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Westland Scout and Wasp


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Westland Scout and Wasp

Warpaint Series No.110

 

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The helicopter twins produced by Westland, as the Scout and Wasp, originated as far back as 1956 when Saunders-Roe Ltd. Began its design of a private ventur for a replacement for the Skeeter light helicopter in service with the Army Air Corps but with developed improvements.  The Skeeter had a piston engine but the advent of suitable gas turbine engines in France resulted in the development of the highly successful Alouette, by Sud-Aviation, raised the possibility of similar development in Britain.  Due to their very losw installed weight plus good vibration characteristics, it was becoming obvious that turbine powerplants would be advantageous for installing in helicopters.   During this period, the Blackburn Engine Company arranged licencing agreements with the French to build Turbomecca engines.  This made the way clear for a turbo-powered successor to the Skeeter.

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This latest edition from Guideline Publications covers two similar airframes and will likely be a welcome addition for enthusiasts of Army and Navy helicopters.  Written by Adrian Balch, with profile illustrations producedby the well-known artist Richard J. Caruana, the book is full of black & white and colour photos of the Scout and Wasps timeline through their development and operational roles.  

There are fifty-two pages, including the covers, set on high quality paper and laid out in A4 portrait format.

 

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The book covers the full history of the aircraft, from its conception with Saunders-Roe to the final years with the Army and Royal Navy; including aircraft exported to and used by other nations.  Adrian provides clear and comprehensive historical information which is both interesting and useful for research and is profusely illustrated with good quality photographs, mostly in colour, showing many variants and colour schemes.  There is a single page set of line drawings that have been produced to 1:48 scale which help to identify the differences between the Scout and the Wasp.

 

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The photos that intersperse the narrative are clear and of good quality and show some unusual modifications and markings. This should please those modellers who wish to enhance their builds with something a little different from the norm. The book finishes off with a few pages of close-up views, showing detailed views of the aircraft.

 

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Conclusion
From a personal perspective, I have been waiting for something like this to be produced for a long time and am very pleased with it.  If there is to be any downside, on such a lovely edition, it would be the lack of detailed plans of the area under and above the fuselage.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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New books on helicopters are something of a rarity these days so this is a welcome release. This is a fascinating subject and I'll be adding it to my collection. Thanks for the review.

 

BM.

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1 hour ago, Rodders154 said:

I think it is written by someone on this forum

I will get myself a copy

 

Rodders

Yes Adrian Balch is a member here.

 

Dont for get to tell Guideline you saw it on here.

 

Julien

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Will be buying this ASAP. I have a number of Scouts in the stash and I just love the Wasp. Minuscule but pretty deadly as the Santa Fe discovered. 

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It was a Wessex that disabled the Santa Fe, if you are talking about the Argentinian Sub? I agree though that the Wasp was minuscule and potentially deadly!

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  • 3 weeks later...

As usual with a lot of speciality publications the lack of a good editor is noticeable with at least two places where information is duplicated at the start and end of section. Not the worse offender by far but still annoying. The prolific number of photos and profiles is great and for once the walkaround has a useful number of images in it. The lack of top/bottom plans is annoying, maybe there felt it was better to no do them than provide something inaccurate. The only place I've seen any images was very recently in this thread here: 

 

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18 hours ago, JamesP said:

 The lack of top/bottom plans is annoying, maybe there felt it was better to no do them than provide something inaccurate.

 

 

Yes, agree with you I do as the lack of the top/bottom drawings is a strange omission in a Warpaint book, but the book is otherwise a great read with many interesting colour profiles.

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