Hi all.

One of my best friends is an RAAF Squadron Leader, and in his early years in the service was an electronics engineer on the P-3C. He has asked me to build one of the aircraft that he worked on, Serial A9-757 from 10 Squadron RAAF.



He picked up the kit and gave it to me, and I have ordered the decal set from a local supplier.




I will post up progress as I make my way through this build, which is a bit outside my comfort zone of single engine WWII fighters and old Chevy cars

He also worked on F/A-18A Hornets, and is moving to the USA on a 3 year contract to look after the EA-18G Growlers, and has asked me to build one of each of those as well

Cheers, D

Very cool project.
one of my favorite aircraft. I have built several in 144. always wanted to see the 1/72 Hase kit built.

Im sure you know to delete the under-wing stores pylons.

Jonathan, many thanks for checking in here, I definitely appreciate the advice of those more familiar with these aircraft than I am. I will definitely be leaving off the underwing pylons and stores.

I can't see an In-Box Review of this kit in the Aeroscale library, so I will put one together and submit it shortly.

I started off today by trimming off the major parts and cleaning them up to do some test fitting. There is a mix of very fine raised panel lines over most of the parts, and heavier recessed panel lines around the moving parts (flaps, ailerons, vertical stabiliser, gear doors). The fuselage halve join lines up very nicely, but there are only a couple of tiny locating pins for the whole fuselage, so I will be cementing in some support strips to keep things solid as I go.






The wing halves fit together very well and the training edge is nice and thin, so not much cleaning up to be done there. The top wing root areas on each side don't look like they will give me any troubles, and the front and rear joins of the lower wing on the underside fit very well also.




I also started on cleaning up parts and putting together a few of the smaller sub assemblies. Apart from the lack of locating pins or tabs, no issues so far.


Cheers, D

Final update for the moment, engine and spinner assemblies completed and 95% finished, just a little sprue goo to sand off once it has cured, and horizontal stabilizers built and cleaned up.



Upper and lower wings cleaned up and assembled as well.



No major issues to report so far, only a little flash here and there, but the lack of locating pins means a little more time and care needs to be taken when cementing "clamshell" assemblies. I haven't found any ejector pin marks or sink marks in any visible locations so far.

Cheers, D

I spent some time on tidying up the leading edge joins on the wings, which were in general very good, just needed some "sprue-goo" on the compound curves of the shrouds between the engine covers and the wing itself.


I also filled the locating points for the underwing stores using automotive spot putty thinned with MLT and applied with an old fine paintbrush to get it in place without spreading around all over the shop!


This was applied in several thin layers as the recesses for the pylons were quite deep. This has all cured nicely now and been fine sanded.

Instructions called for 30 grams of ballast in the nose, so out came the fishing tackle box and some lead weight was CA'd into place.


Next up is painting the cockpit and getting it installed.

Cheers, D

D. I am enjoying your P3 build. It brings back memories! I also never thought of placing ballast in the engine nacelles>

Bob

Thanks for checking in Bob, great to have you on board. My mate has given me a pile of photos from his collection for reference so I will start posting a few of the better ones here as I go.

Prime time for the P-3C office


I also found another use for my Chevy engine orange


Cheers, D

Looking good, D. Kinda interested in the P-3 but there's a lot of models in front of it.

Thanks for checking in on my build here Mark, much appreciated.

There is a great history of 10 Squadron RAAF action in WWII HERE .

10 Squadron Crest


The picture shows a Chimaera, or Ghost Shark, being impaled by an Australian Aboriginal spear. This was first put forward in 1943 and finally given Royal approval for use in Feb 1945.

Some stock images of A9-757, 10 Squadron RAAF

1979 (White Chimaera Fin Flash)


1980 (Blue Chimaera Fin Flash)


1981 (White Chimaera Fin Flash)


1981 (Engine #1 feathered prop)


In flight image from my friends personal collection, not sure of year but blue fin flash.


Cheers, D

D. I remember that view of the cockpit from where I was stationed, but not the orange on the pilot, copilot, and engineers seats.

Your friend had beautiful photos taken.

Bob

The orange seats do give the eye something to see inside the cockpit.
judging from the vintage character of the rest of the kit, i expect the cockpit glass is about three scale feet thick which will make anything but a splash of color practically invisible.

The clear parts aren't actually too bad, probably 4 scale inches thick, but quite clear with very little distortion, but the size and the angle of the windscreen into the cockpit means that virtually nothing will be visible anyway.

The decals performed beautifully, I used a drop of Mr Mark Setter before I put them in place, then a drop of Mr Mark Softer to get them to conform to the part profile.



I didn't bother with the ejector pin marks and I won't be doing any further work (pin washes) etc because of the above reason.

Fuselage assembly next.

Cheers, D

Damian! Never seen one of these built so look forward to following yours!

You might have figured it out already but when doing this kind of build for someone who isn't a modeller himself, there is no need for bringing the model to "competition standard", they will be both impressed and very happy with the final result even if there are raised panel lines on it! I did a Hercules for a friend a decade ago and I was frankly amazed at how much I liked it myself even if it wasn't anywhere near a winner by any standards. And I had a lot of fun along the way !



Magnus

Hi Magnus, great to have you checking in on my build here.

You are spot on, this build will never be looked at with that level of critique. It will be sitting on a shelf in an RAAF admin office as a conversation piece, so the ejector pin marks on the inside and raised panel lines on the outside don't bother me at all.

I have already been handed 2 more kits to build for the same display shelf, an F/A-18A and an EA-18G, both in 1/72 scale, and both aircraft that my friend is currently working support on.

Back to the build, time for that "Going . . .going . . . gone!" moment.




Hopefully the fuselage will be buttoned up tonight and then the wings can go on.

Cheers, D

A couple of pics inside the fuselage to show the support strips I glued in along the joins, there are only 4 tiny locating pins for the entire assembly and the plastic is quite thin, so this was required as far as I was concerned.




And the fuselage is all buttoned up ready for clean-up of the join once it has fully cured.



This is definitely the biggest kit I have ever built! The two halves mated up very nicely and no clamping was required to hold the joins while the cement set.

Cheers, D

We have an aircraft!




I ran a thin bead of sprue goo along the joins as they were still slightly uneven with the support underneath. Once this was cured and cleaned up I fitted the main wings and horizontal stabilizers, and then the weighted nose cone. All of these major parts fit together beautifully, I see very little need for filling and only a small degree of sanding to finish this off ready for primer.

The wing roots are usually my trouble spot on aircraft builds, no problems here.



Likewise the front and rear lower wing joints.



I will run a bead of thin sprue goo into the tiny gap on the port side of the rear lower wing joint, then sand off all of the joins. The worst fitting part so far was the plate with the sonobuoy deployment chutes, and even that only needed a little touch-up.

Next steps will see the MAD boom and engine assemblies attached to this main assembly, then the windscreen fitted and masked up, then time for an overall MS1500 black primer.

Cheers, D

Nice build Damian!
I didn't realise you were multi-tasking but great progress so far. I can't tell from the photo but it is the colour combination of white and grey or a white and bare metal finish?

cheers

Michael

Eyup, thats an Orion. It seems to be a very well engineered kit for its era.

Thanks for checking in Michael. The scheme is Insignia White and Light Grey, I will be using GSI paints H315 and H316 which are the correct FS numbers.

Cheers, D

Very nice build! As a former P-3 crewman I always like to see what folks do with this kit.

Looking really good Damian.

Always wanted this kit myself. Still hoping that Revell reissues their boxing of it in the near future.

Dennis, Stephen, many thanks for taking a look at my build. As always, any comments, critique and ideas gratefully accepted.

Cheers, D

another unusual topic Damian!

Watching with interest

Gotta keep mixing things up Russ, and this is for one of my best friends (almost 40 years now) who is being posted to Maryland USA in November, to work logistics on the EA-18G "Growler" for 3 years. I will need to work on some secure packaging for this to make the journey in one piece!

Cheers, D

The engine assemblies and MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detector) Boom fitted into place beautifully. Once again very little (if any) clean-up required.






Cheers, D