I started this build in 2006. I'd worked on the RAN S-70B2 for 3-4 years full time in the late 1990's to early 2000's and still had a bit of involvement with them at this time. Building something you have worked on can be problematic.
I originally put this away because the amount of accuracy issues I wanted to fix just wore me down. Plus, despite being involved with them for over 20 years, I don't find helicopters that interesting as a modelling subject.
So when I dragged it out in 2017 I decided that I just want to finish this and I'll have to live with many of the issues in the kit. Completion is the goal.. not perfection.
I intend to document the build sequence, in this single blog post so it will be updated from time to time rather than me making a whole new post. I'll advise when I've updated the build log on my facebook page.. or you can jsut chekc back to the blog form time to time
Here it is when I dragged it out in 2017
Back to the Beginning - 2006
The Kit is the Italeri SH-60B with the Hawkeye conversion set. I am building a pre 1405 configuration aircraft as these were the ones I worked on. Externally, pProject 1405 added the FLIR and various radar/missile warning antennas to the nose along with more radar/missile warning antennas along the fuselage. There is no conversion , I’m aware of in 1/48 scale that covers the post 1405 configuration although there has been talk of one
The Italeri kit is pretty poor with very little detail. And most it seems wrong. Externally many of the dimensions are suspect.
The Hawkeye Conversion is pretty rough by modern standards but contains the main parts needed to make a RAN S-70B2. I’ve also got the Eduard exterior PE set for the SH-60F as this contains quite a bit of useful detail that can used for the S-70B2.
As I wanted to have the cabin door open the first step was to build the acoustic recorder bay in the cabin
The seats don't resemble any Seahawk seats I've seen. And there is not much else in the cockpit parts that is of use if you want to build a RAN S-70B2. You could buy the Hawkeye interior set (if it still is available) I guess but I'd decided not to get to carried away with the interior considering with the doors closed you won't be able to see much. I'm just going to add the big stuff.
For this reason I've used the decals for the centre console and instrument panel. Italeri give the same decal for the centre console as for the overhead console And that decal is only 2/3s the width of the inter-seat console. I used a combination of both decals to fill the inter-seat console so I'll have to work something out for the overhead console.
Next I scratch built the RAST and added a rear bulkhead to correct the size of the cabin.
Next I built some more interior detail (rear of the electrical bays) that won’t be seen. It seems so pointless now but at the time it didn’t. :roll:
The next series of shots the finished cabin interior. It's pretty rough but no-one will really see too much in there The the centre console is just the kit decals and doesn't actually resemble our aircraft, but again no one will know.
The next shot shows up some dimensional inaccuracies of the kit. These are dimensions/locations of the tail rotor pedals/cyclic stick and basically the cockpit in general. I'm wondering if Italeri actually ever looked at real Seahawk of any type .
Next thing was getting the fuselage together, now I'm no modelling guru but man this kit was a struggle.
I had some (likely self induced) issues with the Cabin roof,
which I tried to fix.
After "fixing the cabin roof alignment and moving the
Main rotor gearbox (MRGB) even more out of position I ready to toss the thing
against the wall.
If I hadn't glued the gearbox to roof I could have moved it
back on the roof to realign with the hole in the top fairing. The main rotor
gearbox looks way to forward on the kit anyway. From my memory the centreline
of the MRGB should be just aft of the centreline of the cabin door.
The MRGB supplied in the kit doesn't actually resemble a
Seahawk MRGB. Thankfully before launching it against the wall my wife pointed
out that with swashplate on you'd be luck to see the MRGB. I knew there was
reason why we got married
Still Plodding - 2007
This shot shows the panel lines I started to added to
underside. I've also squared up the cargo hook hole because it is square.....
not rectangular as Italeri depict it
I added some more of the PE along with correcting more
errors and adding some more S-70B2 detail.
These shots show the horrible fit around the front end, the
overhead console doesn't meet with the roof of the cockpit when you sit it on
the top of the windscreen......
On the real helicopter the area above the pilots does bludge
higher than the rest of the cabin roof so in hind sight perhaps I could have
left this and flared in the rear.
I started off intending to use both Hawkeye doors, they have
nice albeit chunky detail on the inside, and they are more accurate than the
kit ones. They also don't have the curvature the kit has . (back in 2007 I
didn't know I could bend resin by placing it hot water - I might have tried
this if I did)
They are clear resin but the resin isn’t super clear and
fitting them is an issue. I’d suggest only using these if you want them open.
In the end I went
back to using 1 of the kit doors with the Hawkeye interior detail grafted on
the inside (again none of this will be seen, stupid eh) and replacing the clear
resin with the kit clear parts… Lots of sanding and polishing followed.
You can see the difference in size between the kit door and
resin door. I think it was at this stage I'd decided to close the cockpit
doors.
I added some structure to the internals of the windscreen to
reflect the actual aircraft. Again this seems pointless now
Still going 2010 (Updated 4 Jan 18)
The next series of photos show everything around the doors/windscreen and roof glued together. I used CA mainly taking care not to get it on the clear parts. There is lots of filling to go.
I polished out the incorrect windows on the Kit parts and re-scribed the small air vent (circle) on the clear part.
This shows the weapons pylons attached. At the time I attached these I didn’t realise the one on the left of the aircraft is 6-8mm to long. I would figure this out after I resumed work on the kit again in 2017
The right side had some re-scribing to add in the panels that aren't depicted on the kit. The right hand pylon was a reasonable fit but still need some work to get a acceptable join. The exhaust areas are terrible and required lots of filling. I hadn't really started to use water based putties at this stage it needed lots of Tamiya putty, and time waiting for it to dry. It was a good excuse to get side tracked with other projects
Now the underside with the resin attached. Plenty of work here still as the Sponsons are far too wide. Whether this was due to me not cutting them in the correct place or not I don’t know.
The lugs for the main landing gear drag beams should be closer to the fuselage. But beaware if you have them to close to fuselage the resin part for the top of the drag beams is way over scale and will need trimming.
I also spent time applying some of the PE from the Eduard set. Unfortunately some of it in the wrong place - I’d figure this out later. :D
The pylon hinge detail in the PE set does add to the model IMHO. Plus I was happy to see that I’m much better now at working with PE… Although I still need more practice. :D
I spent time working on these before attaching the GPS antenna and adding some detail to simulate many of the latches for the panels on top of the aircraft. Many of these protrude and are better (and easier to simulate with card than by scribing. I also corrected some of the incorrect panel line detail I had scribed earlier.
Rather than explain some of the other changes I made I figured it was easier just to mark them up. The next images show these. The main gear was also fitted now but I’ll get to that later. At this stage the kit got another shot of primer.
Yes I know it’s sitting on the radome…... but this will be Ok once the wheels are on (he hopes).
This image also shows the latch detail for the nose door I added and the large circular antenna --- which I dislike more and more.
Now to deal with the exhausts and intakes. Although misaligned internally, and with some gaps, the intakes were probably OK as it would be quite dark in there. However the Exhausts would take a age of sanding to get right.
After checking out AP’s build and then wanting to shelve mine again :D , then talking to AP, I decided to do what he did and use blanks. These were made from plastic ward and wire and glued in place. I’ll brush paint them at end.
I continued “fixing” all the panel lines on top of the aircraft and then decided I wanted to simulate the anti slip surfaces on the top. I used Mr Surfacer 1000 and stippled it with an old stiff brush.
The right side had some re-scribing to add in the panels that aren't depicted on the kit. The right hand pylon was a reasonable fit but still need some work to get a acceptable join. The exhaust areas are terrible and required lots of filling. I hadn't really started to use water based putties at this stage it needed lots of Tamiya putty, and time waiting for it to dry. It was a good excuse to get side tracked with other projects
Now the underside with the resin attached. Plenty of work here still as the Sponsons are far too wide. Whether this was due to me not cutting them in the correct place or not I don’t know.
The lugs for the main landing gear drag beams should be closer to the fuselage. But beaware if you have them to close to fuselage the resin part for the top of the drag beams is way over scale and will need trimming.
This where I'd got to June 2010. The kit had won and it went back into the box…..
Build Recommences November 2017 (Updated 6 Jan 18)
One of the reasons I put the thing away was the main landing gear. I just couldn’t get it to look right. I decided that this needed to be sorted out first. And if couldn’t get an acceptable solution the kit was going in the bin.
The resin landing gear parts were pretty awful, they were all oval in cross section, not round and the resin piece that went on the end was to my eyes way over scale, I tried to sand this to make it look better but failed. At this stage I decided to use the kit parts so 1 removed the mating lugs on the resin sponsons.
So after a week or so of test fitting/sanding etc. I decided I had something I could live with and put the parts away for now. It was about now that, after walking past 3 Seahawks several times a day, I re-discovered that the front sponsons were far too wide. I really should have looked back at the photos from 2010, this would have saved me a lot of frustration. I confirmed this by measuring up one of the aircraft in the hangar.
To be honest I think using the kit sponsons would be close enough, although the S-70B2 sponsons are slightly wider. I assume this because the float bags are under the covers at the end.
I also realised the left hand weapons pylon was about 6 mm to long. The end of it does not protrude over where the main gear leg sits. This also showed up more dimensional problems with the kit.
As the resin was already well attached some careful razor saw work was needed to fix this.
I also spent time applying some of the PE from the Eduard set. Unfortunately some of it in the wrong place - I’d figure this out later. :D
The pylon hinge detail in the PE set does add to the model IMHO. Plus I was happy to see that I’m much better now at working with PE… Although I still need more practice. :D
I tried to reshape the forward landing lights plinths into something I thought looked closer to the real thing
Around the windscreen windows is some quite prominent framing. All my sanding and polishing had removed any detail that was there on the kit so I decided to try and simulate some of it by using Tamiya vinyl tape.
I then applied the Eduard masks (the front ones are black because I’d already used them on the inside to paint the inside of the front windscreen).
I also added more of the PE. I’m still not convinced about the circular piece for the nose. This is supposed to simulate an antenna but it’s not quite right… For now however it will remain.
There was PE for the forward sliding cowl hinges. These were applied but soon got lost so I just used plastic card….. And glued them in the wrong spot . Something else I’d have to fix later.
After fitting a few more bits of PE, primarily the parts for the HF Antenna I gave the kit a good scrub with warm soapy water. After it had dried I primed the model with Mr Surfacer through the airbrush) to see all the flaws. Whilst here were some it wasn’t quite as bad as I’d expected.
I spent time working on these before attaching the GPS antenna and adding some detail to simulate many of the latches for the panels on top of the aircraft. Many of these protrude and are better (and easier to simulate with card than by scribing. I also corrected some of the incorrect panel line detail I had scribed earlier.
Stabiliser and Undercarriage - Update 10 Jan 18
Hawkeye supply you a horizontal stabiliser, But to be honest I couldn’t see any difference between it and the Kit part, except the trailing edge on the Hawkeye part is thinner. This advantage was negated by the fact the trailing edge was a little ragged so I figured I’d just use the kit part.
The Kit would have you position the horizontal stabiliser at the neutral or flying position, but in reality with the aircraft on the ground the stabiliser is canted leading edge up. So I cut the plastic actuator arm off and after gluing the stabiliser to the kit used a piece of brass rod to simulate the actuator.
Not that you can see it in the images but the Stabiliser doesn’t sit on the fairing underneath it, there is a gap. At the hinge the stabiliser has some raised nipples which click into recesses on the kit. This means the stab can pivot so a liberal amount of CA was used to anchor it making sure the angles from the side and front on were the same.
Now to main landing gear. As I’ve written earlier I wasn’t happy with the resin parts in the conversion. The cylindrical oleos (vertical part) and drag beam (angled part) were oval not round and the part that connects to the sponson was, IMHO, over scale .
My solution was to use the kit parts. These needed extending as for some reason I’d cut them up back in 2009, plus they had broken at the point where the oleo met the drag beam, and I’d re-glued them incorrectly. I broke these and re-attached them in the correct locations .
I was able to measure the drag beam and oleo's on a couple of aircraft as well as getting measurements from the bottom of the fuselage to the ground to try and get the sit of the aircraft correct.
Using the kit parts the aircraft sat a bit higher than it should so I adjusted this by cutting the leg of the oleo and replacing it with a brass pin at a slightly lower height . I also filed a groove in the fuselage to get the oleo to sit closer to the fuselage as I think this looked more like the actual position of the oleo with respect to the fuselage. You can see the groove about seven hots up in the shot of the underside.
To extend the drag beam I used evergreen rod, then filed out the end that mates to the sponson to simulate the configuration there. Some card was added as well. It’s not really that great but to be honest I don’t feel like trying to come up with a better solution at this stage - after the all the aim is completion not perfection.
Once I was happy I glued the main gear parts one and once this was dry I fitted the fairings, The left had side required cutting out to fit around the left hand pylon. Magi Scupt 2 part putty was used to fill the gaps. There were a couple of PE parts that simulate the attaching ring for the rubber boot, these go under the oleo's and were applied now.
Yes I know it’s sitting on the radome…... but this will be Ok once the wheels are on (he hopes).
This image also shows the latch detail for the nose door I added and the large circular antenna --- which I dislike more and more.
Now to deal with the exhausts and intakes. Although misaligned internally, and with some gaps, the intakes were probably OK as it would be quite dark in there. However the Exhausts would take a age of sanding to get right.
After checking out AP’s build and then wanting to shelve mine again :D , then talking to AP, I decided to do what he did and use blanks. These were made from plastic ward and wire and glued in place. I’ll brush paint them at end.
I continued “fixing” all the panel lines on top of the aircraft and then decided I wanted to simulate the anti slip surfaces on the top. I used Mr Surfacer 1000 and stippled it with an old stiff brush.
The advantage of this is it covered a lot of the flaws from the re-scribing I hadn’t got rid of. I also re-positioned the forward sliding cowl latches to a more correct location and added the hand hold and rotor head light (FWIW).
I added the VOR ILS antennas on the tail. These were the same antenna used on the A-4K tail so I used a set of white metal ones from one of my Hasegawa A-4K kits as a template and made some from plastic card… They actually look a little large but I no longer have access to the real aircraft to check the measurements so they’ll have to do.
I added the VOR ILS antennas on the tail. These were the same antenna used on the A-4K tail so I used a set of white metal ones from one of my Hasegawa A-4K kits as a template and made some from plastic card… They actually look a little large but I no longer have access to the real aircraft to check the measurements so they’ll have to do.
There were a few more small PE parts to apply, primarily to the tail gear leg. I also added a bit of width to the fuselage structure around the main cabin door, along with the two hand holds. And I added brake lines down the main drag beam. I didn’t use the PE parts preferring to use copper wire. You’ll see this detail in later images.
At this stage I’d truly had enough so I decided to crack on and just paint the thing.
Painting - Update 28 Jan 18
The Gunze colours for the top grey FS35237 (337) and compass grey FS36320 (307). were far to dark out of the bottle for this scale so I mixed up much lighter versions. These were airbrushed mainly freehand onto the model. I did tape the demarcation between the nose door (top grey) and the lower area (compass grey).
The underside Light Gray, FS36495 (#338) was free handed onto the model in a pattern that represented what I'd seen on my references. The demarcation between the lower light grey and compass grey around front varies a bit from aircraft to aircraft and the time frame. I also used some Gunze off white to add some tonal variation.
Once I was happy with the paint work I masked out and painted the exhausts with Alclad jet exhaust and brush painted the blank Vallejo red.
I also decided to try using the rivet tool at this stage. Where I got it straight I was quite happy with the result.
Finally I applied a wash of a grey oil paint, and once dry removed the excess with a paper towel.
Rotor Head and Decals - Update 10 Mar 18
I've spent a bit of time adding some wire to simulate the blade fold and blade de-ice looms to the rotor head. What I've added is pretty fictitious but the rotor head itself doesn't really resemble an actual Seahawk head either so I just wanted to add something there. I also added the PE Bi filliar weights to the rotor head, they don't drop as much as they should but they are better than the plastic detail in that area.
I'm happy enough with it all painted up. I've put the swash plate and main rotor mast assembly together and applied a wash
Next was the decals. I had the Hawkeye sheet for the early Tiger tail, (N24-008 , 877, circa 1994). But although I'd actually worked on that aircraft in that scheme, and a good mate of mine actually painted it I just wasn't up to trying to decal that.
I also had the Hawkeye Gulf war sheet, but I didn't really want to do the aircraft on that sheet either. I really wanted to do a standard line aircraft , that I worked on.
Whilst looking through photos I noticed that markings for roundels, side number and "NAVY" markings, along with the rescue markings changed several times over the time the aircraft was in service.
A mate of mine kindly (out of character) gave me the Ronin sheet for the later Tiger tail scheme (N24-001, 870, circa 2012). This also had a full stencil set for a line aircraft. Including stencils for earlier aircraft. On the Ronin sheet the decals are individual decals and don't require trimming like the Hawkeye sheet. I also liked the colours better so I decided to use those.
However they didn't have any serial numbers, side numbers or the correct NAVY markings for the timeframe I was doing But as they did have a 70 for the nose number I decided to do aircraft 870 as this was one less decal or mask I had to make. I found a photo at Airliners.net of 870 pre mod 1405 from around 2007 and decided to use this as my reference.
The Ronin decals were very nice to use, as good as Cartogragh and went down well, although I did put the smaller ones into a pool of Future to reduce the chance of silvering.
I did have to make Masks on my Silhouette Portrait Cutter for the main side markings (70) and NAVY as these weren't in the decal set.
For relatively flat surfaces I use label paper for masks. I've found it It has several advantages over Tamiya tape and masking frisket . These being
The cutter wasn't up to cutting the small serial as there were only 2.5mm / 1mm high so I had to print these myself. In the image below these were done on inkjet paper , but I found these far to thick.
I had a bit of trouble trying to match both the mask colour and decal colour to the Ronin decals but as I was going to spray a light coat of the grey over all the marking I only need to get it close.
So I tried the laser jet paper, which is finer but still a bit thick when compared to real decals. I then applied a clear coat over the finished decals and masks. Over the tail serial numbers I applied a particularly thick coat to try and make film disappear.
Once this dried I sanded it back a bit then applied a light coat of the main compass grey to try and tie everything together
I'm happy enough how this turned out. I then applied flat coat hoping the tail serial film would further disappear. I know the actual aircraft are semi gloss but in this scale semi gloss looks far to glossy so I've gone with a flatter finish.
I also toned down the markings on the underside as these looked way to stark .
The wheels were a real challenge. The Hawkeye wheels needed a lot of work to make them usable as the kit wheels are the wrong diameter and width. I had to clean up the hubs filling and recreate the bolts On the tyres I had to fill many gaps, and try and get them rounder in shape.In doing this I removed whatever tread they came with. I used thin strips of paint and different shades of grey to try and create an illusion of tread. The chocks help hide the bottom of the wheels which aren't as flat as they should be.
I masked out the upper windows and painted them Tamiya clear green.
Many of the external light lens were created with UV glue. This stuff is excellent for lens, you squeeze it in, let it settle to the shape you want then hit with the UV light.
I worked out the VOR antennas on the tail were the wrong shape and size so I corrected those.
I changed tack with the rear cabin door. I was going to use the Kit door as the Hawkeye resin one wasn't that great. However the kit one is not accurate for so I went back to the Hawkeye one. To try and simulate the panel lines I made a mask out with my mask cutter and used it as a template to draw a window with a pencil, not perfect but good enough for me.
The Anti col lights were shaved off, then the a hole was drilled out and a piece of stretched clear sprue was fitted before it was painted red. I did the same for the tail light.
Various washes of oil paints were applied to the fuselage to dirty it up a bit. Some rivet lines were applied with a trumpeter riveting tool. This was done more as experiment to see what it would look like. You make think it's odd to experiment on this kit but as this had some many flaws I decided a few more won't matter. I also had to scratch-build the lower antennas.
The HF antenna stanchions are from the PE set. I cut of the tips as I thought they didn't belong there. I was wrong which made attaching the antenna itself a challenge. The HF antenna is invisible mending thread painted white. One of the stanchions is in the wrong spot unfortunately I didn't realise until the antenna was attached. I decided not to correct this as it would undoubtedly cause even more problems with the finish and I'd have to restring the antenna.
Finally I decided I should build a base for it to sit on. Using Google Earth I could see the pads at HMAS Albatross with MH-60R's sitting on it. Using the known size of the Romeo, which is about the same as the S-70B2 I worked out the approximate size of the H. The base was made from cheap skirting from Bunnings, along with wet and dry cut into squares then painted and weathered.
Next was the decals. I had the Hawkeye sheet for the early Tiger tail, (N24-008 , 877, circa 1994). But although I'd actually worked on that aircraft in that scheme, and a good mate of mine actually painted it I just wasn't up to trying to decal that.
I also had the Hawkeye Gulf war sheet, but I didn't really want to do the aircraft on that sheet either. I really wanted to do a standard line aircraft , that I worked on.
Whilst looking through photos I noticed that markings for roundels, side number and "NAVY" markings, along with the rescue markings changed several times over the time the aircraft was in service.
A mate of mine kindly (out of character) gave me the Ronin sheet for the later Tiger tail scheme (N24-001, 870, circa 2012). This also had a full stencil set for a line aircraft. Including stencils for earlier aircraft. On the Ronin sheet the decals are individual decals and don't require trimming like the Hawkeye sheet. I also liked the colours better so I decided to use those.
However they didn't have any serial numbers, side numbers or the correct NAVY markings for the timeframe I was doing But as they did have a 70 for the nose number I decided to do aircraft 870 as this was one less decal or mask I had to make. I found a photo at Airliners.net of 870 pre mod 1405 from around 2007 and decided to use this as my reference.
The Ronin decals were very nice to use, as good as Cartogragh and went down well, although I did put the smaller ones into a pool of Future to reduce the chance of silvering.
I did have to make Masks on my Silhouette Portrait Cutter for the main side markings (70) and NAVY as these weren't in the decal set.
For relatively flat surfaces I use label paper for masks. I've found it It has several advantages over Tamiya tape and masking frisket . These being
- It doesn't deform when removed from backing
- It cuts sharper
- It's cheap
The cutter wasn't up to cutting the small serial as there were only 2.5mm / 1mm high so I had to print these myself. In the image below these were done on inkjet paper , but I found these far to thick.
I had a bit of trouble trying to match both the mask colour and decal colour to the Ronin decals but as I was going to spray a light coat of the grey over all the marking I only need to get it close.
So I tried the laser jet paper, which is finer but still a bit thick when compared to real decals. I then applied a clear coat over the finished decals and masks. Over the tail serial numbers I applied a particularly thick coat to try and make film disappear.
Once this dried I sanded it back a bit then applied a light coat of the main compass grey to try and tie everything together
I'm happy enough how this turned out. I then applied flat coat hoping the tail serial film would further disappear. I know the actual aircraft are semi gloss but in this scale semi gloss looks far to glossy so I've gone with a flatter finish.
I also toned down the markings on the underside as these looked way to stark .
Final Steps - Update 8 Apr 18
I've been pretty slack in documenting the final bits of the build primarily because I just want to get it finished, and because there are so many little things that need doing.The wheels were a real challenge. The Hawkeye wheels needed a lot of work to make them usable as the kit wheels are the wrong diameter and width. I had to clean up the hubs filling and recreate the bolts On the tyres I had to fill many gaps, and try and get them rounder in shape.In doing this I removed whatever tread they came with. I used thin strips of paint and different shades of grey to try and create an illusion of tread. The chocks help hide the bottom of the wheels which aren't as flat as they should be.
Many of the external light lens were created with UV glue. This stuff is excellent for lens, you squeeze it in, let it settle to the shape you want then hit with the UV light.
I worked out the VOR antennas on the tail were the wrong shape and size so I corrected those.
I changed tack with the rear cabin door. I was going to use the Kit door as the Hawkeye resin one wasn't that great. However the kit one is not accurate for so I went back to the Hawkeye one. To try and simulate the panel lines I made a mask out with my mask cutter and used it as a template to draw a window with a pencil, not perfect but good enough for me.
The Anti col lights were shaved off, then the a hole was drilled out and a piece of stretched clear sprue was fitted before it was painted red. I did the same for the tail light.
Various washes of oil paints were applied to the fuselage to dirty it up a bit. Some rivet lines were applied with a trumpeter riveting tool. This was done more as experiment to see what it would look like. You make think it's odd to experiment on this kit but as this had some many flaws I decided a few more won't matter. I also had to scratch-build the lower antennas.
