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28 Sqn Wessex XT678 "Hotel" HC2, RAF Sek Kong 1982/3


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Ah, there it is finished. Took your time, didnt you? ;)

Ive been watching this build for a long time and aside from the obvious loveliness, it always amazed me how you avoided knocking the fiddly bits off when handling it. So bloomin well done for that too.

At the risk of letter bombs and whatnot, the paint looks a little rough in finish in places, surface finish I mean. It bugs me. Had similar happen to me when I think I didnt thin the paint down enough. Only solution I can think of is to strip it all back and start again, no other option.

So. Whats next for our inspiration?

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At the risk of letter bombs and whatnot, the paint looks a little rough in finish in places, surface finish I mean. It bugs me. Had similar happen to me when I think I didnt thin the paint down enough. Only solution I can think of is to strip it all back and start again, no other option.

So. Whats next for our inspiration?

Surface finish ? are we talking houchin, or Wessex ? The surface finish on the houchin is all down to me and I'll take the blame for that. The surface finish on the Wessex is down to italeri and their toolmaker. I think I mentioned this back early in the build

If you take a look at the base kit - you'll see on one side that there is an insert in the mold - and they have not bothered to align it properly, resulting in a noticeable step around the cabin area.

The toolmaker has also screwed up when it came to surface finishing. Normally a mold designer will call out a surface finish to SPI specs (from A1 [smoothest] to D3 [roughest]) - The finish on one side of the Wessex is worse than D3. - No amount of paint would ever disguise that finish

Usually for molds like this, they will EDM die sink the rough shape, then finish off the desired shape with another "finish" die sink tooling, after that comes the polishing (the SPI finish) - it looks like they have rough finished with EDM die sink then not bothered to do any finish up work at all. - I have seen a better quality surface finish on roughed out molds - before they are even finished off!

It's the old adage - Quality, Speed, Cost - pick two 'cos you'll never get all three - looks like Italeri went with speed and cost

After this kit I have very little respect for italeri, neither in their research, nor in their execution of design and manufacture

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Surface finish ? are we talking houchin, or Wessex ? The surface finish on the houchin is all down to me and I'll take the blame for that. The surface finish on the Wessex is down to italeri and their toolmaker. I think I mentioned this back early in the build

If you take a look at the base kit - you'll see on one side that there is an insert in the mold - and they have not bothered to align it properly, resulting in a noticeable step around the cabin area.

The toolmaker has also screwed up when it came to surface finishing. Normally a mold designer will call out a surface finish to SPI specs (from A1 [smoothest] to D3 [roughest]) - The finish on one side of the Wessex is worse than D3. - No amount of paint would ever disguise that finish

Usually for molds like this, they will EDM die sink the rough shape, then finish off the desired shape with another "finish" die sink tooling, after that comes the polishing (the SPI finish) - it looks like they have rough finished with EDM die sink then not bothered to do any finish up work at all. - I have seen a better quality surface finish on roughed out molds - before they are even finished off!

It's the old adage - Quality, Speed, Cost - pick two 'cos you'll never get all three - looks like Italeri went with speed and cost

After this kit I have very little respect for italeri, neither in their research, nor in their execution of design and manufacture

I noticed it on the Wessex on the darker grey "footprint" area where the steps are on each side mostly, with some in the green around there too.

Please dont think Im picking at it, I meant only to help with future stuff as the build is brilliantly done, I just spotted those little bits and thought "aw, thats a shame".

I cant see it in the grey of the camo, could well be hidden by the colour/light and its down to the plastic as you say, I really dont have the knowledge that you do regards the molding stuff.

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ah... that was completely deliberate. I was actually trying to make it even rougher than that. The grey "footprint" area (on the real 1:1) is painted on with anti-slip paint which is like a mixture of sand and paint so that area on the fuselage is definitely not meant to be smooth

Take a look at this photo ( http://nabe3saviation.web.fc2.com/images8/waWW-411.jpg ), zoom in and you'll see what I mean

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Absolutely brilliant, amazing detail which only comes from that real familiarity with the subject. Really well done love it!

Brings back happy memories of hopping on the shuttle flight from Sek Kong down to HMS Tamar and trips out to Lantau on exercise Fiery Orient

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ah... that was completely deliberate. I was actually trying to make it even rougher than that. The grey "footprint" area (on the real 1:1) is painted on with anti-slip paint which is like a mixture of sand and paint so that area on the fuselage is definitely not meant to be smooth

Take a look at this photo ( http://nabe3saviation.web.fc2.com/images8/waWW-411.jpg ), zoom in and you'll see what I mean

Aaaaah, I see. Well, good that I noticed then. What do I win? ;)

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Beats a "One year out T-shirt" I guess.

About that Houchin. Just how much pain was it building it? I use CA for etch stuff, it sticks (usually) for me, not too keen on the solder stuff as I tend to be a bit messy with that. But I do need one, maybe two, just the building of the things scares me and Ive not done a biggish etch thingy before.

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Most of the pain was caused by my own ham-fistedness. It's a pretty well thought out kit, and very accurate from photo's I checked out (the memory isn't that good I'm afraid).

I've seen others build them using only superglue and it seems to work for them. I just don't get on with superglue at all and prefer to solder joints wherever possible as it leads to a much stronger joint. The big parts were easy - it was the smaller parts like the toggle clamps that frustrated me as I was always knocking them off

If you are careful with handling then I'm sure CA would be fine

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