Jump to content

Airfix 1/48 Lynx AH7 TOW (Probably....)

Lynx7

By Lynx7
in Work in Progress - Aircraft

 Share

Recommended Posts

merlin9807 Newbie

merlin9807

Posted
Posted
I'm hoping so mate. Not actually that much more to do on it. All the fiddly detail is done. All thats left to do now is mask up windscreen and doors, do rotor assembly (I've cracked a previous one in a day from cutting off sprue to sticking on aircraft), tail rotor, TOW booms and thats about it prior to last phase of paint and finish. Oh, I am going to build footsteps and a britestar for the skids :D

(Sorry for the late time of this reply but just got back from night flying so I hope I didnt piss too many people off in Yeovil with my continuous circuits in the Wildcat ;) )

No worries mate but we always use to annoy people when we was night flying :D. Well I have nearly finished both of mine now just finished the decaling and im now on the armaments and rotors.

see you at Newmod. (im running the comp again this year).

Cheers

Merl

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AjD Obsessed Member

AjD

Posted
Posted (edited)
Luckily, it fits perfectly!

Yeah, that's what I thought - it's all luck... :hmmm:<_<:undecided:

Genuinely a pleasure to watch. I've just ordered my first Lynx (the AH.7) having procrastinated for a while. I'm not quite sure if you're inspiring me or putting me off building it though!

Wonderful stuff. Hats off to you! :cheers:

Andy

Edited by AjD
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lynx7 Obsessed Member

Lynx7

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
Coming on great Tony. Yeovilton took delivery of 1st Wiilcat yesterday, locked away today!!

Dave

And to clarify - The ARMY based at Yeovilton took delivery of the first AW159 Wildcat. ;)

Hehe yep, I hurriedly drove up from AW to receive it yesterday. Its now being stripped down so our engineers can train/play/break it. Doubt it will ever be serviceable again! I'll be flying it hopefully on 14th June (First operational mil pilot to fly the delivered aircraft with a bit of a PR event ceremony malarkey). Currently smashing ZZ405 around out of the factory. Me likes it a lot (as a pilots aircraft anyway....I'll let you know what its like as a military platform later on this year.....)

Here she is (ZZ406)

7289317906_f54bcbaee0_c.jpg

Anyway, back to the progress;

Primer on (and actually the main grey colour for final coat). Will blutac mask to apply green tonight.

7294488372_be7f8d406e_c.jpg

Decided to make the right hand footstep with BriteStar IR spot light. Not going to bother with left hand footstep as in TOW role or non trooping roles, we only tended to carry the right one because it had the IR light on it.

7294489060_f97885ed20_c.jpg

Left hand engine bay door dressed. The flat section will be the non slip decking area.

7294487606_69baea457d_c.jpg

TOW booms completed and primered. I've added the Final Arming Levers and drilled out the vertical tube securing mechanism. Apart from that, lovely detail on the booms from the box. I'll add the wiring harness once airbrushed green.

7294486794_70ed2a37ef_c.jpg

Because it will be crucial to ensure the booms are true to the fuselage and positioned correctly, I've added 1mm plastic rod for security to the main NATO flange-fuselage attachment point and to allow for fine tweaking once fitted, Ive added .5mm brass rod.

7294485534_76ec5fb277_c.jpg

I will only put 2 drill TOW rounds on the upper and lower outboard stations on each boom cos we rarely flew around with all 4 per boom (inboard missiles were a bitch to put in place!)

Not much more to do now and nearly on to final phase of final paint/gloss varnish/decals/matt varnish then it'll be just a case of final detail such as popping the motor in, tail drive shaft dressing and sticking on the antennas etc. Fingers crossed, it'll be done for the weekend.

Edited by Lynx7
Link to comment
Share on other sites
jenko Very Obsessed Member

jenko

Posted
Posted

This is real bonkers modelling to the enth degree. :banghead:

Each one you make Tony could be classed as a work of art. :gobsmacked:

You are a real inspiration with this kit. Thanks for your updates. :cheers:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
heloman1 Completely Obsessed Member

heloman1

Posted
Posted

Lookin' good there Tony and the Wildcat ain't half bad too. The Airfix kit certainly responds well to a coat of paint, somehow lifts the detail.

Colin on the Africa Station

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sniperUK Obsessed Member

sniperUK

Posted
Posted
And to clarify - The ARMY based at Yeovilton took delivery of the first AW159 Wildcat. ;)

Hehe yep, I hurriedly drove up from AW to receive it yesterday. Its now being stripped down so our engineers can train/play/break it. Doubt it will ever be serviceable again! I'll be flying it hopefully on 14th June (First operational mil pilot to fly the delivered aircraft with a bit of a PR event ceremony malarkey). Currently smashing ZZ405 around out of the factory. Me likes it a lot (as a pilots aircraft anyway....I'll let you know what its like as a military platform later on this year.....)

Here she is (ZZ406)

7289317906_f54bcbaee0_c.jpg

Are you taking it to RIAT ? If you are I will drop by for a chat and buy you a pint at the hangar party.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lynx7 Obsessed Member

Lynx7

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Are you taking it to RIAT ? If you are I will drop by for a chat and buy you a pint at the hangar party.

Not too sure on our itinerary but I'd guess we will be attending RIAT. I'll have a gander through the calendar once I'm back across at VL.

Anyway, heres the progress so far and bad news...not all good. I'm trying to get this complete for Saturdays Newbury show so have given myself a tight schedule. Most work has been completed. Airbrushed green on this morning but instead of using my usual Model Master matt enamel 1712 Field Green and 1710 Dark green mix (3:1), I discovered I'd run out of both! Humbrol enamel 105 is pretty close so I elected to mix that with the remaining drops of MM 1710 Dark green. Applied airbrush at 0900. By 1030 the green was still going off (usually goes off to matt dryness within 25-30 minutes). Started getting a tad concerned. Went to work and was looking forward on my return to crack on with the schedule. Got home to discover paint was still curing (still heavy smell of enamel and 'soft'). Left it a few hours this evening and decided to try a bit of Tamiya gloss varnish on one of the nose avionics doors. Shock horro, same results as nobbyyam here . Humbrol paints make me want to hurt puppies and kittens as they are so hit and miss! Only other time I had this issue was using Humbrol Silver. I cant remember how many times I've opened a pot of Humbrol, stirred it to the n'th degree and then found it fails to go off. Am I being harsh by suggesting they are crap??

So, I will have to let the rest of the model cure for a good few days to a week before I dare to apply any varnish. Oh well, guess it'll have to be a 'WiP' at the Newbury show :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Martian Blabber Mouth

Martian

Posted
Posted

How on earth have I managed to miss this? I need shooting! Amazing skill and dedication and a subject right up my street into the bargain! I'm hooked on this thread from now on.

Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites
merlin9807 Newbie

merlin9807

Posted
Posted (edited)

Great work buddy, by any chance did you do any drawings of the Britestar and foot step?

Fingers crossed the paint cures soon, looking forward to seeing it at Newmod on saturday.

Cheers

Merl

Edited by merlin9807
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Royster Established Member

Royster

Posted
Posted

I have to break my recent forum lurking streak by adding that this build is extremely good viewing! I can't add anything constructive but permit me to say "Bloody hell, wow!" Lovely work

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lynx7 Obsessed Member

Lynx7

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks again all. And thanks to all the people I chatted to today at Newbury for their kind words (and to the judges for awarding me lots of bling for my stuff :D )

Ok, update and good news!

Having left the kit for nearly a week now to hopefully allow the green to fully cure, I took the plunge to try a bit of varnish on another separate panel. Disaster again as this crazed within a few minutes. Luckily it was only the aft avionics bay door so will be easy to strip back. I then faced a dilemma. Either strip back the entire model or try something else. Didnt really fancy stripping the whole lot back so elected to try some Model Master gloss varnish. Tried it on another panel and et voila, it was fine! Massive sigh of relief. It must just be that that particular mix of Humbrol didnt like the Tamiya varnish. So, have now gloss varnished the whole model (and watching it dry like a blimmin Hawk!). There is only one tiny bit of crazing identified but it will be easy to remedy/hide. Will leave the varnish to fully harden before carefully smoothing surfaces with micromesh then decal application. Hopefully on track to display it at our show next weekend :D

Still bloody annoyed at the Humbrol though. Never had an issue with Tamiya varnish on any types of paints. Note to self: Make sure I have a large stock of 1710 and 1712 Model Master paint!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
merlin9807 Newbie

merlin9807

Posted
Posted (edited)

Great to see you again mate. Its great news about the model masters varnish. Well fingers crossd i ma on track to bring mine to youre show next week.

Oh as we chatted about making a plasti card template for the leading edge mask it works a treat.

See you next saturday.

Merl

Edited by merlin9807
Link to comment
Share on other sites
The Sage New Member

The Sage

Posted
Posted

Hi Lynx7,

All I can say is simply outstanding work keep it up as they say. Also can you tell me what is the mesh you use

for the the intakes on both your models. As to me this is a thing that can make or break a model.

Cheers

Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lynx7 Obsessed Member

Lynx7

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Merl, great to see you and the crab too! See you Saturday.

Sage, thanks. The mesh I used is Aber ABR35S19. Its interlaced mesh and seems to work fine. Just so you are aware, we (A2Zee Models) intend to release some mesh grills with the upcoming Lynx conversion sets.

So, calling this finished now. A week later than I'd planned due to the issues with green paint but it'll thankfully be ready for our (Salisbury IPMS) show on Saturday.

Quick pic for now, will post a load more in RFI later on.

Regards

Tony

7341377280_1e99cd84db_z.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DannyB Obsessed Member

DannyB

Posted
Posted (edited)

Wow, that's crazy good! :worthy: :worthy:

If I can get even close to your level of work later this year when I plan to tackle an AH9 I'll be over the moon!

BTW, don't stop building these I'm gonna need as much help as I can get when I start and your WIP threads are always truly inspirational! :D

Edited by DannyB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...