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Westlandaircraftenthusiast

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Everything posted by Westlandaircraftenthusiast

  1. Thanks ray, much appreciated... i have another one in the stash and i have already made one previously this year.
  2. Thanks, shame no one makes the whirly anymore. Yea could be a good idea about the photography, i use my phone , its old and horrible (Samsung galaxy A5 (2016))...hopefully i will be investing in a somewhat ok quality camera next year
  3. Hey guys and girls, This is my rendition of Whirlwind HAS.7 ' XN358 '. (With the help of navy Wings i have found a lot of info on her) I used the Airfix HAS.22 for this conversion...not aftermarket parts were used, just scratch built (first conversion) XN350 , built in 1960, served for 771 squadron at HMS Osprey, Portland. She had her ventral fin removed, tail rotor drive shaft cover removed along with wheel brakes and various things from like unneeded avionics. She was used was turned light weight to increase lifting capacity for the ASR role. This test was never an official test. Before long, she was converted back into conventional HAS.7 standard. She stayed in her markings until moved to 825 NAS in July 1960 where she was painted a grey and orange (like most ASR helis of the time) Later she was moved to 824 NAS in DEcember 1961 until 1963and stayed in the 825 marking. In 1963 she was taken to RN AMS Seafield Park...another move to the lee dump in 1980 until she was taken to the fire dump at RNAS Yeovilton (5 miles from me) in 1981-1982. I would like to do the other renditions of her in the future, but for now i have done her first state With some earlier models, a pair of lynx I can see where i can improve on (for a conversion with no after market parts its pretty good ) Thanks for looking, Rob
  4. I have now finished the Whirlwind, the results are okay, i messed up in one area but im fine with that. Painting/decalling I painted in the colour that i believe that she was in, a blue. For this i used Tamiya Royal blue, along with some revell light grey (to lighten it and make it less blue). The Decals were xtradecals 1/72 white so i could create the necessary lettering and numbering, i also used the 'T' shape from the kit and the 'danger' decal. The tail rotor was painted black (although it should have a white stripe on either ends that i need to paint on at some stage). The main rotor was upgraded by sanding down the wash plate and adding control arms made from some thin wire, the blades were painted black while the rest was painted light grey with a black acrylic wash. I also made a spring for the tail skid, i painted that silver along with the tail rotor drive shaft At this point i noticed something was wrong.... the little boxy thing on the bottom of the left side of the fuselage was placed too high... so i had to do a bit of surgery. ----> into ---> The area that i had to rework was a little larger then i wanted to work with due to a little accident with Tamiya extra thin (trying to smooth down the surface and then some leaked under the masking tape) I don't really like this part as the area does bulge out a bit, but its not too bad as this isn't the area that it is intended to be looked at. Finished model: As there is a forum for finished models, i won't go into too much detail, so here it is: As you can see i have made a little base and a rescue harness on the winch (made for milliput)... the base is made from an off cut of a laser cut piece of wood (acquired from school before the current event) and a piece of grey foam card made to look weathered by spray white black and various colours over it. i have also made some (very badly made ) wheel chocks, made from milliput and a piece of white cotton. Being my first conversion this has drawn me into doing more, especially prototype/development helicopters made by Westland I hope you enjoy the results, Rob
  5. Saw the HH Wessex fly around Leonardo (Yeovil site) Earlier, very nice to see indeed.
  6. Great work there mate, believe in or not, i also love british development aircraft (mainly copters) I was planning to build a seaspray (and blue Kestrel) seaking sometime in the future.
  7. Its been a while , but i haven't stopped on the Whirly. I have been working on a phantom and doing others bits and bobs, while i waited for things to arrive. This is how she looks at the moment, fully converted from a MK.22 to a MK.7 (fitted to be lightweight) I decided to take a hard way around this conversion, and that is no conversion sets, just me, a lot of reference pictures, a mathematics set and a 3 view diagram of a mk7. (since these picture i have cleaned up some areas which look rough) It may not be the most accurate mk.7, but i really think i have done well. I know that ordinary mk.7's have a hole in the rear and underside for a torpedo and dipping sonar to be held in, but as this id deigned to be ASR, i have decided to leave it like this. The hardest part for me was actually one of the smallest bits, and that is the carburettor, i tried many ways to make that but in the end i had to buy some Milliput (which put the project on hold for a few days.) This is my first time doing a conversion, and it wasn't the easiest of conversions, but i had so much fun doing this rocess, and i know that it will be worth it . Lets have a look at some areas in more detail. The tail: This picture was taken just a few minutes ago, i have realised the bottom side in a little wobbly and not straight, but any who. I think this is pretty good, the vertical stabiliser was the hardest bit about the tail, trying to get the height and overall size correct, made from plastic card and ordinary revell putty, this took several attempts. I used a three view diagram to make this, scaling where appropriate. The underside of the tail has been 'beefed' up a little bit using sprue and putty. The horizontal fins were easy, just use the fins form the existing kit, with minor adjustments . Finally, the tail rotor drive shaft, made from stretched sprue. The nose Not too much done here, i have added the little bump which is a door (not sure what for) The Carburettor was the hardest part about this conversion (ironically) but got there in the end. This is probably the most inaccurate part about this conversion. I have bought some Xtradecals that will make it more accurate.
  8. I have now Finished the interior, as inaccurate i know it is, i quite like it. I have now started to modify the whole heli into a mk7 from a mk 22. I have used parts from a pair of lynx i made in the past (Hobby boss HAS.3 and MK.90) , these parts include seats and central instrument panels (both lynx came with two, one with details one with none) I hand made many things as well including a stretcher, fire extinguisher (mostly hidden) boxes and other bits and bobs. The cockpit: nothing special here, I needed to add a bit of plastic just behind the seats so they had a better angle to sit upon, the centre drive shaft cover is one of them lynx centre instrument panels. I made some seat belts out of masking tape . The seats have some putty on them, rounded and smoothed, to create a cushion effect. This is what i looks without the other half, the seats are what i previously mentioned from the lynx. Painted silver with beige backs, and some more masking tape seat belts. Just on the inside of the door is a stretcher (folded) made of foil about 1 inch long and two thin wires either side with some legs. Looking inside (as much as possible) Just next to the seat is a box, with another box on top (1 grey and 1 brown both made from thick foil ) with two tanks, possibly oxygen, next to the brown box. The net in front is made from , well.. net. Next to that stack there is a cabinet made from another centre console. Looking in the top left of the window, there is a light grey wall mounted corner cabinet. Now i gets to the nerve wrenching part. The part which differentiates this variant to the Mk22, the tail. Luckily on this one the ventral fin will get removed anyway, along with the tail rotor drive shaft. I know, very messy and quite horrible cutting mat but lets get past that, the Ventral fin and shaft cover are both removed. The fin has left a nice hole for me to fill and my cutting job on the cover has left me something pleasing for me to fill aswell. First side has been cut, quite nice a neat.. the other side wasn't as lucky sadly. Precision is key people. Using a square to create a flat surface, i was able to create that 3 deg angle on the tail. This is where i am now, i need to fill the nice gaps it has given me, and recreate that vertical tail into the mk7 type. I also need to add the horizontal surface...this project will keep me busy.
  9. Right lets get into this: I will be basing my build on this Whirlwind XN358 (for more info check out my blogger (look at my about me) Its a reduced weight whirlwind which is kinda snazzy I am using the Airfix HAS.22 kit to do this build, and i am trying to do an interior, which is proving difficult. I have used a food container (one that you buy from the shop with food) instead of plasticard as this kit has no representation of a floor/bulkheads. It is proving very difficult as interior pictures of the whirlwind are hard to find. The textures on the wall and floors are simply foil rubbed against surfaces in my house, the sound proofing (sides and ceiling) is made by using my chromebook and the floor diamond plate using the handle of my blade. It is very messy at the moment but will be neatened very soon You might notice that 'stuff' in the nose, don't worry, its not the guts of a rat, its blue tack and some thumbtacks to create some weight The other side, not neat but when all the equipment and is closed up it should be less visible You can see the floor here, i have actually removed this now and relayed and more flat one.You can see how much i had to modify the cockpit shape, (i have another whirlwind in the stash) and surprisingly it lines up perfectly with the original piece Here is all the things that need to get modified/removed with marker.
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