maarten.schonfeld

Hi Chris, You're very welcome! I fully support your build, mine has progressed to the point that I should finish the interior and start the painting process. I will gladly share with you the references I found, and photos of my build. Bat as said, I cannot post them here. Please send an email to maarten.schonfeld (at) skynet.be , then we can easily exchane whatever we want.

Hi guys, I got my LF Wasp a week ago, and giving it a shot. At first glance it looks terrific! And yes, it can be built into a very decent representation of a Wasp. However, I got some quibbles with the kit. Please decide for yourself whether these detract or need rectification. - Assembly of fuselage is difficult because it's in four parts, and there are no positioning pins or ledgers at all. - Fuselage is about 1.5mm too wide, giving the cockpit front a somewhat squat appearance. Difficult to rectify. (Sidenote: the Airfix fuselage was 0.5mm too narrow, that was very easy to correct) - Wedge below the rear fuselage for the landing gear is 1mm too narrow. Correct it, to get the landing gear in the right position. Stub wing has the right span though. Wheel track front and rear should both be 8 feet equally. - All under fuselage stringers and mounting bars for the l/g are missing. Correct this for getting the l/g in the right position. - Air conditioning and Landing light unit below cockpit box 8x5x2mm completely missing. - Tail locking bolt left side missing - Instr. panel plus cyclic stick, foot pedals and collective lever are for an instructional a/c, on operational Wasps these are all left out from the l/h seat. - Ribbed pattern on engine deck should not be there, only correct for Scouts as far as I can see. Simulate anti slip with matt paint. - Big bulged front of engine suggests a FOD cage, I never saw this on any Wasp. Maybe only on Scout. Remove and shape intake diam. 4mm with center body 3mm. - Engine accessory gearbox (part 36) is suggested to be glued to a mark on the deck: if you do so it sits 3.5mm too far aft. It's better to make a (square) hole in the front of the lower exhaust part (40) in which the upper part of 36 then fits. In this case the engine is not quite horizontal, the bottom of 36 be filed off to get the engine sitting correctly. - At the top of part 36 at the rear the fuel control unit should be added: cilinder 4mm long 2mm diameter, upper side flattened. - The oil cooler (33) has a rounded front end, but should have a large exhaust opening facing inboard to the engine. - Flotation canisters are somewhat too large - Cover of the tail rotor control (rectangular box) on right side of the tail is missing. For the Scout it is there though, but that has a slightly different position and shape. - Hoist is missing on r/h side (but apparently not always carried) Well that's it for now, I'm not yet finished with it. Please help getting this list more complete!

I altered the text EJ to be not provocative.

Ok, EJ. I take this reprimande and will not use the suggestion anymore.

Hi EJ, those very detailed photos of Hood are giving me the idea: this is awesome! 🫣

Very interesting! I've been into rowing for years, but never was aware of using different oars within one boat. And particularly the bow and stroke positions: their rowlocks are placed a little higher, so it requires quite a steeper angle to reach the water with a shorter oar! Weird...

And to realise the squares of your cutting mat are 1cm -- meaning the boat view is 1:48 scale on my screen! 7.5 times the real thing...

Awesome, EJ! I can't stop saying that. Just another question: where did you find that ultra fine etched brass grating mesh? Or was it a mesh of your own craft, etched on your request? The finest I found on the web were from l'Arsenal, some years ago...

Hey Reini, Your built is really beautiful! Well done. But you will hate me for the following remark: It's a pity you had a Mk.IV kit for starters, as you didn't have all the right parts for modelling a Mk.V. The wingtips and gunpack you have worked out fine, but you missed the tailplane: the Mk. V had its tailplane increased from 20 feet in the previous versions to 25 feet in the Mk. V. So a full 21 mm added in 1/72 scale - not to be overlooked! The HC CF-100 Mk.V kit has this longer tailplane. On the real aircraft you can easily spot it: these tailplane extensions didn't have the de-icing boots as the rest of the tailplane. But still: your end result looks terrific! If you decide to make the correction, it shouldn't be that difficult, even on e completed model. Getting the paint colours right to match the rest will be the biggest challenge...

Did anyone notice: when the HC tail part is joined up with the major part of the fuselage, the rear part is angled down a degree or two? Looks like the camel's back is broken. This is definitely wrong, the entire fuselage should be rotationally symmetrical, or when you turn it around the longitudinal axis (put the nose and tail tips between two fingers and rotate it) you shouldn't notice any swaying. The cure is very simple: ad 0.5-0.7mm shim at the bottom of the fuselage joint before cementing the rear part to the front. Further, the bottom line of the fuselage is then somewhat too straight, so adding 0.5 mm in plastic/putty will also remedy the not circular frame shape of the joint. These two improvements enhance the side view tremendously. I would say this is the single most important improvement when building up the kit.

Have you noticed the deck planking from your source Trumpeter kit is almost 1 mm wide? When you calculate that to 1:350 it means the planks are over ONE FOOT wide. The reality is that 6 inches (so half of that) would be much more realistic. Evergreen no. 2020 provides you with planks at .020 inch spacing, or just 0.5 mm. So that satisfies exactly what you would have needed. But of course you may stay as stubborn as you like...

I didn't react to your email as you downright said I was wrong. I'm afraid you are the one in the wrong: only the US Army helo's in the tactical roles wear the IR suppresive matt Helo Drab FS 34031, which is indeed black green. Check for yourself with a colour card, but the Lakotas (A and B versions) are not in that color, but in the old FS 34087 Olive Drab, which is still pretty much the same as in the Vietnam years. It isn't matt, but semi matt finish, and obviously not IR suppressive either. As these helos are not supposed to operate outside the USA the need for that IR suppression isn't really felt to be required -- nor the added wear and hence maintenance needed for the IR finish. Please check your references thoroughly - again. Kind regards, Maarten

Very well done! It encourages me to undertake the same conversion, thanks for showing the way!

What an eloquent speech! I'm speechless...🙂

I didn't know you have built a 1:1 scale Hood model, Jamie! 😉