Wessex HC2 - A Dauphin's Stablemate: 520 days later.... IT'S FINISHED ! (why, yes it is indeed)

[Nigel Heath]

Going to go have a look at the osprey now.

This is excellent news, I hope you like what you find.

And you?

I like the way you are clearing your shelf of doom, I bet it is doing your modelling soul no end of good. Can you post a link to your doomed builds? I would like to see them.

I hope hendie doesn't mind us hijacking his thread like this. I think I have just about managed to survive black Friday. (by going out for a curry with Duncan B, Col, and Harry Lime).

[Martian]

That is some good progress, your efforts to get the fit as accurate as possible will be greatly rewarded as the build progresses.

Martin

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice work on the trans deck.

IIRC two upside down U shaped

strengthening ribs should poke out

one either side of the beetleback.

Looks like they missed those too.

Flooring. Yes, Plywood, non slip grey paint.

With holes circular for the tie down rings

and holes other shape for gun mount etc.

stopped the self loading cargo making holes in the floor.

Under the floor? rubber fuel tanks. Not hole friendly.

[hendie]

I think every Wessex kit I have ever seen has missed those inverted V's from the beetleback you mentioned. Was it a strengthener ? I always assumed it was some kind of drainage channel.

Next question.... I remember the inside of the trans deck area was green, I remember it was faded but other than that ??? So, can anyone tell me what color I should be looking to paint this area? Is RAF interior green correct for this or is it some other shade of green?

[perdu]

I thought drainage channels too

(I put 'em on my HAS2 AND the HC2, 'cos you do dontcha)

Not sure about the greeny colour, I'll see if I have any pictures on the pooter

[Pete in Lincs]

Green, somewhere around Humbrol 120.

[hendie]

Thanks Pete. Isn't it typical that I don't have that colour and will have to order it! I shouldn't have asked the question and gone ahead and painted it with whatever I had handy - of course, now that I know the colour, I have to get the right one!

After studying all the reference photo's at hand I decided there were a few more supports and brackets I could add. I used the soft drinks can to create a couple of small gauge brackets just inside the frame here. Styrene was used for the remainder.

I really wanted to start putting in the piping etc, but I need to paint the area first as I want the piping to remain in it's natural colour e.g. stainless, aluminum etc.

If I add all the wires to represent the piping now, I'll never be able to paint around them with any degree of neatness.

In the meantime, I dry fitted everything to see how it's looking.

I shortened the fan assembly as I thought it was protruding too far into the gearbox area. I think this looks better and it will allow me to be a bit more creative with filling the deck.

I don't know what was happening today but I couldn't make anything seem to work. I wanted to make a couple of small drinks can brackets and must have had about 6 or 7 attempts and just couldn't get one that looked half decent. It must have been one of those days.

Here's a view from the front, just 'cos I had the photo.

After coming to a halt on the deck area I went back to the nose. There were a few small jobs I had left to finish off.

Number one was to cut out the extinguisher access panels on the nose - once again, every kit seems to omit these. This was my best attempt at cutting a 2.5mm² hole in soft plastic.

The plan is to use drinks can aluminum to make the two doors. As you can see by the size of my thumb versus the access door in the photo above, it could prove to be a challenge to get anything fitted in there.

I also finished off a few bits and bobs inside the door. Another bracket was added to the inner wall, followed by a couple of styrene doobrie's which sit between the engines.

Then the kick block panel was added to the lower stbd side. - That brought back fond memories of swinging opening that pita nose and trying to get the support rod in place before it (the nose) swung back and took your leg off! Where was Health & Safety back in them days eh???

I still have to add a valve and piping to the bracket, but again, want the inside of the door painted before I add the piping in the hope that the wire colour will contrast against the painted door.

Lastly, I had some etch handles left over from the Dauphin which I though could pass for a door latch mechanism, so I cut two small styrene squares, stuck the etch on, and then fitted the "latches" inside the nose. Okay, not accurate in the least but better than nothing.

[perdu]

looks darned good Hendie

I suppose you COULD thin the back of the nose panel to fit the 'can' doors from behind, you might get that not quite flush look of the real fire panels

I love the gearplatform it's already amazing when you finish painting it and get down the pipes it is going to be the Wessex build to come to for "HowthehelldoIdothatHendiediditforreal" finishing.

Anyway, more please maestro

[hendie]

I thought about thinning the plastic, but the thickness actually works in my favor here as there is a definite square cut out visible from inside the nose door.

I think I should be able to manage it with ally can scored to give a nice sharp bend and I can glue the short leg of the "L" to the inside of the opening, with the long side across the front of the opening - x2 on each side

[Nigel Heath]

This is all looking rather good hendie, keep up the excellent work,

[Martian]

More great progress!

Martin

[heloman1]

Lookin' good Hendie. The kit nose really is a piece of soft doo...

Colin

Edited December 1, 2014 by heloman1

[Fritag]

I do get a kick out of seeing interiors begin built up out of plastic card etc. I still don't know what it is I'm looking at at (where do the wings go?). But I do love it.......

[Pete in Lincs]

There was an art to opening that door!

[hendie]

there was if you wanted to keep your appendages! and what hung between them!!!

[perdu]

oooer

sounds kinda fun

N O T

Looks like a blarry heavy piece of helicopter to be heaving around on one's tod

[Pete in Lincs]

Thought,

If you score the ally down the middle

it will represent both fire doors.

Less fiddly bits!

Nice oil cooler BTW.

[hendie]

oooer

sounds kinda fun

N O T

Looks like a blarry heavy piece of helicopter to be heaving around on one's tod

It was!

Basically, you unlatched the door, it swung open about a foot or so at the bottom. You then inserted yourself into said gap, undid the pip pin holding the rod stay in place, grabbed the rod, placed your left foot on the pad and pushed hard.

As the door swung forward, you had to swing the rod back into the nose bay, find the stay bracket and get the rod in place as the door was swinging back on itself.

... and get yourself and appendages out of the way quick... just in case.

Closing it was just as much fun

[Hamden]

This really is coming together! more of the same please

Roger

[nimrod54]

Fabulous scratch details Hendie. I particularly like the bulkhead and details you've added to the nose door.

[Winnie]

Wow, another one to follow.

Excellent work! You should post templates for sale...

Cheers

Harald

[hendie]

Greetings once again. Another small update to keep this thread alive....

Colin mentioned previously, back at the start of the thread I think, about the nose and a small strip needing added. I managed to find an off-cut of just the right size. Fortuitous, 'cos if I had tried to actually cut one to size, I would probably have been there all night and still not got a decent cut!

That strip was then attached to the nose like so....

I've also added the pivot point for the door stay, but forgot to take a photo... next time if I remember.

With the success of my drinks can panel in the transmission area, I though I could use the same process to create some more panels, this time the front cabin bulkhead. Once again, Italeri got it wrong and their offering doesn't look like any cabin interior I have seen.

I considered modifying the kit part, but to be honest, it's so far off, it's much easier to start from scratch.

Immediately noticeable in the cabin are a couple of panels on the bulkhead with pronounced strengthening formers - don't know (or can't remember) the technical term.... ribs maybe?

I discovered that a vee groove filed into a piece of scrap helped give a stronger definition to the rib

This was my first attempt - then I noticed that there are 6 ribs on the real panels .... darnit!

While that method worked great for the ribs, it didn't work so good for the extinguisher recess in the top panel. I had about 3 or 4 attempts, and each time the ally can split before I could get a decent recess.

After trying several other ideas, I ended up just cutting an oval hole in the piece of aluminum. I reckon by the time a fire extinguisher is in there, no-one will ever notice that it's not a curved recess like the 1:1

Here's the beginning of my bulkhead. I simply placed a piece of styrene behind the cut part and cut/filed around it.

A bit further on and it's starting to look like an HC2 bulkhead. At one point I had actually drilled out all the holes on the horizontal ribs but gave up on the idea as those parts are painted black inside the cabin so no-one would ever find out.... apart from you lot! (I still need to add 3 more oval panels to the bulkhead)

and just to prove my point.....

There are still a couple of details to add to the bulkhead and to be honest it does look a bit rough in these photo's, but once it's cleaned up and painted, I think it will be passable. Again, it's better than the kit part (for me anyway)!

I have also made a start on the bulkhead separating the transmission deck and cockpit. Once filled and sanded flush, I could start adding structure to the bulkhead.

Decent photo's of the inside of the gearbox area are hard to come by, so it's going to be a combination of part reference, part imagination, and part whatever I can find that looks right and fits.

On the bulkhead below, the kit ribs that you can see at the bottom end of the bulkhead is where Italeri would have you place the transmission deck (i.e. cabin roof) - the styrene cross bar above it is where the transmission deck is actually going to be - quite a difference.

Still in the transmission area, I started hacking up the gearbox - still with no clear plan in mind. After a ratch around in my "spares" box (about a dozen parts!) I found the left over neck from my Lost In Space robot build a while back. Hey - nothing to lose, so I chopped a section off the neck

Which I then glued on to the bottom of the kit "gearbox" - well, it's a start!

and that is where we are at the end of today's play.

I have some ideas for the gearbox, now I just need to try and execute them. I also need to make a start on the seats - wrong once again Italeri! Eduard do some seat backs for the H34 which look reasonable, but expensive.

I had a search around and discovered that the Gallery Models UH-34, has something that actually looks like a gearbox, I could steal the small windows for the HC2, and their beetleback, while still incorrect, looks better than the Italeri part ( http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/gallery/kit_gallery_64101.shtml )

The question is - how close to Italeri's 1/48 is the Gallery 1/48 ??? Is it worth spending $40+ to find out ???

Not today, but who knows?

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice gearbox there.

With all the add on bits,

Who will guess it's source?

(We won't tell anyone, Honest)

I imagine that front bulkhead is

for the original H 34 Radial engine job.

Yours is miles better.

Pressed ribs is a good term.

I can't think of another either.

[hendie]

pressed ribs it is then.

After looking at the H34 kit, and the detail it has, I'm almost thinking that would be a better starting point - lots of scratching but it seems to be a better quality kit

[georgeusa]

Glad you got the rib situation settled. All I could come up with choices were either smoked, pork,beef, Southern or sweet!!