ZE419, a Sea King HAS5 that (temporarily) forgot how to fly

[bzn20]

Wafu

You should have seen the Gurkhas on Belfasts

standing on the rim of the Portabog half way up the ramp, which meant their head and shoulders were above the "flappy curtain" gig looking forward to  gangs of squaddies in rear facing Short's triple combos staring right back at them ! Honk bag alert! MOD PE hadn't spent much time thinking about the order of "Flappy Curtains". I've got tears here just typing this, it was hilarious! God,why did I leave the RAF?

Edited December 19, 2016 by bzn20

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Belly rivets almost done; traditional before & after shot:

[moaning dolphin]

On 20/12/2016 at 22:48, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Belly rivets almost done; traditional before & after shot:

 

 

Nice Bottom!

[Leonl]

Great work on the rivets.... A real masterclass!

[Miggers]

On 20/12/2016 at 22:48, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Belly rivets almost done; traditional before & after shot:

 

Are those boat hulls from different boxings Crisp?,i.e one posing as "Sikorsky" and yours as Westland?,if not and they're both

Westland,the OOB one on the left they managed to get miles off I reckon.

[TheBaron]

Coming along very smartly Crisp. It's still astonishing the extra level of quality those rivets give to your airframe - they really make it 'pop'.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

1 hour ago, Miggers said:

Are those boat hulls from different boxings Crisp?,i.e one posing as "Sikorsky" and yours as Westland?,if not and they're both

Westland,the OOB one on the left they managed to get miles off I reckon.

 

They are both from the "Mk5 SAR Ark Royal" boxing, but the Hasegawa Sea Kings all come with that Sikorsky underside - which is probably fair enough, given that the original, base kit was a Sikorsky / Mitsubishi H-3.  The instructions are very clear about what to remove, and the moulds include a lot of divots where various versions require drilling to fit additional parts.  Getting the maximum mileage out of your moulds is a good thing, I'd say, even if it does mean you have to do some of that modelling stuff to get them to look like the version you are doing.

[Winnie]

Amazing...

 

I find that I have grandiose ideas, and then just end up with spraying some paint on, slapping it together and calling it done... This is just simply amazing.

[Harley John]

5 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 

...even if it does mean you have to do some of that modelling stuff to get them to look like the version you are doing.

Modelling stuff????

Look like the version you are doing?????

 

I knew I'd picked the wrong hobby! 

[71chally]

That boat hull comparison shot really encapsulates the huge amount of extra work that you have put into this kit, superb!

[perdu]

Its interesting to see just how different those hull bottoms are

 

Were the little oil collecting tins on the Sikorsky ones too?

 

I see a pair of 'oles that must be for that poipoise...

Edited December 21, 2016 by perdu

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[youngtiger1]

Nice work on the rivets. Yes, those archer rivets are pretty easy to use and create a convincing result. You are doing great and I think, for me at least, this will be the most detailed Sea King yet.

[Drift]

On 9/14/2016 at 1:14 PM, 71chally said:

I thought you were going for a realistic build!

Superb updates, and great info on the rivet products which I was bliss fully unaware of.

You and me both. Will have to get some in the new year. 

[Mike]

I've had a tidy up in this thread after a former member's petulant stomping off, and I would ask that you try to keep more to the original topic in future, namely the Sea King that's supposed to be being built.  We've got no problem with people discussing their fun times in the military, but please don't do it in the middle of someone else's build thread, and ignore their requests to stop.  Also, remember that swearing, even when disguised in some shape or form isn't permitted here, and as this is an open forum that is visible to the whole internet, it's a good idea not to libel people because they're famous, not just because of the possible financial implications to yourselves, but it just sounds like sour grapes.

 

On with the thread

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 12/22/2016 at 5:18 AM, andyf117 said:

 

Just found this slow-motion film of RAN Mk.50s dropping torpedoes - along with ground shots of Wessex and other helos:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/F00437/

 

That first one is a drop from a 40' hover, which is quite interesting; the parachute barely has time to deploy, let alone do anything useful.

 

Yes, Bill, as far as I know the Sikorsky aircraft have collector cans as well as the Westland ones.  The UK version may have a RR name, but it's a license built US engine.  Apart from the third generator, the mechanical parts of the Sikorsky are pretty much identical to the Westland, I think. 

[perdu]

If I was hypothetically talking about type 44s on Wasps or Wessexes (sorry but obvious opportunity was obvious) would they be used for subsurface vessel attacks as well as the very Hollywood attacks on surface shipping or would a model builder have to equip a Wasp or Wessex with a depthcharge or two?

 

Yes me maybe...

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The Mk. 44, & Mk. 46 & Stingray are all purely anti-submarine weapons; they have no anti-surface role at all.   Note that the only time the Wasp was used in anger it used a missile to attack a submarine on the surface, precisely because the Mk. 44 he carried would only have attacked the Santa Fe if she'd dived.  Joe Harper, the LACMN who fired the missile straight through the sub's fin, was later commissioned and became a Lynx Observer - he was on my conversion course, and is an all-round top bloke.

 

 

[perdu]

Thanks Crisp, that scratched one of the many "I wonder" itches I'm carrying after a lifetime looking without knowing

 

Must be scary sitting in a sub waiting for something to drop onto the water and then have it head down after you to where you hope it can't see you

 

I'm glad my only brush with the sea has been Brean on Mud* on holly-days and a ride doon the watter awa oop there until I discovered French France and Le Mans 

 

*other seaside hotspots are available in my historical album

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Having now come close to completing the rivet-fest, I am starting to work on the tail pylon, which will be folded for this build.  

 

To jog your memory, this is what the real thing looks like:

 

The Flightpath PE set gives a reasonable basis for representing this, but like all PE it is very one-dimensional (the hinges in particular are going to be replaced by some scratch work).  

 

Thus far I have thinned the walls of the pylon at top and bottom (where they will be visible) - here seen with there Flightpath PE section dry fitted (Edit: actually I think the PE is upside down in this pic, but no matter).  

 

You can also see the beginning of a base platform for the Intermediate Rotor Gear Box (IRGB), which is sufficiently visible through the PE / mesh cooling grilles to be worth scratch building.  

 

The platform looks like this (albeit slightly out of focus):

 

This gear box has no purpose other than changing the direction of the tail rotor drive shaft (i.e. unlike the gear box at the top of the pylon, it does not change the RPM), so is quite small.  However, it also rotates pretty fast, so gets quite hot - and is therefore covered in cooling gills and thus a pig to represent.

 

Here is a real IRGB:

 

Though it will be visible through the grilles, it certainly won't be very clear, to there should be no need to go completely bonkers with detail.  What I have done is to punch a series of disks using a punch & die set (expensive, but superb when you need them), with some disks being 2mm and some 2.8mm, thus: 

 

I started again after taking this picture, since I wasn't going to try to drill a hole in the centre of a bunch of tiny disks - attempt no 2 saw me drill the appropriate hole and only then punch the disks, but I forgot to take any photos of that phase.

 

Having bent a piece of brass rod to the right angle, I threaded the disks onto it, and at the time of writing it looks like this:

 

Next stage is to glue them together, hoping to end up with a ribbed number for enhanced pleasure.

 

More once I have tried that...

 

[P.S. the other thing to bear in mind is that the hinges will not be load bearing; I have already fitted a section of aluminium tube to the side of the pylon, which will fit onto a spigot protruding from the side of the tail.]

 

Crisp

Edited December 23, 2016 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

...and here is the constructed IRGB:

 

Needs a bit of fettling to refine it a little, but is giving the ribbed impression that is what I was after.

 

Here, though hard to photo properly, is an impression of what it will look like in situ:

 

I will add a oil level sight glass to this side of it (thus giving the characteristic half moon of pink seen through that gap in the mesh).  After a bit of fettling and with some paint on it, I think this should do the job.

 

More soon.  Happy Christmas if I don't get the chance to post again until after the fun.

 

Crisp

[perdu]

That is going nicely Crisp is the folded tail held in a latch like the one on the Wessex?

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Yes, the system is very similar.  The drive shaft itself has a spring-loaded gear on it (visible in the above photo of the IRGB), which ensures that the drive shaft remains fully engaged.  The tail is spread / folded manually, using a handle which fits into a socket on the port side of the pylon:

 

The hinge is as you see it, with a kind of in-built torque wrench job (on the port side of the tail) which engages the locking pins.

 

There are two simple safety devices; one is the mechanical red flag which says "PIN OUT", visible above. This is spring-loaded so that it naturally sits out (as in this photo), and can only be retracted by the pin itself engaging in the socket.  This also makes a circuit, thus extinguishing the TAIL PYLON UNLOCKED caption of the warning panel (not one you really want to see in flight, though read on).  It is also impossible to spread the blades unless the tail pylon is locked; one of the interlocks that must be in place for hydraulic power to go onto the rotor head in the first place is a locked tail - for pretty obvious reasons.

 

Finally, in case you really are paranoid about it folding in flight (which has never happened in several squillion flying hours), the hinge is designed so that the aerodynamic force of the tail rotor shuts the tail anyway - i.e. even if all this stuff failed for some reason, the tail rotor would "fly" the hinge shut, rather than opening it.

 

When spread, the pylon is held by a simple locking spigot which is fitted to the starboard side of the tail.  My version will have something rather more substantial, but it'll be invisible.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2016 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Martian]

Its small details such as you have been doing here that will make the model special.

 

Martian

[71chally]

Excellent progress, and description of the tail rotor. 

It still amazes me that all that force and energy concentrated in one direction doesn't  cause havoc to the fold.

But then folding rotor blades (particularly on the CH-53 series) amazes me!