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


hendie

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These might help too, not sure if I sent you these before when you were proving Italeri didn't know how to do it

:)

 

Top and middle

Wessex_day2_048.jpg

Bottom

Wessex_day2_049.jpg

And the spring behind the PIN OUT flag

Wessex_day2_047.jpg

 

I really took this to get the ventilator slots in the transmission housing

 

:)

 

Hope they can be of assistance

 

 

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Just caught up again with this beast, nice to see the etch worked out in the end, even though I didn't understand any part of that process! :D. She is coming along nicely now, looking forward to a whole load more!

 

Bob

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17 hours ago, perdu said:

Hope they can be of assistance

 

they most certainly are Bill.  Superb photo's - thanks.

 

 

2 hours ago, moaning dolphin said:

Just caught up again with this beast

 

I wish I could!   It seems determined to fight me at every opportunity.

I got some work done over the weekend despite the plumbing interlude but spotted a whopper of an error on the Fly tail, which really ruined the mood. - more details when I can post a photo.

 

... and thanks to Bill's photo's above,  I may be delving into chemicals again much sooner than I had anticipated.  Oh well. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, hendie said:

I may be delving into chemicals again much sooner than I had anticipated. 

New Year..peace interlude now over..banter resumes!                                                                                                                                                                                  That's a bit drastic surely.

Why not have a fine malt whisky instead ?

 

Do you know what the IR missile defence thingy normally fitted to the port side was called and any decent pictures ?

Don't know whether 28 used them though which would be a shame as it looks as if its support would be excellent for PE foldery type stuff.

 

 

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41 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

Do you know what the IR missile defence thingy normally fitted to the port side was called and any decent pictures ?

 

No idea sorry.  28 Sqn was an (AC) squadron (taxi cab service) so I doubt it was ever fitted. 

If you can point me to what one looked like I can see if I have any photos lurking in my stash that may help

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Ah.... nope sorry.  That was never fitted to any of 28 Sqn cabs to my knowledge.  Certainly not in my time frame.  It's not something I've noticed in any of my photos but I wasn't looking for it.  I'll have another look through collection and post anything I find

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Good pics of that fit in the 4+ Wessex book and if my memory serves me I mastered them in 72nd scale for the ROTORcraft kit, check with Colin at Freightdog.

 

Colin

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On 1/3/2018 at 2:55 PM, Scimitar said:

Hendie,does this look familiar?

 

it certainly does Richard.  I have a copy of that one in my archive somewhere.  I find it a very nostalgic photo as to me, it captures the hangar lighting effect very well. Every time I look at it I get an almost 'homesick' kind of feeling.  Ah... to be that young again....

 

The thing that struck me about that photo is that there's no Nitesun's to be seen anywhere.   I have so imprinted in my mind that I can't picture a Wessex without one fitted.  Maybe it's because it was such a traumatizing event to do an engine running fuel up and having to wiggle in past all that scaffolding with a honking great, very inflexible fuel hose, trying to not get a full blast of exhaust in your face and trying not to go up in flames in the process.

I think that photo is after my time though as it looks like they all have the flotation device fitted to the u/c. - that was not common practice during my time.

 

So back to plastic.  Things have been slow (in modeling terms) since the new year and life always seems to make an appearance at the most inopportune times.

Lets start with a teaser... can anyone spot the glaring error in tail in this photo  (ignore the aerial, it's just dry fitted - but it's wring too!)

It's kind of hard to see in this photo so I'll forgive you if you miss it

 

P1010001.jpg

 

How about if I overlay a nice straight line along the length of the tail ?  See it now ?

 

P1010002.jpg

 

Maybe it's not too obvious in the photo, but... in the 1:1 all rivet lines are perpendicular to that red line. Not so on the kit. The rivet lines are all at some weird angle.  Definitely NOT perpendicular. Soddit.

It would be almost passable but as soon as you fit that aerial it becomes immediately noticeable.  On the 1:1 the top edge of that aerial is aligned/parallel with a line of rivets but on the kit, the rivets veer off a couple of degrees.

I've been mulling that over for a few days and I'm not sure what to do about it. What they (Fly) have done means that pretty much every rivet and panel line on the tail is wrong. :angry:

 

In order to keep moving and to cheer myself up a bit, I carried on with other aspects of the tail, namely the hinges.  If you take a quick peek back up at photo #1 of this post, you will see the brass hinge arrangement I first tried but didn't like.  Thankfully, I did not throw it away as it came in handy after all.

I snipped the center out if the 'hinge' leaving me with a small piece of tube soldered to a small piece of rod.  I then carved a small 'v' shaped notch in the kit plastic where Fly forgot to add hinges, and that allowed me to slot in the leftover hinge. Repeat for t'other side and CA in place.

 

P1010003.jpg

 

After that all I had to do was add the center part of the hinge casting.  This time made from styrene.

 

P1070005.jpg

 

I'm going to have a go at the styrene part again as I'm not entirely happy with the current part though it does prove concept for me.

That's the easy part done - the rest of the tail hinge gets progressively more difficult from here on in

 

 

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14 hours ago, hendie said:

What they (Fly) have done means that pretty much every rivet and panel line on the tail is wrong.  I've been mulling that over for a few days and I'm not sure what to do about it.

 

Fill Fly rivets. Prime.  Rivet with HGW.  Then you'll need to match up the rest of the airframe.  Simples.

 

All joking aside, you are facing a very similar dilemma to the one I had with the Sea King.  The problem is that you know the aircraft like the back of your hand, so any compromise / deviation / error in the design of the kit leaps out at you - I bet 99% of people wouldn't spot the problem on your Wessex, and most people thought / think I was insane to rivet a complete Sea King... but WE'd know it was wrong, and that is enough.

 

You have my sympathy.  I am also completely confident that you will work something out and the end result will be awesome.

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On 1/2/2018 at 2:41 PM, Scimitar said:

The thing behind the wheel.

I saw it a lot on 72's cabs but for some reason never photographed it.

535235.jpg

I wonder what the item is thats sticking out of the Tail boom facing port/rearwards 45* just ahead of the Code letter ? Are the two items connected or is this a seperate device ? Could the be some sort of sensor/recon. devices ? 

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8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Fill Fly rivets. Prime.  Rivet with HGW.  Then you'll need to match up the rest of the airframe.  Simples.

 

That thought had crossed my mind.   Unfortunately Fly have chosen to represent rivets as dimples in the skin.  If I use HGW rivets on the tail it kind of forces me into doing the entire fuselage. - Not really a thought that gets my modeling juices flowing.

I have one of those Trumpeter riveting tools, but I can't get a straight line out of the darn thing.

I think some experimentation may be called for.

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19 minutes ago, hendie said:

I have one of those Trumpeter riveting tools, but I can't get a straight line out of the darn thing.

I used the 1/72 one of these on the Dornier hendie and found it first class on both straight lines and curved surfaces:

https://thebodi.eu/model/Z63-13201/z63-riveting-tool-1-32

 

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2 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I wonder what the item is thats sticking out of the Tail boom facing port/rearwards 45* just ahead of the Code letter ?

I think this may be an early orange crop aerial type device ( I am mechanically inclined, not of the weird avionic type!) but there is also a similar type protrusion on the nose door. Don't know if it is connected to the danglie thing though.

 

Bob

 

 

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2 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I wonder what the item is thats sticking out of the Tail boom

That's the RWR fitting. There's four,two on each side of nose and tailboom.

They were fitted later in the Wessex's SH life,especially in NI.

They were permanently fitted whereas 'the dangly thing' (aptly described by @moaning dolphin) was removable

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Short update, nothing major.

 

Looking more at the tail I became more and more convinced that it could be made better.  The little gussets that Fly provided were a nice touch but didn't really cut the mustard for me.  Off they came.  They were also in the wrong place, and several were missed.  It was a relatively simple job to replace them with little triangles of styrene.

 

P1130005.jpg

 

I think based on that photo that they are a tad on the large side so I'll trim them down before painting.

Next up was to attack one of the other hinges.  Same process - drill ridiculously small hole in ridiculously small tube, fit a piece of rod in there and try and solder the little booger.  You may just be able to make out the small notch that I've cut in the kit plastic to receive the rod.

(hmnnnnnn I was going to leave the Fly gusset plates either side of the hinge, but looking at this photo, I think they too are going to go to)

 

P1140006.jpg

 

That hinge was CA'd in place, then it was on to the last hinge for this side of the tail.  The first three "hinges" were all single, but if you look at the top of the page in Post 401 you can clearly see in Bill's great photo that the last hinge part is a bit more complicated.

My first thought was to use a small piece of tube and drill right through - that way I can use the brass rod to attach to the main fuselage.  However, now that I look at Bill's photo above, I'm not so sure any longer... I'll think this one through a bit more before I commit myself.

 

P1140007.jpg

 

But in other news.... again looking at the tail, I'm becoming less and less and even lesser enamored with Fly's offering.

Take a look at the photo below.   That mesh was bothering me so I finally cut it from the fret and laid it in place.  Now compare that to the photo in the book.  The Kit parts proportions are all off don't you think ?

 

P1140010.jpg

 

and as I look at that photo I notice that the bottom hand hold is also in the wrong location.  On the kit, it's near the bottom edge of the tail, but on the 1:1 it is much higher. Sod!!!

That mesh needs to be much narrower, the ratio of width to height is all wrong. Darnit.  That's going to bug me so much I'm going to have to do something about it.

 

 

 

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That doesn't look right at all, the kit has it lining up with the IGB grill but I think it should be above it. Its almost as if they have cut out the wrong panel. Almost as if it should be the next panel up that should be chopped out. Oh lordy!

 

Bob

 

Edit:

Next panel up would be too high having looked at other phots, but does look like it is a little low and everything needs bumping up a bit, how does it look comparing to the plans?

Edited by moaning dolphin
Clarification
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That upper hinge on the port side is a TRIPLE, it must be expected to carry the load burden when the tail pylon is hinged open

the lower section is just a secondary guide hinge by the look of things

The basic fuselage mounted hinge bodies are the same top and bottom, they look as if they could have been mounted either way up on the tail cone from the symmetry shown

As for the handling grips, nothing would surprise me if they had that section mounted one division (looking at the rivet lines) too low, I am sure they have the upper grille of that pair pointing too far down hill as in

Cosford_Model_Show_2012_069.jpg

The top of the forward grille should line up on the top of the aft one

The lower hand grip is definitely too close to the curved bit

 

Sorry this is a dark picture but at least the contrast shows what I mean  :(

 

I'm glad I don't have to remake the bottom of that pylon, phewie!

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While your in the area of the upper pylon grip, look at the pylon fold lock mech, more Hendie scratch building coming up I feel.

 

The port upper pylon mount was always cracking and so come under a strict NDT inspection regime. X-Ray Foxtrot had this happen on 847 NAS in 1982. The aircraft was lifted by BN to the MV Astrominer for repairs. Not bad seeing as my mate found it whilst doing a AF, outside in the dark, with a red torch at Navy Point, in the Falklands. He saved lives that night with his diligence. 

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