Building Wessex XS 880 from the Italeri kit
![Album image #1 Album image #1](/albums/img/8/1/3/1390813-10800-36-720.jpg)
The blue styrene wasn´t the easiest to work with, but things fit remarkably well. I started on the interior and the nose which needed some detailing.
![Album image #2 Album image #2](/albums/img/8/1/4/1390814-10800-26-720.jpg)
I replaced the two-aprt kit exhausts with hoemmade ones from brass tubing and PE handwheels with the wheelish part cut out.
![Album image #3 Album image #3](/albums/img/8/1/6/1390816-10800-63-720.jpg)
I made a cutout in the nose and added a PE grille to make this area look better, and especially achieve the typical see-through aspect.
![Album image #4 Album image #4](/albums/img/8/1/5/1390815-10800-45-720.jpg)
To make what you see through the see-through area more believable, I made a curved part cast in dental resin for the front and an insert from foam board for the rear part of the interior.
![Album image #5 Album image #5](/albums/img/8/1/7/1390817-10800-18-720.jpg)
I had to spray the nose prior to installing the interior and prior to adding it to the fuselage. I primed it in black, and continued with grey, red, orange and finally dayglo orange.
![Album image #6 Album image #6](/albums/img/8/1/8/1390818-10800-22-720.jpg)
The Eduard masks worked exceedingly well and showed me I needed to cut another window into the access door not provided in the kit (even though the transparency was).
![Album image #7 Album image #7](/albums/img/8/1/9/1390819-10800-49-720.jpg)
This kit needed some masking and some preshading.
![Album image #8 Album image #8](/albums/img/8/2/0/1390820-10800-47-720.jpg)
The rotor blades were masked and sprayed per instructions. As the CTA decals did not include the rotor blade stripes, I used the ones from the kit. As they came from the late 90ies, that wasn´t that satisfying. I still remember Revell decals from that era, an overpowering tendency to silvering was their main characteristic.
![Album image #9 Album image #9](/albums/img/8/2/1/1390821-10800-13-720.jpg)
Decaling the aircraft, that hi-vis scheme looks quite attractive to me.
![Album image #10 Album image #10](/albums/img/8/2/3/1390823-10800-31-720.jpg)
Finally. After decaling, I sealed the decals with Future, added a flat coat and then the numerous fiddly bits. The antenna wires were made from Albion Alloys .1 mm nickel silver wire.
![Album image #11 Album image #11](/albums/img/8/2/4/1390824-10800-21-720.jpg)
![Album image #12 Album image #12](/albums/img/8/2/7/1390827-10800-30-720.jpg)
![Album image #13 Album image #13](/albums/img/8/2/2/1390822-10800-70-720.jpg)
![Album image #14 Album image #14](/albums/img/8/2/8/1390828-10800-16-720.jpg)
![Album image #15 Album image #15](/albums/img/8/2/9/1390829-10800-64-720.jpg)
Коментари
17 29 January 2023, 13:26
![](/profiles/img/58177-859-s.jpg)
Frank ! Beautiful Wessex ! Is the Arks' airing complete ?
29 January 2023, 14:37
![](/profiles/img/10800-888-s.jpg)
Thank you, Piotr! Almost. I just brought out the Sea King kit and tested tinting the windows green. So I think I´ll start it pretty soonish.
29 January 2023, 16:22
Album info
I´m building a collection of the aircraft from HMS Ark Royal IV´s late airgroups, as seen in the TV documentary "Sailor". This helicopter, a true workhorse, was built from the Italeri kit (albeit in a Revell boxing) using CTA decals and Eduard masks and PE. It needed some backdating and I hope I got most of it right.