2 rate training manual online to jog my brain so this is the most up to date info that I know of.   

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You´re experience and knowledge looks flawless to me and is very welcome, thanks a lot!

 

Hope you get well soon, doesn´t sound like fun!

 

Any advice on how to paint an external fuel tank?

 

 

HAJO

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3 hours ago, Hajo L. said:

 

 

Any advice on how to paint an external fuel tank?

 

 

HAJO

 

 

Very carefully😜

 

I usually assemble them and paint them separately from the aircraft as the tanks are usually swapped out with other birds or 'loaned' to another squadron in the middle of the night to get your airplane flying. Anyone whose says different is either lying or never had to replace the tanks a pilot punched off into the sea that were the last tanks the unit had for the deployment because someone didn't think to take a few spares and supply wasn't going to have any more until after you were gone. A little larceny was tolerated thirty to forty years ago. 

 

The thing is though, depending on the year the aircraft was operating you could paint a tank gloss white that's been faded out, add a decal for a sister unit and paint it over with a flat or semi-gloss white or very lite grey in the sixties, a light grey color during the transition period when the high gloss, low viz were seen at the same time or the low viz ghost grey that became common in the 90s onward. While in VA-305 flew tanks with green trim over gloss white on one side of their A-7s and a  plain white one on the other side with just the standard stencils and spots of other shades of white and grey covering corrosion control gripes. I know that we loaded a tank belonging to the River Rattlers when I was in VFA-305 on one of our F/A-18C's. Little known fact, in VFA-305 and HCS-5 at NAWS/NAS Pt Mugu the drop tanks belonged to the AD's, Jet Mechs, but us ordies had to load them. Having said that the Mechs would usually send an Airman or Third Class to help with the installation. The look on some of those kids faces when they were told to help us was priceless. 

Edited by HCS-5 AO1
correcting me bad writing skills
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In this case I´m referring to an external tank for my SH-3H. The Fujimi-kit comes with them and I´d like to mount one just because I can. 😉

 

The Sea King will sport "Bicentennial"-decals as seen on the cover of this box here:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/167509-fujimi-7a28-sikorsky-sh-3h-sea-king

 

 

HAJO

 

 

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3 hours ago, Hajo L. said:

In this case I´m referring to an external tank for my SH-3H. The Fujimi-kit comes with them and I´d like to mount one just because I can. 😉

 

The Sea King will sport "Bicentennial"-decals as seen on the cover of this box here:

 

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/167509-fujimi-7a28-sikorsky-sh-3h-sea-king

 

 

HAJO

 

 

Truthfully, our resident squadron, HS-7, barely mounted them as we were in the Med and would return for to the Saratoga where me and my crew or another team of Grapes would hot fuel them. It was always unnerving to drag a hose and hook up to a helo with the blades still spinning. If they were too far out they would hit one of our escorts for a HIFAR evolution. I can't ever recall seeing drop tanks installed as that would be one less station for a kill store. I took a look in my 1980 Saratoga cruise book and there were no pics of a Sea King with a drop tank.

 

Saying that, if you still want to install a tank place it on the left-hand side so it won't block the cargo door. Honestly, the only time a tank would be installed would be to extend the range for cross-country flights. Say your base is NAS Jacksonville and you have to do workups at NAS Fallon. When you arrive at Fallon the AO's remove said tanks and fly clean or with practice rounds. I tried to find an SH-3 load manual online to show you what goes where on the helo but no joy. The only experience I have with this airframe was with HC-9s HH-3As and that was helping to hang guns and aid with the daily and turn around inspections. HH-1K and HH-60H weapon systems were what I worked on. As a matter of fact, the last task I supervised on my last day in the Navy was hanging a drop tank :rolleyes: 

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Just  to give you guys some feedback I´ll throw in th epictures of my work so far. If you look close you will notice that the kit is the Westland Sea King of Revell, which got some treatment (and part form the Fujimi SH-3H) to look like a Sikorsky.

 

Wzcif3A.jpg

 

eZmWgOO.jpg

 

V1PcOrq.jpg

 

7NfLELo.jpg

 

I love how the instrument panel and console are looking. Those are simply the kits decals on the structured surface. Looks like real!

 

As usually with helicopters, I put a layer of kleenex into the cabin, using some amount of white glue. Painted grey it gives the look of the typical isolation.

 

YFFL4Ic.jpg

 

Two operators have taken place and are already working hard:

 

4iKfaUY.jpg


4iKfaUY.jpg

 

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ZGvrWhJ.jpg

 

zfPHgwk.jpg

 

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ZGvrWhJ.jpg

 

zfPHgwk.jpg

 

 

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Blast from the past!


qJY8C8D.jpg

 

 

This old SH-3A was my very first model, must have been around 1985! I still have it in my parents attic and pictured it for this build.

 

G9YCwkU.jpg

 

 

Back to 2018: The Revell landing gear fits good enough into the Fujimi-sponson:

 

VGT7cMs.jpg


This is where I am at the moment:

 

pndTZvI.jpg

 

kHn0gZ3.jpg

 

 

HAJO

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Looking good - did you use the Fujimi struts too? I tried fitting Fujimi sponsons to a Revell kit, but couldn't align the Revell struts, and as the 'sit' of the model was also affected, I went back to the kit originals, as detailed here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235035890-revell-172-sea-king-har3-completed-twice/&do=findComment&comment=3041563

 

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No, I was using the Revell struts, since the Fujimi-struts are mounted on my HH-3A.

 

I had to shorten the Revell struts by approx. 1 mm to sit straight with the Fujimi-sponons, which are bigger than the Revell-ones. I love your WIP, haven´t seen it before! As for your other sponson-problem: I have no idea if my Sea King will sit "right", since I haven´t glued on the wheels yet!

 

 

HAJO

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