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


hendie

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 No, no no, I am sure no little bits of masking can let us down after all this precision...

 

Or am I?

 

The tail end looks so good I could 'sly munch' it

 

My mom's Brummie term for hugging it/her/him/anything over possessively, when you just want to hug it and hold it and never let it go where it should...

 

With the balances and adjustments it really is looking like a job well done

 

Can't wait for the bigger reveal, it's beautiful

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Oooh, a grey/green pylon :happy: And some very nice masking going on too.

At the pylon fold, I remember gloss grey. I think anywhere the weather might get in got that. Everywhere else was Westlands green, slightly darker than interior green?

So, your pylon could be a replacement (and yes, we did do that on servicings*) that didn't get the grey treatment?

 

*We unboxed a replacement tailcone once (around 1977/78) and it was pre-painted two tone brown!

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3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

 

*We unboxed a replacement tailcone once (around 1977/78) and it was pre-painted two tone brown!

Ah, the joys of rummaging through the depths of the MoD stores empire.  In 1990 Broadsword was diverted from the Med to Sierra Leone to cover (& eventually fish out) Europeans caught up in the Liberian civil war.  A day or so after we left Gib our MRGB magnetic plugs came up covered in metal during routine post-Flight servicing, meaning the gear box was knackered and needed changing.  
 

So an RFA stores ship was diverted across the Atlantic from the Caribbean, bring a Sea King with it, which duly transferred a Lynx gearbox as an underslung load in pretty dicy conditions.  Only the following morning did we unpack it... to find that it was the gearbox of an HAS2 (less powerful engines, so one fewer helical gears).  There had been no Mk. 2s in service for a minimum of 8 years at that point, so this had clearly been floating around the ogg-wash in the hold of Fort Grange for almost a decade without anyone noticing.

 

This was not one of my favourite trips to the bridge to tell the Captain the news...

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Invincible dropped one off for us via a Soggy Moggy (814 NAS) cab; almost as humiliating, because the P1 was a mate from my flying course, so the patronising comments about “Teeny-Weeny Airways” were long & loud. 

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7 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Ah, the joys of rummaging through the depths of the MoD stores empire.  In 1990 Broadsword was diverted from the Med to Sierra Leone to cover (& eventually fish out) Europeans caught up in the Liberian civil war.  A day or so after we left Gib our MRGB magnetic plugs came up covered in metal during routine post-Flight servicing, meaning the gear box was knackered and needed changing.  
 

So an RFA stores ship was diverted across the Atlantic from the Caribbean, bring a Sea King with it, which duly transferred a Lynx gearbox as an underslung load in pretty dicy conditions.  Only the following morning did we unpack it... to find that it was the gearbox of an HAS2 (less powerful engines, so one fewer helical gears).  There had been no Mk. 2s in service for a minimum of 8 years at that point, so this had clearly been floating around the ogg-wash in the hold of Fort Grange for almost a decade without anyone noticing.

 

This was not one of my favourite trips to the bridge to tell the Captain the news...

Good job they weren't responsible for the use by date on the consumables …..

 

And by the way now have said Airfix Lynx and Belcher conversion , so will be knocking on your door for some Info soon ….

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On 11/25/2019 at 3:09 AM, CedB said:

Nice work hendie, looking very smart and, perhaps, the beginning of the end? :) 

 

Lets pray for Armageddon together now shall we?

 

On 11/25/2019 at 3:23 AM, TheBaron said:

Bumper update and looking sharp in the colours H.

With the appearance of camo it's like this is suddenly coming out of the chrysalis.

 Sounds familiar... 😄

 

I thought Flies crawled out of maggots.  Seems fitting somehow.

 

On 11/25/2019 at 3:51 AM, perdu said:

 No, no no, I am sure no little bits of masking can let us down after all this precision...

 

Or am I?

 

The tail end looks so good I could 'sly munch' it

 

My mom's Brummie term for hugging it/her/him/anything over possessively, when you just want to hug it and hold it and never let it go where it should...

 

With the balances and adjustments it really is looking like a job well done

 

Can't wait for the bigger reveal, it's beautiful

 

No great reveals this time around but the pictures are prettier. (in relative terms)

 

On 11/25/2019 at 5:29 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

Oooh, a grey/green pylon :happy: And some very nice masking going on too.

At the pylon fold, I remember gloss grey. I think anywhere the weather might get in got that. Everywhere else was Westlands green, slightly darker than interior green?

So, your pylon could be a replacement (and yes, we did do that on servicings*) that didn't get the grey treatment?

 

*We unboxed a replacement tailcone once (around 1977/78) and it was pre-painted two tone brown!

 

I might go grey (to match my hair) - jury is still out, and plenty of time left.

 

On 11/25/2019 at 9:19 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Ah, the joys of rummaging through the depths of the MoD stores empire.  In 1990 Broadsword was diverted from the Med to Sierra Leone to cover (& eventually fish out) Europeans caught up in the Liberian civil war.  A day or so after we left Gib our MRGB magnetic plugs came up covered in metal during routine post-Flight servicing, meaning the gear box was knackered and needed changing.  
 

So an RFA stores ship was diverted across the Atlantic from the Caribbean, bring a Sea King with it, which duly transferred a Lynx gearbox as an underslung load in pretty dicy conditions.  Only the following morning did we unpack it... to find that it was the gearbox of an HAS2 (less powerful engines, so one fewer helical gears).  There had been no Mk. 2s in service for a minimum of 8 years at that point, so this had clearly been floating around the ogg-wash in the hold of Fort Grange for almost a decade without anyone noticing.

 

This was not one of my favourite trips to the bridge to tell the Captain the news...

 

Ah, the magnetic plug.  Lying on the trans deck in 100+ degrees, a hellishly hot MRGB and just enough room to twist your arm in so the fleshy part of your forearm was pressed hard against the underside of the hot oil carrier.  The smell of singed flesh wafting and mixing with the aroma of freshly spilled OM15.  Memories eh?

 

Yesterdays adventures began with some precision masking (he types rather hopefully) in preparation for the big blast.

 

PB260001.jpg

 

All prepared and ready to go in... (kind of reminds me of an Arbroath Smokie with those rods through it's gills)

 

PB260002.jpg

 

But before I could pluck up enough courage to fire up the airbrush I took a slight detour to slap some transfers on.  First transfer on the exterior!  The DANGLER sign!

Milestone.  It looks a bit bright though - so hopefully it will tone down a touch with the flat coat later.

 

PB260003.jpg

 

No point in procrastinating any further. Out came the airbrush and paint was pointed in the general direction of the target.

Your grey mare awaits you sir.

 

PB260004.jpg

 

However, all was not well in Tinseltown.  After the paint was dry enough to handle and examination revealed some rather gritty finish in a few spots.

 

PB260006.jpg

 

Some more up front a a few big patches on t'other side (which didn't show up well in photoland.  Typical huh ?   I'd love to be able to get a finish as gritty as that in the no-slip area surrounding the steps, but have never been able to do it on purpose though I have tried a time or two.

 

PB260007.jpg

 

So Wessi was left overnight for the paint to harden up before I ravaged the surface with micro-mesh... and continued with slapping stickers on.

FYI - this is what I have to scavenge transfers from. 

We have the Fly decal sheet, complete with typos and way over-scale  bits and bobs (more on that later).

We have Italeri's 1/48 scale decal sheet

We have Phoenix Transfers 28 SQN decal sheet in 1/48

We have Caracel's (I think) 1/48 decal sheet for the H34

and some other assorted scraps from who knows where.

 

PB270009.jpg

 

The 1/48 decal sheets are actually pretty good scale-wise.  A LOT better than some of Fly's attempts (who seem to have copied most if not all of Italeri's spelling errors and introduced a few of their own to boot!)

Here for instance is the "LOCKED" stencil that goes on the cabin door.  The one in the tweezers is the Caracel Decals version, compared to the Fly version which is about 2 or 3 times larger.

Though, to be fair, they did at least spell it correctly this time around.

 

PB270008.jpg

 

You can just make out the poor photography, sorry, "Locked" decal just above the handle on the right of the cabin door.   The Fly version is mahoosive.  God knows what they were thinking smoking.

 

PB270010.jpg

 

I had taken the next two photo's thinking I had completed all the transfers on the tail pylon - then realized as soon as I saw the photo, that I've completely omitted to stick on the Demi-Pegasus halfway up the pylon.

I used a few of the Caracel decals even though they weren't strictly correct - but more correcter than Fly's.  Fly also seem to provide a lot of decals for the nose end, but got tired as they walked to the back end and don't provide much in the way of adorning the back end, sticker wise.

 

PB270011.jpg

 

The white NO-PUSH at the bottom of the pylon are from the Phoenix set, and should be yellow, but I only had one yellow sticker left, so had to run with the white.  Since I am using around 4 or 5 different decal sheets to try and cover as much as I can, it's going to be a hodge-podge anyway.

I may replace the yellow on the tail rotor alignment marks - seems a bit bright.

Bonus points if you noticed the "place strap over stripE when lifting" error.

 

PB270012.jpg

 

The grey mare returns after a quick rub down and visit to the paint shop.  Looking much better this time.

 

PB270013.jpg

 

The mare is left to have her new coat harden before I started squashing blu--tack all over it for the green so I had a ratch around to see what else could be done in the meantime, and arrived at the Nitesun.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to fit it or not but there's no harm in putting it together to avoid any other jobs that required steady hands and much thought.

Again, to their credit, Fly provide a nice little piece of PE for the Nitesun mounting bracket.  And again, it's wrong.  They have you fold the bracket at right angles whereas the 1:1 has rolled corners. The Fly version is also very thin (PE!) and too narrow.  So I rolled (sic) my own.

 

PB270014.jpg

 

Then added a few greeblies on the Nitesun itself.  (still need to plug the air bubbles on the casting though)

At the rear, on top of the Nitesun is the electrical plug - this scrap of runner looks like an easy candidate for electrickery

 

PB270015.jpg

 

Just like that...

 

PB270016.jpg

 

This afternoons work was finished off by adding some resin nuts to the back end, along with a brass handle.

 

PB270017.jpg

 

and we'll finish off with a quiz for those Wessi aficionado's.  What's wrong with this picture?

 

PB270018.jpg

 

I'm sure the Nitesun had an Arc light and not a stonking huge lightbulb stuck in the middle ???  Am I losing it?

Unfortunately, the Nitesun is incredibly camera shy and there are very few photo's - particularly of the front end.   If any one has a photo of the Arc thingy, I'd appreciate it if you could post a shot... otherwise I'll go ahead and generate some Frankenstein laboratory like gubbins to take the place of the 'orrible bulbous bit.

 

Tomorrow, very little modeling will take place as I have to give thanks for something over here.  See ya on t'other side folks

 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, hendie said:

PB260007.jpg

 

The surface detail work looks absolutely amazeballs (sic) under paint hendie.  I could have picked just about any photo to eulogise over (the rivet work on the tail looks awesome) but this one basically  looks 1:1. 
 

Almost unbelievable craftsmanship :worthy:

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Agreed! Lovely stuff :) 

 

2 hours ago, hendie said:

Lets pray for Armageddon together now shall we?

Hmmm. I saw an ad on Sky for a new 'Armageddon' series that looked good so I 'scheduled' it.

It's in German.

With subtitles.

Too late for me - ich bin süchtig*

 

(* if that doesn't mean 'I'm hooked' I blame Google translate)

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I’m with Hawk-boy.  Jag-boy.  Whatevs.  She’s looking superb already; those of us who have merely been watching would say definitely worth the effort, but you might not agree!

 

Never really encountered Nitesun, so can’t help - but the Fly 40W Osram job doesn’t feel plausible.

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On 11/27/2019 at 5:02 PM, Fritag said:

The surface detail work looks absolutely amazeballs (sic) under paint hendie.  I could have picked just about any photo to eulogise over (the rivet work on the tail looks awesome) but this one basically  looks 1:1. 
 

Almost unbelievable craftsmanship :worthy:

 

I'd probably have been quicker building a 1:1 from scratch based on this endeavor - and at least there would be a chance that (some) things actually fitted

 

On 11/27/2019 at 5:53 PM, perdu said:

And I

 

 

Agree with HIM

 

An absolutely wonderful job done already...

 

On 11/27/2019 at 5:56 PM, chrislowe said:

Beautiful. Smashing work.

 

Thanks muchly guys

 

On 11/27/2019 at 7:13 PM, CedB said:

Agreed! Lovely stuff :) 

 

Hmmm. I saw an ad on Sky for a new 'Armageddon' series that looked good so I 'scheduled' it.

It's in German.

With subtitles.

Too late for me - ich bin süchtig*

 

(* if that doesn't mean 'I'm hooked' I blame Google translate)

 

plastic addiction huh ?  There should be a forum for that.

 

On 11/28/2019 at 1:49 AM, Max Headroom said:

Hi Hendie

 

Fabulous work going on there. As for the Nitesun, google-fu produces this....

 

https://flic.kr/p/8us6y1

 

Hope this helps.

 

Trevor

 

On 11/28/2019 at 3:12 AM, perdu said:

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQU--wPXIh-3AWcIOtue5q

 

 

or

nightsun-sx-16-150x150.jpg

 

Lots of images on Google if you search nightsun images

the innards don't look too complex to me (yes I need it for my Wokka)

 

I had been googling Wessex Nitesun - without much success.  Just after posting I googled for "Nitesun searchlight" - and found wads of useful pictures.  Thanks for looking on my behalf though - these will come in handy.

 

On 11/28/2019 at 2:41 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I’m with Hawk-boy.  Jag-boy.  Whatevs.  She’s looking superb already; those of us who have merely been watching would say definitely worth the effort, but you might not agree!

 

Never really encountered Nitesun, so can’t help - but the Fly 40W Osram job doesn’t feel plausible.

 

:rofl2:  Osram indeed

 

On 11/28/2019 at 6:23 AM, TheBaron said:

Late here in agreeing with praise but be pl,eased to accept a deep-felt 'Wow' with regard to the sheer level of detail now showing under paint and primer. Superlative!

 

On 11/28/2019 at 6:53 AM, tonyot said:

You are doing an amazing job,..... keep up the fantastic work,

 

Cheers

          Tony

 

Ta's to Tony & Tony

 

On 11/28/2019 at 1:48 PM, keefr22 said:

Can't put it better than what that lot above said!

 

Brilliant!

 

Keith

 

and to Keith

 

On 11/28/2019 at 1:50 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Walter is looking lovely in grey this season.

 

But grey she is no longer.  However, my own greyness appears to be increasing

 

 

Now where were we?   Forgetful. That's where we were I think.  I had forgotten to add the 28 SQN Demi-Pegasus to the tail hadn't I?

Well, that was easily sorted - simply add the white backing disc to the tail. (The Phoenix transfers are actually pretty good to work with - they separate easily from the backing and lay down well... too well in fact..)

 

PB280002.jpg

 

Then apply the Demi-Pegasus on top of the white disc...  to quote a Ced phrase... RATS   WTF???

 

PB280001.jpg

 

The white disc is too large!   Dammit!  How did that happen?  Well, I can't go forward from here, so what was left of the transfer was transferred (sic) back to the backing sheet just in case of emergencies.

After mulling and mulling, I decided the easiest approach was to spray some yellow on the disc to match the yellow/gold of the emblem so out came the circle cutter.

Which couldn't cut a disc small enough in diameter.  The smallest diameter I could get with the cutter was Ø10mm and I needed about Ø8.75mm or thereabouts.  What to do?

Well, if I added a small styrene spacer on one side of the blade I could reduce the diameter slightly.  Another idea in action folks.

 

PB280003.jpg

 

After several attempts I ended up with this - perfect.  Then I remembered I would have to mask the inside as well and spray a gold ring, otherwise the white Pegasus would end up looking a bit jaundiced.

More faffing about and I got two outer discs and two inner discs which were about as perfect as I was going to get.  All in all, that took about two hours - including thinking time mind you!

So the tail was all masked up (forgot to take photo's) and I looked to find the transfer so I could start matching the color of yellow/gold ring...

 

PB280004.jpg

 

and found these... RATS!

The correctly sized white discs.  It was turning out to be one of those days.  Okay, All I have to do is remove the previously applied white discs and replace with these and bob's an uncle somewhere.

Now I keep reading about how decals keep ripping off when folks are removing masking

 

PB280006.jpg

 

10 minutes later with tamiya masking tape, painters masking tape, and other really sticky masking tape and this was all I could get.  Those discs weren't for moving.

Frustrated I then soaked the offending disc in MicroS2 stuff and started sanding and it all went sideways.  Clear gloss lifted, paint lifted and it was a mess. 

Put down the pylon and walk away sir!

 

PB280007.jpg

 

Well, at least hold on until we have it at a place that's worth working from - that meant some judicious sanding and yet more masking and yet more spraying.  Set aside to cure and we'll gloss coat that (again!) later.

 

PB300027.jpg

 

So I picked up the Nitesun again. This seemed easy enough.  Drill out the Osram and replace with something that looks roughly like what should actually be there.

At this point I noticed that the reflector was pretty shallow.  Mmmnnnnnnnnn, I wonder what the transparency is like?

 

PB280008.jpg

 

Bugger!  Rats! Bugger Rats!

 

PB280009.jpg

 

Okay, that was put to one side for the moment and I'll come back to that later. - I'm starting to think that if the blades are folded, then more than likely the Nitesun cover will be on the searchlight, so do I really need to go this far into replacing lightbulbs? 

Don't answer!

 

Another day, another color.  In a vague effort to progress with this build I opted to bring out the airbrush and start coloring in - after spending about half a day masking.  As I mentioned before, the camo pattern on these birds seems to have been more of a suggestion than anything so trying to figure out the exact pattern took a lot more effort than I anticipated.  This time around I am doing "Alpha" and true to form, there are very few photo's of Alpha kicking around the internet.  I think I got there in the end though this paint job probably covers several periods of Alpha's existence.

 

PB300010.jpg

 

Close up examination showed that I had gotten rid of most of the anti-slip finish on the fuselage though a few small spots remained.  I'm not going to go much further here as this area will be covered by the winch so that rough spot will never be seen.  Shoddy workmanship I know, but there you are.

Then as you do, I spotted something.  Or rather, I didn't spot something. Something I should have spotted and there was no spot. 

Any takers ?  I bet our Bill will spot the spotless thing.

 

PB300011.jpg

 

Anyways, while you are all pondering what to spot, let's carry on with the strip show.  Oh lookey -green and grey!    n'some yellow 'n some more green.

 

PB300012.jpg

 

Okay, I'm just teasing you now, but we're getting there.  I'm trying to build the suspense you see.

 

PB300013.jpg

 

Did anyone remember we had some white bits under there too ?

I'm quite pleased with the way the "panel" under the windscreen has turned out. Considering it's not actually there, the paint does a decent job of suggesting it does actually exist.

 

PB300014.jpg

 

More white bits.  They're always the best.

 

PB300015.jpg

 

It was all going so well.  Some very slight paint bleed here and there but nothing to worry about then this happened.

 

PB300016.jpg

 

Yes, this.  The blu-tack lifted the paint off - along with the Alclad black primer, right down to the bare plastic. More Rats.

So, let it be known that I am not a fan of Alclads black primer.  I've never had this happen when using their grey primer (which I love), but on this build, I have had several areas where the Alclad black primer has lifted clean off in several chunks.  Kinda sucks as I have an almost full bottle of the stuff.  I think it will be relegated to riming the non important stuff from now on, and I'll revert to the grey.

 

PB300017.jpg

 

Okay folks.  You've all had time to ponder, so, did you spot the spotless thing? (put your hand down BIll)

Yes, folks.  The cabin door track.  In my rush to color this thing in, I had forgotten to add the door track.  More rodents.  Well, Fly thoughtfully provide some PE bits for the door upper and lower tracks.  However, those of a nervous disposition may want to look away now - this is what they provide.

 

fly32010reviewjh_21.jpg

 

Sorry my Calliphora vomitori friends but that just doesn't cut it for me.  Those tracks might work well on the side of a barn, but on the sleek form that is a Wessex? Nope!.  Sorry, just not going to happen.

Digging around in my brass bits drawer I happened across this length of brass angle.  Looks promising, or more promising than the kit parts at least.

 

PB300018.jpg

 

A few swipes with the razor saw, and some micro drilling later, we're ready to plug in some rivets.  I can't stress how handy these little rivets have proved to be over the last few years.  I bought a bunch of assorted rivets for the train build and have found uses for them all over the place.  This time around - gluing brass onto painted plastic is a recipe for disaster, so a few well placed (and glued) rivets will help secure the track to the fuselage and prevent many tears later.

 

PB300019.jpg

 

Upper track and front top fitted.  Now I just need to figure out the bottom track.

 

PB300020.jpg

 

The bottom track should be a small top hat section, but the smallest square section I had was too large, but at this scale, who's to know I used a length of round rod?

Dammit, now you all know!

 

PB300022.jpg

 

To secure the bottom track, I bend the rod at right angles on each end, then drilled receiving holes in the fuselage.  The rod ends were superglued in place, then I ran a small bead of superglue along the length of the rod to secure it in place.  Now that looks way better then Fly's attempt.  (btw, Fly do not include the front edging strips at all).

 

PB300023.jpg

 

Hey look!   I used a piece of Fly's PE !!!  (after I had shortened it, and filed a bit off here and there)

 

PB300021.jpg

 

But does it fit ?

 

PB300025.jpg

 

Then a quick (still wet) coat of assorted colors to hide the brass and here we go.  It's amazing how a lick of paint makes that brass just become part of the airframe instead of looking humongously out of place.

It's almost as if it was meant to be.

 

PB300026.jpg

 

Well spotted folks. I congratulate thee all

 

Here endeth todays episode of Fly swatting.

Still plenty to do on this beast but with the coloring in and sticking bits on, I have a feeling that progress of a sort has been made.  Now I've just got the rest of the progress to catch up on.

 

再見  !

 

 

 

 

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Suddenly it looks all big and alive and foliagey and stripey and all sorts of goodness H.

Admirable door frame technique too.

 

Am writing to Somerset County Council suggesting  that they give consideration to naming an Avenue in Yeovil after you in recognition of services to Wessexery. Preferably new build houses with lots of highly detailed windows and doors....

47 minutes ago, hendie said:

More faffing about and I got two outer discs and two inner discs

5591ae400c3a565a21e83b80b83de4ad--kennet

You need a Silhouette cutter.

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Flippin' 'eck hendie, that's just marvellous… rats not withstanding :)

 

Sorry to see the primer lifting and the decal problem (Sellotape works for me pulling decals off) but you've beaten it into submission - good job!

 

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

You need a Silhouette cutter.

Seconded!

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Walter is looking lovely this season in Grey AND Green with brass accessories. Have you scheduled pull off checks for the cabin door?

A superb recovery from the edge there. Though at this rate the ground runs will be cancelled due to snow.

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