Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 3

So there’s another weird, reclusive model-builder featuring in Fringe, season 5, episode 11. But, hey, he’s helping to save the world, so that’s all good.

Here’s a good view of how the canopy turned out, after the blue glass paint:

Sea King canopy, blue stain
Click to enlarge

Things have gone a little slowly since then, partly because I hate masking models up for spraying, and partly because I had to dismantle and clean the airbrush. It seems to have a remarkable number of pieces that are accessible to paint; and there seem to be several different ways of reassembling them once they’re clean. At one point I had an object that looked exactly like an airbrush, which contained all the parts of an airbrush, but which nevertheless generated no airstream whatsoever.

But we’re cooking now. The main colours are on – white above, gull grey below:

Sea King basic paint, starboard
Click to enlarge
Sea King basic paint, port
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Now it needs a little black and red detailing before an all-over spray of gloss, ready for decals.

In other news, the main rotor blades were a bit wavy when they came out of the box:

Sea King rotors, variously bent
Click to enlarge

I want them with a gentle downward droop for a static model, so they went into a little former built out of card and tape:

Sea King rotors being curved
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Now they’re ready to be dipped in some hot water and then some cold water. Fortunately I noticed that I had initially put them in the former upside down—it would have been a rather surprised-looking helicopter, otherwise.

The main rotors need some fine yellow stripes across the blades. I’m pretty rubbish at masking, or freehand painting, on the millimetre scale, so I decided to print up some decals to do the job. While I was at it, I printed up the red-white-red stripes for the tail rotor, too:

Sea King tail rotor awaits decals
Click to enlarge

I now need to seal the decal paper with a spray of Microscale Liquid Decal Film, thinned in surgical spirit. Smells great!

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