Sud Aviation SE 313 Alouette II/Lama on floats

[corsaircorp]

1 minute ago, jrlx said:

Yes,  CC: just create your own thread in the GB forum. I look forward to seeing your build

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

Done !

Thank you

CC

[AlexN]

I know, I know, promises broken yet again . I was completely exhausted after Sunday's outdoor conniptions, which saw me dangling upside down from a rope, like a spider from its line, on a number of occasions. The worst part of it was climbing back out on foot... I am very unfit.

 

So, I ain't dun nuffin' yet. But here's a snap of where I got to in the process o' not doin' nuffin':

 

1. Cleared workbench. Well, mostly cleared...

 

Cleared workbench by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

Note the printed photo from the Birds and Fings website - it also has some convenient blank space for scribbling measurements and so forth on.

 

More - possibly much - later.

 

Cheers,

Alex. [ ] <-- sheep is asleep somewhere...or maybe visiting Percy in Iceland

[jrlx]

That's a start Alex.

 

"It doesn't matter how fast you go, as long as you don't stop"

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[AlexN]

OK. Well, plastic carnage today - out with the mini-Dexters . Chop chop, slice, crunch...

 

Ooo-er, I just made myself feel slightly sick .

 

This is a bit of a long post, so consider yerselves duly warned...

 

Some snaps. By the way, NEVER believe Apple's timers on MacOS - they are ALWAYS WRONG. I tried using their risible 'Photos' iMac app (much better named 'Slideshows', I think) since it has a handy 'share to Flickr' function that I thought I'd test, silly me. Like the same 'Photos' app in the Yiphone, it also doesn't allow snaps to be added to more than one album. Then again, the new Flickr uploader probably doesn't - there's a lot of stuff that it doesn't do that the old Firefox 3-based one did/does (and which I still use) that the new one doesn't. Urk. . Apple and Flickr both need a good swift sharp kick up their respective bottoms, but what's the use of complaining, eh? Hte so far haven't listened to my shinging on multiple crash reports (in the hundreds) for WebQuit/Suckfari. If the iMac hardware weren't so bullet-proof, I'd be off to Linux like a shot. Actually I do have a link in my bookmarks that shows how to install Linux on an iMac - I must re-investigate.

 

OK,  over. For the time being. Let's see if 'Photos' has uploaded my snaps to Flickr yet...

 

No, well, that's not a surprise. Maybe some time for another rant  then . Grrr. How about the soapbox, then?

 

Ah, snaps uploaded. But wait - opening 'Photos' on the iMac prevented the rest of the snaps that I had taken this morning from being uploaded to the cloud, aaargh!!! Good grief. It seems that I need to close Photos and wait. Or just be patient: something that I am particularly bad at. I ended up uploading the rest of the snaps one at a time via the phone - uploading them in batches either doesn't work or the order gets scrambled. Computers are so sueful and ay so much time.

 

Oh dear, oh dear, I was so cross with the various electronic transfer not-operations that I forgot my preamble. Here it is:

 

I started off the session by measuring various bits of the floats and cabin module (as it pleases ne to call it - since it really is a distinct and separate part of the airframe. But not at all like the detachable Luna Module . I have some float ratios to work with as a result, plus a tentative (vertical) estimate of a scaling factor to take the float sizes on the printout to the 1/32 scale dimensions required for this model. To get a better idea of the length of the model's cabin module (as opposed to the photo's), I start hacking off parts from their runners. I mistakenly adjourned to upload the snaps taken during the process to the internet, and that's where things remain at the moment...  (I love that emoticon - like most of the original ones, its clearly drawn and very expressive of the emotion that it represents, unlike the weird and sentimetalised things from version 4 . And so very apt.)

 

Roit, 'ere's wot snaps wot we got, kids:

 

1. RB Productions' 'micro saw' etched fret. Very conveneint way of producing things like this, and quite sharp, too. Apologies for the not-very-David-Hamilton-vaseline-smeared-camera-lens effect

 

RB Productions&#x27; &#x27;micro saw&#x27; etched fret by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

2. One of the two heavier-duty micro saw blades from the fret, installed in a craft knife handle. The other one is...?

 

RBP&#x27;s &#x27;heavy-duty&#x27; micro saw blade installed in a craft knife handle by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

3. A snap of the slot extension that I milled yesterday. For your enjoyment. Enjoy! (Or else! ;). This is the first piece of milling that I've done for over four years, so I decided to choose a nice simple task: extending the slot in a part for the Tony Jeffree leadscrew additions to the Taig lathe. Simple, easy - and relaxing!

 

Yet another snap of the slot extension that I milled yesterday by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

OK, enough of the procrastinating and pencil sharpening, alex, there might be people spending the little recreational time that they have looking at your idiot thread.

 

 

4. Alouette II back seat part. I found this when looking over the parts frames this morning. I had a look for the supporting frame on the parts frames, but not apparent - maybe there's a parts frame not included in this particular kit that has it on it. So that will need to be scratch built. Since this appears be be canvas (or the synthetic equivalent) accomodation, the seat bottoms could well be replaced with distressed plastic card. Hmmm...

 

Alouette II back seat part by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

5. Alouette II back seats part - flash-lit snap. Top half visible in this snap - the flashless snap shows the bottom half. Note that this kit has a lot of finely moulded textural detail such as seen here

 

Alouette II back seats part - flash-lit snap by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

6. Rear side of the back seats part - they look like hard steel plate from this side!

 

Rear side of the back seats part by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

7. Snippet of parts layout from the instructions booklet, showing the 'not-for-use' back seats. Shut up there in the back, or you'll all get out and walk!

 

Snippet of parts layout showing the &#x27;not-for-use&#x27; back seats by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

8. Alouette II cabin module base part

 

Alouette II cabin module base part by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

9. Alouette II clear parts frame. They are lovely and clear - and thin :). They will need very careful glueing, however. It's a great pity that Gator's Grip isn't available in Orstrilia - and of course the outrageous US freight charges prevent me from getting the stuff straight from the source. Quick-setup epoxy for this, I think

 

Alouette II clear parts frame by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

10. Main not-clear cabin module parts liberated from their runners, snip snippety snip-snip, snip-snip. I used a sharp pair of mini-snips and a single-edged razor blade for this, rather than the RBP micro-saw

 

Main not-clear cabin module parts liberated from their runners by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

11. Rear cabin module wall, rear face. Still on its runners. The, er, 'frontispiece' for the cabin module (CM) can be seen above it

 

Rear cabin module wall, rear face by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

12. Cockpit floor part, sitting on the CM base part, after a quick trim with the single-edged razor blade. Apologies for the poor focus - again

 

Cockpit floor part, sitting on the CM base part by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

13. CM base and floor viewed from the underside, showing some detail on the bottom side of the floor plate. Neat . And so there should be - it is 1/32 scale, after all

 

CM base and floor viewed from the underside by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

14. Most of the not-clear cockpit module structural parts 'test-fitted'. They are seen here leaning up against a cassette of 15 mm Tamiya Tape for support and encouragement

 

Not-clear cockpit module structural parts test-fitted by Alex1N, on Flickr
 

 

 

15. Not-clear CM parts viewed from the (port) side. Depsite my telling the phone camera where to focus - repeatedly - it went on its own merry way . Maybe I was too close for the puir wee thingie... the general idea can be seen quite clearly (for a certain value of 'clearly'), at any rate

 

Not-clear CM parts viewed from the (port) side by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

16. Control console parts on runner segments, after chopping them off the frames with a pair of snips

 

Control console parts on runner segments by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

17. Control console parts, including the lower front cabin module part, removed from their runners. I think that I used the RBP micro saw on these occasions. Another thing that I don't like about dark green polystyrene is its hard, brittle nature

 

Control console parts by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

OK, that's enough fun and enjoyment, children: now here's a little lesson/sermon for you all to swaller:

 

18. Sprue scar on the moulding runners. The actual sprue itself is the channel where the hot, liquid moulding material (in this case polystyrene) is injected (or otherwise introduced, e.g., poured) into the mould. Since it is closest the the pouring/injecting nozzle, it is the last part to cool, and is obviously still labile at the point where the nozzle is removed, and also at the time that the part ejected from the mould. Because this bit is also the area under the greatest pressure, there is bound to be some seepage between the mould/die plates here

 

Sprue scar on the moulding runners by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

19. Another sprue scar: note the flash (see preceding caption)

 

Another sprue scar by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

 

20. No sprue scar on the clear parts frame, probably because it was chopped off at some point after the injection process - otherwise there would be no way for the polystyrene to get where it needed to be. Judging by the clean fracture point on the RH side of the snap, it would have been done with something very sharp, when cold (and after being ejected?)

 

No sprue scar on the clear parts frame by Alex1N, on Flickr

 

 

This model also has its own album on Flickr, but I am in too much of a grump to dig up the link, so I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader, should he or she wish. Speaking of 'shes' - not so many left on BM since they either upped and left or got themselves banned. It's great shame, since there weren't that many to start with, and now there are even fewer .

 

A bit of a long post, but then, I haven't been contributing to BM in any real sense for quite some time, so it was owing. 

 

Goodness me, but I'm in a bad mood - and things started off so sunny and nice and cheerful. It's amazing how quickly and effectively a digital interface can destroy one's happiness. It makes one wonder why one bothers, quite honestly. You could ask why I didn't simply upload the snaps from the phone to the computer via a cable. well, I have had annoying experiences linking phones with iTunes (which happens automatically whenever the phone is plugged in via a USB port), and I try to avoid doing that as much as possible.

 

More later - if I can calm myself down sufficiently to go back to it with a chance of not wrecking things.

 

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe...

 

Cheers,

Alex.  <-- not in a bad mood, but then again, he very rarely is

 

Edited September 7, 2017 by AlexN
spToy 'n' stuff

[Rob G]

Well Alex my boy, if you will insist on using the Devil's iTools, you will be tested to your limits.

 

Go Android for mobile, and almost anything apart from Muc for computers - you'll love it if you do. Even I can manage to post phone snaps from my phone to Flickr then back to BM without getting into a tizzy. Best thing of all - no stupid iTunes. At all. Ever.

 

That said, your wee French lass is off to a good start. Roll on, it will be great when you start getting recognisable shapes!

[dcrfan]

2 hours ago, AlexN said:

Alouette II clear parts frame. They are lovely and clear - and thin :). They will need very careful glueing, however. It's a great pity that Gator's Grip isn't available in Orstrilia - and of course the outrageous US freight charges prevent me from getting the stuff straight from the source. Quick-setup epoxy for this, I think

I used Micro Kristal Klear (or try PVA) on may Alouette II.

[TheBaron]

Nice outline of those features there Alex.

 

I'd have to agree with Rob - I ditched the last of my Mac stuff late last year and haven't look back.

 

The only reason the iPad is still knocking around the bench is to run the iModelkit app.

 

Continued best.

Tony

[AlexN]

16 hours ago, Rob G said:

Well Alex my boy, if you will insist on using the Devil's iTools, you will be tested to your limits.

 

Go Android for mobile, and almost anything apart from Muc for computers - you'll love it if you do. Even I can manage to post phone snaps from my phone to Flickr then back to BM without getting into a tizzy. Best thing of all - no stupid iTunes. At all. Ever.

 

That said, your wee French lass is off to a good start. Roll on, it will be great when you start getting recognisable shapes!

 

Thank you for your kind comment and your suggestion, Rob - but change to the real devil, Google? ("Don't be Evil" - whatever happened to that!) But something to consider if I finally lose it and, for example, take to the ipad with one of my two 2-kg lump hammers, as I keep threatening to do. It's not my imagination, then, that iChoons gets worse with every release (and I dread major version numbers). Come back, Scott Forstall, all is forgiven - and in any case he was just a convenient scapegoat. It has all been down hill since then (and the death of Steve, of course). And as for M$, well...I would be instantly banned for ever and ever, Amen, if I said what I fink o' dem.

 

 

 

16 hours ago, dcrfan said:

I used Micro Kristal Klear (or try PVA) on may Alouette II.

 

I have some of the former, and a lot of the latter, so I will experiment. Thank you for your suggestion, too.

 

No more time to do anything today, been running Dad's Taxi Service this arvo, so no more modelling or practising either for that matter, and the latter is FAR more urgent with a difficult concert coming up on Sunday. Rehearsal this evening, so maybe tomorrow. It was in fact a bit unusual that I could squeeze the stuff in that I did this morning, in any case.

 

 

15 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Nice outline of those features there Alex.

 

I'd have to agree with Rob - I ditched the last of my Mac stuff late last year and haven't look back.

 

The only reason the iPad is still knocking around the bench is to run the iModelkit app.

 

Continued best.

Tony

 

See my comment to Rob above (grumble grumble). Why they are doing - or not doing - what they're (not) doing beggars the imagination - it certainly gives believe a good trot around the block, and as for a view-point based on a quite reasonable knowledge of computers...

 

Thank you for your kind words too, Tony.

 

I shall scuttle back under my rock for the time being .

 

Cheers,

the alex.  <-- not someone who needs to - or indeed could - scuttle under a rock...

[Rob G]

First, an apology. My comments were meant somewhat tongue in cheek, but I forgot the smileys.

 

However. Android works. Windows works. And the thing is, you can tweak them to make them work the way that you want them to (mostly). EVERY corporation has 'evil' intentions, it's a matter of choosing the one that annoys you the least. For my money, Apple is just... unusably restricted.

 

Sadly, I used to be a iPhone owner, which means that I have stuff in the iTunes shop, which means that sometimes, I have to actually install and use that !#=÷&_*!% *!"#=÷+ piece of invasive junk. I'm glad that it's not often.

 

Of course, if we could go back to the days of gas lamps and buggy whips, things would be so much simpler again. I love the sound of a wax cylinder as it replays the latest hits...

 

Edit. PS I see that you've found your sheep. Welcome back, sheep.

[AlexN]

Baaa, says . I found him lurking out the back, suspiciously close to the herb garden, Hmmm...I got my eye on ewe, mate...

 

The thing that I used to love about OS X was its UNIX base (BSD, I think, from memory). And I am a BIG UNIX fan. I've got the MacPorts subsystem installed, and have downloaded and built quite a number of useful and interesting apps (not the least of with is the GIMP).Generally it's just a matter of typing in 'sudo port -fv install <whatever-yer-interested-in> and it builds - as long as some kind person has fixed up the configure/build files. I've had to wrangle the top-level build '.configure' files (gee - I've forgotten quite a bit about it - must do some brushing up) by hand on a few occasions - 'Blender' was the hardest - but generally it's pretty simple. And voilà, access to a huge pool of scientific applications.

 

BUT - I've just found that the accursèd latest system updated has nuked my 'ports' set up.  I am not amused. And I got pretty ticked off as scientist when Apple terminated the distributed compute X-grid environment a few years ago. Now its games games games and iOS and watch and useless text processing and falling behind with the Web standards which Jobs pushed (html5) and blah blah blah and they can get stuffed as far as I'm concerned. As I've said, I have a very reliable iMac, even though it's a creaking old mid-2010 model. And I have a large investment in MacOS software. But...

 

Almost needless to say, my CNC setup runs on an 80 GB SSD running on Ubuntu Linux, and an old old version of LinuxCNC, which I must update. It does NOT run on the Mac. There aren't the old 'legacy' ports such as the old 25-pin 'printer port', which us old-fashioned cheapskates use to talk to stepper-driver breakout boards. LPT ports went long ago in Mac-land, along with SCSI buses (cost) and the very useful and quick FireWire (stupidity). Ouch - more stuff that I need to brush back up on - it's been almost four years since I mothballed the nearly-finished system when we moved house, suburb, city... I did beta-test the Mac version of Rhino for a while, but I couldn't find a useful-enough program to convert stuff to G-Code that would run on the Mac as well (although an Inkscape module came close), and in the end decided that it wasn't worth the money that I couldn't afford to purchase a Rhino licence, sadly. which reminds me that I have an orphaned gear-reduction 'design' for my mill's nascent 4th axis that I really need to find a way of having a look at (I can't remember all of it, simple though it was). Unless it went west with last years total hard disk obliteration, in which case I will have to start almost from scratch).

 

Sorry, I've started to ramble and  again. And also show off - never a good sign. I could start up on the parlous state of the 'internet' in this neck of the woods, too, but I'd really better not.

 

So, where were we? Oh, yes. sorry Rob, I'm not too good at picking up on other people's irony and humour, although I am more than happy to dish it out myself . As to gas lamps and buggy whips - if we get nuked back to the stop age again, buggies and gaslights will seem like the most impossible-to-reach high-tech imaginable. Forget about computers and the internet - and models and stuff.

 

And I could have spent the time that I have ranting, on working on my oboe reeds, or the Alouette, or...

 

Cheers,

Alex.  says "Baaa-aaa" again. I think his wiggly beak has detected the herb garden again. Not on yer nellie, sheep!

 

Note: I had forgotten that I had deleted the 'XCode' developer environment from my disk, and installed macOS 'Sierra', so it's no wonder that macports wouldn't work! Ooops! that'll teach me to rant and rant and  !

 

 

[jrlx]

Hi Alex,

 

Great start and great detail out of the box in the model. But it's a 1/32. I'll have to try that scale one day but I'm in the 1/72 land for the time being

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

[rob85]

Nice choice Alex, something a bit different.

 

Rob

[AlexN]

Thank you Jaime and Rob .

 

 

 

Well, "bah, humbug", and other expletives. The cold that I have been almost subconsciously aware of fighting off for the last couple of weeks has laid out flat - thus impeding completely derailing any plans for working on the Alouette that I had made. Being somewhat unexpectedly shoved to the front of a stage under a spotlight with a superb group of teenage singers with a recorder in my sweaty paws, having barely memorised the recoder solo for The Beatles' 'Fool on the Hill' (ha ha, funny joke, what?) - and a nonfunctional foldback - contributed. That was on top of a difficult program with lots of exposed cor anglais and 1st oboe solos. The breath control and fingerings for the oboe and the recorder are sufficiently different for the differences to be a problem in performance. That'll teach me to put my hand up - although it probably won't .

 

The recorder, blockflöte or flute-à-bec, is a very difficult instrument to play beautifully - anyone (literally) can get a sound out of the thing, but very few can get a decent sound out of it. I am one of the many, not one of the few, I should hasten to add (although you would have guessed that already).

 

So here am I, wimpering and bleating and trawling for sympafy . Not surprisingly, of course, I won't get it .

 

Before I succumbed to the cold, I found  some very useful side-on photos of Alouette IIs on floats on the alouettelama website, which will help in sorting out the float dimensions  - once I've got the best of them printed and the micrometer out.

 

Whilst lying in bed feeling sorry for myself, I have been reading through the Alouette instructions again, and looking at the rear fuselage parts through the magnifiers. It's probable that the extra parts frame that contains these bits is on account of the rather warped nature of that prominent rear girder structure. I will have to check that more closely when I'm feeling better.

 

My slightly febrile brain also had one of those unfortunate spasms to which I am prone to far too often: it occurred to me that if I can construct¹ one of these from plans:

 

 

then there is no real reason why I shouldn't be able to make one of these (assembled):

 

 

from plans drawn up from those two existing tail parts (plus others). Note that this is probably the supplementary parts frame, on closer inspection: no warps, bends or (unwanted) kinks!

 

That would knock a few o' things on the head: the warped frame (redundant, see above), cutting away the reinforcng plates from behind the fuel,tank, and the rather wonky die registration for these parts - which last, to me, is of more concern. In theory, it should be a simple matter of glueing various carefully-cut lenghts of plastic rod together with Plastruct 'Weldene': what could possibly go wrong?   At least it should be easier than glueing brass tube and/or rod together with solder  ...

 

There are some traps awaiting an unwary alex here: the girder sections are only flat fot the tail; where the girder structure meets the engin/fuel tank cage, the geometry becomes a little mor complex and 'three dimensional. Some ateful measuring of angles and the making of some formers/suporrts for the glueing process at this point would be necessary.

 

Bear in mind that I am unwell, not quite in my right mind, and I may ralise that my febrile ravings are just that - and stay with the kit parts. When I have a closer look at the supplemtary parts frame, I will check the regisration on the tubular sections - that may obviate needing to make a copy from scratch. Although it could be fun...

 

Cheers,

Alex.  <-- not a wacking great SPIDER

 

¹ Note the rather large amount of accidental un-construction in the rear fuesalge, but this is the best snap wot I got

[TonyTiger66]

Stick with the kit parts Alex.

 

Trust me on this  .

 

You can turn off the 'Start up ITunes when this device is connected' option. Its just two clicks IIRC.

 

There are Albums and Folders in Photos. Albums are pretty useful because  a photo can be in more than one. You can also choose to hide stuff; from individual photos to albums. It's good if you have nosy teenagers in the house, especially if, like me, you have top secret photographs of your own personal time travel experiences on there.

 

Can't have them knowing that I've already met them when they're 46, destitute, collecting food scraps and tab ends from the bins and pavements of Fortitude Valley.

It might make them feel negative about the future  .

 

It says something about how differently and personally we all interact with our devices, that I use more or less the same equipment, same apps, and it all works for me. Not much stress.

 

What does cause me stress is, as you mention, the Oz Telecom travesty. The Photos app and just about everything would upload stuff we took in nice fat batches, if we could just get decent bandwidth. We don't; my wife checks it regularly and I know it's far worse for you folks up in them thar hills .

 

Of course, things are technologically a lot better than 20 years ago. Apparently  .

 

I need to keep repeating to myself; 'The 90's have gone, forever, gone'.

 

 

 

See, I'm all upset now too..

 

!!

 

Hope the cold clears up soon Alex. Remember, it only takes one tree to produce a thousand matches, just one match to burn a thousand trees 

🌲 🔥.

 

 

As Elvis said; "This Hamburger tastes wierd, what's that pain in my ch........"

 

All the best

TonyT

 

PS: Use the kit parts  

[corsaircorp]

Hello Alex !

Here's a way to kill the cold,

Hot milk with a large spoon of honey and a shot Brown rum! al together and down the hatch !

Have a bowl of milk, heat it just Under the bubbles came up, put the rum and the honey, let it infuse a bit

Drink and go to bed !

There is also the hot draught guiness with Brown sugar and the yellow part of an egg !

Work well too, but hot Guiness ...

I second Tony, kit parts look good, Let's try it at least !

Wish you la lot of good things !

Sincerely.

CC

 

 

[AlexN]

Hello Tony and CC, Thank you for your kind words, and taking the trouble to read and reply to my febrile ravings . Since I had the chill, shivering ague last night, and the recurrence of a long-buried phd-completion nightmare, neither of which I've had for years and years, please forgive me not quoting either of you today .

 

Here's a joke - well, it's not a joke, sadly, it's almost true:

 

Q. What's slower than a 2.4kb modem?

 

A. The 'internet' in the Blue Mountains :E <-- my trade-marked fanged smiley

 

Leaping about like a cane toad on a BBQ plate (best place for the monsters, by the way - once you've run over 'em in yer car and squashed 'em flat as pancakes...but eating 'em is strongly contra-indicated)... I used to have a lovely drink for when I had colds: whisky (lots of it), lemming juice, cayenne pepper and honey, as taught to us by a Scottish lady in New Zealand back in January 1981. Sadly, since the advent of SSRI anti-depressents in my life - in particular the most recent one - I have had to stop drinking alcohol altogether, so that's the end on cough mixtures for me, including Mama Rossi's Patent Gunpowder Solution. Actually, it's not really sadly, since I am no longer perpetually down in the dumps or waiting in terror for the next disaster to fall. I approach the world with a lot more equanimity than I used to, as bizarre (from what I rant on and on about) as it seems...

 

I occasionally missed the Shirazes, single malts and Bombay Sapphire (and much less occasionally, beer), but as time goes on that has faded into ye background. But thank you for your recipes, CC - I shall pass them on to Dr Mrs Alex, who still does have the occasional (EtOH-laced) drink (she stopped at the same time as I did in a determined example of solidarity .

 

Loved the match joke, Tony .

 

Regarding the rear fuselage framework, I had a careful look at the replacement parts under 10x magnification (The Boss bought one from Jaycar one the weekend when she also acquired a set of mini-scales to replace the set that I destroyed in the old Workswamp (read, that the old Workswamp destroyed for me) and the main girder regions are fine: no registration problems at all, and the same with a pair of shorter similar parts. The unfortunate exception is the upper diagonal segment that runs along the top of the side parts - this looks in parts as though it is made from I-beam section on some spots, and C-beam section in others. Walkaround photos on the Alouette-Lama website show these to be circular in cross-section.

 

So - I shall use the kit side parts, and make up the upper piece from plastic rod. Note that the regsitration isn't good on the 'original' top part so also unusable. While recognisably circular (as opposed to the weirdness on the replacement part), the die slippage is far too large to correct and it will should be much quicker and easier to make a new one.

 

Once I'm up and about again, I'll try using a very useful overlay pixel-measuring tool that I have on the iMac to measure up the float dimensions and their relative size to the rest of (or bits of the rest of) the aircraft.

 

Which brings us back to Apple stuff again. Gurgle. Thank you for the heads-up on 'Photos' - it appears to have a few more features than I was willing to give it credit for. I still find Graphic Converter (clever German application) far more useful—except for dealing with the iphone. And speaking of the latter, thank you for the reminder that I can turn off the auto-corrupt in iChoons. I shall experiment very gingerly and with extreme caution.

 

I seem to be out of the things formerly known as 'likes' again, so you will have to put up with virtual ones until I get in a new shipment. Better send  out for 'em, he seems well enough.

 

Cheers and wheezes,

Cheese and biscuits,

the alex.  <-- disgustingly healthy

 

PS: hey kids, there's a great new toy that Mike has provided us with, it seems: : ignore:.

 

Now you can  yer heads off at me to yer heart's content.

[CedB]

Get well soon Alex

[TheBaron]

I'm half convinced that the dreaded lurgey is being spread via the forum Alex. Sorry to hear of the illness knocking you for six as well, I do hope it passes swifty.

[TonyTiger66]

18 hours ago, AlexN said:

Loved the match joke, Tony .

 

It's a song from my (relatively) younger days Alex. I've been revisiting songs by Welsh bands recently. Heard this one for the first time in around 17 years.

 

I know it's usually Benedikt, but on this occasion I'll slap a tune on here. Apologies if it's a bit loud for someone with a cold. 

 

 

All the best for a quick recovery  

TonyT

[AlexN]

Hello Ced, Tony and Tony,

 

Thank you very much for your kind thoughts and words, greatly appreciated. While the cold shakes and deliriums have thankfully passed, I am still not out of the woods yet, the thing (or a secondary) having got into my chest. Still very weak and nowhere near getting back to actual fiddling with the Alouette yet.

 

On occasions I've been viewing various photos in my Alouette II hoard, and noting other differences between kit and the HNZ machine. The most obvious of these is thar the HNZ helicopter has a thrre-bladed tail rotor, whilst the one in the kit is two-bladed - so the moulding putty may be making a reappearance in due course.

 

The 'white roof' in the HNZ photo in my initial post appears, from scrutiny of other photos including one of another(?) HNZ machine, to be, in fact, an internal positionable/retractable sun-blind, not an opaque or over-painted canopy panel. The HNZ front seats are also the canvas sling type, not the Comfy Chairs with Soft Cushions that come with the kit - what a surprise, ha ha ha. Aplogies to the Pythons. A bit.

 

I have fallen way behind where I blithely thought that I would be, which serves me right, I suppose.

 

Cheers,

the alex.  <-- still in as rude heath as ever

[jrlx]

Get well soon, Alex. Looking forward to seeing your build back on track!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[Xmald]

Get well soon and back to work mate!

[CedB]

Ditto - I hope the lurgey fades soon Alex

[Nigel Heath]

Great project Alex, looking forward to seeing this one come together.

[621Andy]

Is it finished yet🤫😋😁