Westland Scout 1/48 kit mangle/scratch/trash/bash

[Galligraphics]

On 11/14/2021 at 10:31 PM, hendie said:

looking forward to the next stages

As are we...

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Blimey!  That’s great; I’m with Steve - can’t see anything wrong with that tail whatsoever, which is remarkable given that you turned the pylon alone into an exploration of multi-media modelling. 
 

Gonna look great with stickers.

 

I so wish someone would do a modern 1/48 Wasp/Scout.  Sigh.

[Terry1954]

8 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I so wish someone would do a modern 1/48 Wasp/Scout.  Sigh.

 

I think our hopes were on this one, until poor Mel Bromley passed away earlier this year.

 

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/SMK48-85?result-token=f5NeP

 

No idea what will happen with S&M going forward. A very sad event.

 

Terry

 

[heloman1]

Great work again Alan, neat wheel goodies and the paint looks excellent.

 

Colin

[hendie]

On 11/14/2021 at 5:44 PM, perdu said:

Looks amazing Alan, quietly saying wow already.

 

👍👌👍

 

I may even have muttered a wow myself in this update Bill

 

On 11/14/2021 at 11:22 PM, k5054nz said:

Amazing. With each photo my smile was getting wider - she looks VERY Scoutish, bravo!

 

hopefully this update will start adding the icing to the cake

 

On 11/15/2021 at 9:08 AM, Brandy said:

She's starting to look very smart now, and those printed bits are gorgeous.

 

Hopefully this is the chopper that Giorgio was referring to in the wapititititi post. I'm sure you're not daft enough to be modelling whilst wearing your kilt......

 

Ian

 

 

On 11/15/2021 at 9:23 AM, Terry1954 said:

The green and black have lifted this one to a new dimension. Very nice indeed.

 

And more 3D printed parts, luring me ever closer to that technology, certainly for components like that.

 

Terry

 

I must admit to liking the green and black - especially after doing so many green and grays

 

On 11/15/2021 at 9:24 AM, Fritag said:

 

Hmm.

 

Seeing as we can't see any little oopsies and bodges, I for one am not inclined to believe there are any..... it's just hendie having us believe he's merely a mortal model maker (a suggestion I'm not having neither....)

 

 

Isn't it?  The green must be doing a fine job of hiding that from me 

 

Great update Alan.  Looking the biz even before stickering, plumbing, undercart etc. etc.

 

 

 

Thanks Steve.  There's definitely some bodges in this update - lots of touch ups are going to be required, which was inevitable given the work that's been going on

 

On 11/16/2021 at 7:23 AM, Galligraphics said:

As are we...

 

can I join in here?

 

On 11/16/2021 at 12:36 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Blimey!  That’s great; I’m with Steve - can’t see anything wrong with that tail whatsoever, which is remarkable given that you turned the pylon alone into an exploration of multi-media modelling. 
 

Gonna look great with stickers.

 

I so wish someone would do a modern 1/48 Wasp/Scout.  Sigh.

 

I reckon a 3D printed Scout/Wasp would be doable in 1/32, but 1/48 is pushing it a bit - mainly for the transparencies. Everything else would be quite manageable

 

On 11/17/2021 at 4:11 AM, heloman1 said:

Great work again Alan, neat wheel goodies and the paint looks excellent.

 

Colin

 

Thanks Colin. The wheels have taken a back seat for the time being... much more fun was being had

 

 

Which brings me to the latest update.  Stickers!

Applying decals is not one of my favorite jobs, but a necessary evil to be done. Small though the Scout may be, she put up a fight and spat the dummy a few times.

For example, the Army bods in charge decided to make a modelers life difficult by painting the roundel over one of the fuselage strakes.  Then Xtradecal added to the fun by having the decals out of register.  I wasn't going to buy another set just for this job as that would have been a couple of weeks delay, and a good chance the next set would also be out of register.

Settle down will you...

 

 

Eventually, most of the stickers went on and all was well until, that is, I came to the tail "DANGER" signs. For this I had no option but to use the kit supplied decals.

It didn't go well...

 

 

A bit miffed I was.  Luckily however, a certain Perdu of this parish stepped forward and came to the rescue by offering to print up some and send them to me - for which I shall be muchly muchly grateful.  What a wonderful chap.  Thanks Bill!

Somewhat fortunately the DANGER signs can be added later in the build without too much trouble and will not get in the way of other things I had planned.

 

So as of the other day, the Scout had most of her clothes on and even started to have some bling

 

 

T'other side

 

 

and front.  I chose Foxtrot for no other reason than she was the airframe I had most photos of. Easy decision.

 

 

The decals were sealed in with a gloss coat followed up by a flat coat of Mr Wossisname Flat clear.

 

Now it was time to start the bit I had been looking forward to for weeks, if not months.  The Nimbus!

Plenty of scope here for glitz and bling and maybe a tiara or two thrown in for good measure.  Things started off relatively simply by adding some of the more obvious pipework. For this sort of stuff I always use stainless steel wire where possible.

First couple of pipes added.

 

 

Later that day (several hours in fact) and I couldn't resist the old dry fit to see what she looked like.  This did bring a smile to my face it has to be said.

I'm using a mixture of .45mm and .3 mm stainless wire, with a few meng resin nuts and valves thrown in the mix.

 

 

It may look complicated but it's really not that difficult, and it's one of those jobs that you get completely immersed in.  I found that about 3 or 4 hours had passed in the time it took me to add less than half a dozen pipes.  As more and more pipes get added, it becomes slightly more difficult to fit additional pipes in-between/around/over the existing pipework and some of those pipes have been remade a good half a dozen times before I could get it to work.  The bench is littered with dozens of failed attempts.

 

Every now and then I needed to change things up, so what better than to remove the masking - always a fraughtful time for me in my last few builds.  This time however, all went surprisingly well.

Starboard side

 

 

The main windows came out rather well though I appear despite my best efforts, to have had some dust settle in between the instrument panel and the window.  Why is it I never seem to get black dust caught in these places?

 

 

It's nice to be able to see that cabin detail again.  The only damage sustained was one of the rudder pedals falling off while removing masking - it has now been secured in place again.

 

 

After that it was a return to Nimbus pipery

 

 

By this time I was getting about as much as I could reasonably add to the Nimbus as a standalone item.  I now had to consider fitting it to the transmission deck before I could go much further.

 

 

Last touch ups on the MRGB included adding red paint to each of the bolt heads around the gearbox.

 

 

I feel I should have had some kind of celebration for finally reaching this stage, but sticking the MRGB in place was rather uneventful.  Bit of an anti-climax really.

 

 

It was almost ready for the Nimbus.  Only one last thing remaining - the intake mesh cover.  Surprisingly, this provided a bit of a challenge as I couldn't find anything lying about that was the right diameter to form the mesh over.  Typically I would just have knocked something up in the lathe, but I'm having some 1:1 remodeling done downstairs and in the basement so the lathe has been placed out of action for the time being.  Buggr.

After much searching I found a screw with a head of the right diameter - filing was brought into play to make it a bit closer in shape to the 1:1, then the brass was annealed and formed over the screw head

 

 

Cutting the mesh cover off the screw head was a bit of fun but with a bit of care I ended up with this

 

 

and then Nimbusized...

 

 

Getting closer to the big event now.  In a half hearted effort at realism, I ran an oil wash over the transmission deck as these things always had some oil spilling about the place regardless of how well kept they were.

 

 

Then the big event happened.  The Scout received the Nimbus.  Once again, not without a bit of effort.  I really could have done with making all these additions about 1% smaller to give a little more room, but it works which is the main thing.  I added the rotor shaft underneath the engine running from the MRGB to the tail spine cover - and then threaded the engine onto that.  I discovered that the Nimbus wasn't sitting square on the deck - The rotor shaft was in the way stopping the engine bearers from sitting on the deck by about .25mm, the easy fix was to use a rat tail file and just file a slight notch in the bottom of the engine casing at the front, then it all fell into place.

 

 

Now we were on a roll.  The blower/sucker thing was coerced into place, but only after I had to remove some of the curved portion that slips under the engine at the front end.

A lot of the phots I have show the blower in a slightly different shade of green - so I tried that.  I'm not certain I like it but I think it's growing on me, and it is taking away from the overall dark greenness.

 

 

More greeblies - this time the MRGB stay rod fixing it to the deck.  At one point I was making greebles, then painting them individually before fitting. That soon grew old so I decided just to keep rolling and adding greeblies and I'll do all the touch ups and coloring in once they're all fitted.

I should not here that the photos are showing up as a much lighter hue than in the flesh.  That canopy is nowhere near that shade of blue when viewed with the MkI eyeball.  (honest Bill!)

 

 

Same type of treatment on the stbd side, adding greebles one by one.  There's been some collateral damage - due solely to my own stupidity by gluing greebles to the wrong part of the structure and then having to remove them for a second attempt, but all the touch ups should be simple.  It's now a case of starting to add transitional greebles - those that start on the deck and connect to the engine, and vice versa.

 

 

Sheesh, those close up photos make things look real cruddy don't they?  Oh - note the stress cracking in the stbd rear window. It's staying!  I'm not gonna even think about doing anything to correct that. So there!

 

And that, my comrades in arms is state of play this Thursday afternoon.  I'm very pleased with how the engine is progressing though I have a few challenges ahead of me - there are two very distinctive cable runs on the port side of the engine which I have somehow to replicate. Those are certainly going to be difficult to get in place given how much access is restricted now, but I'll have a go and see what happens eh?  I think I'm also going to have to give the exhausts another coat of whatever I used last time as they have sustained some damage with my repeated manhandling.

In other news, I'm on vacation tomorrow, and next week I only have Monday at work and off for the rest so I should be able to get cracking on this, and the Wapiti.  Some of that time will be spent in CADland as I've now decided I need to print the rotor head, and possibly the rotor blades too.

Until next time chaps...

 

 

 

 

 

[Ad-4N]

I can't say I know a thing about Scouts, but I can see fine workmanship here.  

[perdu]

And I know a little about Scouts and I am happy to say the 'Decal Pack' is in the post Alan.

 

I did mention it was a complete trench under the engine, you'd have had a better time of it if you'd trenched instead of lo-boxing it but it seems a suitable application of big hammer has done the trick, always does ask any mechanic technician.

 

Loving the mesh filter, very nice mate.

 

As are the red nuts around the main rotor gearbox, very characteristic. 👍

[hendie]

Yeah, I wish I had known that back when I was cutting out that deck. Still, I'm pretty happy with how it is turning out.

[AMB]

Skill + ability + know-how + persevereance + patience - you have all these in abundance Alan and I take my hat off to you once again. I have two Fujimi Wasp kits in my stash and am now reluctant to build them, suffering from an inferiority complex in the wake of your masterly build!  Having flown in many Scouts with 660 Sqn. in Hong Kong during my RAF tour there during 1979-81 ( mostly with all the doors off as it was damned hot) I really can relate to this. 

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Hendie that engine is a masterpiece in its own right.  Following this with great interest and admiration for your modelling skills.  Well done sir!!

Colin

[hendie]

Two updates in two days.   Something must be going on.  The real reason is dust stopped play - I mentioned in my last post that I have some 1:1 remodeling going on in the basement and today the joiners and the electricians decided to turn up at the same time.  Between the noise and the dust I thought it prudent to pack in the modeling and grab a coffee instead.

 

I am pleased to announce that (I think...) I have finished the engine greebles. The last additions on the port side were the electrical looms.  One of the looms is quite distinctive in that it appears to be almost flat so I replicated that by squeezing the wire in a vice - gently until I had what I needed - and then sat for about 20 minutes wondering how I was going fit it in. The other loom in just standard wire.

 

 

a few additional cables/pipes were added on the stbd side

 

 

With that all done I'm calling it a day on the Nimbus installation - unless something really glaring jumps out at me later in the build.

 

All painted up and ready for show

 

 

I know it's not anywhere near accurate but it does give a nice general impression of a Nimbus and the complexity of the installation on that transmission deck.  Very enjoyable it was to do, even though it could be frustrating at times trying to wiggle wires in through unfeasibly small gaps.  (note to self: Remember to paint the inside of the exhausts!!!)

 

 

Once more, from the top!

 

 

It was time to put all the wires and cables away so the last thing before clean up was to fit the electrical cables visible on the tail pylon 

 

 

Window rubbers.  'Orrible little things they are, yet they just had to be done.  Like the Whirlwind, the wondow rubbers on the Scout are very much in your face and if I didn't represent them somehow... well that just wasn't going to happen now, was it?  

These things are a real pain to handle. The rubbers are just under 0.8mm wide, and only .25mm thick at the highest point.  I've found, after much experimentation, that the best way to handle these is to cure them while they are still attached to the supports, then paint them.  Then they only have to be removed from the supports - much easier said than done though I think I am starting to get the hang of it now.  I use a brand new blade and very, very gently slide the blade back and forth in a sawing motion across the support, as close as I can get to the rubber seal. (Yes I've cut through the rubbers themselves many times arghhhhh).  This still leaves little nubs of support behind on the rubber but I've found a nice little rub on an old worn micromesh pad does a fine job of removing any excess sticky outy bits.

 

 

Then you can spend endless hours trying to fix the darn things in position.  

This was just the dry fit to see that I had them the right size and the whole thing was going to work.  I then spent a good half hour trying to figure out how to fix them in place - knowing full well that there is really only one method

 

 

So while I was procratinating, I sprayed up the undercarriage and did a dry fit with that.  Anything to avoid those window rubbers.

 

 

Once more, this time with the wheel in place

 

 

I love how the detail has really shown up once the paint is on. 

 

 

But back to those darned rubbers.  They weren't going to fix themselves were they?

I mentioned that there really only is one method - I should clarify that by saying only one method which has worked for me, and as much as I hate to say it, that method involves cyano!  Eek!

 

Once I have the rubbers in their final position I tape one side down, raise the opposite side and run the lightest seam of superglue on the underside of the rubber.  It's not for the faint of heart that's for sure.  Then quickly press the rubber down and hold it in place for a few seconds, hoping that a) the cyano has worked, b) the cyano hasn't got all over the place, c) the cyano doesn't fog the window, and d) that I've got the rubber in the right location.

Oh, and f) - haven't stuck my finger to the window.

Once the first section is glued down, I use a cocktail stick placed under the rubber to raise it enough to get the cyano underneath.

 

 

Eventually the rubber is glued in place.  One down, one to go.

 

 

It's really just rinse and repeat with the added challenge of trying to make sure they are symmetrical - which isn't helped by the fact that Fujimi did not put any kind of marking on the window whatsoever, so it's very much a trial by fire.

Second window rubber done.

 

 

I have to be honest and say that I did not get them truly symmetrical, but unless you are looking head on and specifically at the rubbers, it's not something that jumps out at you. Once that aerial goes on the nose it should be even less noticeable (I'm hoping!).

I'm leaving well alone because I tried to remove one on the Whirlwind and ended up making it much worse - so they are staying where they are.  Job done!

 

What's next now?  Good question as I have no idea.  It's either the undercarriage or some 3D modeling to get that rotor head done.  We'll see what turns up in the next episode. 

 

 

 

[Heather Kay]

I think I would be tempted to use a spray adhesive like 3M Spraymount to attach the rubbers. It’s meant for mounting photos and paper artwork, but I have used it successfully to hold flat items on models in the past. It’s a messy job to spray, but will let you reposition the item being attached, and can be cleaned up with lighter fluid.

[k5054nz]

On 11/19/2021 at 9:59 AM, hendie said:

hopefully this update will start adding the icing to the cake

Icing, sprinkles, chocolate buttons, M&Ms - she looks gorgeous!!!

[heloman1]

Alan, wizard work on the engine deck, those rubbers a just perfect. Thanks to Heather  or the heads up on spray adhesive.

 

Colin

[Terry1954]

Two fantastic updates Alan. I can almost smell and hear that Nimbus it's so real and the decals are lifting this little beauty to another level. I actually felt myself holding my breath with those window rubbers, then a cheer when they were finally fixed on! They really do look the biz.

 

Super job.

 

Terry

[Pete in Lincs]

What a lovely chopper you have, Sir. (Suits you). The paint & markings look great.

The transmission deck looks fabulous. So much detail! Likewise the wheels etc.

Nice work with the window rubbers and I do like that suggestion by @Heather Kay.

Looking forward to the whirly bits (f'nar).

[perdu]

Love it even more now, wonders abound.

 

Have you tried Gator's Grip Thin Alan?

 

I use it where cyano can be expected to cobble up one's afternoon with the usual unwanted consequences, it dries rather like the 3M stuff and has the advantage that water or even a drip of saliva can remove overloaded sections with the pointy end of a cocktail stick without damaging the model.

 

Quick to dry too rather than having to hang around with the model in your grip all afternoon.

 

(Yes I have had that often enough in the past) 

Anyway, that Nimbus, did you connect the throttle rods inside the engine?

 

I reckon I can hear the compressor spinning.

 

👍

[RichieW]

Wowzers Hendie, you've made great progress with this. I've had a few things going on that have kept me away from the hobby for a while, i've missed some seriously great work! The engine details are astonishing and the undercarriage looks incredibly precise and delicate. Great stuff!!!!

 

Richie

[hendie]

On 11/19/2021 at 4:41 PM, Heather Kay said:

I think I would be tempted to use a spray adhesive like 3M Spraymount to attach the rubbers. It’s meant for mounting photos and paper artwork, but I have used it successfully to hold flat items on models in the past. It’s a messy job to spray, but will let you reposition the item being attached, and can be cleaned up with lighter fluid.

 

Nice suggestion Heather - thanks.  I do have some spraymount handy but I find that for small items like this, they always end up covered in stringers that get in the way and muck things up.  I'm probably doing it wrong.

 

On 11/19/2021 at 9:54 PM, k5054nz said:

Icing, sprinkles, chocolate buttons, M&Ms - she looks gorgeous!!!

 

thanks k5054nz - I added some jelly tots today

 

On 11/20/2021 at 2:03 AM, heloman1 said:

Alan, wizard work on the engine deck, those rubbers a just perfect. Thanks to Heather  or the heads up on spray adhesive.

 

Colin

 

thanks Colin 

 

On 11/20/2021 at 2:56 AM, Terry1954 said:

Two fantastic updates Alan. I can almost smell and hear that Nimbus it's so real and the decals are lifting this little beauty to another level. I actually felt myself holding my breath with those window rubbers, then a cheer when they were finally fixed on! They really do look the biz.

 

Super job.

 

Terry

 

thanks Terry. Getting to this stage (i.e.  getting past that damned tail fin) has definitely renewed my enthusiasm for this build

 

On 11/20/2021 at 3:11 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

What a lovely chopper you have, Sir. (Suits you). The paint & markings look great.

The transmission deck looks fabulous. So much detail! Likewise the wheels etc.

Nice work with the window rubbers and I do like that suggestion by @Heather Kay.

Looking forward to the whirly bits (f'nar).

 

Whirly bits next week hopefully Pete.  Got some standfast bits today instead.

 

On 11/20/2021 at 3:29 AM, perdu said:

Love it even more now, wonders abound.

 

Have you tried Gator's Grip Thin Alan?

 

I use it where cyano can be expected to cobble up one's afternoon with the usual unwanted consequences, it dries rather like the 3M stuff and has the advantage that water or even a drip of saliva can remove overloaded sections with the pointy end of a cocktail stick without damaging the model.

 

Quick to dry too rather than having to hang around with the model in your grip all afternoon.

 

(Yes I have had that often enough in the past) 

Anyway, that Nimbus, did you connect the throttle rods inside the engine?

 

I reckon I can hear the compressor spinning.

 

👍

 

I do have some GG thin Bill, but never thought to use it. Mea culpa.

 

4 hours ago, RichieW said:

Wowzers Hendie, you've made great progress with this. I've had a few things going on that have kept me away from the hobby for a while, i've missed some seriously great work! The engine details are astonishing and the undercarriage looks incredibly precise and delicate. Great stuff!!!!

 

Richie

 

thanks Richie - there's some more undercarriage stuff coming up next.

 

My delivery of 2mm brass rod arrived midweek so it was time to get started on fixing that undercarriage in place.

The immediate problem was that I needed to make two identical spars (?) - not sure of the right term and I'm a bit brain dead this evening. The biggest challenge was getting that upturn at the front end.  Hmmnnn.  Anyways, I needed to make two of them. Identical.

For me, the easiest option to make multiples of rod shapes is to tape two lengths of rod together, and bend them both at the same time, that way. That way, in theory, they should both be the same. Either both right, or both wrong, but both the same.

Taped and clamped, just to be safe.

 

 

After checking the drawings it appeared I needed something with a diameter of ~40mm.  The closest thing I could find was this old battery which had a diameter somewhere in the mid 30mm range, but I figured with springback on the rod, it should work out close enough.  That piece of rod lying in top left of shot was a test piece to see how easy/difficult it would be to bend the rod around the battery and how much springback I could expect.

Both pieces now with a nice curve added.

 

 

After that, I just had to cut them to length.  I used this set up to cut and file to size. The wooden block provides support for the rods as I was filing so I don't go bending them out of shape with excess pressure.  It also gave me a nice surface to measure from to ensure I got the right height of the upturn. A few minutes filing soon took care of the job.

 

 

Now to see if my measurements were accurate enough.  From reference shots, it appears the front edge of the rod should align with the front edge of the door, and the back edge of the rod should reach about halfway along that tapered section of fuselage. So far so good.

 

 

And double check

 

 

Now they're ready for paint.  My preference these days is to use Brass Black to etch the surface of the metal before painting.  A quick dip in the chemical stuff followed by a quick rinse in water and job done.

 

 

Painting them was a real pain though.  There was no real way to hold them and get the entire thing painted so it was a case of paint the front end and wait fo rit to dry, then paint the back end and wait for that to dry, and then repeat for the gloss coat to seal everything in.

 

 

The next job took a fair bit of time as I needed to ensure everything was square and parallel.  The grids on the mat helped, but I probably spent around 20 minutes measuring and adjusting before tacking things in place with blue-tac.   The small sections of masking tape are markers so I know where to place the undercarriage after I lift it off to apply the adhesive.

At this point the undercarriage is not glued to the airframe as I wanted to make sure the undercarriage sat square on the mat first. I'll glue the entire shebang to the airframe once the undercarriage is all connected together.

 

 

For the actual sticking down job I went with GS Hypo for several reasons. It allowed me time to adjust and since I'm sticking resin to brass, I wanted something with a little bit of give in it. Superglue is just too rigid and any knock would have broken the whole thing loose again.  I'm hoping the GS hypo will have enough give in it to survive my usual rough handling.

 

 

After the undercarriage had set, it was time to attach it to the airframe.  I squirted a shed load of GS Hypo down into the mounting holes and then it was simple job to fit the undercarriage in place. I'll leave that overnight to set up.

 

 

All in all, a decent amount of progress over the weekend, but I'm back to work tomorrow - but only for one day this week! Yay!

Come Tuesday there's only one or two little jobs I can do before grinding to a halt so I should probably get on with modeling the rotor head.  As much as I enjoy CAD, I prefer to be modeling and I really have to force myself to sit in front of the computer and play with the bits 'n' bytes.  If all goes well I hope to have a rotor head printed by next weekend, or at least, an initial print.

Until then...

 

 

 

 

[RichieW]

So GS Hypo is going on the shopping list. All that measuring and lining up has paid off. Lovely simple method for making identical undercarriage thingys. 

 

Richie

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 11/18/2021 at 8:59 PM, hendie said:

Why is it I never seem to get black dust caught in these places?

 

You do, we all do, we just don't know about it. 😄

[Fritag]

Who’d be daft enough to take on the Scout with all it’s exposed-engineyness, absent-doory and expansive-interioriness, and scaffoldy undercarriage?  And then have the skills to pull it off in such impressive fashion? I ask you…..

Edited November 22, 2021 by Fritag
typo

[Pete in Lincs]

Skidtastic! (Pop Pickers) (Fluffy compliment there)

[Bell209]

On 11/15/2021 at 9:31 AM, hendie said:

This was the first print of the undercarriage components. I decided after this that they needed a few tweaks, but thought I'd show them anyway.

They look great! I had to scratchbuild mine from plasticard but yours look infinitely better!

[MDSCUSTOMS]

On 11/19/2021 at 9:41 PM, Heather Kay said:

I think I would be tempted to use a spray adhesive like 3M Spraymount to attach the rubbers. It’s meant for mounting photos and paper artwork, but I have used it successfully to hold flat items on models in the past. It’s a messy job to spray, but will let you reposition the item being attached, and can be cleaned up with lighter fluid.

Lighter Fluid eats plastic - not recommended, been there and done that lol

 

Mark.