Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King

This is a pretty basic kit with not a great deal of detail but I will do the best I can with it because I don't want to spend extra money on it. I think my first problem was that I put the rotor blades on the wrong way up as they should droop down, not up. I will warm them up and see if I can fix them.
The fuselage seams are a bit prominent although they fit quite well. A little fine filler and some sanding should fix that.
 

The cockpit is also basic but I am not too worried. The crew have bright red immersion suits which I think will be just visible through the windows.  

The front of this definitely needs work. The fit of the two halves of the fuselage is not great here. 

Ready for some detail painting then decals. The rotors won’t droop as they should despite being heated up.  

One of the reference photos I found has black sections around the rotor tower. I tried reproducing them but I don’t think it works. I think I will go back to the reference without it. 

Black paint removed and some detailing done including black main rotors with yellow tips, the tail rotor and the yellow band around the tail boom. Also black sections around the windscreen. 

Oddly, the torpedoes are included in the kit but there is absolutely no reference to them in the instructions. It was obvious from the holes in the hull where they were supposed to go so, after a consultation with other members of a 1/72 aircraft group on Facebook, I decided to fit them Apparently they are M44 torpedoes. I am not totally convinced that the forward ones should be quite that far forward but it looks OK. I had to drill the holes bigger for the attachments to fit.
 

I do think the torpedoes make the model more interesting and add a little detail to an otherwise rather plain model. I think the decals will eventually make quite a difference. I still need to put the tip colours on the tail rotor.
 

Details painted and two coats of Tamiya X22 clear coat onto which to apply decals. That’s next and then a final clear coat and unmask the windows.  

The details of the rotor and tail rotor tip colours are from reference photos so they should be OK. The box art shows black areas on the sides of the rotor tower. I painted them on but they didn’t look right or good so I restored the plain grey. Once the decals are on, I think it will look ok. No two reference photos are the same anyway!  

I think I will call this done. Considering that the decals are 42 years old, they applied with no problems and look fairly good.