bobsyouruncle

I had my first chance since June to play with this again (had to break off to do two paintings and have another painting to do before I can get back on this properly), so had a look at where I was last (lower wing on and just started on the port cannon bay). Anyway, because I'd only got a very small time window available, I jumped more or less to the end, to hopefully sort out a small thing that had been on my mind, which was the spinner. Others will see things differently, but to me, comparing with photos, the four bladed spinner looked a little long in side profile (with base plate added) and I fancied a go at trying to modify what I'd got in the box. Here's the procedure anyway, in case anyone was interested. With some filing, the short 3 bladed spinner looked about right to me, in profile, compared to photos. My problem was then how to turn it from a 3 blader into a four? I decided to fill the 3 apertures using curved plastic card, (cut using the holes as templates) with any gaps around the edges plugged with filler and a layer of filler/surfacer skimmed on where necessary. To give the thing some strength and structure, I used the bottom half (cut the top off before inserting) of the other 3 bladed spinner, but rotated through 60 degrees compared to the filled one, so each former prop aperture had a solid backing. With it all filled and sanded, the next thing was to cut the new holes. Again looking at photos, I'd made this rough sketch of the prop aperture shape. I also noticed how the base plate had a curved indent to match these and a small lip/raised edge on the edge to meet the spinner aperture. I wanted to try and make the spinner in one piece as on the real ting (rather than using the raised triangular 'pyramids' on the kit baseplate, which I cut off). The positioning of the holes was going to be critical, of course, so I assembled the four bladed prop and then made a low tech plan showing where the blade outlines met the spinner. Like so. Who would anyone number the blades anticlockwise? Please tell me if you're a psychologist as I've since woindered about this....probably the same sort of nut that would contemplate doing this spinner mod in the first place? Anyway, I made a template of the aperture and positioned it to match where the blades exit the spinner, and marked them. Note position of previous 3 bladed apertures with sanded green putty and surfacer remnants on plastic card. I also positioned these templates so that only one of the new holes would meet an area that had been filled. After committing, I cut out the 4 bladed holes by joining up a lot of small pre-drilled outline holes. This is what it came out like initially, without having finished sanding the bladed apertures properly yet. I did also add the small disc on the tip (again to be refined and further sanded) and gave a light coat of primer to look for areas that might need extra sanding/filling/smoothing. This is it on the inside showing the other 3 bladed spinner inside the outer one (minus its top). A are the filled 3 blade areas. B are the apertures in the internal spinner. Anyhow it feels pretty strong, so it did the job for me. Test fit wit the 4-bladed prop. I cut a lot of raised parts off the baseplate and added the indented scoops and small edge/lip, as in the sketch earlier. In the background is a cut-down 4 bladed spinner (same height as this one, but diameter is smaller at baseplate) and the sawn-off top of the 'internal' 3 bladed spinner. With nothing actually glued, it's tricky to hold this and take a shot with the phone in the other hand, but it does show the small scoop in the baseplate at the bottom of the blade aperture. Double checking the shape against an online Imperial War Museum collection image (in this case MH6865 - showing Harry hardy's Pulverizer IV at Goch), using an old paintbrush and a blob of blu-tac. Again it's tricky trying to line things up to the eye and hold this in one hand and a phone in the other, but you can just make out the top outline of the spinner in the photo, above my modded one (as I'm olding this a fraction too low - I also left a gap for the baseplate). Anyhow this was good enough for me and it works when tried with other photos too. So that's that one nearly sorted for me, once the sanding's been done properly. This is the spinner with how I'd left the rest of the model from June. As I said, bottom wing was on, but had only just started on the cannon and undercarriage bays before having to paint. I've got one more painting to do and then hopefully I'll be able to get back on with this model properly. Cheers Bob.

Has anyone else noticed that the Airfix Hellcat announcement thread (realise that they had their reasons for choosing it) only went to four pages and this is at five already? Just imagine if they'd unveiled a 48th or 24th scale one of these instead.....

If the CAD images are indicative of how the actual model will look, then they've made at least two improvements over their previous 48th scale kit, namely the nice touch of the offset seats (wonder if the canopy will have similar MDC alignment?) and nice to see a curved bottom edge to the canopy. Nice one Airfix.

I only quoted the beginning of your reply, Hendie as I’m over at the mother in laws (near Valley) and I’ve not used my phone for britmodeller before. Phew! What a relief to hear that. I like the sound of this ‘subtle texturing’ thing and now I will no longer fret about that one. Loving watching this progress.

Amazed at the level of work and detail you're putting into this, Hendie. It looks superb. I've got pitifully lower ambitions, skillset and expectations for mine but am inspired by this to have a go at some bits. I didn't want to have to, but will ask...do you think you'll be replacing all the external rivets for the raised ones? I'm asking as I also loved the look of Mr Watanabe's Rescue Wessex at Telford, but noticed that he'd kept the recessed rivets ones on his. I really liked his end result though and am torn a little as I think it looks 'almost nicer than the real thing?' ('herecy!' I hear you shouting...). It was a sort of ready made excuse also, if I didn't wish to face that task but wondered about your take on it? Really enjoying watching this progress.

Gorgeous!

I just realised that I don't think I've congratulated you on your work yet. Awesome detailing that you've put into this so far and I'm wondering just how far you will go to make it just right? I might try and incorporate some minor alterations when I get around to mine but won't be doing many of the things you've managed here. thanks for all the amazing inspiration and detail info. You've got me hooked.

Firstly a quick one that I thought was slightly atmospheric, even if it was scanned from a print and a bit rough and grainy. This is at Alport Castles, with Kinder plateau behind, Peak district. Saturday 7th March 1986. I've been looking at my options, regarding the Fly Model and that nose intake. The cover's good but I liked the tea strainer modification idea, as already mentioned on this site and wanted to know more about what's behind the fod guard. I couldn't find it in walkaround photos and don't (yet) have the '4 plus' book as it seems to be out of stock at the moment. So I had a run out to Newark myself yesterday to try and see in to the intake a little. Some shots in case anyone else needs these angles:- I wanted to see this bit around the side... ...this bit around the top... ..and this bottom bracket. It was the intake interior I was also after, so I took this one from above, which unfortunately focused on the mesh rather than the interior, but gave an impression... ...this one through the mesh ....and likewise this one. It was also good to be able to see what everyone was talking about regarding the winch position relative to the hatch in the drop-down engine panel and winch type and so I took a lot of reference shots. Another thing I'd been wanting to look at closely was the side door runners and arrangement as the Fly one looked a bit heavy handed on the bottom runner especially, to me. Just a few quick shots of the runners then:- Top runner ..and bottom Which confirmed that the door doesn't sit 'in' the runners, but overlaps them, so I'll be bearing that in mind, when the time comes.

Regarding Scimitar's photo of XV498 above, does anyone know where that aircraft is at the moment at all? There are quite a few photos around of her in the summer at Cosford, but I can't find out yet if she's still there or moved elsewhere?

Thanks for the great opinions on what it might have been, Tramatoa, Scimitar and Hendie, very much appreciated. You'll all obviously have a much better idea of what it actually was than me and yes I guess it would've been unusual to have a guy in a flying suit climb up there, (I don't exactly remember how he got up there either) but there was only us, a fire engine and some fuel at whitehaven. Whatever it was, they must've been happy enough to then fly it over that bit of the sea back to Valley (whilst I just sat in the back, wondering (hoping) if it'd stay up). I was also just reading a page or two back reference the SARBE beacon. I was dropped off just below the Nantille ridge once with one and instructed to 'go and hide' for a bit before they came back and found me under some boulders by using it (so I presume they could locate alright). I was just trawling through sites looking for further wet fit photos (I'd love to know the layout of the pouches opposite the door and if it was standard -may be in a SARTU training publication in the archives?) and found this Navy shot of one of their wet fit versions (no canvas pouches SAR set up in this). I've found another internal rear cab shot that shows the wet fit with a rolled up side window fitting, but am waiting on permission to show it. They must've had a casualty bag stowed and probably a set of those MAST trousers (which were popular then) and a first response medical bag, I'd have thought. This is the link to the Navy one which is OK to link to on the IWM website. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205125503 Cheers Bob.

No problem at all. I'll be attempting to model XV729 so am very interested in the detailed photos put up here and great to see she's still flying. Thanks also for filling in the blanks in the names for me, sounds right. You might be able to help me with something else too:- I was picked up by one of your machines once, at about 4pm, from outside our section to go to a job on Mickledore, (between Scafell and Scafell Pike) - to assist the winchman getting a casualty into the stretcher (he had quite a few injuries). Anyway they left me there on the hill, as they might have had to go to Newcastle rather than Whitehaven and didn't have enough fuel if that was the case. In the event they came back for me, as I was walking down to Wasdale, after dropping the cas at Whitehaven. We then refuelled at Whitehaven. Now this next bit is the thing:-...whilst on the ground, the pilot said that something about something 'having popped out'? and mentioning a 'dolls eye'? He then climbed up and started hitting something on the rotor head with a hammer(!). I still don't know to this day if this was just a wind-up for my benefit, or genuine? Any thoughts? Cheers Bob. P.S. Referring back to the VHF aerials conversation, in case of interest, for our part we had our own VHF RAF Mountain Rescue frequency and another VHF frequency for Civilian Mountain Rescue teams and I think the choppers mainly used the civvie one, but could use ours too (don't know if they only had one set or could listen out on both frequencies?). We also had the HF for direct comms with Edinburgh Rescue Coordination Centre.

Some more photos dug out from the filing box in the loft:- By the way, I wasn't sure of the rules regarding putting peoples faces on here (still not sure). I saw that you'd blanked out your mans face in the rear part of the cab (Tramatoa), so thought I'd have to do the same in mine. Can you please let me know if it's otherwise as this next one looks a bit silly like this and I'd gladly reveal (some are on facebook, but not all). Dohh!, can you guess which one's me?! Doesn't feel right with my team-mates covered up like this, but as I said, unsure of the rules. This was the MRT at Valley around 1988 I think, with XV729 and crew. The Wessex pilot stood to the left of me (looking at the pic) used to say "Of course they're not supposed to fly......it's only willpower keeps them up there". XV729 again. This time dropping us near the summit of Snowdon late on a summer evening. Apologies for the 'Supasnaps' printing lines across the image(!). and XV729 again. Winching in the forest, just north of Betws-y-Coed. Winching demo (honest). Back to the Leconfield machine over the Peak district, just to show the lining around the door frame. These next shots were set up for a RAF photographer, for some PR, but someone grabbed my camera and took these too. I was supposed to be playing the injured walker/climber and the other guy's pretending to give me some first aid. A bit light on the injuries make-up, just some blusher and lippy for me. XT602 doesn't look to have an intake guard on here in these? Acting. I'm in the Pete Bell stretcher, which was the type we used for cliff rescues, (as opposed to the SAR flight 'Neil Robertson' type, which was slung under the ceiling in the cab in Tramatoa's page 8 photo). Rigged for winching with four braided nylon rope slings attached to a central karabiner. Out of shot to the left, he's holding a day/night smoke wind direction indicator flare. My compact Olympus AF10 didn't have a shutter speed dial, so unfortunately you've got frozen rotor blades. The winchie attaching the cable (feels a little precarious and prone to snagging as the hook nudges the chopper underside before coming up to the door (one reason why the step was removed on most of the ones we had?). 'Is he any trouble?...We can take him up to 3000' and drop him if you like?'. Tramatoa, I recognised John Ardley's name from the 1985 slate in your pic. You probably know a few of the names that we did around the time I'm guessing? Phil Windsor, Tony Dewhurst, Steve Murkin, Ken Tucker, Tim Josephy, Mullan and wasn't there a German pilot called 'Bernie'? Cheers, Bob.

I can't believe this thread was here all the time while I've been floundering in the 'modern' section. I was after the same thing and had dug out a few old photos from the cupboards which are here, but I hadn't got anything looking aft so I'm thrilled to find your photo on page 8. Being at Valley, we (MRT) worked mainly with 'C' Flight. I'd been marvelling at Hendie's build, but my mind remembered PVC type sheeting everywhere on the SAR machines and I thought half the seats were folded away (to make room to winch a stretcher in). Anyway, here are some bits of the front end:- This was in XR507, then of 'D' flight, Leconfield and was working around the Kinder plateau, Peak District, Derbys. Same machine, looking slightly more to the left. Looks like they hung a 'bespoke SAR type' canvas with built-in pouches on the seat frame? Same machine at Foxhouse, near Sheffield. Winching in to it. This was a Valley 'C' Flight machine. We were out trying to get kit back from a rescue the previous night on the Glyders (Glyder Fawr in picture). The Entonox and Oxygen bags are on the left and are as I remember them. Just a little more to the left showing the fire extinguisher, same as above. Over Cwm Cneifion with Gribin ridge. Cheers Bob.

Update: I found out from Fly that the kits have the parts for both variants, so got the HC2 version and have sourced some 22 Sqn decals. I did wonder if anyone knew of any sources showing the Wessex interior in the SAR fit at all and if this was standard over the 22 Sqn Fligts or not? I took some shots myself in the interior on callouts back in the 80's, but they only show the front end of the cab (lined with Green PVC type covering with pouches built in for various SAR kit -will post here if anyone interested). Any help appreciated, Cheers Bob.\ Oops! Just seen wessex thread on Cold War section. Will switch to that thread, methinks. cheers!

Hi Gents, I'd really like to have a go at one of these in the future but am just slightly struggling to find the right kit/decals combinations. I've seen the Fly 32nd scale kits (one of which is an HC.2), but they seem to only have the RAF Rescue decals in the HU5 kit (and then without the 22 Sqn tail emblem). I did read that the instructions are the same for both versions, listing the optional parts to use. Does anyone know if both kits do contain the same parts then, or do they have different sprues? I also saw that Italeri do a 48th scale HU5 and that extradecals do a 22 sqn option in that scale, but the Rotorcraft conversion to HAR2 seems to have disappeared? Does someone know if there's a simple way through this that I've not yet found please? Thanks Bob.