Revell 1/72 Wessex 3 Humphrey

[gengriz]

The second build of the month will be HMS ANTRIM's Wessex 3, in her wartime colour scheme. "Humphrey" took a leading role in several key engagements of the 1982 Falklands War, including Operation PARAQUAT/PARAQUET's Fortuna Glacier assault (for which her pilot, Lt Cdr Ian Stanley RN, was awarded the DSO) and the capture of the Argentine submarine Santa Fe.

Humphrey currently rests in the Fleet Air Arm Museum, still bearing the considerable scars of war.

The Revell Wessex 3 was released in the late 1990s, as a joint production with Italeri (who issued the Wessex V variant of the same kit). In its initial form it was very expensive (this one cost me nearly £15), however it has been reissued more recently, by both companies, at a much more reasonable price (about £6). It is generally a well engineered kit, with suitably engraved panel lines and excellent fine detail, however it does suffer from a few "faux pas", mainly arising from the fact that different variants, including the Sikorsky Choctaw version, can be build from the same basic mould. The 2 biggest problems are the tail rotor, which rotates the wrong way for a Wessex, however this is really not difficult to fix, and the radome, which is much too tall and skinny. This is more difficult to resolve, however I have a few better shaped ex-Sea King spares in my parts stash, which I may try to fit instead.

Revell provide a choice of Humphrey in his pre-war colourful guise (complete with Fishery Protection pennants, which will be going on my Italeri one in due course) or his current FAA Museum scheme - for the wartime scheme the squadron badges should not be used. The Italeri markings are a bit of a shambles, with the blue/yellow RN aircraft wrongly marked as also belonging to HMS ANTRIM, and the yellow RAF variant is actually an ex-RN machine (the RAF did not use the Mk 3) which is used for apprentice ground training at RAF COSFORD (not, as Italeri would have you believe, "RAF Cosword").

Unfortunately, Italeri don't provide any interior details for the main cabin. The Wessex 3 carried a substantial sonar dipping assembly, plus radar and sonar consoles, so my first task has been to scratch build this from various parts in the spares box, using a superb "under the hood" article in an old Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine for reference.

Prizes to anyone who can name where all the parts came from!

A quick lick of grey paint and it is looking much better already:

Wooo-haaah!!! This is turning into a bit of an unintended Blitzbau. Bit more done after tea:

I realised that the whole winch assembly was too far aft, so I have sectioned the cabin floor to place it in its correct position. With a little bit more detailing, we are ready to go (actually you can hardly see any of this once its in the fuselage, hence I lost interest in detailing the sonar console - oh well, never mind!):

... and inserted in to the fuselage.

Seams arent bad, but a quick splash of Tippex won't hurt.

Enough for one evening I think. More fun tomorrow.

[AnonymousFO98]

did the parts come from an old "Mousetrap" game?

great stuff Fred

did the parts come from an old "Mousetrap" game?

great stuff Fred

[Martian]

This is comming along great!

Martin

[gengriz]

This is comming along great!

Martin

Thanks Martin - I notice that the SAM Article I used as a reference was written by a "Martin Hale" - you by any chance?

Regards,

FredT

[Martian]

Thanks Martin - I notice that the SAM Article I used as a reference was written by a "Martin Hale" - you by any chance?

Regards,

FredT

Guilty as charged!

Martin

[gengriz]

Bits and bobs added. Of course, neither Revell or Italeri tell you which of the many half opened holes in the fuselage need to be fully opened up; end result, nowhere to insert the lower undercarriage arm! Out with the second kit, the correct position was quickly identified and opened from the outside. A minor problem for me, but one that could easily defeat the inexperienced. Other than that, the kit is going together very nicely.

The cockpit windows left a big gap at their lower front edge, I suspect because I didn't align the nose to the main fuselage joint well enough. However, the gap was easily filled with some Krystal Klear. I have also inserted a black card roof for the main cabin, as you could see right through the upper "grilles" and out the door! The blades will be stowed, so I have not attached the rotor assembly yet.

As already mentioned, the kit radome is too skinny and too tall. To overcome this I have modified one from an old Airfix Sea King, which is still not quite rounded enough, but better overall. First (and hopefully only) coat of Xtracolour RAF Blue Grey has been applied, and I have replaced the kit Pitot with my usual steel pin (but I still need to work out how to get a "blob" on the end of it!). I am also starting to scratch build the weapons pylons and some depth charges.

Now, whilst I can't actually get in to see Humphrey at the moment to do some additional "primary research" (access to the FAA Museum Reserve is limited), I did spend an enjoyable lunchtime today at the Weston Super Mare Helicopter Museum, where they seem to be having a bit of a thing about Wessexes at the moment !

[gengriz]

Wheels are on now, and caused a slight hiccup; I seem to have attached the flotation bag air bottle too far outboard on one side, so that the wheel wouldn't fit fully on. Got there in the end. The weapons pylons are on now as well. I decided to use lycra to make the stabilising links, having made small holes in the fuselage to push the ends into. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but wasn't entirely successful, not least because the superglue wouldn't hold it.

This is what they should look like:

And this is how they look with the Lycra, before painting:

The Mk.11 depth charges are now the right size and shape and drying in a corner - I am not yet sure whether Humprey will be in his wartime guise (with live DCs, or his museum guise (with Ship's badge, bullet holes and drill depth charges), but I need to make a decision soon. I will leave off the external wire aerials until the end, which really just leaves the main and tail rotor. The main rotor head assembly is quite nicely formed, but unfortunately this makes it less easy to fold the blades than with the rather more robust Matchbox equivalent.

[TonyT]

Looking good,

He is going to need to use a proper starter motor instead of that little electric drill to get it too turn over

Edited May 6, 2009 by TonyT

[Angels49]

Looking very good mate.......I'll wait for the finished piccies

[gengriz]

Moving into the final stages now and a few more problems have arisen. For some reason the aircraft sits with a very "nose-up" attitude. I have checked several other Revell/Italeri Wessex builds on the web; some seem to have this problem, whilst others don't. Despite my hiccup with unopened holes, I am convinced that I have assembled it as intended, so I think the fault lies in the kit - I suspect that the nose is slightly too short and as a result the fwd undercarriage attachment point is in the wrong place. Apart from splaying the wheels slightly more, there is little I can do at this stage. Pity. The wheels also look too small to me - they are certainly smaller than the Frog and Matchbox equivalents.

The Revell decals are also problematic - several of mine curled up as soon as they left the paper - the only one I couldn't save was the yellow lines around the port cabin windows, where I resorted to the Italeri kit in the stash as a donor (and I will address its subsequent shortfall in due course). Still, decals are now on, details are painted and progress is definitely being made. Next up is the tail rotor (nearly ready) and the folded main blades. Ironically, Revell/Italeri supply the main blades pre-sagged (not very realistically IMHO), so first job is to straighten these, then I will think about how to actually attach them!

[gengriz]

Wire aerials added, tail rotor added (with the correct rotation!) and satin/matt coats applied to various areas.

Final part will be the blades. As these will be very prominent, I am taking some time with them. One area I always struggle with on RN helicopter blades is the application of yellow slinging marks; decals look wrong for these so I attempted to paint them on instead - the result was OK, but not as good as I wanted, so I have stripped them back, repainted them and will try the decals tonight.

[daz greenwood]

Looking good Fred.

I remember my late dad building one in the Yellow/Oxford Blue.