1/72 Hobbycraft Labrador SAR

Canadian Forces 

by Mike Scullion

--------------------

 

When I heard the Labrador was going to be retired from Canadian service I was reminded that I had the Hobbycraft kit awaiting me on the shelf and now was a good time to give it a go.  The Hobbycraft kit is the only kit of the Labrador helicopter, to my knowledge, and provides a reasonable starting point for creating a Canadian Forces SAR craft.  ARC walkaround photos and some taken by me at various airshows provided the motivation for doing some rather extensive (for me) modifications to the OOB kit.  The most obvious additions to the outside are the antenna on the left fuselage, various bits like the searchlight bracket and landing lights and the radome on the nose.

The rear ramp and clamshell doors were cut away from the body of the model and the interior was filled with padding, racks, seats, SAR equipment, radio racks and general "busyness" based on the walkaround photos and some artistic licence.

Click on images below to see larger images

The model was airbrushed using Model Master and regular Testors enamel paints with an Aztec airbrush.  The fiddly masking of the cockpit "glass" was done using Parafilm "M".  I love this stuff!  It really adheres to compound curves, resists lifting at the edges and cuts very cleanly with a SHARP blade.  The nose masking represents the Labrador modifications of the Voyageur with the additional clear areas.

Decal markings are mostly Belcher Bits which are considerably sharper and more accurate than the kit decals and some use of the kit decals.  A light weathering with a dash of soap and watercolour paints and I figure it's done..at least as far as I can take it.  I wish I would have had a chance to study the "Lab" in the Aviation Museum at Ottawa and I might have made some other changes but it had not yet retired when I finished this model.

Mike 

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Mike Scullion