wellsprop

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for this dumpy looking flying egg, looking forward to watching this one progress!

Excellent work Perdu, enjoyed this build As to why the Merlins are many shades of grey (or many shades of green), I have been told it's because of the differing finish from the multiple material types used throughout the airframe.

Looks excellent to me

The Wessex Hu5 is flying at Yeovilton this year too! Very excited, as I'm too young to have seen them flying operationally (at least I was too young to remember if I ever did see any). It dropped into Westlands on Friday too, I missed it though as I'd already left... I did have a strange moment a few weeks ago when I was out cycling and did a double take when I saw a Wessex Hu5 flying about Looking forward to watching your Whirlwind build progress, it's certainly going to be far better than my attempt - I'll give you a heads up, the main rotor head needs total scratch building

Absolute stunner!

I'm not as familiar with the fairings as I am with the rotating components (fairings are up to the aerodynamics department). That said, I think it goes something like.... Blade 1 faces aft and doesn't fold, so is fully faired, Blades 2 and 3 (on the starboard side) fold to the right, so the fairings are open on the right but close on the left, Blades 4 and 5 (on the port side) fold to the left, so the farings are open on the left but closed on the right. I stand to be corrected (just trying to think what the Crowsnest Merlin fairings looked like when I was stood atop it the other day ) I think the (ex?)military guys here will have a much better knowledge of the folding than I do! Re: tape on the blade leading edges... I didn't realise it ever was used, but was used in Afghan according to Neil. The trouble with the leading edge tape is it hinders the aerodynamic performance of the blades (much like leading edge ice accretion). The titanium erosion shields don't last long in sand though, they look like they've been shot blasted after not long, however, the upper and lower skins of the blades get even more damage, the sand literally strips the paint off and begins to wear the composite.

Looking great to me Perdu Looking forward to seeing how you manage the Tension Link Fairings!!

That's getting there.... You're in luck though, someones put a BERP blade on ebay! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AW101-Helicopter-Rare-BERP-III-Main-Rotor-Icing-Trial-Blade-P-N-101-199066-041-/392107866573 It clearly shows the rear trailing edge fairing in black, it should look a bit more like this IMO rotor by Ben Standen, on Flickr EDIT: I've coloured in a bit too much in this image, there's meant to be more of a curvature to the fairing (following the grey blade profile) Ben

I've just this morning noticed a couple things about the blades (I've had a look at our engineering drawings and also been down to see the blades this morning anyway). The overpainted erosion shield for the tracking strip is present on both the upper and lower surfaces of the blade (I previously incorrectly said it was lower surface only). Also, the trailing edge fairing close to the blade root is painted black and has a vertical rear wall, it doesn't angle out towards the root as much as the image I scribbled on earlier makes it appear. Also found out that a single blade costs more than a 2 bed house round here... p.s. I'm certainly no expert, just a junior CAD monkey

This image is probably the best reference. I've done some scribbles to try and explain things. rotors by Ben Standen, on Flickr The red lines are parallel with the orange line (yes, I know they aren't, but that's perspective). The orange line is approx 1/4 chord. The blue lines show how both the leading and trailing edges angle outwards towards the root (the front moreso) - these are both fairings, bonded to the rotor. The green line shows the blended radii on the trailing edge, while the yellow shows how the leading edge angles outwards along the length of the blade (until it reaches the straight leading edge).

In a short answer, I don't think there are any truly good plans of the the blade, let alone the main rotor hub. There are good overall aircraft plans which have a good overall profile of the blades, but they don't show the blade or hub in much useful detail. There are various academic reports, presentations and patents produced by Westlands, but these only really show simplified, idealised blades. Fortunately, there are plenty of incredibly detailed photographs of the main rotor and hub - it just takes a bit of interpretation to model them correctly.

Excellent stuff Perdu Re: blade roots; Unfortunately, italeri hasn't done a fantastic job on the rotors... both the leading and trailing edges do expand outwards close to the blade root, however, it's much smaller and much closer to the blade root than is modelled on the kit. This photo shows it very well Www.b-domke.de/aviationimages/eh101/4261.html Coincidentally, I've been looking at main rotor blade drawing this morning for a bit of analytical work

There are three pairs of those black markings along the top and bottom of the blades to show the slinging point for the blades. The erosion shield is overpainted on the underside as it is used as a tracking strip when the rotors are being dynamically balanced. Https://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/975305/zh841-royal-navy-agusta-westland-aw101-111-merlin-hm-1/ Fyi, though the image source says ZH841 is a 500 series 111 merlin mk 1, much alike your ZH847, it's been upgraded to -115 merlin mk 2 standard.

Bwhahaha, you have me all figured out! I must admit, I'm having to be a tiny bit careful that I only say things that can be found on the interwebs It does help that my day job involves working with the CAD files for the 1:1 scale whirly things. Surely the Merlin for the RAF had a drinks cabinet, with a cabinet for the silverware too

Blimey heck, that's an old heli, and a great photo of the teeterer too! And yes, unfortunately for you there is a little bit of scratch building that needs doing to make the fully articulated - though judging by your excellent scratch building for all the other various components, it's not going to be any issue for you