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Wessex HC2 Crab Cabs Pt II (Fly Wessex - why on earth did I?)


hendie

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I just realised that I don't think I've congratulated you on your work yet. Awesome detailing that you've put into this so far and I'm wondering just how far you will go to make it just right?

I might try and incorporate some minor alterations when I get around to mine but won't be doing many of the things you've managed here. thanks for all the amazing inspiration and detail info.

You've got me hooked. 

 

 

 

 

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thanks for the comments folks - much appreciated. 

 

As is always the case lately, life seems to have got in the way of modeling and I've only had 10 or 15 minutes here and there.   It behooves one to make the best use of ones time in such cases.  I'm not sure I lived up to that.

 

Still working on the undercarriage, I had an idea to replicate the canvas covers at the top end of the oleo's.  Gloop!   Yes, the gloop from shredded runners soaked in glue.  I simply dribbled some gloop around the top of the oleo and left it overnight - as this stuff takes some time to fully cure, the following day I stuck my fingernails and the odd scalpel blade into the mixture here and there to create the folds and creases.  Doesn't look too bad at all.

 

PC030001.jpg

 

I then came to the realization that I can't begin to fit the undercarriage or at least get the final positions until the cable covers are fitted beneath the drivers doors.

Despite being liberal with the masking tape I still managed to make a supreme mess as I was trying to fit them as can be seen here.

 

PC160002.jpg

 

Luckily, the covers being resin and the fuselage being plastic I had opted to use epoxy glue to stick 'em on.  As Mr Baron has pointed out on several occasions, this is a fantastic medium to use as it can be shaped and sanded when cured.  The other really useful feature of this adhesive is that before it full cures it can be trimmed very nicely with a sharp blade and excess removed without creating too much collateral damage.  In this shot you can just see an epoxy worm crawling out from the top end after being attacked with aforementioned scalpel blade.

 

PC160003.jpg

 

After some additional (careful) clean up with a chisel it looks perfectly passable though I think I'll still need to do some more cleanup once the primer is on

... in 2020

 

PC160004.jpg

 

Fly kindly supply some etched parts for the bracket that is mounted just south of the cable covers and north of the oleo. Sadly, they looked too long (to my eye at least), and are missing some features. 

Styrene to the rescue!   I spent one evening making the one on the left before realizing that was the port side and that bracket isn't actually fitted on the port side.  Hey ho.

So, wash, rinse and repeat, and make one for the starboard side.

 

PC180013.jpg

 

The bracket still requires a little cleanup - smoothing of the curves etc. but more akin to the 1:1 part than the kit item.

I also discovered that if you follow Fly's guidelines rivet lines for positioning the cable covers (I placed mine directly beneath the line of rivets) that the distance between the bottom of the cover and the oleo mounting brackets is different on each side.  :rage:

I'm not sure if Fly just have their panel lines different on both sides, or whether the bracket is actually lower on one side. Sods.  Well, the cable covers are well and truly glued on now so they're not coming off again.

A quick dry fit follows, complete with stand in U bolt.  Something is not quite right.  The canvas cover at the top of the oleo looks too long n'est pas?  Not by much, but enough to bug me a little bit.

 

PC180015.jpg

 

I've followed Roger's dimensions from the 1:1 as best I could.  I may be a fraction of a millimeter out here or there but all in all, the oleo's are pretty close in scale accuracy.  I think I need to remove part of the molded on bracket above and position the oleo slightly higher.  I think I'll also shorten the length of the canvas covered section.  It means deviating from the real dimensions, but it doesn't look right unless it looks right.

Lastly, a quick dry fit of same parts on the starboard side, this time with the bracketry resting in place.

 

PC180016.jpg

 

That doesn't look too bad at all.

And after all that, I've decided to remake the oleo's again  - I wasn't happy with the small aluminum section at the top and realized that will give me some serious fitting issues later on in the build, so those parts are being remade and hopefully with a more secure attachment method.

and with that I shall sign off for the mo'

 

glad tidings to all

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fab.  Your determination not to rest until it’s right is impressive; those look pretty darn good to me (a non-expert when it comes to Wessexiae), but you’re redoing them anyway.  That’s why the end result will be so great.

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On 12/18/2018 at 10:33 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Your determination not to rest until it’s right is impressive; those look pretty darn good to me

Couldn't have put that better myself!

Those legs look seriously supportive now and the gloop canvas covers are a nice piece of material substitution hendie. :thumbsup:

 

 

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Greetings folks.  Apparently 'tis the season to be brassy here on BritSolder.   Lots of metal bashing going on in other threads, so why should I be any different?

After our traditional Crimbo dinner of Peking duck with pancakes and fried rice, followed up with some home made rum 'n' raisin ice cream with clootie dumpling we had a nice peaceful night watching utter crap on the tv.  This morning I dutifully saw the wife off to work, leaving the rest of the day free for me to cater to my wishes for a change.

 

Last time around I ended up with a determination to remake the oleo's.  Well, I tried... and they didn't get any better.  I just could not capture that small flare at the bottom end of the top sleeve on the oleo - no matter how much I tried.  I must have gone through about a foot of brass tube trying to get that flare before deciding I was beaten.

I did however remake the top end of the oleo's so I could achieve a better, more secure fixing method - seen here being drilled so I can use a pin to secure the oleo against the fuselage.

 

PC220001.jpg

 

Then it was fun and games time.  Remember this ?   I thought the oleo was too close to the wheel to be comfortable so had to do something about that.

My initial thoughts were to cut off the small resin mounting block, and glue in another piece which was longer - stretching back onto the axle stub.  It seemed plausible but I wasn't too sure about the longevity of such a repair.

 

PC010015.jpg

 

I figured the best way was to try and keep everything brass - after all, it seems to work for the Baron.   Out came the carbide drills and I poked a hole in the end of the axle housing, then opened it up with a Ø1 mm drill - just enough to push a piece of brass tube into place, which was then duly soldered in position.  Messy but effective.  Finesse was never my strong point.

 

PC260002.jpg

 

After soldering, the tube was cut down, and filed down to size.  A rat tail file was used to remove the section of tube that protruded into the axle housing allowing me to still use the axle stub I machined earlier.

This way I can pin the oleo to the axle/swing arm and know that I have a much more secure joint.

 

PC260003.jpg

 

A quick dry fit.  The down side to this is that I have now extended the length of the undercarriage and will have to do some faffing and phenargling about to get back to the correct length... eventually.  Oh, I also glued on the mounting bracket at the top of the oleo... after I remade it yet again.  The last one pinged when attempting a dry fit and has gone to the great part chomper in the sky.

 

PC260005.jpg

 

That's all well and fine but how much difference does it make to the way the wheel sits in relation to the undercarriage?  Much more betterer I think.

The wheel base is about 1mm - 2 mm wider but I think I can push that swing arm in just a tad to get back some of that - assuming that the 4+ dimensions are correct, since that is my reference here.

 

PC260006.jpg

 

After that success, it was time to add the fold down step to the oleo - again a piece of brass soldered in position.  The one downside to using brass for the undercarriage is that I now have to use brass and solder for pretty much everything else as we all know how useless superglue is when trying to attach brass to brass, particularly when those brass accoutrements are all sticky-outy bits.  Not a snowballs chance in a million years - ever!

 

PC260007.jpg

 

With all that accomplished I thought I'd push my luck a bit -how on earth am I going to get these  steps held in place to be soldered to the swing arm?

After some serious humming and hawing I determined that they really needed to be soldered in situ while the undercarriage is "assembled' so that I could get the right orientation and spacing.

 

PC260008.jpg

 

Okay, this might not look particularly elegant, but it seems to be doing the job.

 

PC260009.jpg

 

Now, I am positive that I took some photo's of the steps in their raw native state  i.e. covered in blobs of solder and looking particularly ugly, but apparently my camera must have been hungry and ate them so you'll have to make do with a sort of finished article.

 

PC260010.jpg

 

That top step put up a good fight.  It pinged onto the floor once as I was trying to tin the ends,  then it fell off while I was filing off the solder blobs from hell.  Fly only provide one spare so I started to panic.  I started making up one of the remaining two steps then found the escapee lying suspiciously possum like on my leg.  It was quickly recovered and I soldered the bejesus  out of the little blighter so it couldn't escape again.

 

 Oh, and I checked the position of the oleo mounting points.  Fly have the starboard mounting point 1 mm lower than the port mounting point when measured using the sliding window cill as a datum. 

 

Now, just the other side to do!  

 

 

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One small step for man....

Looks good to me.

Brother in law got the Haynes Wessex owners manual for Crimbo.

I had a quick butchers and it looks quite decent. 

 

Seasons greetings from across the pond to you and yours.

Pete

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14 hours ago, hendie said:

The one downside to using brass for the undercarriage is that I now have to use brass and solder for pretty much everything else

 

Oh, how sad.

:evil_laugh:

14 hours ago, hendie said:

After some serious humming and hawing I determined that they really needed to be soldered in situ while the undercarriage is "assembled' so that I could get the right orientation and spacing.

Judicious and lucid. Just what we've come to expect from your work hendie. :nodding:

14 hours ago, hendie said:

It pinged onto the floor once as I was trying to tin the ends, 

Sympathies brother. From the rattling of the hoover when cleaning up the workroom recently I learned just how many such pieces of brass had been effectively hiding in the pile beneath my hoofs the whole time. Am going to have to look into magnetizing some tweezers....

 

Your modification to that wheel end looks well worth the effort involved. :clap2:

 

14 hours ago, hendie said:

 After our traditional Crimbo dinner of Peking duck with pancakes and fried rice,

As was our one of beef burritos and hot sauce accompanied by glasses of Irn Bru and cream soda. #culturalauthenticity

 

I'll whack up a picture of that doming set over on my thread later today.

 

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Wot!  Two updates in two days?   Wot's going on here then?

Well, since SWMBO had to work in between Crimbo and New Year, I thought it only prudent to take a few days vacation so I can get some peace and quiet (and some modeling done)

 

I must admit to falling foul of the mojo lurgi recently and have been finding it harder and harder to raise any excitement about modeling.  Whether it is this damned Wessex or just a general mojo loss I'm not certain, however, today saw a welcome return of a mojo upturn.

 

In recent times on BM I have seen a lot of folk mention that they must try soldering as a new tool.  I'd advise all of you - take the plunge... what's the worst that can happen?

Just to prove that you don't have to be particularly good at it - here's a shot of the last two steps soldered onto the swing arm.  Ugly!

 

PC260001.jpg

 

The great thing about solder is that it's so soft compared to the brass so a few swipes with various files removes most of the ugly, leaving some nice and shiny bits to oooh and ahh at.  Okay, looking at this I need to take another swipe at that area between the two steps to remove the last of the solder, but you get the picture.  It's not difficult.  It really isn't - and it will open up a whole new world of possibilities in your modeling. Hey, you may even be good at it!

 

PC260002.jpg

 

After all that brass work over the last few days I thought it was about time to start adding some plastic.  The underside seemed like a good place to start.

The jig came in really handy - I knew I had those hooks cut for a reason!

(To all those who have enquired about the jig - I haven't forgotten  - I'm hoping to have a test cut done next week after doing the modifications for the new hardware.  If that goes well, I'll get the jigs cut and let everyone know via PM)

 

PC270003.jpg

 

The first few parts get glued on and straight away it becomes apparent that things are not as they should be.  That large box thingy with the small brass tube protruding from it should overhang the trunking directly in front of it - and that's just for starters.  The goofy eared thingy on the left should meet the raised panel just behind it.  Fly... whose drawings were you using here?

 

PC270004.jpg

 

Nothing for it but to cut and shut

 

PC270005.jpg

 

Is this going to work?  That looks a bit... ehrrr... agricultural dunnit?

 

PC270006.jpg

 

Sanding sticks and files to the rescue.  The part now (sort of) looks like my reference photo's.  Some gloop was dribbled on to fill the seam.

 

PC270007.jpg

 

It's pretty much the same at the front end - seams just don't meet at all, and this is all going to require some filling and sanding in the very near future.

I've used styrene scrap wherever possible - under both ends of yet another box that doesn't really fit where it was intended.

 

PC270008.jpg

 

More gloop was dribbled here there and everywhere to eliminate gaps.  The two dust collectors at the front gave me a lot of trouble.  Part of it my fault I have to admit - way back then I had removed these two parts from the runner tree and had omitted to label them.  It was difficult to tell which was port and which was starboard as Fly haven't done a great job on them.  Each one is supposed to have an almost straight side which goes outboard, however, neither exhibited any kind of alignment feature and in the end I had to take my best guess after referencing the 4+ book and as manyphoto's as I could fine in my references.

I also drilled out the landing lamp housing and will make a lamp to fit in there later.

 

PC270010.jpg

 

Oh dear, I thought we were working on plastic today... how did that brass sneak in here?

Well, the kit fuel dump pipes were a mess.  There was a mold mismatch, lots of flash and the parts weren't round. After delving around in the spares bin I found some brass rod which matched the diameter nicely.

 

PC270009.jpg

 

A quick miter on the ends and some solder and we have the beginnings of a fuel dump pipe

 

PC270011.jpg

 

The second pipe was just a repeat of the first.  The 90 degree turn at the end was so simple to do but makes them look much better than the kit parts - and now they disappear into the fuselage undersides just like the 1:1's do.

 

PC270015.jpg

 

These last two shots are included just because I took them, but they do show the state of play as of this afternoon.

 

PC270012.jpg

 

 

oops! Phantom posting again....  lemme add that last shot again...

 

PC270013.jpg

 

 

Next up will be detailing the fuel dump pipes and making the attachment brackets so they (hopefully) don't fall off!  Oh, and tidying up those underside details after the gloop hardens

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by hendie
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8 hours ago, limeypilot said:

How's the Chinook? Haven't seen her for quite a while!

 

Ian

 

Still on the mrs' piano.  I've got a stupid metal block which is filling an engine cowling.  I tried to get back into it with a Dauntless and am on with an Avenger at the minute.  The lads on ARRSE keep having a go at me to finish it.  We've got a modelling forum up and running on there now, which is pretty good - nice supportive group and lots of micky taking.

 

I do plan to get back on the Wokka.  Anyway - apologies Hendie for hijacking the build mate.  I'm watching with envy.  Lovely job

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