Wessex HU.5 - done!

[Will Vale]

This is a bit of a better late than never entry - but it's quite a long group build so hopefully I'll be OK. I've been dithering about what to build and finally settled on the Italeri Wessex. It actually nominated itself since of my various helicopter kits this one has had the most parts fall off the sprues in transit. They're still in the bags though!





Looks rather nice in the box, and is a little bigger than I was expecting. The instructions are nice and clear too from what I can see.

Hope to make a start sometime this week. If it goes well I'd quite like to do a second build, but I'm easily distracted so no promises there

Cheers,

Will

Edited September 24, 2013 by Will Vale

[heloman1]

Hi Will. You'll have a couple of things to watch during the build, the wire grill over the main rotorhead gearbox needs adjustment otherwise the anti slip decal number 11 doesn't sit correctly. Then the wire UHF aerials that run down the sides, the posts need to be placed correctly, they are slightly different port to starboard. If you model the Falklands cab you will need to splay the two posts at the rear in front of the tail wheel.

There are also lots of hand hold to be made/added. If you need any pointers, just give me a shout.

Colin

[Gajman]

Hi Will,

Welcome to the GB.

Gary

[Will Vale]

Thanks guys!

Colin, is there any reference you'd particularly recommend? I'm not intending to go crazy with details or anything (I'd rather get it finished!) but if there are things which make a big difference and aren't too 'orribly difficult I'll certainly give them a go. I was looking at pics of the gearbox and it looks like you could add a lot of detail there, but it's not going to be all that visible under the mesh. Wiring looms inside, and the rotor brake (? big handle on the overhead console) seem like good value for money additions though.

Cheers,

Will

[heloman1]

Hi Will. There is just one book that does it all for me, the 4+ Publications Westland Wessex, ISBN 80-902559-0-6. Plenty of detail pics and the best set of drawings you will find, I think it's available direct from 4+ in Cz.

Colin

[heloman1]

Thanks guys!

Colin, is there any reference you'd particularly recommend? I'm not intending to go crazy with details or anything (I'd rather get it finished!) but if there are things which make a big difference and aren't too 'orribly difficult I'll certainly give them a go. I was looking at pics of the gearbox and it looks like you could add a lot of detail there, but it's not going to be all that visible under the mesh. Wiring looms inside, and the rotor brake (? big handle on the overhead console) seem like good value for money additions though.

Cheers,

Will

Yes will be a deffinite with the rotorbbake handle, there are also two overhead blinds on rails, which everyone misses. They are apple green material and folded concertina style. The grab handles on the tail fold need replacement the kit parts are poor and overscale. The shape of the tailrotor GB housing (viewed friom the front) needs refining, it's too square. The mesh in the top needs replacing the crab style one is provided in the kit PE parts. Have a look at my Wessex build thread elswhere on BM for some other pointers.

Colin

[D1fuN0]

Howdy Will and welcome to the GB

[Will Vale]

Have a look at my Wessex build thread elswhere on BM for some other pointers.

Thanks Colin, I've had a read of that. Most instructive, but I shall be keeping the rivets on mine

Howdy Will and welcome to the GB

Cheers Steve, is it me or is there a higher-than-average percentage of bike builders around here?

[D1fuN0]

Cheers Steve, is it me or is there a higher-than-average percentage of bike builders around here?

Hehe

Yup, we seem it be infesting everywhere at the moment...

Steve

[heloman1]

Cheers Steve, is it me or is there a higher-than-average percentage of bike builders around here?

Hehe

Yup, we seem it be infesting everywhere at the moment...

Steve

Not me, it's helo's first bikes second. Sorry guys.

Colin

[snapper_city]

Hi Will

How's the build going???

[Will Vale]

Thanks for the interest, and sorry for the lack of progress. I did do some parts cleanup and minor assembly a couple of weeks ago but didn't really think it was worth posting.

Today it was sunny and so I had good light to approach the PE seatbelts, so I've got most of the interior ready for priming.

(click for bigger)

The seats are loose for painting, but I thought it'd make sense to apply the PE first and paint later. I've cleaned up the orgulous squeezed-out plastic since I took these

I've also built the rotor gearbox bay area - only a couple of parts there. I was wondering about adding some detail but once the mesh is over it it's not going to be visible - what's provided is fine.

And lastly I've assembled the cabin interior and troop seats. I replaced the thick webs with rod, but having looked at some reference I shouldn't have followed Italeri's lead in where to put said rod. It should run from where the leg joins the floor to the open slots in the fabric. Unless there were multiple versions?

I'm not 100% sure if it's worth fixing - there will be some oddness with the supports having different angles on the long and short seats in any case.

Hopefully I can get this lot primed tonight and start painting it up at the weekend.

On the kit: The detail is nice, but for a new mould there's quite a bit of flash and the fit is only OK. Not very positive location aids, and I'll need some shims to get the fuselage together. I'd seen a recommendation to fit the fuselage halves to the nose halves and assemble the whole thing, but I think it might be better to follow the instructions and use shims to mould the nose to the fuselage. I guess I'll find out soon enough...

Cheers,

Will

[heloman1]

Hi Will, If you haven't progressed passed this stage then could I suggest you take all the detail off the cabin floor as we used a sheet of plywood as protection. The the port side seats cut the gap between seat three and four and close them up then foward of that make up a box same width and height as the seats and long enough to fill the gap up to the front firewall/bulkhead. Paint this dull ali it's houses some avionics and and you can park three marines bums on it. In between the ali box and the first seat we had a small tool case 400x300x100 painted red.

On the starboard side you'll have to cheat a little as Italeri have the seat arrandgement incorrect! Cut the three seat assembly into two place a single seat (aircrewmans seat) forward of the cabin door and the remaining two aft. You can fill the cabin doorway with the two flotation cans, as we only fitted them just prior to takeoff. On the main u/c wheels drill out the small pretruding centre spiggot and add a 12mm length of plastic rod to the rear face of the flot cans on the center.

I'll make one up quickly this am and post a pic later to illustrate what I mean. Hope the above is of use and not too late?

Colin

[Will Vale]

Not too late, I reckon I can use all of that. You've also answered my question as to "why the wheels are wearing little hats"

Does the seat framing for the cut-and-shut bank of five seats stay the same, with legs for the first three, and legs for the second two?

Thanks Colin!

W

[heloman1]

Not too late, I reckon I can use all of that. You've also answered my question as to "why the wheels are wearing little hats"

Does the seat framing for the cut-and-shut bank of five seats stay the same, with legs for the first three, and legs for the second two?

Thanks Colin!

W

Hi Will, glad to be of help. You can loose the left legs under the two seat pair, so two legs for the three seats and the end one for the pair. To be accurate the legs should go through the ply sheet into the locking sockets on the floor.

The wheel hub actually has a shallow/thin hex nut on it 2.2mm across the flats then the hole for the flot bag spike. I fould some sprue which filled the hole on the reverse of the 'hat' then drilled that out for the spike. FIY the rear face of the hub is pretty plain, it's shy of the brake disc etc. but that is another story.

I've almost got it made, pics to follow.

Colin

[heloman1]

Hi Will here is the treatment I gave the wheel hub and 'hat'.

Colin

[Will Vale]

Well that was an embarrassing lapse of attention, but I did some more on this today:

(click for bigger)

I hope this is approximately right! I split the 3-seat group in half, giving me 2 seats with one set of legs to make up the 5-seat group, and 1 seat with two legs to use as the crew seat. Provided I can get it to balance there's no need to make the other legs, they won't be visible.

The leftover half of the old 5-seat row has two sets of legs (cunning!) so that can be the bank of seats left of the door.

I also built the avionics box following Colin's description (thanks!) and some guesswork, and a "plywood" floor with more guesswork. The scribe lines are at 4-foot intervals, I assumed you used 8x4' sheets I might have made the box a bit big, but I think I can fit a toolbox into the gap, or indeed on top of the avionics box. The floor is 10 thou sheet, and I pared and sanded the raised detail off the moulded floor, apart from a few rivets by the door so that I could reveal them under chipped edges of the sheet. A bit hokey, but it makes the materials a bit more obvious, I hope.

I haven't cut the holes for the starboard rear seat legs yet since I'm not sure if they go next to the door, or next to the bulkhead?

Not sure if I'll get this done in time now, but we'll see.

Cheers,

Will

[heloman1]

Hi Will, Lookin' good, especially with the mods you have incorporated the box and crewmans seat hide the H-34 firewall nicely. I remade the pilot/co-pilot seat but they are too wide now probably the reason Italeri made them skinnier!

Good luck there is just about a week to go!!!!!

Colin

[Will Vale]

Thanks Colin, a bit of a race against time but I think once I get the fuselage closed up it should go reasonably quickly. I'm going to do option A (the Falklands one) since it's the simplest to paint

Today I opened various holes and slots in the fuselage sides and fitted some of the parts where they won't interfere with sanding the nose join. I also made a curtain for the back of the cabin (foil) and cleaned up my modified seats.

Then I primed and painted most of the interior parts. I thought I'd try the Vallejo Acrylic/Polyurethane primer (which I'd bought recently after reading good things about it) to see if I can prime without deadly fumes. Sadly it's a bit rubbish - if you mist it on it seems to settle in large droplets and dries with a blotchy, almost crazed looking surface. If you apply a wet coat then the dried primer is fantastically smooth. But you can't sand it at all It seems like it bonds to itself really well, but not to plastic, so the sandpaper just pulls up the primer. It's like a rubbery skin over the part - you can actually peel it off with your fingers.

So out with the lacquer thinners, cotton buds, and Alclad primer, which went much better. I ended up with some old primer gunge in the corners of the interior framing but I think that will disappear when weathered.

So far I've sprayed the basic grey (IJN Kure Arsenal Grey) and the green padding (IJN Cockpit Green with a bit of Light Blue and White) inside the cabin and cockpit - all Tamiya paints. I also painted the seats using GW Enchanted Blue, which is a reasonably match for the bright blue nylon. The grey might be a bit dark?

I've also assembled the interior cabin (floor and bulkheads) into the fuselage side with the door, partly so that I could ensure the floor was level, and partly because that half has the guides and I was having trouble figuring out exactly how the roof and cockpit parts should fit. I think I see how it works now, it's a pity that the useful profile diagram Italeri included is ccompletely wrong...

It's an odd kit, nice details and shape (as far as I can see) but lots of flash and while it generally sort of fits, there's no finesse at all to the joints. Some interior decals wouldn't have gone amiss either.

Pictures tomorrow.

Cheers,

Will

[heloman1]

Sounds good Will, I too am racing against time. I went to buy primer yesterday but they were out of stock. So I might use the Tamiya Surface Primer, which I've never used for a whole model before just as a fine filler. So it's paint this week otherwise I'm sunk!

Colin

[Will Vale]

Here are the bits I did yesterday, plus a bit of masking and mottling work today:

I'm not working at the moment (something I need is broken, until the replacement gets here no work/no pay, but it does make for more modelling time...) so today I've made some more progress with some simple and scruffy weathering for the interior:

Looking at these I should probably clean up the wash on the ribs a bit more, but I don't want to get *too* carried away as it won't be very visible inside the cabin anyway. Here's how things look put together:

I definitely need to clean the wash on the chairs, which I haven't done at all yet, and add seatbelts, plus touch in the press studs on the curtain.

I'm still not entirely sure how the interior is supposed to fit into the fuselage. My best guess at the moment leaves a 2mm gap at the top of the engine firewall but has everything else in about the right place. I think the cockpit floor should be raked back, but only slightly?

To help me figure this out I put the nose together - the main seam down the upper middle was quick to clean up, but fitting the intake insert to the front meant a good hour of CA and sanding. Luckily there isn't much detail in that area, I might need to redo some rivets though. The fit of the front to the back of the nose is a little odd but I think I've removed enough from various tabs and squared up some corners sufficient that it's nearly there.

I also noticed while looking at reference that the two large ports (oil?) on the RHS of the fuselage should be recessed rather than proud. The Italeri parts could probably be inserted from the back if I thin the fuselage inside, but I'll need to make new rings for the outside if I do that. At least the third port (fuel filler) is intended to fit from the inside though it needs some work to get it to sit correctly.

Next steps are probably detail painting in the cockpit and cabin, and making some quick and dirty tape seatbelts.

Cheers,

Will

[heloman1]

Lookin' good there Will, just check the position of he landing light housing when you fit it. Italeri drawing is vague at best look at the reference pics. I like your paintwork and shading, very tasty.

Colin

[swordfish fairey]

God that takes me back, I can feel a gearbox prime coming on.......Very nice indeed Will, she is looking spot-on...................

Smudge

[Bengalensis]

That interior will look fantastic. Will be a joy to watch this coming together.

[Will Vale]

Thanks chaps, I got a bit more done this evening - lots of poring over walkarounds, so hopefully 50% of the buttons and things are 50% of the right colour:

(click for bigger if you want to see the pesky fluff)

I think the seats are likely too green, so I'll see if I can tone them down or otherwise bring them closer to the brown-green I've seen in a couple of pics. Collectives are still being painted, and the seats haven't been fitted yet. I'm quite pleased with the effect of the AK Dust Effects I used on the console - it relieves the black without it looking wrong, somehow.

I used the same thing on the cabin seats, which toned down the blue a bit:

Apologies if the weathering is a bit heavy, I'm trying to ensure something of it is visible through the windows. I don't want to make something far dirtier than reality though - the problem with walkarounds is you don't know if the particular machine has been left in a field for a year or something.

Cheers,

Will