Halberd SC-1 Seahawk on its leg

[Cicchino]

Guys,

 

This will be my first start to finish build in the WIP forum. Following immediately on the heels of the XF5U I’ve started the Halberd SC-1 Seahawk and have progressed enough to share some pics. I hope I can build it to the wonderful standard Red Baron achieved on his.

 

 

The kit comes in Halberd’s traditional light green resin; the fuselage is hollow cast, the floats and each of the wings are molded as solid resin. Dry fitting revealed the Halberd’s usual near flawless fit. Halberd is easily one of my favorite manufacturers in terms of subjects, detail and quality and ease of build.

 

 

I followed the kit instructions and started with the engine; the Wright R1820 engine built up very quickly. I painted all the major components prior to assembly, with all the parts first primed in Mr Surfacer Black. The kit firewall was then painted MRP Night, the crankcase and prop governor started with MRP Mig-19 Cockpit blue, which I’ve had success with in the past, but this time it turned out too light so MRP RAF Blue Grey was misted over the base coat until it looked dark enough.  Washes from Mi:, Blue-Grey and Black-Blue were used to bring out details. The cylinders were painted in MRP White Aluminum at the top, and dark aluminum at the bottom, with MRP Anodized Aluminum mottled over the entire cylinder. True Earth Dark Metallic acrylic wash was used to make the cooling fins pop. The ignition harness was sprayed SMS Aluminum, a new fave, and the push rods are Tamiya SemiGloss black lacquer.

 

      

 

The nine separate cylinders click right into place. The prop governor and ignition harness were then added, with the insignia white splitter plate filling the bottom of the engine. The push rods were cut from .035” (.9mm) rod. The predrilled holes in the crankcase and cylinders had to be opened with a twist or two of a .035” drill bit to allow them to ease into their locations. Once the push rods were cured, I added the 2 piece ignition harness in preparation for my least favorite modeling task - making radial engine ignition wires. These were added from .4mm Anyz braided wire and fit into predrilled holed in the ignition harness and spark plugs. A couple of decals were added to the crankcase to spice things up

 

    

 

The engine intakes were dry brushed to add a little pop, and some thinned Abtieiung Sepia and Starship Filth oils were speckled and streaked onto the splitter plate, interior cowling and engine to make it all look operational

 

 

The propeller was painted and built, The kit decals for the data block are printed in white, but these should be yellow, so I over-sprayed the cuffs with clear yellow to tint the text. The fit to the hub was perfect; blades are just press fit for now. This build is progressing very quickly and is really only limited to the amount of time you want to spend painting and adding additional details, although they aren’t really needed.

 

  

 

Up next cockpit painting and assembly…

 

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

John

Edited July 3 by Cicchino
title update

[Out2gtcha]

Wonderful! I too have this kit at home....looks like a great kit.

[David Hansen]

Looks really good so far John.

 

-d-

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work! I have one of these kits too, and even started a build thread on it, but never actually got started with the build. Will be following along for sure!

 

Kev

[Cicchino]

 

Guys,

 

Progress on models was absolutely glacial over the holidays, but I've been able to get the SC-1 cockpit just about finished.

 

The Halberd cockpit out of the box is really well done and is a fantastic starting point. After priming with MrSurface Black, I painted the base coat a mottled MRP interior Green mixed with a couple of drops of MRP389 Tan Green to get to the brownish Curtis color; Interior Green was added as a highlight. 

 

Cockpit panels knobs, switches and the like, including the instrument panel and gunsight were detail painted according to the Ginter book with some intermittent dry brushing bringing out details. Everything was gloss coated and assorted Airscale and Anyz decals were added for labels, placards etc to glam up the cockpit, a quick wash followed and everything was sealed in. The camera seems to be making the chipping and weathering more pronounced than real life. 

 

Cockpit Port side 

        

 

 

Starboard side:

 

    

 

 

Instrument panel:

 

 

I added the missing manual hydraulic pump to the left of the seat from rod and Purigen filter balls - these can be found at aquarium stores and each jar includes tiny round balls of assorted. They stick like crazy with CA glue and I typically run some thin CA over to seal them before painting. One jar will last you centuries.

 

    

 

I have some new HGW seatbelts on the way after butchering the set I had. The kit comes with PE belts which are my least favorite option. I've chosen not to repair the broken starboard rudder pedal as it's nearly invisible once the fuselage is joined. 

 

     

 

Next step will be closing up the fuselage once I am comfortable with the fit. I think I may have a little work to do around the engine to close up a potential gap. There are some bits to add to the cockpit side rails including the throttle and canopy crank. I'm deciding on whether to add the gunsight to the instrument panel before closing the fuselage per the instructions but It leaves it awfully exposed; however, I am notoriously bad at adding them afterward. We'll see how much courage I can summon.

 

  

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

 

John

[geedubelyer]

Superb detail painting John. Everything looks so sharp. Your approach to weathering and wear appears wonderfully sympathetic too. Great job so far. 

[OzzieNick]

Love the style and content and yr approach to the build thread John

Loving yer work too!

[Cicchino]

Guys,

 

Couple of quick updates on the beautiful Halberd Models SC-1. I've closed up the fuselage and filled the seams with some VMS black CA. Fit is really good, but I did remove the locating pins to give me a little play in getting the halves together. A little seam and body work will occur over the next couple of days, but nothing substantial is needed.

 

 

The things we fixate over - I was determined to add the canopy drive chain to the starboard cockpit sill if it killed me.  I had some assorted old watch chains I picked up on eBay probably thinking about F4F landing gears, so I grabbed one that looked suitable and mounted around the crank wheel and back into the aft fuselage abyss. I think it came out really cool, but from 2 feet away, you'll never notice it. 

 

    

 

Adding the instrument panel has been the hardest part of the kit for me so far - I think this is on me for not ensuring a smooth transition across the port and starboard mounts. I ended up super glueing the panel to .005" styrene card, and added similar strips to the fuselage mounts so I could actually cement the panel in with Tamiya Extra Thin.

 

 

I added some control rods to the throttle running forward past the instrument panel, and I've replaced the previously destroyed HGW seatbelts with news ones which I assembled per pictures of actual USN WWII harnesses and not the fairly vague instructions. Once I get them on the seat, I'll weather them up. 

 

   

 

There's not a lot of parts remaining in the build, so I'm hoping to have it prepped, primed and the first base coats of paint on by end of week. The only mitigating factor could be some unusually frigid air we have on the way these next few days. 

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

 

John

[Cicchino]

Guys,

 

One quick shot of the assembled airframe; I am in total shock just how big the SC-1 actually was. I had always assumed it was a small little scout aircraft, but it's kind of a brute compared to a P-51, and the float is not even attached yet! The model itself is also extremely heavy with its solid cast wings and float. I am going to attach the float after painting as between the weight and the overall shape with the float attached, the model is a bit unwieldy.  

 

 

This has been an extremely fun project, and the kit itself rivals anything injection molded regarding detail and fit; the only downside is having to use CA's instead of normal cement. I can't recommend Halberd Models highly enough; I do want to take on the AM-1, but I've been struggling getting the payment to accept on the Halberd website. 

 

Hope to have paint on by end of the weekend. 

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

John

[Out2gtcha]

Very nice!

 

I've got the kit myself and didnt realize how big it was

[Cicchino]

Guys,

 

Found this cool little addition on eBay, 3D print from China. It actually is sold as a full P6 catapult, but I want to use just the sled and maybe this one section for display. Time will tell if I build the full catapult - it would be dramatic, but certainly big as well.  I'm hoping I can purchase just the sled and center section when I build my Kitty Hawk OS2U.

 

  

 

  

 

Feel like I'm getting toward the finish line (the P-47N as well!) on this one. Hope to have both at JAXCON in a couple of weeks.

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

 

John

[Cicchino]

Guys,

 

Trying to get some paint on in between freezes. I've done the insignia white and intermediate blue; I have some repairs to make with some lifting and some overspray, but overall I am pretty pleased with how they came out; the depth of color in the intermediate blue in particular. Both colors were sprayed over black primer with a variety of mottled undercoats ranging from tans to yellows, dull dark green and purple working up to the final blend coats. The blues on the float are actually the same and do not look as different in person as they do in the pics, purely the lighting.

 

Going to try and get the sea blue on today before temps plummet again.  

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

 

I'm still in two minds if I'll paint the insignia or use the kit decals, but I'm leaning toward painting them as the SC-1s took a bit of a beating operationally and I'll have more flexibility to weather painted insignia

 

What a fun kit!

 

 

Thanks for dropping by

 

 

John

[Out2gtcha]

Excellent paint work!  MRP?

[Cicchino]

20 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Excellent paint work!  MRP?

 

Thanks! MRP whenever I can - I find them to be extremely forgiving.

 

Here are the paints so far

 

Insignia White:

 

 

I really like the Clear Doped Linen as a base - it covers far better than straight white

 

Intermediate Blue:

 

 

Tamiya purple is an all time fave as an undercoat mottle - works great with Olive drab and Neutral Grey as well

 

Still fiddling with the Sea Blue

 

Thanks for asking

 

John

[Out2gtcha]

Ive got this same kit and was definitely interested in what you used for the tri-colors.

I find MRP to be easy to work with, very forgiving and easy to layer too.