Bertie McBoatface

= Don't criticise the boss. Fair enough, It's your website.

I wonder how many potential members have been discouraged from signing up by this thread because they now expect their English prose to be scathingly criticised here. I wonder how many members who make brilliant models but maybe know that don't write so good are now feeling hurt. How about a little tolerance guys, especially considering the many errors almost all of you have 'committed' on this thread.

I'm sorry guys and gals but all of my modelmaking activities are going to be shelved for several months at least. I don't want to discuss why but be assured that I'm ok. I just need to concentrate on real life for a time.

I'm sorry guys and gals but all of my modelmaking activities are going to be shelved for several months at least. I don't want to discuss why but be assured that I'm ok. I just need to concentrate on real life for a time.

Balsa armature and paper-mache. Your creativity quotient is way high.

I rely on Seamanship by John Harland (1984) for questions about how sailing ships actually work and Historic Ship Models by Wolfram zu Mondfelt (2005) for detailed information about how to build models of them. Both out of print but widely available second hand. There are many others guides too.

Definitely not underneath. 😁

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Helicopter-History-Piloting-How-Flies/dp/0715389408 If you want to understand helicopters, that’s the book you need, people. As a Vulcan engineer transferring to Wessex in 1979 with no idea at all, a week reading Fay’s book brought me right up to speed. It was recommended to me by the rigger chief.

That is very impressive. I couldn't even manage the change to the forecastle length.

if you had posted that half an hour ago, you would’ve saved me a lot of time. Well done. Those scribed lines are the edges of the blade pockets which are bonded to the rear of the spar of the rotor blade. (How do I remember all of this stuff from four decades ago when I don’t know what I had for breakfast? Oh yes, my brain worked better then, before I got married and had children!)

If I've been volunteered for that job I need to expand on something I mentioned a few posts back - the irregular curve of a drooping rotor blade. Some modellers make the radius of the curve the same from root to tip That's wrong. Italieri's 1/48 scale Wessex has the curve tighter at the tip than at the root. Wrong again! This is what actually happens when a uniformly flexible beam is supported at one end, the root, and droops downwards under its own weight. This is a strip of wood which I'm holding just in front of a wall. It's drooping under it's own weight as you see. At point 0 the weight of the whole ten units is acting on the blade forcing it to bend relatively sharply. Moving outward, by the time you get to point 5, there are only 5 units of weight causing it to bend so the curve becomes more gentle. At point 9 there's only one unit of weight left to press the strip downwards and thats not enough to make it bend at all. Just like a rotor blade, it's actually straight at the end. A Wessex blade, if I remember properly is straight for maybe the outer ten to fifteen feet It's very subtle and might not be noticed although 4+ has it spot on in the plans. (I have a similar profile in an Aeroplane magazine which has a constant curve. Yuk!) And there it is in a photo from 4+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While looking for those shots in 4+ I found this: A photograph of the head with blades moved forwards. I think you can see that they don't line up but all four have moved forwards (away from the camera) Note the pitot on the right. And why isn't it wearing its cover? Corporal! It's still hot, Sarge. Hurumph! Fair enough lad, just testin' you.

This is impressive stuff. I paint figures but this is getting close to sculpting them.

I'm taking some time off for real life reasons. See you soon fellow froglets. 🐸

I'm taking some time off for real life reasons. See you soon shipmates.

Thanks. Saves fumbles. Blues for pointy one and reds for curves.