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Hafner Rotachute, Fly models


AdrianMF

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Hello All,

 

I have a number of potential builds for this GB:

 

Hafner Rotachute, Fly 1/72:

IMG_6299.jpg

 

17 Pounder, 1/32, bought recently at a knock down price from Airfix:

IMG_6301.jpg

 

Sea Vixen, FROG 1/72:

IMG_6302.jpg

Sea Vixen, Gerald Elliot, 1/72, courtesy of English Electric (Chris) from this forum:

IMG_6300.jpg

 

I've decided to go with the Rotachute to start with because it should give me a quick finish. It has a very modest parts count:

IMG_6303.jpg

 

Simple instructions:

IMG_6304.jpg

 

And before I knew it I had got to here!

IMG_6305.jpg

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Little Nellie's Grandmother. Yes I can link from this, Hafner's most successful Rotaplane to Ken Wallis's Little Nellie.

I've been researching Hafner's Rotaplanes recently and whilst the Rotachute and the Rotabuggy (flying Jeep) are reasonably well known Hafner also proposed the Rotatank a Valentine with a 150 ft dia rotor! and they did discuss (and thankfully dismiss) developing the idea into a Rota Lifeboat and a Rota submarine!

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3 hours ago, Hewy said:

scratch work

Thanks Glynn! I wasn't going to, but since one of the PE belt pieces disappeared into the void after being bent and painted, it seems I am going to have to scratch build at least one belt!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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That's great Adrian. It must be soooooo tiny in 1/72 :o!

 

Isn't there at least one in a museum in the U.K.?

 

Will you be attaching a small person to it?

 

Best regards

TonyT

 

PS: The vac-form Sea Vixen looks quite promising ;).

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The sole remaining Rotachute Mk IV is suspended in the Museum Of Army Flying, Middle Wallop.

The museum also has a replica of the Rotabuggy and if you are (un)lucky enough to be there when I am volunteering I'll happily bore your socks off with the story of Raoul Hafner and his Rotaplanes.

 

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14 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

It must be soooooo tiny in 1/72

Yep. Fumble-fingers all round with this one.

 

14 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

PS: The vac-form Sea Vixen looks quite promising

You, Sir, are definitely a Bad Influence. But before you feel too guilty about for urging me on, I should confess that I couldn't help but wonder what the fit would be like, and suddenly this happened:

IMG_6326.jpg

 

5 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

not for losing the PE belt

Well I have got the "just lost small part at the bench" mime show down to a fine art now! 

 

Aeronut - Mrs AdrianMF is talking about a visit to relatives in Salisbury in the near future, so I have that marked down as a stop-off for the way back. Thanks!

 

Well I made another belt, using the remaining one as a pattern:

IMG_6316.jpg

 

I was thinking about making a pilot to fit, and then I could mount it on a thin piece of wire to look like a tow rope. Alas, all my pilots are too big, even the Airfix Spitfire PR XIX chappies, and I didn't fancy scratch building a pilot because I wanted to get this done before I go away again (tomorrow). When I was last in Denver I narrowly decided not to buy a pack of about 70 "assorted seated HO civilians" for $15 on the grounds that they would be too small for me - I'm regretting that now! So I have posed it next to a Revell RAF ground crewman, "oiling the rotor". The Revell figures scale out at around 6 foot 4 so they certainly show off how small this is! Base is made from some plastic card and I finally got around to using my static grass, purchased from SMW about three years ago.

IMG_6321.jpg

 

More pictures in the gallery!

 

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

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Just superb Adrian :thumbsup:.

 

The RAF figure is very nicely painted, the whole vignette could be 1/35...yet, I have the feeling that it all takes up about the same space as a Bourbon Cream biscuit. 

 

:goodjob: 

TonyT

 

PS: Me, a bad influence, with my reputation? Those Sea Vixen parts do appear to be nice and crisp, fresh, just ripe for a little detailing :whistle: .

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