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Found 7 results

  1. I've made a start on a new model which will be something I never really do - a diorama of sorts but really it's two model aircraft. I've had to depart from my preferred 1/48 scale for this for various reasons but let's simplify it down to kit availability. The ultimate aim is to try to recreate a scene like this: I expect the readership is well familiar with the USAF's Combat Search And Rescue (CSAR) efforts which really came to maturity during the Vietnam war. The Sikorsky S-61R model in USAF service as the CH-3 was modified with long range tanks, refuelling probe, pilots' seat arm, winch and some defensive guns and became the HH-3E, nicknamed the Jolly Green Giant. They didn't and couldn't work alone though. They were still relative sitting ducks to ground fire, expected to fly into a hover in an area where a fast jet had been shot down. They flew in pairs, a high ship providing cover and a low ship which went in to pick up the downed airman/airmen. They usually had an escort of around 4 Douglas Skyraiders which flew under the nickname of "Sandy" which would provide heavy suppressive fire support for the helicopters. The whole operation was initiated, supported and coordinated by the crew of the Combat King however - the HC-130P would patrol and listen on the US military's radio frequencies monitoring ongoing air operations. As soon as they heard communications that suggested a friendly aircraft was in trouble the CSAR machine was warmed up. The Combat King crew would direct the rescue aircraft to the scene but also provided refuelling services to the fairly short-ranged Jolly Green Giants. The models then - I'm using a Whirlybird kit of the HH-3E which is almost entirely resin with a fret of photoetched brass. Unlike their earlier S-61N conversion which used a Revell donor kit, the HH-3E is a complete kit. Good then. The HC-130P is going to be provided by Italeri, with HC-130P conversion parts from David J Parkins' Flightpath, with photo etched details (mainly to get the flaps which, as can be seen above, were normally extended to allow the big Herc to fly slow enough for the helicopter to keep pace and take on fuel) and the correct Alison T56-A-15 engine nacelles from same. I still need the air to air refuelling pods from Flightpath and they're not available right now but David, if you're reading, I'll be keeping an eye on your website for them coming back into stock. It'll be a while before they hold up proceedings though. Never one to be content however, I have decided to attempt to make this much more difficult. I've never been impressed by clear plastic discs with blurry blades and the like, so to try to get a good impression of movement, I've decided to electrify this little ensemble. That's going to be easier said than done... Apart from any thing else, when you've actually seen things like the helicopter (or at least are familiar with its family members) things like relative RPMs begin to matter, within fairly broad reason. When photographed, the relative blur achieved by an camera will be more telling than just looking and since most people will see this through the results of a camera, I wanted to make a reasonable effort during the parts procurement process to try to get it close-ish. I've known 3 Hercules pilots, and have no way of contacting any of them so I've had to guess at what is probably a sensible propeller RPM for a C-130 flying straight and level with flaps down - and my guess is that 1200 RPM isn't going to look out of place. I ordered 4 of these for the Herc: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC3V-1200RPM-Micro-Mini-6mm-Planetary-Gear-Reducer-Motor-Precision-DIY-Robot-car/254151008187?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648 These are approximately 17mm long and 6mm in diameter. The solid resin engine nacelles are, I believe, a benefit here since I can drill the nacelles in my pillar drill and get all the motors and thus all 4 propellers on the same axis. It would look dreadful if they all had different up/down/side thrust. Everything needs to be straight and aligned properly. On to the helicopter for now though. I needed to measure up what I had to work with, and that meant cleaning up the fuselage halves: The fit is pretty good, but there is a mismatch on the top of the fuselage to deal with later - but it doesn't affect what I need to know now: I have a bit of space to work with for the main rotor, but still the smaller the better - I don't really want a huge silver monstrosity gleaming through the cabin windows: The tailrotor however is a real issue: I have better data here (I think) about what speeds I want, but in truth that probably makes me less satisfied with whatever I get in the end! I have my father available who was licensed on the Sikorsky S-61N and has all of his Sikorsky course notes. I'd love to show some of the amazing reference material inside, but Sikorsky never miss an opportunity to sue people and the course notes have prohibitions on unauthorised disclosure all over them, so you'll have to take my word for the rest. Not knowing any S-61R drivers, but believing the powertrain to be very similar to the S-61N, my dad's course notes state that 100% on the mainrotor is 203 RPM. The same drawing shows that the power take-off for the tail rotor runs at 3030 RPM at 100% and that the 45deg gearbox at the bottom of the pylon is a 1:1 gear ratio. The final drive gearbox to the tail rotor itself has a ratio of 2.4375:1, making the tailrotor run at 1243 RPM at 100%. The best I could find that would fit in the fuselage for the mainrotor was this 242 RPM geared motor, measuring 16.5mm long by 6mm diameter: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253771137237 That's at 3v so I've also ordered some little potentiometers to, hopefully, tweak that down a touch. Compromise is the key here. I considered asking someone to design and 3D print me tiny bevel gears and sit a motor in the pylon coaxial with where the transmission shaft would be on the real thing, but then I found these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC3V-3-7V-4-2V-Ultra-mini-Coreless-Motor-3-2mm-12-2mm-Vibration-Vibrating-Motor/283101330780?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=583506556671&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 They are tiny little things 3.2mm x 12.2mm overall including the shaft which has a vibrating counterweight attached, so I've ordered 2 of them incase I ruin one. This should just fit in there. I expect it spins far too fast for what I want, but I will mock it up first with a potentiometer and see how low I can get it - but really I think I'll just need to take what I get as this really seems to be the absolute bottom end of what's readily available on the market just now. Since I had the stuff out, I made a move on the sponsons. Whirlybird provides sponsons with separate end plates; one with floats for the HH-3F "Pelican" used by the Coast Guard, one plain as used on some of the CH-3C utility versions and one with the pylon for extended range fuel tanks. The fit isn't great unfortunately. I spent a while trying to make sure the pylons were aligned and looked like they would be at the same angle of incidence as each other - I don't want one fairly long, spindly fuel tank pointing up and one down! I've had this stuff for a while but have never used it, so thought I'd give it a go It's like Milliput but seems a bit softer and easier to knead/mix than my packets of Milliput. That said, my Milliput has always been quite old whenever I've used it - mixing epoxy putties always seems a real faff so I'll use solvent types normally. For resin here though this is probably more suitable. Thanks for looking in. This won't be fast paced - and indeed I need to wait for motors to arrive, but I will work away at it along with my other projects. I'm not always in the mood for shaping / painting / photo etch / sanding / scribing so I like having different models at different stages of build and pick up whichever I'm in the mood for. I'm not a linear person.
  2. My first time joining a Group Build.... I’m going to build the Whirlybirds 1/72 Sikorsky HH-52A Sea Guard helicopter in USCG colors. It is my first resin kit, too! I figure a helicopter is a good way to start- build the fuselage, and you’re nearly finished!😁 The kit looks nice, and fills an important gap in my collection of US Coast Guard subjects in 1/72. The HH-52 has never been kitted in injected plastic- the closest kit was a 1/48 scale kit of the Sikorsky S-62, the civilian version of the HH-52, by ITC in late 1950s. Tonight I opened up the kit and cut the main fuselage parts free from the pour blocks. So I have officially started!
  3. Its not new and I cant remember if it ever made it to this forum; built about 6 years ago from the Revell 1/72 Sea King and the Whirlybird Decals / Models S61NM conversion kit, this diorama has been totally re-built and brought back to life after being totally smashed to pieces by a rogue tennis ball aimed at it by some moron. Left in many pieces to rot in a very well buried box in my attic, I found this during a house move in February and decided to bring the memory of the Lands End service back to life. Originally built as a memory of my childhood days when my parents owned a cottage over on Tresco in the Scillies which we flew to originally via St Mary's and then in later years as a direct service to Tresco; the family would trek over on what was originally a BEA service and then in BA's red white and blue colours. This particular S61 (BEON) ditched killing 20, just 1 month ahead of one of our numerous trips over to the Scillies. A big mention to Roger Evans of Whirlybird Models who has brought this amazing model to our benches - another subject that had for many years been overlooked by the main stream manufacturers. Hopefully, one of my club colleagues at Farnborough shall soon bring another Whirlybird 1/72 S61NM to life to compliment this diorama After the 2017 rebuild... And finally, as it was before its new facelift and rebuild back in 2011 Thanks for looking in - John
  4. Hello, I decided on these when the GB was first suggested since then whirlybirds have made life easier and issued an aftermarket set specifically for one of the aircraft I want to build. Not sure when I'll get to start or how much time I'll get but will see how things go. Two builds, in tandem so I'll keep them both here. First up is an Bell 205 used by Bristow helicopters to transport land rigs around Indonesia. Don't have much more info that that at the moment but the decal set is from S&M (SSM72-007 civil choppers) and the kit will be Italeri's UH-1D. second is G-BALZ. AB212 used by Bristows in the North sea (around the Brent Oil field during the 1980s into the early 90s I think?) It spent some time based on the treasure finder as well. I'll post some links at a later date with photos of both aircraft. Italeri AB212 kit with, as mentioned, whirlybirds G-BALZ set which includes resin parts, some PE and decals for G-BALZ in 3 schemes. I also have the Eduard PE set for the 212 as well. cheers for looking
  5. Fellow Modellers, Finally had some time to photograph the first finished example of a series Westlands Wessex helicopters.. As extras are added the Cobra cockpit and interior. Almost completely empty with just a few seats . Thanks to Mr. Evans from Whirlybird I was able to add the extra long range fuel tank to the port side. This little gem adds so much importance to the model. It will be accompanied in a diorama by Bedford Tactical Refueller and some figurines. Excellent decals from L Decals Studio and the box decals from Italeri. The FOD cover is constructed from MiliPut. RBF tags are from Eduard. Paints as usual from the Xtra Color range. It represents XS484, 771, RNAS Culdrose 1984. I would like to thank all the forum modellers that contributed to answer all my questions. As for example, the discussion about the yellow rotor blade Next, the RAF version. Regards,
  6. Thought I'd pull another resin out of the stash and after the big and heavy Sperrin, this seemed ideal; It's the Whirlybird Bristol 188 and comes with a useful CD of photos of the surviving example at the RAF Museum Cosford. I've got a load of my own photos of it as well but you can never have enough. Two decal sheets are supplied the larger one is of the Pressfix type (which I've had problems with before) and the smaller one is Alps printed for the white pilot's name on the nose. Unfortunately this isn't very well printed so I'll be making my own decals for this model. The resin and white metal parts look pretty good but no doubt the dreaded air bubbles will make an appearance at some point. The wings, fin and tailplane are a bit warped but should straighten without too much trouble. The sheet under the parts is A3 if that helps to give a sense of the size. Steve
  7. This is my entry for the group build, it's Whirlybirds 1/144 kit. I may be a little late starting as I still have to complete a couple of WW2 ground attack attack targets first, but I shouldn't be too late to the party. So here is a shot of the box and the contents and a close up of the decal sheet.
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