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


hendie

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9 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Your work on the rotor head is exemparly, your attention to the smallest detail makes this an outstanding piece of engineering.

 

Thanks Roger - half the fun is that it's ehrrr... fun.  Ehrrrr... Scratch that, - all the fun is that it's fun

 

4 hours ago, keefr22 said:

That rotor head is stupendous hendie!

 

Like the idea of keeping paint in the pipette, will have a go at that myself next time I'm airbrushing, will indeed be interesting to see how long it lasts...

 

Keith

 

thanks Keith - mine has lasted a couple of days at this point, which is great especially when mixing custom colors, 'cos I can never make the same mix twice

 

4 hours ago, perdu said:

Rotor head?

 

Am I bovvered?

I'm not bovvered, am I bovvered?

 

I am happy to look at that all day, very nice thing

 

Let's have another look at it...

 

 

And move on, like I should on a couple of builds...

 

glad you're bovverless Bill.  I'm sure there'll be more piccies not to bovver over in the future

 

3 hours ago, phildagreek said:

You can bother me with your rotor head all day sir, I rather like looking at it.

 

what can a chap say to that?  It's like Page 3 of the aviation world

 

3 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

You can never have too much rotor head when it’s this good!

 

[The trouble isn’t, you’ve set me thinking about whether that would be a viable approach for a 1/48 folded Sea King...]

 

I  think it's certainly feasible Crisp, There may be some loss of detail in the smaller features, but going from 1/32 to 1/48 doesn't change things all that much in the grand scheme of smallness.  I certainly didn't scale every dimension (cos I had no real references) - it was all done by eye so that (to me) it sort of looked right.  I think it worked out okay.

 

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6 hours ago, heloman1 said:

That's one tasty looking MRH Alan, I think you nailed the OM15. Fancy offering these in 48th scale?

 

Colin

 

hi Colin,  I shall certainly look into it.   

 

Shapeways is playing funny beggars - I have both the MRGB and the Rotor head listed as separate items, and thought I could combine them into a single offering so I could add a discount to the part as any buyers wouldn't be paying 2 x Setup charges etc.  No such luck.  A combined MRGB and rotor head, no matter how I configured it, always comes out more expensive than purchasing the separate items together - and that's before there's any markup!  Go figure.

 

it's not just a case of scaling down the 1/32 version as a lot of the detail I included on that is on the limits of the material.  i.e. thinnest wall section of 0.3mm. (and following Shapeways sometimes absurd design 'rules')

Additionally, I based the 1/32 version on Fly's kit and I'm not sure how accurate that scale is.  The same goes for the 1/48 version (assuming Italeri).  Scaling the Fly replacement may not produce a part that looks in scale to the Italeri kit if that makes sense.

Ideally, I'd need to know some basic dimensions of the italeri rotor head and start from scratch again, as I'd need to make some concessions for scale effect and the dimensional limitations of the material.  That way I'd know it would fit the intended kit. 

I don't have a spare 1/48 rotor head to take dimensions from and don't fancy ripping the old build apart so if someone was willing to supply those dimensions or even a spare rotor assembly (which  I can return), I can certainly have a go at it and see how it turns out.

 

 

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3 hours ago, hendie said:

Ideally, I'd need to know some basic dimensions of the italeri rotor head and start from scratch again, as I'd need to make some concessions for scale effect and the dimensional limitations of the material.  That way I'd know it would fit the intended kit. 

I don't have a spare 1/48 rotor head to take dimensions from and don't fancy ripping the old build apart so if someone was willing to supply those dimensions or even a spare rotor assembly (which  I can return), I can certainly have a go at it and see how it turns out.

I have the Italeri HAS3; is it the same rotor head in Italeri-land?  If so I’d be more than happy to send it to you for a while, cos there’s no way I’m going to be anywhere near starting a Wessex build in the foreseeable future.

 

PM me if that would work.

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On 19/09/2017 at 01:58, hendie said:

thanks Bill but nah.

Following my long tradition of being totally boring and predictable it's going to be another 28 Sqn, but just to spice things up I think I'll do the Alpha male this time around

 

in other news, guess what happened to sneak past SWMBO earlier this week ?

 

A small clue...

 

P9140012.jpg

 

at my rate, I reckon that build should start sometime around 2024/2025

 

I've got this as well to build. 

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On 9/22/2019 at 9:05 PM, hendie said:

in this case into something a bit less geometric and more freeform

 

P9220013.jpg

 

Yon Caledonian lad's been seeing lights in the sky again...

close-encounters-2_1050_591_81_s_c1.jpg

 

(But in the spirit of Mr.Kipling, he does make exceedingly good rotor heads.)

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Very little going on in the way of Wessexing these days, but progress does crawl forth every now and again.

 

The undercarriage bits got some transfers stuck on and some black paint slapped on in places, then a gloss coat to seal everything in.  There's still some more paint to get slapped on these but I'll get to that later.

 

PA060018.jpg

 

Rotor bits - this time the tail rotor... got some red sprayed, then I noticed that Fly had not included to two bolt heads which appear down at the blade root. 

Luckily I still have a few Meng bolts kicking around so the blades got a couple of 0.8mm bolt heads glued in place.

 

PA060019.jpg

 

Followed up with a coat of dark green, and some colored banding around the roots

 

PA060021.jpg

 

I still have to apply the leading edge aluminum, so that should appear at the next session - probably next weekend as I have a busy week ahead of me and some traveling the week after next so we'll see how things turn out

 

 

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On 10/6/2019 at 5:44 PM, hendie said:

I still have to apply the leading edge aluminum, so that should appear at the next session

 

well, whadya know... the very next session...

 

PA080025.jpg

 

Masking was a bit of a pain as Fly do not provide any marking whatsoever to help you determine where the edge lies between the aluminum strip and the main part of the blade, therefore it was all done by eye. Attach, look at it, detach, attach again, look at it again, detach again, and so on until I had something that I thought looked about right.

They also, as I found out when I went to look for them, do not supply any transfers for the blades.  I can't find anything available in 1/32 but I did find a decal set for an H34 that has blade transfers but it is only 1/48, but I'm going to order it anyway and see how they look.

(I am also seriously considering getting some decals made up as the Fly decal sheet misses quite a few stencils and other marking, but they thoughtfully included a while bunch of spelling mistakes free of charge. Buggers)

 

Taking a short break from the train build I thought it was about time I made some progress on this build.  At this rate Crisp will have finished his floaty thing and the Sea King, and Bandsaw Steve may even finish his Avro. - who knows?

Anyway, one of the items I have been putting off for some time now, for no other reason than I didn't really want to do it, was the tail.  Back at the beginning of the decade, I put a bunch of rivets on the starboard side.  Now it was time for the port side to get the same treatment.

Wait!  wots this ?   A sever lack of detail is what it is. There is hardly any detail on the tail at all, and what little there is, is very soft.

 

PA110026.jpg

 

The more I looked the less impressed I was.   There are a couple of faint (very faint!) access panels. They're in the right place, but they are the wrong shape.

Well, nothing for it but to roll my own I guess.

I started with the thinnest styrene sheet I have, but at 0.025" it was still too thick.  Some ratching about in the drawers produced some scrap brass at .0.01" thick - much better.  As much as I would have liked to use styrene for this, it would never have withstood all the holes I needed to drill so brass really was the best option here.

First panel shaped.

 

PA110027.jpg

 

and somewhat adjacent to it's intended location.  You can see here that I had actually started to drill the plastic to fit rivets before I decided that it really was a lost cause trying to bring life to Fly plastic.

 

PA110028.jpg

 

The panel in front of the aerial is completely missing on the Fly kit, so another bit of brass later...

 

PA110029.jpg

 

Getting those holes in a reasonably geometric pattern was a right pain.  I used my calipers to scribe a line 0.4mm from the edge, then drilled them out as best I could with a 0.4mm drill bit.

 

PA120033.jpg

 

It wasn't easy!   Even with a scribed line it was a task to keep the drill in the right place.  One badly positioned hole and the panel was lapsap.  By the time I finished, the panels weren't too bad.  Not perfect by any means but not horrible.

I even got the right number of fasteners on each panel, with the exception of the last panel which has a stupid amount of fasteners in it anyway.

 

PA120031.jpg

 

My method of attachment was purloined from a Herr Fritag tip of the day some time back - partially drill a couple of spots under where the panel will go.  Then I used CA gel with a couple of dollops in those half-holes, then place the brass panel on top, the gel giving me some wiggle time to position it appropriately before finally pressing it home. A piece of kitchen towel was used to mop up any CA squidges.

 

 

PA120032.jpg

 

Some time later when (hopefully) the CA gel had hardened, I used the holes in the brass panels as guides to drill through the plastic. A tedious job at best. 

 

PA120034.jpg

 

Only a few drills were harmed in the making of this tail.

Once all the holes were drilled, I used Masterclub resin rivets for the fasteners. (0.5mm spherical rivets).  The rivets were partially inserted, leaving a smidgin proud, then I brushed on a diluted PVA around the rivets and pushed them fully home.

A damp piece of kitchen towel was used to remove any excess pva

 

PA120035.jpg

 

You may notice in the shot above that I ran out of rivets before I could get the two strengthening strips fully riveted. That means that somewhere on this hunk of plastic are 200 x 0.5mm rivets and most of 200 x 0.4mm rivets, as well as a few others. OKay I dropped one or two but my bag of 200 rivets is now empty - and I didn't drop that many!,

 

Lastly for this evenings update, an oblique(ish) shot across the tail showing how thin the brass sheet is against the plastic, and how the rivet heads protrude just enough (I hope) to give their presence away without being obtrusive.

 

PA120036.jpg

 

A coat of primer on that and it should look fine - once I get all the rivets in place.

 

 

 

 

 

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40 minutes ago, hendie said:

tedious job at best. 

 

PA120034.jpg

- but my goodness look at how fantastic the results. That brasswork makes the tail positively spring to life!

 

In the Hoxha-era bunker deep within the rock of an Albanian headland where the Fly board meet in secret each month, an emaciated figure is dragged by a guard into the pool of light before the seated cabal. The clipped nasal voice of Doctor Fly himself presently fills the chamber: 'This is the wretch? The one who designed the Wessex moulds?' he asks.

 

The guard nods brusquely.

 

'We have executed men for lesser crimes than this kit...' the Doctor's voice trails off as he strokes his beard and gazes abstractedly at the prisoner for a few moments before continuing: 'but I have a better idea - transfer him to Italeri. They are producing a Sunderland and we might be able to get him onto the team doing the panel lines.'

 

 

 

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52 or is it 53? Never was much of a rivet counter…

1 hour ago, hendie said:

…but they thoughtfully included a while bunch of spelling mistakes free of charge. Buggers

Wull, that just tipycal. Wots rong wiv are ejucashun cistem nowdaz? :D 

 

Stunning work hendie, as always.

 

Tony you crack me up :rofl2:

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Bloody lovely, what a difference! I still think you're nuts though, but in a nice, modelling sort of way.

 

Bad luck to Scotland rugby, but what a hell of a game!

 

Ian

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Got nothin' to say about the rotor head.  It's beyond the capability of my vocabulary to do it justice.....

 

So it now seems almost damning-with-faint-praise to say that the detail brass work on the tail is exemplary.  Super neat drill-work.

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On 10/12/2019 at 6:34 PM, TheBaron said:

'This is the wretch? The one who designed the Wessex moulds?' he asks.

 

I think we have a few of his colleagues to add to the rack and iron maiden, read on...

 

On 10/12/2019 at 7:13 PM, CedB said:

Stunning work hendie, as always.

 

Thanks Ced, but more like stumbling work after this weekend

 

On 10/13/2019 at 12:55 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

My, what a beautiful pylon you have, Sir. (F'nar).

 

you too can have one for a measly 900 squids better hurry before they're all gone

 

 

On 10/13/2019 at 3:04 AM, Hamden said:

Very nice workmanship as always.

   Roger

 

On 10/13/2019 at 3:41 AM, perdu said:

Utterly amazing...

A contender for 'Best update yet'.

 

and it's all downhill from here I'm afraid

 

 

On 10/13/2019 at 10:15 AM, limeypilot said:

Bloody lovely, what a difference! I still think you're nuts though, but in a nice, modelling sort of way.

 

Bad luck to Scotland rugby, but what a hell of a game!

 

Ian

 

Thanks Ian.  Y'know, I'm so far removed from the real world over here I never realized they were playing.  British sports hardly warrant a mention over here as you probably know

 

On 10/14/2019 at 5:33 AM, Fritag said:

Got nothin' to say about the rotor head.  It's beyond the capability of my vocabulary to do it justice.....

 

I just expanded my vocabulary with a few stoatirs this weekend Steve - easy if you ever buy a Fly kit - which I will.... NEVER again!

 

 

Now on with the game at hand.

The Crackle, sorry Caracal transfers arrived while I was on my sojourn. I think I mentioned this before I left - Fly have missed a few (imo) critical transfers of their sheet, and as there aren't that many 1/32 decal sheets available for Wessex's's's I took a punt and ordered a 1/48 set for an H-34 thinking, well it sort of looks like a Wessex, maybe there'll be some stencils I can use

 

PA190001.jpg

 

Mostly not as you can see.  However they did include the stencils for the tail and main rotor blades, so SCORE!   Bloomin expensive score but a score nonetheless .

Considering they're 1/48 I think they look just fine on these blades. Clear coat to come later.

 

PA190003.jpg

 

Sadly, the other transfers I was really hoping to use - S41 thru' S48 all have white backgrounds, otherwise they would have been perfect. Looks like I will have to roll my own for these.

 

PA190002.jpg

 

Remember that blade fold set that I bought bleams ago and intend to use before the decade is out ?  I keep parts (as I assume many of us do) in little plastic tubs and when digging around for some other bits, I noticed this...

 

PA190007.jpg

 

MMmmmmm.  Turning all yellowish and exuding some kind of greasy gunge.  No idea what's going on there so I've popped them in the ultrasonic bath for a few washes to see what happens. Time will tell.

Next up is where it all starts going pear shaped again.  The gods are really playing with me these days - letting me start off with a little bit of success then slapping me right in the kisser with a wet kipper or two.

My focus, such as it has been, has been aimed at getting the tail up to scratch over the last week or two.  Fly provide more hindrance than help in this area.  Their instructions are amazingly vague and their PE is sent to try the patience of a saint.

Take for example, that 3 pronged linkage attached to the rotor hub (just to the right of middle in the piccie).  At my first attempt I used superglue - obviously a mistake and I should have known better. My second attempt involved soldering and while the job was accomplished it wasn't without some rosy Anglo Saxon reverberating around the basement.  I wasn't happy with them.

The center star thingy which fits behind the rotor head is actually okay from a handling perspective, but I have no idea how accurate it is as I don't have any good reference photo's of that particular area. The counterweight bracket however...

Yes, the counterweight bracket.  That is the thing sitting between the starry thing and the 3 pronged thing.  I have no idea what Fly were thinking but inwhose universe does that look like a Wessex counterweight bracket ?  Looks more like the F-hole in a violin than it does a counter weight bracket

 

PA190004.jpg

 

That can be seen to better effect here.

 

PA190006.jpg

 

After I lost the one above of course. (Had a guy round yesterday ding some gardening and he kept texting me to come and look at stuff, and at some point the f-hole must have got caught on my sleeve or something but it's gone).  Come to think of it... maybe the gods were smiling on me after all  :D

 

Once I noticed how bad those parts are I had no option but to tell my brain not to use them.  Of course that meant I had to find an alternative.  I tried, really I did, but after messing around for a while (frustration is getting the better of me these days) I decide to hop orf and do some more three-deeing.  Had it been one of each, I may have persevered, but 4 of each, identical, and so small... no chance of the Hend appendages being able to  manage the contortions required to manufacture these.

This for example is about 2.75 mm long by 2.8 mm wide.

 

 

3Prong.png

 

This part is 4 mm square(ish) at the top arcing out to about 7.5 mm at the bottom, which is 4.5 mm top to bottom

Cone.png

And here we have a counterweight bracket.  Still not 100% accurate - which just can't be achieved owing to the printing limits imposed by Shapeways, but a whole lot better than Fly's laughable attempt. 

 

 

Pitch-Change.png

 

I'm taking a chance here because I have nothing to reference for dimensions, so I'm using the Fly imagined parts and reference photo's to gauge dimensions.  I could be wildly out and won't know until I get the parts in my mitts.  If they're wrong at least I will have reasonable parts as reference and will know what to shrink or grow.

 

So I made a parts farm.

 

Parts-Farm.png

 

 

I added a few train bits onto that assembly shown here and if I get it ordered soon should have the parts be early week after next.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As you're clearly building the aircraft and not the kit it doesn't surprise me that your own efforts outshine that of the manufacturer by a country mile.

 

Your parts farm is straight out of Tron!

 

:clap2:

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8 hours ago, CedB said:

Despite the tribulations, nice work hendie :) 

 

Is it time to consider a 3D printer do you think?

 

Dammit Ced - it's my birthday at the end of the week and now you've got me thinking.   I could always offset the costs a little bit by some ebayery I guess.

dammit dammit dammit.... off to check the finances (the secret ones swmbo doesn't know about)

 

 

8 hours ago, TheBaron said:

As you're clearly building the aircraft and not the kit it doesn't surprise me that your own efforts outshine that of the manufacturer by a country mile.

 

thanks Tony.  I never really thought of it that way but you bring up a good point.

 

 

46 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I'll pass. Some of those panels are in the wrong place. :poke:

 

but wouldn't it look great in the corner of the dining room ?

 

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