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


hendie

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Looking good, Hendie.

Memory has kicked in again though...

(Don't want to cast aspersions), but...

Two sets of jettison handles on the cabin windows?

The lower ones will be behind the seats anyway.

The RH cabin window I can't remember as being jettisonable.

I thought it was just perspex held in by the rubber seal.

I have been known to be wrong (once or twice) in the past.

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This is a nautical Walter admittedly but I can't see why the naval ones would have a different facility to the land based machines

 

The small window Wessex preceded the large window airframes into service I think

Picture_180.jpg

 

I see this as naval due to the window opening being three bays wide rather than two on the HC2s

 

I thought I had another but it is only of this chap and gives no idea of the rear window position  :(

 

Load-_Master-greyed.jpg

Shown this so the non Wessex familiar brothers and sisters can see just how nicely hendie has captured the cabin 'look'

 

Also note, just above the SLR a nice brown boot sitting well clear of the pedals

 

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oh ye of little faith.  What a bunch of non believers and asparagus throwers.  I dunno,  sometimes I despair of you lot.

 

4 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Memory has kicked in again though...

(Don't want to cast aspersions), but...

Two sets of jettison handles on the cabin windows?

 

Never having had occasion to try and use the fast exit implements, I'd hazard a guess at 1 x Release the Window handle, and 1 x Grab the panel by this here handle and chuck the whole lot out the hole handle.  I have proof you know....

 

4 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

The lower ones will be behind the seats anyway.

 

Since when has that ever stopped a modeler?  How long you been a member here Pete?

 

4 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

The RH cabin window I can't remember as being jettisonable.

I thought it was just perspex held in by the rubber seal.

 

Okay you got me on that one.  I was getting a bit overexuberant (<- didn't realize that was one word) while I was building that lot.

I don't think the 'panel' was jettisonable, but there was definitely a grab this piece of webbing hanging off the seal on the window to make it fall out - I have proof you know.  Check XR525 for your starter for 10

 

 

1 hour ago, perdu said:

This is a nautical Walter admittedly but I can't see why the naval ones would have a different facility to the land based machines

 

'cos they were used to being in water.  We wanted out faster.

 

 

Look carefully oh ye doomsayers and place your asparagus back in the box.... With yon eyes cast a glance at this 'ere photo and what can you see?... Yes, nestling there between the second and third seat from the right on the starboard side.  Could it be?  Surely not? What?  No? Can't be can it?  

Cor, well blow me down with a feather guv.... I spy two black and yellow striped handles.  One above t'other.  Why two ?  Well, one's got to be release, and the other grab and throw - I can't think of any other reason (though I sit to be corrected at any time).

 

5826643894_f00c4930ed_b.jpg

 

Anyone else see them or am I imagining things?  (wouldn't be the first time)

 

your horse hair shirts and birch branches are in the post.

 

:tease:

 

 

 

 

53 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Carrying one’s own pub sign around is a fine way of demonstrating the versatility of a helicopter!

 

Classic   :rofl2:    

 

 

 

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I don't need to check out XR525 do I?

 

Pretty sure the pull out strip is in some of the pictures I took of her, just didn't think that would mean there wasn't a handle inside too

 

(any one wondering why I haven't looked at my pictures of 525 yet? I am still not fully up to speed with old pictures on the new computer)

 

:(

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3 minutes ago, perdu said:

I don't need to check out XR525 do I?

 

of course not.  I was making light of Pete's mention that there was no panel to jettison on the starboard side - (he was absolutely right) but you could drop the window out if you couldn't wait to get out the door.

Edited by hendie
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Ye,s there was a 'tear off tab' which removed the centre of the seal

and made it easier to push out the RH cabin window. We used a

special tool and swarfega to fit this lot. It was still a pig to do!

Imagine/picture an old Mini windscreen seal with the chrome insert.

Take out the insert and the window is easy to remove.

 

As for the LH windows. I would say that is a sticker in the upper position.

The handle swivelled two lugs out of their position in the lower portion

of the window frame and so made it possible to push it out.

 

There was also a large stripey handle on the inside of the cabin sliding door.

But not many people model that. :giggle:

 

I'm just pointing all this out to remove the danger of discovery at a later date

as has happened on other builds in the past. (Mentioning no names).

 

BTW, Wessex panels/doors etc were relatively robust and easier to set up than 

their equivalents on the Puma HC1. Their cabin doors could be a pig! Which has 

reminded me of the LH cockpit door on the Puma HC1. It's not a door, but another

jettisonable panel. If memory serves, one of the OCU Pumas went on a visit to Berlin.

Circa 1982 (ish) They took up the Mayors Son who was given the LH seat. Mid flight he

apparently wondered what the little yellow & black handle was for. he soon found out!

 

 

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4 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

As for the LH windows. I would say that is a sticker in the upper position.

 

Look closely, the red and black is from the warning sign painted on the airframe but if you squint - you can just see a yellow and black rod in front of it.

It's a lot clearer in this shot, though we appear to be missing the lower release handle.  I have a shot somewhere showing both but

 

wessex-internal-shot-backwards.jpg

 

and this one which I just found on a web trawl (and it seems my little lights should be white, and not red   :weep:

 

33639080570_8455498cf6_b.jpg

 

 

4 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

There was also a large stripey handle on the inside of the cabin sliding door.

 

:hmmm:

 

 

 

 

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I have made a vow, the door internal handle will never be modelled by me

 

I'm satisfied with making the outer handles in72ooth scale, ta

 

My eyes cannot see an upper handle though, sorry hendie sir

 

I see the obvious lower handle, the grab handle above it below the glazing panel but I just cannot make out one at the top

 

:(

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4 hours ago, perdu said:

My eyes cannot see an upper handle though, sorry hendie sir

 

I see the obvious lower handle, the grab handle above it below the glazing panel but I just cannot make out one at the top

 

Bill, I think we may have been talking at cross purposes here.   There are only two handles which I was referring to as the upper and lower.  The upper (immediately below the window) is the grab handle ('cos it's more upper than the lower handle), and the lower handle is the release lever.

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I feel I have to jump in here, was just going to be a passive viewer for this thread but have to say that detail is stunning, I doff ones hat to you sir!

 

14 hours ago, hendie said:

(and it seems my little lights should be white, and not red   :weep:

Of course those "lights" are neither white or red but should be "Tritium" (Cant remember the Humbrols number for the glow in the dark series!), they are Beta lights so if you can get yours to glow in the dark i'll be even more impressed :D

 

Bob

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2 hours ago, moaning dolphin said:

so if you can get yours to glow in the dark i'll be even more impressed :D

 

oh! you just had to go and do that didn't you ? Didn't you?

 

cue the need for a cunning plan.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, perdu said:

If anybody can...

 

that's easy for you to say!

 

 

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Ah, Beta lights. Later to be dubbed radioactive and 

NOT to be broken or messed with. Now they tell us.

 

As for window handles, I see what you mean now. 

The horizontal bar is a handle that I'd forgotten about.

The angled jobby is the release handle. Doh!

 

I forgot to ask, does the bottom of the gearbox appear

in the roof panel? If not, to what does one attach ones

Loadie and SACRU pole?

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I thought you attached the loadie to a ring bolt in the door frame 

 

Provided you wanted to keep him of course

 

 

No -  that's wrong.  I remember seeing a loadie try to jump out after a flight and forgetting to take their monkey harness off first.   Very roadrunner ish result

 

So the connection must be inside somewhere 

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A shackle on the bottom of the gearbox. 

(Or was that the Puma?)

The SACRU pole had a large PIP pin (I think?).

(Again, or was that Puma?).

I'm confusing myself now!

 

Best shot I can see in the walkarounds is this...

SDC10526.jpg

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1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

If not, to what does one attach ones

Loadie 

There was a rail with a channel in it on the roof . The end of the dispatcher's harness had a pulley type thingy which fittted on to it. (visible in bottom photo in post 129)

I will edit this later when I find a picture of the rail

On Page 3 post 61 you can see the end of the rail top right.

Google 'Westland Wessex crewman' and scroll down to line 22 extreme right shows a good pic (photobucket so cant reproduce)

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1 hour ago, Scimitar said:

There was a rail with a channel in it on the roof . The end of the dispatcher's harness had a pulley type thingy which fittted on to it. (visible in bottom photo in post 129)

I will edit this later when I find a picture of the rail

On Page 3 post 61 you can see the end of the rail top right.

Google 'Westland Wessex crewman' and scroll down to line 22 extreme right shows a good pic (photobucket so cant reproduce)

Yup I see it

 

I wonder if we are lucky, or are we cursed that so many good interior Wessex pictures have made their way into the ether?

 

:)

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1 hour ago, perdu said:

or are we cursed that so many good interior Wessex pictures have made their way into the ether?

 

but the bit you really want to see is just out of focus, or just out of shot, or obscured, or removed, or...

 

Anyhoos, last evening the cable runs began. The white cable at the top is the 30 AWG that I just bought  - good enough for some parts but not for the masses of cables that you generally see run through a Wessex.  The bunch of cables below is made from some wire strands that I sprayed with a rattle can.  Fortunately it turned out much better than I had hoped.

 

PA250001.jpg

 

Then, cable ties applied (flatted lead wire glued into place) the cable run looks much more to scale, and therefore (in my eyes anyway,) more convincing.    Bill, if you look at the scrap of paper top right you will see my recipe for the apple green soundproofing. I keep forgetting to bring the piece of paper upstairs with me...

I thought I had a decent match with 4 parts gloss white (Model Master FS17875) and one part Pale Green (Model Master FS34227) but...

 

PA260004.jpg

 

When I compared it to the photo's in the 4+ book, it wasn't such a good match. But here you can see part of the difficulty in trying to match that color - look at the different shades of green just in those three photo's.  So I then took one part of my custom color and mixed that with another 4 parts white (I only used gloss white because it was what I had to hand) and that seemed a little bit closer.

 

PA250002.jpg

 

I had intended to spray a very thinned white over the top to give a faded appearance, but senility crept in and I totally forgot before I added some Flory wash (the sandy colored one).  After some messing around, and a coat of alclad semi matte, I was reasonably happy with the appearance. 

Compare the soundproofing shown in position in the photo below with the one on the extreme left, above.... much closer I think. (though it could still do with being a touch paler)

 

PA270006.jpg

 

Followed by an unforgiving close up.  I can be such a dork at times... I even added the  dark green edging strip around the soundproofing. - looks a lot better form further away though.

 

PA270007.jpg

 

and another shot for no other reason than I took it.  Which reminds me - those red lights will be disappearing this weekend as they succumb to my cunning plan.

 

PA270011.jpg

 

Wiring on the starboard side.  I've started adding little bits of scrap electronics to busy the area up.  I need to see what else I have lying around as my current supply is almost exhausted.

 

PA270010.jpg

 

In case anyone was interested, this is how I made the intercom cable - 38 gauge wire was wrapped around a Ø0.5mm brass tube.  Once I had the right length and the right appearance, I cut a small section of the brass tube and slipped it over the end of the wire to represent the jack plug.  Paint it black and you're off to the races.

 

PA260005.jpg

 

Then last update for this evening is that awful ceiling panel.  Okay, Fly made an attempt at it, but it's just too regimented and to my eyes, it is nowhere near being realistic.

 

PA270012.jpg

 

I guess the ceiling soundproofing panels are next then.  When I mixed up the paint for the rear bulkhead cover, I thought once I had the color about right I was going to mix up a large batch so that I had enough to do the entire interior. However, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of mixing up the paint for each section of the soundproofing... hopefully that way I will get some variation in the color and it will end up looking more like the 1:1

 

 

 

 

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Off to the races indeed.

It's coming along very nicely.

Despite any nonsense from me.

 

(It was the end of a looong day at work! Sacru pole, Doh!)

(trying to remember back 30 odd years doesn't help!)

 

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