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

[Terry1954]

The superbness of this thread and the work you are doing @hendie continue to draw me into the world of the Wessex. As a direct result of this one thread, including some input from @perdu I have so far acquired these little delights. Others will no doubt follow!

 

 

Terry

[Brandy]

@Terry1954 I'm sure our Bill @perdu can help out with that colour scheme. One of his favourites I believe.......

 

Ian

[Pete in Lincs]

I'll check for coins down the back of the sofa.....

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

2 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

The superbness of this thread and the work you are doing @hendie continue to draw me into the world of the Wessex. As a direct result of this one thread, including some input from @perdu I have so far acquired these little delights. Others will no doubt follow!

 

 

Terry

Oh, but ain't she a beauty?

[keefr22]

27 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Oh, but ain't she a beauty?

 

...with a nose only a mother could love (just like mine!)

[Terry1954]

24 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Oh, but ain't she a beauty?

A true beauty I agree! She nearly had a companion last week whilst at the Salisbury show as I had eyeballed another one on my way in to set up, but by the time I got around to going back to the trader, said bargain had gone. He who hesitates ...............

[hendie]

On 6/10/2018 at 4:35 PM, Martian Hale said:

I think you should be replacing the MRGB Hendie. The kit job is all over the place and I don't think you will ever be happy with it.

 

On 6/11/2018 at 2:54 AM, perdu said:

Oh oh...

 

On 6/11/2018 at 8:28 AM, Scimitar said:

As @Martian Haleand @perdu say above,you were never happy with that gearbox and despite the added hassle you know that it has to be sorted.

 

On 6/11/2018 at 2:07 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

You are right to question (a) it's accuracy and (b) the mental abilities of Fly.

 

Well, I've decided that the kit part will not be part of this build.   Unfortunately I'm having trouble finding a decent reference drawing/image/schematic/picture of any description which is a decent starting point.

The image I showed above is not good enough to use as there just isn't enough resolution or detail.  All the photo's I can find of a Wessex gearbox have been taken at an angle that is not conducive to drawing on with any degree of accuracy.   I just can't find a mrgb photo that is taken full face on as it were.

 

Still hunting...

[hendie]

Following a fruitless hunt around the basement and other portions of the house, it would appear I have nothing suitable as a basis for building a new mrgb so I'm kind of stalled on that for the moment.  still hunting and hopeful though...

 

Diverting my attention towards the back end of Big Wessi I realized that there was still a fair bit of work to be done on the tail. I might as well attack that now since the fuselage certainly isn't going together until the mrgb is fitted.   STabilizer!   Easy peasy, let's give that a quick dry fit.... Drats!

 

 

There's something not quite right there isn't there?  That photo above was taken after I had already removed some material from the stabilizer - initially, it fitted way further up the tail... c'mon Fly - what are you playing at?

Eventually I got somewhere near where it should be, but not without causing a nice gap around the top edge

 

 

Once again Fly's lack of any location marks whatsoever lead us into yet another guessing game.  I'm sorry, but that is just sloppy design and laziness, nothing more. Poor show Fly!

I eventually settled on this location based on panel lines - assuming Fly got that right, which isn't a given - but careful comparison with the kit and the 4+ book led me to this point.

 

 

Then just to make sure it actually stays in position - cos it only touches in a very few places - Big Pin!

 

 

while we're on the subject of tails... Little Wessi's tail went on a lot easier - stabilizer in place, all three handles fitted from stainless wire, and the fillet panel made from aluminum tape (still to be trimmed)

 

 

Now it was time to fit the handles to big Wessi.... nervous drilling episodes and breaking at least one drill in the process (must order more, I'm getting really low on supplies now)

 

 

Then both handles made from stainless wire and fited

 

 

Then it was time for the fillet panel - again from aluminum tape, this time in two pieces because of the compound curve

 

 

FInished!   I also added the reinforcing strips long the tail as Fly's rendition is very faint, and these particular strips are quite prominent.

 

 

For some light entertainment I turned my attention back to little Wessi.... strange.... I never thought I would be pleased to see another italeri kit, but Fly's offering is just so frustrating at times.

The lower step got fitted (both sides) and left to set up before I trim them back

 

 

Then back to big Wessi.  Still on the tail area, I thought it may be time to start putting together the tail rotor..... oh my....  What a mess!

There's flash everywhere, there's  seam lines everywhere.  The blades are warped and twisted.  The put twin gates on the leading edge of the blades.  (This is where we need an emoji of the pepperami guy shredding his noggin to bits on the grater.)

 

 

On closer inspection, they also got the shape a bit wrong as well.  Take a look at the root of the blade  - Fly's version is too narrow in diameter.

 

 

So I decided to chop it off and start scratching.... bits of brass tube coming in handy.  I spent ages thinking how can I cut sub 2mm sections of brass tube, keeping them square and all the same size..... then remembered I had a lathe!   'doh!

 

 

 

drats.... need to head out now.   More frustrations to come no doubt

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2018 by hendie

[CedB]

54 minutes ago, hendie said:

must order more, I'm getting really low on supplies now

Tony put me on to these - not as fragile as the ones with coloured bits IMHO and gosh, do they bite! HTH  

[hendie]

Thanks Ced.  He no posty USA.

I did find a good supplier who was nice and cheap when I bought my last batches - now I just need to find where I saved the link

[Terry1954]

8 hours ago, hendie said:

while we're on the subject of tails... Little Wessi's tail went on a lot easier - stabilizer in place, all three handles fitted from stainless wire, and the fillet panel made from aluminum tape (still to be trimmed)

 

Superb work on the big one of course, but I do get enjoyably distracted by this wee one!

 

Will have to make a start on my one when I get a few other builds out of the way.

 

Terry

[hendie]

4 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

but I do get enjoyably distracted by this wee one!

 

as much as I dislike italeri, I am liking Fly even less, and the italeri kit does provide some moments of relief

 

 

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

Hope this can be of some use.

(from Wessex HU5 at Dumfries and Galloway Aircraft Museum)

[hendie]

thanks!  That's about the most 'square-on' shot I've seen so far.   With some luck I should be able to create something resembling a main rotor gearbox from all the info I have now.  It's difficult to believe in this day and age that there are no drawings or dimensions available on t'interwebby thing

 

 

[perdu]

Have you perused the walk a rounds on Britmodeller?

There are a pile of MRG boxes lying around 'in state' in some of the Wessex sets

[hendie]

On 6/19/2018 at 10:00 AM, perdu said:

Have you perused the walk a rounds on Britmodeller?

 

I most certainly have Bill... and found the same situation.  There's just no decent straight on shots available that I can find.  So I've gone with what I have.... eyeballing it as best I can.

This is as far as I have got snatching a few minutes at lunchtime here and there at work.  Still not great but better looking than Fly's emaciated attempt.  I'm not sure whether to leave it at this level of detail or start adding other bits and pieces - since it will never be seen since you lot banned me from opening up the trans deck.  (I'll try and remember to add the 3° forward tilt before I finish it - it was 3 ° wasn't it?)

All comments on shape and detail etc welcomed - I may work on it a bit more and eventually add it to the Shapeways shop in case anyone is dafter than me.

Too thin ? Too fat?  Does my bottom look big in this?

 

 

***edit:   Looking at Scimitars great photo above, I can already see that I've made the ribs a bit long and they need shortened up - quite considerably in fact.

 

Moving on... I left off somewhere in the last post gibbering about steps.  The bottom step was trimmed to look a bit more like a step -actually very similar to italeri's attempt but just slightly finer in detail  i.e. not as clunky looking (almost)

 

 

Then the double step got added - still to be trimmed here obviously.

 

 

While all that was curing, drying, or just otherwise laying there I changed tack and went back to Big Wessi... and promptly got very discouraged.  Take a swatch at these two bits!

 

 

Erks alors!   You (well, me) is expected to put two folds in that bottom piece, then glue the top piece in the center of it, ... attach it to the tail rotor and THEN expect it to all stay together while all the actuating rods are added.   Sorry, t'aint gonna happen

This shot below shows the parts I'm supposed to use... need to think hard on this one... involving brass rod again I think.

 

 

So to cheer me up, I folded this bit and looked at it for a while.

Then put it away

 

 

The brass mesh got fitted to the tail. - I think I made a really nice job of this one.  Then promptly squashed it flat while I was phenargling about with other tail parts.

Oh well, the real things got pretty batted in use so I'm counting it as a win

 

 

Oh, up above in t'other post I had started reworking the tail rotor as I felt Fly's version could be improved a bit.  Here's the current state of play.

 

 

Again, much better looking at least to me.  I did consider removing the molded hinges at the center and making my own from scratch but after considering it for about an hour I gave up and decided the climb wasn't worth the effort (and I didn't have any suitable materials anyway).  I settled for bending the mounting wire to give the characteristic all over the place look when at rest.

 

 

Since now I have no option but to start on the PE parts I put that away for a rainy day and started on little wessi again.

 

Easy things first - the resin instrument panel was fitted.  Both the kit part and the resin part are too narrow for the cockpit but there's some things I can live with

 

 

Then back to tail rotors for a change. The italeri version being much simplified and thus (almost) easier to work on despite its small size.

As is usual with italeri, the connecting rods on the cross piece were large and clunky so I cut them off and drilled out the ends to accept some stainless steel wire.  I pondered for a bit figuring out how to align and fit 4 ridiculously fine wires through ridiculously small holes - I can hardly see the wire even with magnifiers on!

Eventually my brain figured out that if I cut each of the wires to a different length then I could feed the wires into the cross piece one at a time... starting with one...

 

 

Finally getting all 4 wires through.

 

 

They were then trimmed off after adding a drop of super glue, and a small piece of 1960's Lysander plastic was added as a finishing touch for the center boss that isn't present in the kit.

At this point I realized that all the gubbins behind the  rotor wasn't present either so I'll mull that over and see if I'm daft enough to attempt anything there.

 

 

Reasonably happy with the way things are going with the tail I switched my attention to the main rotor.  Cor italeri... what big pins you have!

Way out of scale so off they came, but not before drilling through from the reverse side when there was still some strength left in the part.  You can see how clunky the kit pins are here.

 

 

Then with a few swipes of a round file, the swash plate was given a more swash plate look.  Then I immediately put it down and lost it !   Yes I did!

After searching fruitlessly for a while I remembered - oh... I have another kit sitting there

 

 

so I used the part from the spare kit, fitted that and then almost straight away I found the original part.  Who would ever have thought such a thing would happen !

And as you can see, I used brass rod to replace the humongous bits of plastic I removed earlier.

 

 

A quick dry fit of the 'rotor head'...

Sort of okay, but something is missing.

 

 

Oh I know... the lower swash plate.  The green bit, kindly supplied by the remnants of the Lysander build from so long ago

 

 

then just to make it look a bit more swash plate like... 4 bits of scrap rod added

 

 

The whole rotor head may need to be lowered just a tad but it's coming together

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2018 by hendie

[Azgaron]

Very nice work! Progressing nicely!

 

Håkan

 

[TheBaron]

Swish plates and hot rodding - more Wessex tales than a Thomas Hardy convention in this latest gala!

9 hours ago, hendie said:

Cor italeri... what big pins you have!

Way out of scale

On evidence here and on the Iron Chicken  I would suggest that  the company motto probably translates as 'Err on the side of prominence'... 

9 hours ago, hendie said:

but it's coming together

Most definitely. Some sweet CAD work too!

Admit it hendie - you're intent on uploading an entire Wessex to Shapeways piece-by-piece aren't you? 😄

[Terry1954]

Progressing most deliciously!

 

Re the big gearbox assembly...

9 hours ago, hendie said:

I'm not sure whether to leave it at this level of detail or start adding other bits and pieces - since it will never be seen since you lot banned me from opening up the trans deck.

 

We could always be persuaded to temporarily lift the ban? 😆

 

Terry

[Hamden]

 

More and more outstanding detail construction in multiple scales.

As said before your attention to detail is second to none

 

  Roger

[perdu]

I don't want to sound more curmudgeonly than usual but if you opened the trans deck instead of making the turtleybackey bit as good as you really can, it would all be a bit 'samey'

Isn't there some stuff needs doing to the Twitaleri trans deck?

Or did you do that earlier, before my recent self harm sessions?

 

Anyway up, lovely lower swashy plate

😉

[hendie]

 

13 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Admit it hendie - you're intent on uploading an entire Wessex to Shapeways piece-by-piece aren't you? 😄

 

nice thought, however someone has beat me to it though in a much larger scale

 

 

13 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Some sweet CAD work too!

 

 Thanks, but pretty basic stuff for any CAD monkey.  I've since redone most of it and I think the proportions are now much better - I'll post more when it's closer to being finished.

 

 

onto other more pressing stuff.  Not much in the way of work done this evening really.  I finished off the swash plate and then decided to cut off the big thick thingies italeri had contaminated the top of the 'gearbox' (and I use the term very loosely) with - and add some brass rod instead. Not up to Perdu/Baron standard in seventy minuscule scale but should be passable from a distance.

 

 

then added something approaching a torsion link.  Approaching from some distance it would appear based on this shot.

 

 

Not much of an update really was it?  Nope... I'd agree. 

But.... in other news.... in a different kind of build not so very far away...

 

I got some bits today.  See ?  A bag of bits and some other bags of other bits.

 

 

Wassat then? 

 

Well, one of my colleagues at work recently invested in a very nice piece of equipment for his woodworking hobby, and me being the cheapskate I am, pulled in a favor. 

When he told me what he'd got my mind started wandering in the usual 'oh, I wonder what he can make that I can use' kind of way.   A week or two later, I had drawn up some plans and asked him 'how many beers?' and here we are...

 

I got enough bits to make two of these... ehrrrr.... headstones?

 

 

and four of these.... any ideas yet?

 

 

This might provide a better clue...

 

 

Yup, it's one of those.

 

Or, at least, an early prototype one of those.  - I thought it may come in handy later when I have to start adding more bits on the outside of this behemoth.

 

It really is a prototype (no, not the Fly kit - though that maybe arguable!) and I'll need to work with it a little bit to understand what the deficiencies are and how to improve it. 

I've tried to make it as versatile as I can so we'll find out later if that was a mistake or not.

 

 

This may provide a better idea of how it all works. In reality, identical to the way all the other plankwing holders work, but I am not aware of anyone offering a design intended specifically for helicopters.  We're always at the back of the queue aren't we?

 

The helicopter can be stationed vertically like so

 

 

and can even be angled over for some detail work or sticking on the transfers.

You can see that I included some prong like features so that I can use elasticky bands to secure the helicopter in place if needed. 

The holder is also designed in such a way that I can hold one half of the helicopter shell to do work on the interior (but forgot to take photographic evidence of such a feat.)

Obviously this is the Fly kit at 1/32 and I'll have to see if it will also work in 1/48 or not. Maybe with some slight modifications, who knows.

 

 

No doubt after I have attempted to use it for a few weeks I'll have a few ideas to improve the helo helper... or bin it. 

Definitely worth trying out for a few beers though as far as I am concerned

 

 

and here endeth this evenings small update

 

 

 

[TheBaron]

Gob.

Truly.

Smacked.

That triple-H is an utterly elegant solution hendie and I'll be most interested to see your findings of it in use.

Blimey! 

[Pete in Lincs]

Also suitable (with adult supervision) for U boats, some plank wings & certain Sci fi builds.

Brilliant stuff as always, Hendie.

[Azgaron]

Very nice stand for your heli! Good job Hendie!

 

Håkan