Model Airplane International - June 2018

14 MODEL AIRPLANE INTERNATIONAL - June 2018

SKILL LEVEL: BEGINNER

KIT BUILD

overly confi dent in the strut assembly so I

dry-fi t each side to the main fuselage to allow

the sponson support strut to be in the correct

position later.

After drying, I detached both sponson

subassemblies and left them aside for detailing

later. This method ensured that the sponsons

could be detailed evenly and I also had an

unobstructed view of the main fuselage on

both sides for airbrushing and detailing that

area too.

Undercarriage assembly is straightforward.

The main undercarriage legs sit comfortable

inside three receiving points inside the

sponson units. Each main wheel sits snuggly

onto the undercarriage leg points. The detail

on the wheel hubs is beautiful, the only

complaint I have being that there is no raised

defi nition where the tyre meets the hub,

making painting more diffi cult, extra care was

later needed when painting these.

The tailwheel is tiny and both of mine broke

at some point or another. This is not a criticism

or fault of the kit, the reason they both broke

was entirely my own fault, but it is something

to be aware of. I would suggest attaching this

wheel as late as possible to the build.

If you want to have a winch system in place

then two are provided. They come in three

parts, I found the fi t a little challenging and

I was not overly happy with the girth of the

arms that hold the winching motor system

in place. For this reason I only attached it to

the US Navy example of my two builds. On

the Canadian example I fi lled the holes in the

fuselage where the winch system is positioned

above the door.

What’s really cool about this kit is the fact

you can build one or both of the kits with the

rotor and tail in folded position. I certainly

wasn’t going to miss the opportunity of doing

this with at least one of the builds, so I opted to

do it with the Canadian build.

The same parts are used for both the folded

and standard positions, which makes things

easy. I went ahead and attached the US Navy

tail as standard and I decided to keep the

Canadian tail aside for detailing later.

I had to decide at this point whether I

wanted to add an intake inlet shield, which is

optional too. I was building a precise and well-

documented US Navy example, which did not

carry one so I omitted the inlet shield here for

this build.

However, looking at the Canadian example

I could probably build this sea king with or

without the inlet shield. I decided to go with

the inlet shield, more to have a degree of

differences between the two builds than

anything else. I have photos of the Canadian

sea kings both carrying the inlet shield and

some earlier ones showing it to be missing.

The inlet shield itself is one piece, however

on quickly dry-fi tting it I discovered the earlier

problem of the raised canopy roof was causing

fi t problems here. I had to add a small piece

of plastic to fi ll a gap that existed underneath

the unit when fi tted. As the canopy roof glass

panels would have to be detailed fi rst, I put the

inlet shield aside for fi tting later.

I also decided to add the radome to the

upper fuselage spine. This is another option

in the kit that can be used with some of the

liveries offered in the instruction guide. I didn’t

have to add this, because from what I could

tell Canadian Sea Kings did not have these

mounted at fi rst. However, it is mounted in the

instruction guide and I have many photographs

of these radar domes being carried throughout

their service life. The dome is straightforward,

fi tting perfectly over the raised spine on the

back of the fuselage. I thought it would be

a nice feature and different to the US Navy

example.

Cockpit assembled and

painted up, the detail is quite

generous for this scale.

Looking at this port side we can see how

much detail is present on the fuselage.

Canadian

cockpit

painted up.

Seat belts

are made

from Tamiya

masking

tape.

overly confi dent in the strut assembly so I

dry-fi t each side to the main fuselage to allow

then two are provided. They come in three

parts, I found the fi t a little challenging and

masking

tape.

Nose corrected with

fi ller and sanding, just

another coat of primer

needed now.

ONE, FOUR, FOUR 155.indd 14 04/05/2018 14: