Airfix Scout AH1

[perdu]

Macbook Air?

I've just bought a car with twelve to fourteen years life expectancy for less than one of they buggers

I'm looking to upgrade my old towersystem with Win 7 or 8, XP works still but getting kinda clunky

And the obligatory wet whilst fettling, not too fussed as long as there's alcolololol in it

I keep looking at this helicopter and wishing I'd built each side up with windows in then moulded the whole thing from PETg, windows non-microsoft tm would be a doddle

More playing this arvo when "She Who" hands the pooter and study back over to its rightful owner

She drives t'office all day tha' knows

[Fritag]

MacBook Air in my room at chambers.

Helps if it's a business expense of course......

Not allowed beer at work of course.........

Not allowed aeroplane pictures at home - so they're relegated to chambers .....

[Cheshiretaurus]

Is this one of them picture within a picture within a picture etc thingies I've started?

[Col.]

Not allowed beer at work of course.........

Not allowed aeroplane pictures at home - so they're relegated to chambers .....

Modern life is rubbish - sure we'd all get through the day much better if beer was part of the working day.

As for not being allowed aeroplane pictures at home... Not even a painting to brighten up one wall?

[MolarDoc]

Not allowed beer at work? ....... In Australia it's compulsory at the close of play.

[Fritag]

Modern life is rubbish - sure we'd all get through the day much better if beer was part of the working day.

As for not being allowed aeroplane pictures at home... Not even a painting to brighten up one wall?

Well - I suppose I do have a Rondot on the wall of my study wot the wife got me for my birthday - so mustn't really complain:

(sorry for the continuing drift Bill)

Steve

Edited August 11, 2014 by Fritag

[Col.]

Well - I suppose I do have a Rondot on the wall of my study wot the wife got me for my birthday - so mustn't really complain:

Better than nothing I suppose. Not a huge Rondot fan but then again he's sold a damned sight more paintings than I ever will so guess that shows what little I know.

Oh, nice work on the 'copter by the way Bill

[Zone19]

Awesome thread, cracking work and learning loads...Thanks for sharing

[perdu]

Well that seems to be it...

"Houston we have a problem..."

More of which later

As well as driving down to RAFM Hendon and the Ace Cafe for Classic Cars night I have also been doing small bits of Scout windows and such

I got the windows made, in and fitted well enough to satisfy myself so it came to pass that the two halves were introduced to Revell Contacta. and each other

I fitted the cyclic to the cockpit floor too, only the rear seat doodah to make and add later

Cockpit floor is ready to pop in, seen sat sitting in place here, with the new panel coaming attached

A drawback to progress has been finding any panel detail for the Nord SS-11 missile fit. I have found a possible layout which shows two further IP boxes to the left of the flight instruments but I strongly suspect the pictures I have may be from one of they Naval thingamys, the Wopse kind of doodah

I know Wasp could carry SS12 type rockets, would the command and control gubbins be the same for both machines? I rather suspect not.

Answer so far is leave it out and just model the roof sight without SS-11s aboard

Anyway using some fine pictures I found of Scout hanging off a suitable roof I have been able to model the underside of the fuselage. There is a stiffener which seems set up to carry occasional odds and ends with holes and clips all along it, fitted this from Slaters Strip 0.010 x 0.020 size was perfect

I've added a complete panel alongside which will be having a landing lamp and a further position lamp added

Some of you may recognise the ubiquitous Solartrim I used to reasonable effect back on the Sherpa, grey it was

And I cut the thin little tail rotor blades off the hub prior to detailing the pitch change mechanism

(I bet there's another word for that too )

New blades carved and aerofoiled before sticking them to the hub

Painting these? I am sure I will enjoy that...

Four tiny little balls to add to the centre struts and other pitch change stuff, why didn't I just build a Wokka?

I know, it's because I haven't finished getting details for the later style Wokka in the RAF

Soon maybe

When the fuselage interior is done I will be closing it up with the new home vac canopy

The canopy I have been practising with is now far too large and I will be cutting the buck down to the newer length

I'm aiming for a clear rear view out of/into the curved back windows so they need to be cut in to a smaller shape

The calipers help me work out how much to pare off

.

Work is underway on the tail boom too, there's to be a radically altered forward facing vent at the base of the fin

Soon

The new cabin windows can be seen here

They are too big, on purpose

I intend to mask the clear bits off and use Mr Surfacer to fmask all the wrong sized bits and get the painting done

Later this week or next

Off for another R&R

Oh the life of the retiree, great innit!

Oh yes

The Problem?

Those lovely seats

The driver's seat doesn't fit in between the wall and the collective

What to do? Make new ones out of polycard and rod, only smaller, Airfix's own seat is quite a bit slimmer and would take a frame around it and fit better.

But this is a learn to love etch thread innit and the seat body and backrest detail is quite brilliant.

Or carve the unnseeable seat frame bit clean off at the side wall and slip it gently down the hole?

The crewman's chair fits like a glove

Ho hum, think about that later...

b

Edited August 13, 2014 by perdu

[Cheshiretaurus]

All looking good Bill

[keefr22]

Yep, coming along very nicely Bill. Mr Lazy Modeller (i.e. me) would choose this option - "carve the unnseeable seat frame bit clean off at the side wall and slip it gently down the hole?". The perfectionists amongst us would probably have different ideas...!!

keith

[perdu]

he he

[feifeitim]

Like that. Suggested improvements would be (i) an Apple MacBook Air and (ii) a bottle of Black Sheep bitter. Now you're talking.........

Now its funny you should say "a bottle of Black Sheep bitter", Steve, 'cos I found myself necking a couple of those, that I surprisingly found in the pub here in Hong Kong! Just goes to show, the Theakston influence is far ranging!

As are your modelling skills on this thread Bill! Great work!

Edited August 14, 2014 by feifeitim

[Hamden]

More stunning work as usual.

I'm sure you'll not be satisfied with cutting bits off the seat just to make it fit!

Roger

[Martian]

More good work! I have no doubt whatsoever that you will get this kit to behave! No pressure or anything!

Martin

[perdu]

Hmm

Some people round here know me too darned well I think

Here's what I should have done first off if I hadnt had some lovely looking etch to play with

.

.

.

I was looking at a video posted on Ppppppprune about Scouts and there was one being used for logging with all four doors off and looking into the back of the cab my etch seats were visibly filling more of the meagre space inside than in the real thang!

So it had to be done

So it came to pass, it were done

b

.

[Nigel Heath]

Very nice looking work, what did you use for the bars on the back of the seats?

[perdu]

Thanks Nigel, I think it'll do

If you mean the bars that guide the seatbelts they are just a length of suitably sized stretched sprue

When I have stretched a sprue for a specific task, like aerials on Catalinas for example, I hang the remainder inside my tall cupboard door so I can get at it quickly.

There's usually some about to suit 'the next problem'

I just hang them on some old diplomas and prize certificates that are stuck to the door off display

No glue 'cos they hang over the corners loosely

How many feet of it d'you want

[Nigel Heath]

Thanks Perdu, your offer is very kind but I have massive boxes filled with old sprues so I think I will be able to generate all the stretched stuff that I need for the next few millennia.

Ta,

Nigel

[Hamden]

Just knew you wouldn't be happy cutting bits off

Nice work on the replacements

Roger

[woody37]

Just caught up with this Bill. Can't believe how small the damn thing is, but you're doing a cracking job on it. Love what you've done with those seats

[Fritag]

Mini works of art Bill.

[perdu]

works of art?

no just what needed doing

Now

THIS is art

I've been doing a see what you get test sheet with pastels dusting over a base colour, as I did on the jetpipes

Base colours were Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown, Tamiya XF-80 Royal Light Grey and a couple of often used with a brush Vallejo Air paints Model air light grey 71050 and Model air Black --057 (Cannot read first two numbers for drippy paint marks, sorry)

I masked off the centre strip between the pairs of colours and with test splashes below here's what the pastels dusted out as over brown, black and two greys

This isn't a very scientific jobby, but might get you to experiment. Pastels are very cheap and can have a massive affect on the paint you apply to the model

The above picture is flooded with 'flash' and maybe over bright

Here is the test under manky afternoon light (what the heck happened to the Midget driving summer I have been enjoying?)

.I suppose the bad light lets you see the results a little more realistically

Scout? Ah yes glad you mentioned that I'm putting the old reupholstered seat cushions from the etch seats onto the plastic ones and making the new fuselage strakes for the missile carrying bodywork.

All Scouts are NOT the same, utility have 4 strakes behind the rear door/bubble. Missile ships have extra stiffening strakes and bracketery

And over on Pprune even a guy that worked with them for years hadn't realised that.

My God I love the interweb

Photos later

This week

Edited August 15, 2014 by perdu

[perdu]

Seats now have their upholstery

the patch of white is un'cured' formula 560 cockpit glue under the seat cushion

The strakes have been done now

The four as moulded prior to removal, the long strake by the fourth one down has to be trimmed off too, there is an access panel on that part of the fuselage, so more surgery ...

I'm sure it will look smoother when I'm ready to paint it...

I'm sure

Now then

The altered strakes on the port side having had a trim, looks fair I reckon

.You can see through the grey paint inside the bubble, for now

All will be better later

Now the dusting pastels tests

After dusting the stuff on, which influences massively how the final colour is perceived more control is taken by dusting it off again

here's a shot of my test strip after dusting back, you can get really light colour changes like this

The pink shaded brown bit is where I didn't get decent coverage of brown and the white polycard is shining through

Shame I cant get credit for this colour change

only blame

Keeping at the pastels with a dusting brush takes the powdery pigment back almost to ABSENT if you keep at it

It can be very subtle

.

.

[Fritag]

I've seen how Neil (Woody) uses pastels on his builds to good effect and I have to say Bill that your demo is pretty persuasive as to how versatile they are. I really like the way it's possible to keep control and work slowly and incrementally and best of all if (when more like) it gets c*cked up just remove it and start over.

I'm gonna need to practice - but in principle it looks just the technique I want.

Like this business of you and Mark both running tests. Save's me an awful lot of time and trouble

Oh BTW. Microscopic work on minuscule scout looks good.

I found myself musing the other day as to how I ended up working in 1/72 scale again - especially seeing as I'd started to stock up on 1/48 scale kits before getting back into the hobby. Didn't actually have a good answer - but it is fun somehow. In a way I think it's more forgiving - it's like you're not so obliged to add detail in 1/72 and so if you do try then then it's a bit of a bonus.

Steve

Edited August 16, 2014 by Fritag