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Catching Pictures in the Air


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On ‎1‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 12:40 PM, TheBaron said:

'It's alright Tom, I've got your beer while you do this.'

Cheers Tony I'll have a pint of whatever you're having...oh you're referring to those little plastic people :mellow:

 

Oh well. Nice soldering by the way. Also looks like the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree, re your son's build.

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Looks like good work Ralph, it's always a good idea to decorate the control sticks Airfix and their colleagues give you


I don't suppose it will surprise your dad that I have a Bo1095c part-assembled on a shelf one and a half arm's lengths away from me here

 

I get a lot of mine from the "Waifs and Strays" department at our modelling club, for some reason some people start to build a helicopter model then chicken out before actually finishing them...

 

They tend to end up at my tender mercies  :)

 

Mine may well end up being finished as the one suitably demonstrated at the start of 'Spectre' in Mexico City

 

Nice seatings Tony, getting to look quite comfortable

Unlike some seats I have flown in in military machinery, one time I preferred standing up by the door rather than sit on a pile of rifles and bergens

 

Another advantage was being handed a Marlboro by the aircraft loadie and watching Germany pass underneath whilst the driver tried to find the place he was supposed to deliver us


Ain't Bavaria pretty at five hundred feet and a hundred knots?

 

:)

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Good stuff Tony, those seats look really good to me :)

 

Crikey, a Baronette posting too eh?

Nice work Raph - that cockpit looks really good and the masking is very neat. Well done that man! :)

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Very impressive attention to detail, the collapsible seat is something that many, myself included, would have overlooked.

 

Martian

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Nice Bo105, Ralph!  I managed to blag 30 mins as a passenger in a German Army Bo105 once (during Ark’s visit to Hamburg in 1987).  A lot of fun; the only aircraft that could get anywhere close to a Lynx in manoeuverability terms.  

 

(Oh, and nice seating / Nan towel rail, Dad). 

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6 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Nice Bo105, Ralph!  I managed to blag 30 mins as a passenger in a German Army Bo105 once (during Ark’s visit to Hamburg in 1987).  A lot of fun; the only aircraft that could get anywhere close to a Lynx in manoeuverability terms.  

 

(Oh, and nice seating / Nan towel rail, Dad). 

Oh sounds fun, were you allowed some stick time or simply along as admiring baggage

 

Mrs P was dead impressed when I pointed out that much of the manouevering in Spectre was probably real

"I thought helimecopters couldn't DO upside down"

(followed faintly by why don't you ever make one like that)

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First up: Rob, Ced, keith, james, Johnny thanks to all of you for the kind comments about's Raph's helicopter - he was dead chuffed at the praise and really enjoyed the personal reminiscences Bill & Crisp.  He's at that age where hearing from those who've 'done it for real' is just a knockout, so went around with a big grin last evening after reading those posts. :worthy:

 

On 1/14/2018 at 7:55 PM, Tomoshenko said:

oh you're referring to those little plastic people

Look who arrived today Tomo:

27948524019_1db9e2948e_c.jpg

The Pelican 9 Formation Breakdancing Troupe!

On 1/14/2018 at 10:37 PM, perdu said:

Nice seatings Tony, getting to look quite comfortable

Unlike some seats I have flown in in military machinery

The chaps up front seemed to do ok for cushions but the paisanos back in the rear had to slum it with webbing seats back in steerage. Who said the US is a classless society?;)

[this space reserved for @Procopius to insert pithy rejoinder]

 No wonder there's anecdotes of the 'recovery pole posse'  lying out on the spare parachutes playing cards during the long flights out from Hawaii on these missions...

On 1/15/2018 at 4:12 PM, Martian Hale said:

Very impressive attention to detail, the collapsible seat is something that many, myself included, would have overlooked.

Thanks Martian. At this stage I'd find it very hard to start a build now without having technical references such as parts or maintenance manuals to hand. I'm currently flicking through one for a Mil Mi-4 and having all sorts of fun deciphering Cyrillic...

 

Unsurprisingly I'm still occupied by cockpit seats. back in the summer iirc I commented favourably on much of the cockpit moulding Italeri did on such features, and indeed they're not too bad at all; with the subsequenbt passage of time and access to aforementioned reference materials though, I've  decided to make some improvements in a few places. Here'sthe pilot and co-pilot seats when last you would have seen them back in August:

38829262215_13506f03d9_c.jpg

The have a shufti at the actuality:

38828399445_8250b3d272_c.jpg

(Another image I can't recall the original of so if you were the poster let me know and I'll give you full credit....)

I think you'll agree they captured the broad outlines ok, but with that gap between headrest and chiar, it's no suprise the contour saws came out and they were lopped-off.

27948520329_de633ed863_c.jpg

Out also as you can see with the 3mm micro-chisel in order to removed that parellel tubing running up the back that the headrests slot into. I learned pretty quickly using this delightful little chisel that sticking the bit that your chiselling into some White-Tak to holdit steady avoids a slip and a dodgy flesh wound. What was it Blake said about the price of experience...?:pipe:

 

Those moulded parts were then replaced with 0.5mm brass tube, and some bent 0.3 mm rod for the parts that the headrests are mounted on completes the modification:

24858041817_67d27cec54_c.jpg

Adjustable headrests in 1/72 - is this a forum first?

39696338742_6fe494ecbb_c.jpg

Some Milliput roughly shaped around the top of those and left now to harden before sculpting back to an appropriate shape.

39727486621_cd4020a982_c.jpg

Last job of the day was to whip out the contour saw for and remove the outer triangle of plastic on from the pilot and co-pilot seat mountings:

39696340102_38804d9c28_c.jpg

I'll gussy-up something perforated and triangular as replacements for those bits next time.

 

I'd noticed recently that the CPU temp on my laptop had been peaking rather hot of late when doing anything processor-intensive so took the thing apart for a look inside and found both fans pretty choked with dust:

39696342442_6efa6be4d7_c.jpg

The machine's only a year old so shows you the perils of having it anywhere near a modelling bench. A soft makeup brush got rid of most of that and another handy use for the airbrush was to blow all of the resulting dust out of the innards.

 

Operating temp is down by about 10-15°C on average now so just shows you....

 

Take care til next time!

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

The chaps up front seemed to do ok for cushions but the paisanos back in the rear had to slum it with webbing seats back in steerage. Who said the US is a classless society?;)

[this space reserved for @Procopius to insert pithy rejoinder]

I grew up in an incredibly class-conscious household, but I'll spare you a discursive pen-portrait of it.

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Thanks Martian. At this stage I'd find it very hard to start a build now without having technical references such as parts or maintenance manuals to hand. I'm currently flicking through one for a Mil Mi-4 and having all sorts of fun deciphering Cyrillic...

Oh dear! You seem to be on the slippery slope to morphing into me! Vetinary treatment is available.

 

Martian

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A little Bolkow Bo105 story for Raph, apologies for the thread drift.

 

My great grandfather was a postmaster on the Isles of Scilly, which occasionally entailed taking packages out to the keepers of the Bishop Rock lighthouse, a very tall structure about 5 miles west of Scillies, and well out in the stormy North Atlantic.  

The mail would be taken out in a boat, often in a huge swell, and using a rope between the boat and the bottom door (see below!) of the lighthouse they would pass the mail up to the keepers.  Even more occasionally there would be a keeper change using the same system.

7945839244_bfcaa3d5ce_c.jpgBishop Rock lighthouse relief, 1970 by Hornbeam Arts, on Flickr

Hornbeam Arts - Flickr

 

 

Anyhow, my grandad, who was chief airport fireman at St Mary's airport Scilly Isles and grew up with his fathers postal work to the lighthouse, was always desperate to catch a lift on the Trinity House Bo105 helicopters which would fly out to the Bishop and land on the netted helipad on top, with either relief keepers or spare parts. 

His request to join them were constantly, and politely turned down, the diminutive helicopters either being at the limit of fuel endurance or weight and lack of space.  However, one day they gave in, I think possibly for a training flight, and he was allowed to have a ride to the Bishop.  He couldn't believe his luck, to fly out and actually be able to stand on this magnificent structure at last.

So off they went, a lovely day apparently, as the chopper got nearer the Bishop loomed larger and larger, they came to a hover over the top and lowered down on to the pad, at which moment the lighthouse disappeared from view. the door slid open, and he was greeted by a strong wind, 170 feet above the sea and nothing but a grid beneath the helicopter skids.  My grandad was invited to get out, this was the moment he had been waiting for - except that he couldn't move!  He had to chicken out from the pinnacle of the whole experience.

 

 

Bishop_Rock.jpg

 

 

 

 

Years later I would be working at St Mawgan, where Bond helicopters operated the Bo105s on behalf of Trinity House, one of the regulars was G-THLS, and we would get to talk to the crews every now and then. 

One day there was another Bolkow in place of 'LS, so I asked if it was away for maintenance.

It turned out that it had been carrying out an operation in North Wales from the back of one of the beautiful Trinity House ships, THV Patricia, the crew had landed aboard and had gone below decks to enjoy the offerings of the captains table. 

Meanwhile the sea state had worsened, and on re-emergence to the aft deck the crew noticed that their Bolkow had disappeared!   The poor little thing had been flung into the sea! 

view?1455204289

 

 

The unfortunate G-THLS a few months before she drowned

39729812951_be1277187d_c.jpgBolkow Bo105 DB-4 G-THLS Trinity House by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

 

Edited by 71chally
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On 1/16/2018 at 6:14 PM, Procopius said:

I grew up in an incredibly class-conscious household, but I'll spare you a discursive pen-portrait of it.

Flannery O'Connor or Dorothy Parker PC? :whistle:

Mine own would be a repressed sweetheart-mixture of Peter Cook & R.F.Delderfield....

 

On 1/16/2018 at 6:59 PM, Martian Hale said:

Oh dear! You seem to be on the slippery slope to morphing into me! Vetinary treatment is available.

:rofl2:

:hmmm:

:o

Mixed Feelings. I am having them....

 

Gale warnings for the Province here tonight and not expecting the power to last (sounds like a bad opening line from something...:doh:) but I have managed to squeeze into the cockpit for an hour and complete the pilot and co-pilot's seats. 

 

Traingular side frame from 0.5mm card:

25877418428_e8a6b98768_c.jpg

Not that much will be seenbut this is of course Britmodeller and standards of invisibility apply...

 

Avec le finished seats dry-fitted:

25877420088_91f3dd51d2_c.jpg

Headrests are intentionally lumpy due to the dough-like misshapen appearance they seemed to get from heavy use:

25877420828_0565227206_c.jpg

Plus they've been angled forward by about 15° in exactly the way that the original kit mouldings weren't:

 25877421678_3592b72bfe_c.jpg

Outstanding jobs still to do in there are to reprofile the IP, make some oxygen bottles for the walls (a slight possibility that might involve this resin-virgin attempting to cast them..) plus chart-tube and axe to be added in the radio area for that 'Here's Johnny' vibe. Quite a lot to do actually in the way of soft furnishings as apart from all the cushions there are a lovely suite of concertina-like curtains for all the windows to add. Speaking of windows, I'm contemplating cutting out all the side ones for the cockpit and replacing the panes with thinner sheets of transparency, largely as this seemed a rather fruitful ploy on the Do18 regarding scale and visibility. I need to study that for feasibility before committing, but don't think there's any point doing a full vacform for the canopy due to the opaque nature of the upperworks and the central bank of switches in the ceiling, but that 'all-round' panoramic glazing on the sides could I think be improved...

 

Last word tonight goes to Raph for @71chally:

hi James just wanted to say thanks for the great story about your grandad it was very helpfull but it was sad about the helicopter getting blown over the side of the ship.

 

 

 

 

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Very fine work Tony thanks for sharing the lumpy shape bit

Sounds like me, maybe I am morphing into a headrest

 

Good to hear from you too Ralph, keep him at it please old chap

 

Edited by perdu
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4 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Flannery O'Connor or Dorothy Parker PC? :whistle:

Mine own would be a repressed sweetheart-mixture of Peter Cook & R.F.Delderfield....

 

Hah! Wrong ends of the country entirely. I'm a midwesterner, so it's a mix of Garrison Keillor and Footloose. 

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Those seats/headrests are the d's b's! Such a simple improvement, yet a huge visual difference. Assuming, of course, that they will be visible.....

 

Ian

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19 hours ago, perdu said:

Very fine work Tony thanks for sharing the lumpy shape bit

Sounds like me, maybe I am morphing into a headrest

 

Good to hear from you too Ralph, keep him at it please old chap

Raph's very keen Bill, but also at that age where so many pursuits outside of school such as music and sport compete for his attention; he has his own bench  in his bedroom now though which means he can get down to work when the modelling muse strikes, and has been awarded joint custodianship of the face-mask for spray-painting...

19 hours ago, Procopius said:

Hah! Wrong ends of the country entirely. I'm a midwesterner, so it's a mix of Garrison Keillor and Footloose. 

Footloose? Mind truly boggled.

Does this hint at a hitherto undisclosed terpsichorean proclivity PC? :o

17 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Nice chairs Tony!

Thanks Keith. :thumbsup2:

I seem to spend far more time agonizing over 1/72 furniture than I've ever been known to give to the 1/1 scale stuff. Just before Christmas I had an orthopaedic chair delivered to my office at work due to the standard institutional ones being of the cheap spine-crippling variety. My first act was to sit in the new chair fiddling with the various high-tech levers until it shot downwards suddenly at the same time as tilting backwards, not unlike the ejector seat scene in Goldfinger. It took two painkillers to get through the afternoon as a result. So you see, even the act of sitting down is not a skill that comes easily to me....:ike:

17 hours ago, CedB said:

Adjustable headrests? Oh good grief...

Did I mention that I've identified where the ashtray is situated too? :thumbsup:

17 hours ago, hendie said:

there you go again with your boutique paraphernalia.  

Don't hate me because I'm Beyonciful....

16 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Assuming, of course, that they will be visible.....

I have taken steps to ensure this Ian {see below}...:lol:

15 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

More unbelievably fine work Tony.

 

And your son's helicopter proves that the future is bright.

Thanks Cookie. :thumbsup2: It's lovely to see the look of pride on his face when he shows you what he's built. The punch & die set is already being covetted.......

 

******************************************************

Bay Sickie Rollers: Stomach cramping caused by over-ingestion of herbal plant

 

Four Wedding and a Funnel: this year's must-see group-enema movie.

 

(Amazing the rubbish that comes into your head sat at traffic lights)

******************************************************

 

The kit transparencies - as on the previous build - would do credit to the Hubble Space Telescope in terms of the thickness of cross-section:

39731824322_3561e5558b_c.jpg

The actual 'roundedness' of that part along the side regions with regard to the framing-definition is also somewhat at odds with the more geometric, angular construction of the actual aircraft:

25891664508_8935972de4_c.jpg

You can guess where this is heading of course.

'Autobots - transform!':

39731826312_fd9572c73f_c.jpg

Yeah. I'm perhaps getting a bit over-fond of the contour saws at this stage but faint hearts and all that. I admit that this does continue with a pattern of behaviour in which kits at my tender mercy tend to fragment into a greater number of parts during the process paradoxically referred too as 'construction'....:mental:

 

Only that central section of curved roof glazing and control console will remain from the original:

25891854288_f2caf6cce5_c.jpg

The remaining side and front glazing I'll build from thinner transparency. As to the replacement framing for those regions, I'm weighing the merits of brass or plastic, (though inclining to the former).

 

Found these domino-like earlier bits in the kit box and was a little befuddled as to their purpose until I remembered that they were the new set of doors that I'd build for the FLODO way back in the summer:

39731827882_1f82519a6e_c.jpg

 

I want to remain focussed on cockpit structures for the present so aside from the canopy, cast a look at the IP and found it wanting shape-wise. Here's the aircraft itself:

38864736055_87e9a0d112_b.jpg

And here the part supplied in the kit:

27985158379_53d9995062_c.jpg

Not only is that central } shape along the top far too pronounced and acute, but there are plastic blanks needing cutting out beneath it to create the negative space in which the rudder pedals sit. Hmm...the pedals on the real aircraft look to sit right under the IP in that photo but in the kit are displaced back from it by several mm. Something - as they say - doesn't feel quite right.

 

Thanks for paying attention to the nonsense as usual.

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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10 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Don't hate me because I'm Beyonciful....

 

if you find yourself using hand cream and lip balm when changing your car tires you know you've gone too far down that path.....

 

 

11 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

 

38864736055_87e9a0d112_b.jpg

 

oh.. oh.. center console... cogs n wheels... looking at that kit console, and knowing that you bought a bunch of cogs n wheels, and are thinking of getting into casting, and have a lathe, are proficient in soldering, and are thinking about PE....

 

I can see that center console in the kit already cowering in trepidation as the Baron's butchery blades approach

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