Westland Wessex HAS3 returns

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Ah, forgotten words from Service career, No. 64: EMRU.

 

Electro-Magnetic Release Unit - an integral part of all weapon carriers.  Emm-roo.  I had totally forgotten that word.

 

 

Nice Wessiefree, Bill.  You have captured the characteristic "fat upper lip" look perfectly - I am also mighty impressed with that sonar body & pit head gear visible through the door; all scratch-built, I know.  

 

Proper job (as they say in Kernow).

[Nigel Heath]

Wipers would be the icing on the cake.

[perdu]

Nigel my friend, wipers there shall be

 

Crisp EMRU is actually one I remember (remembering anything is amazing these days) from a lecture an RAF armourer gave to my ATC cadets way back before I donned the TA green and cam. He kept my lads engaged with his technical and bantering freeflow lecture and in fact kept my fellow instructional staff suitably engaged likewise

 

Our OC was an ex RAF pilot and between them we lost an entire afternoon

 

And as you will know I'm sure from similar occasions in your service, we didn't lose a second but gained in years worth of knowledge and understanding

 

And in my quest for knowledge of the ways of facsimile RAFBG I contacted Barwell Airbrush Supplies in Leicester on Monday after seeing them and their stall at the Sutton Modellers Expo where I bought my stylenres

 

Their paints have a couple of colours, all in the traditional Snot Quite Grey, Hardly Horrid purple kinda thing naming protocol

 

The names were why I was put off looking closely on Sunday but in searching  their colour card onMonday morning I saw a couple of colours that might help me find  a better rough RAFBG a-like

 

D6-149 Nautilus Blue and D6-150 Royal Blood were darker cast than the others on the card and with the vaguest of intuitive leanings I ordered them there and there

 

Easy ordering method, (far easier than renewing my IPMS subs on a tablet) and payment the way I like it so I was happy

 

Very happy indeed when they arrived this a.m.  and were indeed dark enough to provide a colour base for my mix too

 

Sorry about the crappy out of focus snapshot the front row second in from the left is 150 Royal Blood with in the top corner a drop   of Vallejo German Cam dark Green 70.979

 

You may be able to see that a whiz round with the brush mixed some green in with it and got a very reasonable BGa-like

 

Two to its right is the nautilus Blue which got the same treatment and gave another close to RAFBG

 

I would use these colours to paint a fresh model and indeed have used the 150 mix to paint the weapons carrier frame cover, just the rear stays to add there and also used it to correct a badly damaged door and Fisheries Protection pennant which I had put on the wrong way round

 

Last week

 

This is almost done  

 

 

some tidying round the edges and odd bits in the middle

 

I put the preferred mesh holes effect decals on the tail end

 

Here is the weapons carrier awaiting its precious 110 gallon tank, I am quite happy with my home brew RAFBG here

 

One of the emergency signs went errant under the front window  it seems  dohhhhhhhhhhh ha ha

 

It is staying that way, I'm not buying more transfers 

 

 

Last one for now, pinger's coming along nicely huh?

[hendie]

with all the details you pack into a 1/72 build I'd love to see you tackle a 1/48 or larger (scale) Bill. (not a larger Bill)

 

with all these Wessi flying about recently I am beginning to itch about starting my Fly Wessex   but I must resist

[Fritag]

6 hours ago, hendie said:

I am beginning to itch about starting my Fly Wessex   but I must resist

 

Pourqoi?  One should not resist the inevitable.  Waste of effort that.

 

 

 

[perdu]

@Hendie just get a jig on with the train me lad, I'm getting hungry

 

Then why not consider smashing the Fly Wessex as an appetiser for when you scratch build a 1/24 scale Wessex

 

 

🚁

 

Seriously we know it has to be done, whereupon we the people wouldn't mind a bit if it was you doing it

 

Go on go on

[TheBaron]

That's looking not entirely unacceptable now Bill.

 

I've no doubt that the camera is only able to convey a scant impression of the true glory of the piece.

 

Apologies if you've mentioned this already but will the weary traveller be able to refresh themselves with a glimpse of this at Telford?

 

Tony

[perdu]

Tony me dear, this will indeed (if safely completed) be on my club's stand not in competition 

 

Unlike the Wopse which should be in the helicoptering competition

 

You/we will be busy drinking in the drink so don't expect too much wasted time looking at models

 

Capisce? 

 

 

😉

 

 

[CedB]

Ah, there you are, went and hid while I was on hols did you?

Caught up now Bill and she's a beauty... and that's from someone who doesn't really like Helichopper thingies.

Along for the learning, as usual.

Can I ask please where you got the grill transfer stuff? Looks really good...

[perdu]

Hi Ced I wondered if you'd be dropping by.  ☺

Glad you like some of what you see of the wonderful, amazing world of jellycoptery.

 

The grid transfers are home brewed with a graphics program, I could have used MS Paint but in this case I already had Paint Shop Pro open when I decided to play

 

A new small page was filled with thickish diagonal lines with regular spaces between them, then I added more similar lines diagonally the other way

 

At the time I was playing I intended putting the gridded decals across clear plastic to get a see-through effect and the first set were yellow to use on my SAR Wessex

 

Then I had a little think, very little thinking goes on inside this old turnip so there was loots of room, I knew I needed grid work for the upper chambers of the tail as on this one

 

So I (after saving the first image, I've been dumb like THAT before...) then tried using PSPs reversal facility on a black and white grid to give me black spaces and white grids

 

Print several of those on 'clear decal sheet' and here comes Uncle Bob

 

I made a generic sheet using Word that has several of the yellows and the whites (with their black spaces) that's what is on the tail

 

It is not easy to see but the cooling grids on the RAFBG bits have their own black spaced transfers on too, as well as on the yellow bits

 

(You may notice I prefer the term transfers but on occasion, such as here I use the French term. This is because the paper I print on is called Ink Jet Decal Paper and I would not dream of renaming someone's product for them. They re still transfers inside my turnip!)

 

😠

[CedB]

Clever, thanks Bill. I'll store that in the noggin' for later use

[abat]

Thanks for the above info Bill. Yours is coming along superbly and is a nice reminder that my ex-group-build Wessex needs a bit more attention than I've been giving it lately. 

[perdu]

Thanks all

 

Just a few things to knock off the list tomorrow before it hits the table at the club tomorrow afternoon

 

drop of paint on the tail rotor gear and matting off the entire rotor set up

 

I am in the process of printing a new Fisheries Pennant sticker for the starboard door

 

And the hoist and a pair of wipers for Nigel  so that will get a new paint job and the new sticker

 

Quite pleased with the paints I ordered from Barwell Airbrushes, Badger acrylics with good coverage and no odour

 

The cabin door is painted with the mix of Minitaire Royal Blood D6-150, Vallejo Dark German Camouflage Green 70.979 and NATO Black 71.251 which made a very decent version of RAFBG for the door and assorted touchy feely fix jobs

 

I may mix up a big enough batch of this to paint the Gannet with, we'll see

 

 

[CedB]

Nice Bill, very nice

Good luck tomorrow and well done for the prize on the Hansom (sorry, forgot to say earlier)

[hendie]

you've made a nice job of that Bill.   It deserves a nice space in your displays

 

 

I had an itch and I scratched it today.   I opened the Fly box and fondled some parts.  I probably spent about 2 to 3 hours and didn't glue a single thing - it was all spent cutting out the main fuselage parts and looking at how it all goes together.  The more I looked at it the more frightening it became.  Very little in the way of alignment aids, and there's a little twist or warp in the fuselage.  However the main issue is flash.  There is flash on every single part in one way or another. Just getting the fuselage sides to play nicely together is an hours work. Then the nose... arghhh

I'm seriously considering using the vac form method of sanding the surfaces flat on some granite first.

 

Another problem I have is - what do I do with it ?   I know the blades will be folded, and probably the tail rotor - but do I open up all the panels like I did last time around or not.  I think I have to as in this scale it's just crying out for detail. However, I don't want it to be a repeat of my last build just in a bigger scale.   Must off and ponder.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2017 by hendie

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I understand why you don't want to just re-run your (superb) doors open HC2 one scale up.  

 

Aim high; set yourself a challenge.  Turn it into a Mk.3.  Just think how splendid Bill's wonderful Fishing Helicopter would look in 1/32.  You know you want to...

[hendie]

Nice try Crisp.   Haven't you got some riveting you should be getting on with ?

[TheBaron]

6 hours ago, hendie said:

 

Another problem I have is - what do I do with it ?  

Glamping?

https://hostunusual.com/categories/host-unusual/galahad-at-windmill-campersite/

[Hamden]

 

 

 Looks superb, really fine micro engineering with outstanding attention to detail

 

  Roger

[71chally]

yep, cracking job.  Only just cottoned on to the fact that the mesh areas are decals, they are really effective.

Have a nice day today!

 

That Glamping link in Tonys' post, if Albert Steptoe had business sense!

[TonyTiger66]

It's looking superb Bill. The home brewed paint mix works very well.

 

I'm not familiar with helicopter terms; so I'll just say that all the detailing on the hub looks like 1/32, not 1/72. Unreal  

 

I also like the white covers with red warning triangles on the wheels; what do they do in real life?

 

 

 

TonyT

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

16 minutes ago, TonyTiger66 said:

I also like the white covers with red warning triangles on the wheels; what do they do in real life?

They blow up into a giant pair of rubber rings if/when the pilot is unwise enough to land on the water.  Or the donk stops, whichever comes first.  Single engine hovering, at night, over the sea.  Hmmm.  No thanks.

[71chally]

...like this

From PPRUNE

They are filled by compressed air stored in the small spheres inboard of the main wheels.

 

What I could never understand is how the tail didn't sink, was there an internal air bag or similar in the tail section?

Edited September 18, 2017 by 71chally

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The tail sinking is the least of your problems in a helicopter ditching.  Just think where all the weight is - even in a Wessex, with 2 heavy Gnomes relatively low in the nose, the chances were extremely high that the cab would turn over, pronto, because of all that gearbox etc. gubbins high up.  The Sea King boat hull was great up to a point - assuming you arrived on the water in a controlled manner, that is; far from a given.  But even then any kind of swell running and you'd be upside down eventually.  

 

Aircraft were not designed to float, on the whole, flot gear or no flot gear.  The bottles etc were designed to maximise the crew's chances of getting out; only very rarely would they keep the can afloat / stable enough to be recovered.

 

There was a reason why the dunker rolled you upside down almost immediately; it wasn't only because the divers who ran it were sadists!

[Martian]

Its looking fine Bill.

 

Martian