1/72 Heller Gazelle

[Greif]

Looks good Nigel!!

This lady reminds me some great moments of my life. It's strange to see a military Gazelle without the Doppler box below the rear structure, especially on a 342M, it's maybe normal for an export version.

It's also strange because it seems the model has the reinforcement for the front frame of the canopy but without the top and bottom cutters?

If you want to improve this already impressive and lovely model you could create a gap on top of the engine fairings (they are in fact two halls splined together on top thanks to two simples hinges), like you have done on top of the MGB fairings. you could also add the hydraulic line running on top of the tail boom : they were coming outside the rear structure just at the beginning of the tail boom, and simply attached thanks to P-clips on brackets which were bolted on the tail rotor drive shaft brackets; shaft in the middle and Hyd pipes on the outsides.

In the same area, it could be add also the to cables of the yaw control. The cables were running bellow the tail rotor drive shaft; the cables come outside the rear structure like the Hyd pipes, and were maintained underneath each shaft bearing brackets with some Teflon guides.

About the paint, the bearing brackets: the bearings were housed inside a rubber housing maintained on the tail boom thanks to inox steel straps.

On the bottom of the exhaust, there is another small duct, which on the French military Gazelle was connected to nothing, but normally it was intended to be connected to the IGB fairing for cooling thanks to the Venturi effect created by the exhaust gases.

I'll keep an eye on this beauty to see if I can give you some tips!

Cheers mate!!!!!!

Erik

Edited February 13, 2016 by Greif

[infofrog]

Nice job Nigel

Rick

[Martian]

You will sort those few problems out easily enough.

Martin

[Nigel Heath]

It's also strange because it seems the model has the reinforcement for the front frame of the canopy but without the top and bottom cutters?

The 0.5mm framing I placed on the front canopy are just meant to be edging strips. I know they are a bit chunky but hey 0.5mm is quite small - this machine does not have the top and bottom wire cutters. I have wondered about those cable cutters, would they actually work? It looks like any attempt to cut a wire stands a serious danger of snagging on the pitot tube to me:

If you want to improve this already impressive and lovely model you could create a gap on top of the engine fairings

I have put a scribe line in there, a panel line wash will highlight this:

you could also add the hydraulic line running on top of the tail boom

I have done these, they are the wire pipes seen here:

Hey, I'm quite pleased how my pipe painting came out. And I think those Archer rivets do look pretty good.

In the same area, it could be add also the to cables of the yaw control. The cables were running bellow the tail rotor drive shaft; the cables come outside the rear structure like the Hyd pipes, and were maintained underneath each shaft bearing brackets with some Teflon guides.

I have decided not to add these cables. I know milktrip added these using some of his wife's hair but I decided it was a (milk)trip too far. My hat is as ever off to milktrip.

the bearings were housed inside a rubber housing maintained on the tail boom thanks to inox steel straps.

I have noted these and have been thinking of adding some strips of bare metal foil to represent the stainless steel straps. They are less than 0.5mm wide but should be doable.

You will sort those few problems out easily enough.

Thanks Martin, the patch was quite easily sorted in the end with a bit of Gator Grip and a tiny bit of retouching:

Thanks for the comments guys, with a fair wind I might be getting the decals on this tomorrow.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[louiex2]

Looking great!!

[moaning dolphin]

Looking really nice!

Those wire cutters do work. I saw a report on a Canadian griffin that had a wire strike and they prevented a total loss and allowed the aircraft to land safely. It's not fail safe but gives the aircrew more of a chance

[Greif]

Looking really nice!

Those wire cutters do work. I saw a report on a Canadian griffin that had a wire strike and they prevented a total loss and allowed the aircraft to land safely. It's not fail safe but gives the aircrew more of a chance

I confirm this!

During the flight back to our regiment after an exercise, a 342M2 of the tank buster squadron got into a line (a very big one, the pylon was handling about 8 leads) and had been saved thanks to the top wire cutter. They managed to fly back without problem. After inspection we've replaced only a few boxes which had appreciated the Faradet cage effect, and a lateral fin which had been torn off by the wire during impact. The aircraft fuselage suffered from various "arc welding " point, especially on the front reinforcement harness around the battery door, it was still airworthy!

As Nigel underlined, in case the wire goes to the bottom cutter, the pitot tube will be definitely torn off.....which is always better then getting the uncut wire into this skids during flight!

I have a wondering to the strange drop shaped raise part on the left engine cowling.... There was nothing like this on it. A similar bracket was installed on the top of the right engine cowling, but it was the fairing of the red formation light used in NVG conditions. I'm not even sure the formations light were installed on the Irakee export Gazelle.

Very nice job Nigel's! I like also the hyd line on the tail boom; it adds a lot to realism.

Keep on going, I can't wait to see her finished.

Cheers

Erik

[Nigel Heath]

I have a wondering to the strange drop shaped raise part on the left engine cowling.... There was nothing like this on it

Indeed, I have not seen it in any reference pictures but decided to leave it as I just like the look of it.

[Duncan B]

You're getting there now Nigel and it's looking good.

DB

[Spookytooth]

Great work Nigel.

Nice save on the panel

As you said , decals on soon.

Simon.

[Tomoshenko]

Very nice. The hydraulic pipe is the finishing touch. Rivets nice and realistic, soft edged camouflage came out well too. Nice and consistent.

[Nigel Heath]

Now for the few final bits of detail painting. First the masking for the black band on the tail:

Slight disaster, I applied lacquer paint over enamel and guess what:

What an idiot . I did think that might happen but thought I might get away with with light misted on coats - no chance.

I did think about leaving it to harden up and sanding it back but there is some surface detail here that I didn't want to lose so I very carefully scraped of the mess while it was still soft:

I was surprised how well that worked.

I got some nice Humbrol matt 33 enamel on and while that was drying turned my attention to the red for the tip. When checked against the decals the Mr Color flatt red I had got for this looked too dark, I thought the Revell red was the best match:

After removing the masking this is what I had:

A few touch ups tidied things up a bit, then the masking for the grey roof sight:

I had a Mr Color grey for this but obviously will use the nearest enamel colour I have.

Here it is done:

Next the filler cap, I punched a 1.2mm hole in some tape and then applied a light grey base followed by Alclad "Steel":

Next I got a coat of "Aqua Gloss" on all these:

I have also retouched the exhaust, not perfect but looks OK to the naked eye:

Right, next stop Decal City.

Bye for now,

Nigel

[CedB]

Looks great Nigel! Bad luck on that black but good recovery

[Spookytooth]

Nice recovery Nigel.

But 100 lines for enamel over lacquer.......

Simon.

[Greif]

Beautiful Nigel ! Excellent rescue of the fin.

But the exhaust is not so black normally : here are two pics of a SA341F2 Gazelle, with, guess who, me 16 years ago during a 4 "hollydays" month trip in Djibouti. ​

Notice :

- the exhaust color ( it should be a bit darker than what the pic is really showing)

- hyd lines

- detals of RH flank, close to the fuel tank cap

- the blow pipes of the particule seperator

- the P3 air ducts connected to lower area of the particule seperator shells (the shut-off valve was located on the left side, close to the the first slanted shaft; from this valve a Y-shaped rigid pipes was leading to the metallic flexible ducts)

Cheers !

​

[Tomoshenko]

Good save mate, but gotta agree with Simon, slapped wrist for the lacquer over enamel. That said done the same myself, thinking light misty coats would be okay, paid the price. Mind you I haven't experienced any problems with my thirty-year old Humbrol enamels. I've used Alclad polished aluminium over my vintage Humbrol gloss black - no problems. Tried it over new recipe Humbrol enamel and had the same experience you had.

Any road it's looking the business, especially the fiddly bits anmd bobs detailing.

[Nigel Heath]

But the exhaust is not so black normally

I agree my exhaust does look too dark but there are quite dark examples out there:

Plus a coat of matt varnish will tend to have a lightening effect.

These star decals for the tail were too wide so were trimmed down a bit:

Note the brittleness of the decals, more on that later.

I also trimmed off the carrier film from the top of these flags as they sit directly under the door openings:

Like here:

Note the wrinkling. I found on the tail stars that Micro Sol had no perceptible effect on these decals so resorted to Daco "Strong". That certainly softened them and produced the above wrinkling. Now you know how you are supposed to leave wrinkly decals alone as they should flatten out as they dry. Well these Carpenta ones didn't, they dried all horrible and wrinkly.

I also found out that Daco Strong could do bad things to paint:

I found that the fix was to catch the decals at the right point of softness and then press them into place with a tissue or cotton bud. I re-softened the tail decals and got it to look like this:

You can still see some slight traces of the wrinkles but its a lot better than it was.

I gave the same treatment to the errant paint and got it to this without too much collateral damage:

Right, here are all the finished Carpenta decals:

There are a few more of my own devising to add but I'm now going to have a lie down.

Bye,

Nigel

[Martian]

Lucky, nay jammy, escape with the paint error! A bit worrying about the effect of the Daco solution on paint though. The last time I had to use some, the model was coated with Tamiya acrylic gloss and there was no reaction although I waited for the decals to soften slightly and then dabbed them down. I repeated this process until I was happy with them.

Martin

[hendie]

lucky escape there Nigel - looking good though

[Nigel Heath]

Lucky, nay jammy, escape with the paint error!

The more I model, the luckier I get.

A bit worrying about the effect of the Daco solution on paint though.

Indeed, all the other decals / paint around them were fine. I haven't seen this effect before, I think it was due to prolonged exposure.

[simmerit]

It looks amazing mate. I'm still in a bot of shock at how much detail you lot get into the small scale stuff.I think I'm still in a state of shock having come in here from Armour! Its looking great fella, and well recovered as well - a disaster in this scale is a proper disaster!!

Si

[AlexN]

Phew!

Excellent, to quote Davros (yet again). Regarding the Alclad II "Hot Blue" - is it a transparent/translucent colour? The reason that I ask is that I have a number of Gunze, Revell, Tamiya and Humbrol clear (transparent) blue enamels and acrylics: not having to buy Yet Another Paint would be very useful to know about! Possibly adding a bit of Tamiya Smoke to the Gunze Clear Blue might work, in my mind's eye, or a tiny wee bit o' Payne's Grey artist's oil paint to the Revell or Humbrol Clear Blues...?

[Nigel Heath]

Regarding the Alclad II "Hot Blue" - is it a transparent/translucent colour?

Yes it is. I have some Revell clear blue and would say that the Alclad gives a quite different, much more subtle effect.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Nice catch Nige.....What is it with you and chemical reactions?

Easy enough to tart the exhaust up with some Tamiya Tank Makeup.....Probably worth adding some protective masking though, it's quite tight in there and their applicators ain't very subtle.

[Max Headroom]

Have your nerves recovered yet?! You have reinforced my belief that my Colorado sheet (made by Caperna) should be given a wide berth.

Trevor