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


hendie

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19 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Don't know if you're intending the laser or inkjet route for a printer but both Mrs. B & myself use Canon MG series jobs - she a higher end version for reproducing her artwork for sale to galleries, me a low end one for general studio duties. In both cases excellent output quality when calibrated correctly and using good quality print materials.

 

Thanks Tony, I'll look into those.  I was tempted to go down the laser printer route but DPI seems to come at a premium with those compared to inkjet.  My last few printers have been Epson and I've been very happy with the print quality, but due to infrequent use, the print heads just jammed up and I can't get my current model to print anything at all even though I appear to have a good ink supply.  Now I hear that Epson have introduced a chip and will only work with genuine Epson cartridges - which  I always use - but hate the idea of manufacturers locking you down like that. 

I'm not sure if a cheap laser printer will give me the resolution I need for stencil markings, with text in the sub-millimeter height range.

More research needed.

 

19 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Swear to God my nerves won't take many more of these rollercoaster updates where your immaculate craftspersonship is sabotaged by the frailty of materials Alan. 

 

I think I'm now resigned to this is going to take what it is going to take.  After my weekend transfer sticking, when I looked at the beast, I realized the serial on the tail is angled down slightly and is driving me nuts.  I followed a Fly panel line (yes, I really should know better by now).  I'm going to try and remove it by micro-meshing. Unfortunately the Extradecal sheet only gives 2 of each letter in that size, so I've had to order another decal sheet, along with some roundels.  I really want to put this build behind me and move on to something else, but Fly seem determined to dash me at every turn. 

 

 

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I had a bit of an epiphany over serials when I made the underwing ones for my Sea Vixen Alan

 

I used my printer to print off the full serial in Word using the RAF thingy font on the computer

 

Not sure if it can be downloaded in a fruit based OS because Ced has failed to get it loaded

 

I simply printed the entire area of the underwing and chose which panel lines to align the serial with thus minimising the obvious transfer film anomolies we get

 

Might be worth a try some time

OR

do you want me to do some for you?

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23 hours ago, perdu said:

do you want me to do some for you?

 

thanks for the offer Bill but I'm going to get a new printer and have ordered some transfers so I should be good.

 

Do you know what font is suitable for stencils? and RAF typeface?

 

 

Edited by hendie
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Alan

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiR_IORgazmAhU1URUIHaYwDI8QFjAAegQIBhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.onlinewebfonts.com%2Fdownload%2F0fd6ee03b3eaa931c76ce7115691baec&usg=AOvVaw2soJfbWRYfF7i60RhaUTG9

 

Might give you a font called RAF-PW-ATH which I use in Windows, not sure whether you use Windose or not but I am aware that Ced cannot get it to work in his Mac

 

Hope this works

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3 hours ago, perdu said:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiR_IORgazmAhU1URUIHaYwDI8QFjAAegQIBhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.onlinewebfonts.com%2Fdownload%2F0fd6ee03b3eaa931c76ce7115691baec&usg=AOvVaw2soJfbWRYfF7i60RhaUTG9

 

Might give you a font called RAF-PW-ATH which I use in Windows, not sure whether you use Windose or not but I am aware that Ced cannot get it to work in his Mac

 

@CedB have you tried any of the other formats besides TTF (which is the default selection if you follow that link). I'd give OTF or SVG a try.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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7 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

 

@CedB have you tried any of the other formats besides TTF (which is the default selection if you follow that link). I'd give OTF or SVG a try.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Thanks Bill - I'll give that a try! :) 

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Does anyone know of a decal sheet that contains ROYAL AIR FORCE in white letters, approximately 8mm high ?  (ideal dimensions would be around 8 mm x 70 mm, but I's consider anything close)

 

the largest I have is about 5mm high and too small for the 1/32 Wessex.  I've searched and been unable to locate anything but there are folks a lot more knowledgeable who may have some information

 

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Hi H

 

You need Xtradecals sheet(s) X72-129 in white or X72-065 in black

 

They have various letter sizes is 8 inch, 12inch etc

 

The 24 inch version measures 8 mm high

 

Black version shown for clarity

IMG-20191215-WA0000.jpg

 

I'm not sure how many of each letter are on the sheet, it does have the full RAF legend in some sizes too, not sure if it has the right full size one for you

 

I'll check this morning

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Further investigating H

 

These sheets have NO Os but they have several 0s in the figure part

They have no Ys either in large size because they were unused in  the serial range, I would use the top of an X and a base from a 1 to make them

Also missing is letter C but as Gs are in the serial range it is easy enough to trim off the centre bar of a G

 

Hope this helps you

 

Xtradecals are sold by Hannants

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Thanks Bill.

I just spent the morning investigating t'interweb and I have to say I am not overjoyed.  The Xtradecal sheets you mentioned were the best options but as you rightly mention, still don't provide an ideal solution.

 

Pro's

They're white

They are 8mm

Cons

No O's, C's or Y's

Have to apply ROYAL AIR FORCE as individual letters/bits of letters

Only 4 R's per sheet - I need 6 so will need two sets

Hannants force me into selecting tracked and signed for and it's a real PITA to get to a post office around here

will cost about 25% of cost of kit just to get the one transfer

 

I have the white ROYAL AIR FORCE transfers left over from the Phoenix decals. It's a bit small small, but given the options I may just run with it to get this build over.  Thoughts ?

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

greetings fellow muddlers and I trust you are all having a wonderful festive season. 

 

After much soul searching and ponder after ponder I reached a momentous decision... Sod it!  This build has been kicking my butt for so long now, that I decided I'm just going to get it over with - one way or the other. With Fly's decal fiasco and the amount of missing/incorrect/over-scale and silvering decals I've opted to just move ahead with what I have to hand (as of today) and be damned.  This build is never going to be a showcase, and I have doubts it will even make the display cabinet - at least, not at the front.

 

The only white Royal Air Force transfers I have are left over from the Phoenix transfers of my long ago 1/48 build.  They're a bit too small, but after searching around I could find no alternatives of the correct size.

The R is positioned directly under that triangular reinforcing panel and the E of Force should be in line with the end of the beetleback.  Who's gonna know eh?

 

PC140001.jpg

 

Even these transfers decided to put up a fight with bits breaking off here and there.  I did manage to rescue these though.

 

PC150006.jpg

 

Fly provide very few yellow stencils and I found that their white stencils were very bright - too bright in fact. The Phoenix decal sheet provided a lot of yellow lines which were meant to be used on the rotor blades, but I had painted them so all those yellow lines were surplus to requirements... until now

 

PC140002.jpg

 

I found that I could tone down the white stencils by overlaying them with a Phoenix yellow stripe.  It's not perfect by any means and up close you can definitely see the yellow strip, but from a distance (the best way to look at this) they are passable.  Fly's own yellow stencils are also very bright.  Too strong in my opinion.  The stencils directly under the windows are Fly and you can see how much they stand out - at least they have the correct spelling on these.

 

PC150004.jpg

 

The decal for the anti-slip on the spine was like a piece of sellotape - really thick and separated from the backing about 2 seconds after it was dipped in water.  I had concerns about it conforming to the spine with it being so thick, but it seemed to settle down after application of MicroS2 stuff.

However, Fly have printed these are absolute rectangles - with no consideration for how they wrap around the curvature of the spine.  This results in some weird visuals particularly where a no-slip is adjacent to the white banding. See the 3rd and 5th no-slip panel from the bottom to see how they don't wrap properly.  I'll live with it

 

PC150007.jpg

 

The no-slip panel at the rotor was painted black and I used white decal strips to create the white outline. Much easier than trying to mask and paint.

 

PC150005.jpg

 

About a days messing about later...

 

PC150008.jpg

 

After my mess-up with the serial a week or two ago, I had to order another Xtradecal sheet since they only provide two of each letter.  The starboard side was micro-meshed to remove the out of alignment serial and a new serial applied.  That left me with one X since I had somehow managed to lose the one from the first sheet even though I had placed them all in a poly bag - and guess what happened...

 

PC260001.jpg

 

The "X" decided to fold completely vertically in half as I moved it from the decal sheet to the fuselage !!!   Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I spent about 15 minutes trying to unfold the damned thing but it was having none of it.  How it managed to do that I do not know - it was a perfect fold and you couldn't see any of the left half of the X behind the right half. Perfectly aligned. Soddit.

Well, I wasn't about to go and purchase yet another decal sheet just to get one X, so I cut a few slices from a V to get this.  At the end of the day it's probably never going to be seen as this will be behind the folded tail. Still annoying though, but that's been the story of this build it seems.

 

PC260002.jpg

 

That minor annoyance was followed by a slightly larger annoyance.  I spent ages creating a mask for the no-slip panels around the steps and paid particular attention to burnishing down the edges to prevent bleed.

To no avail whatsoever!  Argggghhhhh10

 

PC260003.jpg

 

After calming down a bit I simply painted the no-slip panels by hand and as long as you are quite far away....

 

PC260004.jpg

 

Roundels area  bit blue for my liking but I'm moving on.

 

Dammit - forum went and posted while I was typing.  Back in a few mins...

 

Having had enough of transfers for the time being I thought it was about time to start adding more bits - in this instance, the tail casting.  I drilled and fitted a section of wire into the casting then drilled a receiving hole in the fuselage and CA'd the wire in place.  That allowed me to position the casting with a few millimeters of height adjustment.

I drilled through the mounting points for the rear suspension

 

PC260005.jpg

 

And a brass rod was filed to shape and mounted to the fuselage. I pinned the brass rod to the casting with a small piece of stainless wire.

 

PC260006.jpg

 

Wessex tail wheel dry fitted

 

PC260008.jpg

 

This still requires a flat coat to dull things down, but at last I had a small sense of achievement after days of frustration.

 

PC260007.jpg

 

So why not add yet more frustration ? 

Since I am doing this build with folded tail and blades folded, I also needed to get the blade fold mechanism built up.

After perusing the instructions, I decided I couldn't make any sense of what they were telling me to do so I resorted to examining photo's of the blade fold hardware, and eventually sorted it out.

The instructions state to CA parts together. Nope. Not happening. Not. Happening.

The soldering iron came out again and some time later

 

PC260011.jpg

 

Things look a bit messy at the moment, but the solder should clean up easily enough - and at least these parts will stay together even with my kludgy handling techniques.

 

PC260010.jpg

 

Front shot.

 

PC260009.jpg

 

The brass has been cleaned up and primed and left to cure overnight.  Next session should see them a bit red (or dead!)

I've been putting off trying to straighten the blades but I think it's about time to tackle that particular problem. 

Hot water and soft plastic. What could go wrong?

 

 

 

Edited by hendie
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My goodness Alan, you are a master of perfection and I just have to take my hat off to you for the detail, accuracy and skill you have put into this. ' Not putting it in your display cabinet, so it won't be seen'?  Well if that's the case, I can give it a good home where it will be displayed! Your modesty belies your ability!  Having seen and photographed XR528/A in Hong Kong - and even flown in it- I can vouch for the authenticity of this model - superb! 

Edited by AMB
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3 minutes ago, AMB said:

Having seen and photographed XR528/A in Hong Kong - and even flown in it- I can vouch for the authenticity of this model - superb! 

 

Thanks @AMB - I appreciate your comments.  Reading over my post I now realize how "down" it is.  This model has been getting to me more and more over the last few weeks and I think my frustration is starting to show.  I'll make an effort to be a bit more upbeat next time around.  I may even start another build to provide a diversion when things start to get too much with this, though hopefully I am getting towards the home straight with Fly's poor effort and will soon be able to put this one to bed

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It must be frustrating to have to clear all the hurdles that are coming your way, but seeing how you deal with them, to eventually turn this very average kit into something very special is both educational and inspiring. I look forward to every update. 

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6 hours ago, hendie said:

Reading over my post I now realize how "down" it is.  This model has been getting to me more and more over the last few weeks and I think my frustration is starting to show.

Well I”ll be upbeat enough for the both of us how about that? :jump_fire:  (very irritating emoticon).  The decal issues ain’t spoiling her at all; not a jot.  She’s a world class beaut.

 

BTW.  Annoyingly neat soldering.........:D

 

7 hours ago, hendie said:

Hot water and soft plastic. What could go wrong?

 

I straightened all 4 wings on my ‘awks several weeks back.  Boiling water in coffee mug.  Wings dipped in the cup for a number of seconds I was too nervous to count but can probably be described as ‘several’ - wings straightened with thumbs and forefingers -  and held under the cold tap to speed the cooling.  Worked without disaster.  It’ll be fine.  But don’t quote me :whistle:

 

Right.  Off for a couple of days to the Northumberland coast to recover from Christmas......

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Stunning, superb, outstanding I've run out of expleatives your attention to detail even the smallest is remarkable!

I look forward to each and every update and it's a little sad that this is approaching the finish line but you'll have a show stopping replica at the end!

 

     Roger  

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Well, I wish I could mess up as well as that…

 

I Googled 'funny perfectionist quotes' in the hope of lightening your mood but then came across this:

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence" - Vince Lombardi.

 

Excellent work hendie :D 

(Did that work, a bit?) 

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First dip back into the forum after Christmas and it's to this one positively romping along.  Particularly energized to see that brass- erie cheri.

Your standard exquisite that is.

 

Heading west to buy a new duvet - later compadre. :clap2:

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1 hour ago, Fritag said:

 Wings dipped in the cup for a number of seconds I was too nervous to count but can probably be described as ‘several’ - wings straightened with thumbs and forefingers -  and held under the cold tap to speed the cooling.  Worked without disaster.  

It is a real act of faith, isn’t it?  I had to do some significant hot water action with one of the booms on my Vixen - it actually worked beautifully, but i recall feeling slightly sick as I put the boom into the water, knowing that if it failed I had an unfinishable model.  
 

Hendie, for a Wessex that doesn’t have the word NAVY written anywhere on it, yours is wonderful.  I totally understand why you cannot wait to see the back of it, but don’t lose sight of how MASSIVELY you have transformed that sow’s ear of a kit.

 

I await news of your next magnum opus with ‘bated breath.

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6 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Heading west to buy a new duvet

Is such continental frippery something to be found only in the West of Ireland, away from those Dublin sticklers for blankets?

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50 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Is such continental frippery something to be found only in the West of Ireland, away from those Dublin sticklers for blankets?

We have duvets in county Laois. They run wild, west of Kildare. Not easy to catch, but once caught they're easy to domesticate.

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