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

[Pete in Lincs]

5 hours ago, hendie said:

eventually endeavor to add a double row of rivets

They were screws up the centre of the beetleback. Double row & staggered?

Mushroom head and single slot. A Yankee screwdriver was dangerous up there.

One slip and you had a hole in the beetleback. I still have a few old Wessex screws in the garage.

 

It looks to me like the kit beetleback tapers too abruptly as it continues aft.

 

 

[CedB]

7 hours ago, perdu said:

I wonder if we could ask somebody near to either Hendon or Weston on the mud to pop in with a tape measure

I'm not that far from W-S-M Hendie so if you want to give me an excuse to visit the museum let me know what you want measured* and I'll pop down.

 

* Exact instructions required. I don't do helichoppers...

[hendie]

5 hours ago, perdu said:

That 'gap' shows quite well on this museum shot

 

Isn't that one of those ultra-rare RAF Rescue Canaries that Crisp loves?

 

 

26 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

It looks to me like the kit beetleback tapers too abruptly as it continues aft.

 

4 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Any idea what beetle it was based upon? Might explain the fit...

 

I'd say it bares a close resemblance to a battered '71 VW Beetle, though other have commented that it's closer to this aspiring young musician

 

 

 

Well, today's adventures saw me bringing out the cement mixer and firing up a batch of quick drying sludge

 

 

Then, while I remembered, I checked out the kit exhaust area.  I penciled in some panel lines here just for clarity - the lines are very faint on the kit.

 

 

If you remember, I had the exhaust cans printed at Ø11.2 mm and they looked a it beefy.  I now think that impression is because of the way the kit has been designed.

I checked the 4+ book and as best I could guesstimate, the exhaust can measured about 5.48 - 5.5 mm.   Now X that by 72 and then X by 0.03125 (1/32) and you get an exhaust can of Ø12.33 mm or thereabouts.

That penciled circle up there is almost Ø14 mm.  Which means that the exhausts likely are correct, but appear wrong as there is no 'gap' around them as Bill noted.  I did do a double check on the kit by checking that panel around the exhaust can with the 4+ schematics and the panel width is as spot on as can be given operator variability when measuring.

This weeks problem now presents itself.... now that I know the printed exhausts are the correct diameter - do I reduce the diameter to give the appearance of that gap around them on the fuselage or do I now go ahead and dig out that plastic and hope to make a half decent job of clearing it out?

 

Now way back when I was assembling this fuselage and underside you may remember me pointing out an aerial box on the underside which got in the way while I was sanding.  It never dawned on me when I was assembling this, but that aerial box was on the starboard side.  The HC2's also had another on the port side - which is not represented on the kit.

Hang on.... we're going in...

 

 

a bit of phenargling later...

 

 

The mounting 'box' was made up from square rod, with additional layers of sheet glued on the sides to build up the thickness

 

 

And a fuzzy photo later we have the mounting box fitted

 

 

What didn't really go so well was the fitting of these undercarriage mounting plates.  This is the 'good' side   .... but !  

I have a plan. Once the glue has cured on these two ill fitting plates, I'm going to remove all the detail and start again.  Bet you never saw that coming!

 

 

My half baked plan involves additional plates, more webs, brass tubing, brass rod and probably a few other bits and pieces as well.

 

 

55 minutes ago, CedB said:

I'm not that far from W-S-M Hendie so if you want to give me an excuse to visit the museum let me know what you want measured* and I'll pop down.

 

 

Ced - you're a star!   There is a distinct lack of Wessexes over in this continent.

There are a couple of things I would like measured.   See the two blue-tac appendages here ?   If you (or anyone) could get the diameters of both (that's the Oleo leg, and the swing arm leg) I would be most grateful.   I'm sure someone previously had measured the oleo diameter but I've since lost the measurement.  Measure around the main leg itself - not over the sleeve.  No real rush - I won't be getting around to making these parts for some  quite a long time yet

 

1 hour ago, CedB said:

 

* Exact instructions required. I don't do helichoppers...

 

 

Okay, here goes... Take measurements.  Don't lose measurements.  Drink many beers.    Don't lose measurements.  Get designated driver to take you home and treat you to a good curry.    Don't lose measurements.  Post measurement here when you're (at least almost) sober. 

 

 

I am convinced that Fly have got the diameters of both parts seriously wrong.  They don't look like they'd be able to support a Wasp, far less a Wessex

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

You have to open the hole Mr Perfectionist

Much better option than rebuilding the pipes

 

All good fun this kit

 

🤔9

[hendie]

I just knew you were going to say that Bill.

 

 

 

Haven't you got some wing-folds to be making?

[keefr22]

@perdu - Bill, you might want to replace that pic in post 973 with a link to it instead, Airliners . net can apparently get very uppity about their pics appearing elsewhere, and the mods here can get quite excited about it. 

 

Have a look here;

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234948022-airlinersnet-and-copyright/

 

Just a heads up

Keith

[CedB]

OK hendie, got it, but can I have pie and chips? Don't like curry...

[perdu]

Give that boy a Pukka and chips someone

 

Hendie I agree that the support strut is a fiction but I am not too sure about the swing arm

 

Looks acceptable to me, I took zillions of pics of the u/c when I was into my old whiskery researching phase of the HC2 build

Doesn't look far off,  it as we're rewarding Ced with pie and chips though, he might as well get serious with both parts

 

 

Ced, its the bit that holds the wheels at the body end and the bit that stops the wheels folding up

 

Does that help you?

 

Excellent

[Wafu]

Hi Hendie,

 

Still waiting for you to market the ‘must have accessory’ the Hendie helicopter helper.😉 A must for messy modellers like me, who’s work bench resembles the local council tip. 

 

Great at work and great to see you back on the big brother Wessex. Mine keep staring at me from the shelf of dispair. 

 

Cold shivers went down my spine when Pete talked about the ‘Yankee (pump action) screwdriver’ 😬

 

Cheers the Woo.

[CedB]

54 minutes ago, perdu said:

Ced, its the bit that holds the wheels at the body end and the bit that stops the wheels folding up

 

Does that help you?

Thanks Bill, helpful and good to increase my aero-engineering vocabulary   

The museum is only open Wednesday through to Sunday so it's given me the chance to think about the task...

I don't have anything that's good for measuring big things... no, not zat yoo notty boy!

Ordered one of these from Amazon that I hope will help.

 

I've also learned that adding a '-' before a word in Google omits the word from results, as in "large calliper -vernier". Almost works too.

[keefr22]

Any excuse for a new tool....!!

 

K

[CedB]

13 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

Any excuse for a new tool

Of course!

I was really good though; I only spent a bit of time on the Proops website and I didn't buy anything else.

Yet.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

17 hours ago, hendie said:

Isn't that one of those ultra-rare RAF Rescue Canaries that Crisp loves?

I don’t have a problem with ALL Crabair yellow jobs; they did a splendid job for many years.  It’s just that made-up yellow HAS3 that gets my hackles up!

 

[Bill had removed the pic before I saw it, so I’m assuming it was the Bournemouth XT257 monstrosity again!]

 

 

[perdu]

No Crisp it was one of the genuine HAR2s

https://postimg.cc/3WtcQdCD

I would never mistake that obscenity for the real thing

😠

[HKindependent]

On 9/16/2018 at 8:58 PM, hendie said:

If I had realized what was wrong with this area before I put this altogether I think I would have made that change.

Is it possible to DIY mold an vacuum form beetle back? Although the resin part glued, it still can remove . Just a possibility thinking. 

[hendie]

2 hours ago, HKindependent said:

Is it possible to DIY mold an vacuum form beetle back?

 

It's possible though you would lose some crispness and definition of the part.   The main problem still remains though - the beetleback would still be too wide at the front end (though it would be easier to fudge with a thin vacuformed part)

 

 

3 hours ago, perdu said:

I would never mistake that obscenity for the real thing

 

and I obviously didn't pay enough attention to the photo or I would should have noticed that.  I'm off for a hairy shirt and some self flagellation

 

 

9 hours ago, Wafu said:

Still waiting for you to market the ‘must have accessory’ the Hendie helicopter helper

 

thanks for reminding me -  I must chase up my 'man with a laser' today

 

 

[perdu]

The entire point H is that there was nothing to notice, the picture I inadvertently posted (Thanks for the warning Keith) WAS of the HC2 not that weird misbegotten painter's wet dream of which Crisp was worried

 

edit

 

The main problem still remains though - the beetleback would still be too wide at the front end (though it would be easier to fudge with a thin vacuformed part)

 

A dedicated Wessexeer might make the beetle back with a few dozen thin strips across a former...

 

 

[perdu]

Not me though

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I don’t know whether you can get such publications in the Colonies, but there’s an article in the new Meng Air Modeller about building the Fly HC2.  He’s built in with engine bays open and a lot hanging out, as an abandoned RAF cab in a very distressed state.  Nice piece of work - he makes the usual broad statements about “being a limited run kit it needs a bit of work”...

[Pete in Lincs]

Abandoned?? How rude!

 

Oh, and nobody tell @hendie or @Ex-FAAWAFU what I've done to a Wessex in the Sci fi thread.

Oops....

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Abandoned?? How rude!

 

Oh, and nobody tell @hendie or @Ex-FAAWAFU what I've done to a Wessex in the Sci fi thread.

Oops....

Sod the Wessex... TWO SEAKINGS.  You have no soul!

[Pete in Lincs]

Erm, They were abandoned?

[CedB]

Nice trip to the Helicopter Museum today to get Hendie's leg measurements.

They have a few Wessexesses so I asked one of the volunteers which was a '2' and if I could, er, measure it's legs.

A very nice man called Roger showed me to this one:

 

 

… which he says is a '2', but he did point out that they all seem to be different, even within the same mark. Apparently ALL the panels are labelled with the registration number so the team think they may have been 'hand made'.

Anyway, nice time had and measurements taken by Roger:

 

 

Hope you can read those labels but just in case the diameters are:

Top sleeve 108mm
90mm top section to mid-sleeve
95mm sleeve
Bottom 85mm

Swing arm 105mm

 

All the photos I took are in this album and there are some of the lengths and a few detail shots of the immersion sensor and flotation thingy just in case.

There's also a photo of the insides of the sonar bouy (for some reason).

 

Roger was really helpful and has given me his email address in case Hendie needs anything else measured (PM inbound Hendie).

I 'donated' the callipers as a sort of thank you.

Proper chaps.

[hendie]

excellent Ced - that's all great information.

 

Now, if that bottom section is Ø85 mm then that works out at 85 x 0.03125 = Ø2.66 mm.   If memory serves me correctly (at work now so can't check parts) the diameter of the Fly leg was a smidge under 3 mm so they may have got the oleo diameter correct, or pretty darned close.   I'll try and check tonight.

 

 

[Wafu]

1 hour ago, CedB said:

 

 

 

 

Nice photo indeed, good of the Heli museum to show the Saltwater Actuator (grey box strapped to the oleo) this would be positioned further down near the gas generator, the white ball, and inboard. Stopped the drive kicking it as he stands on the wheel to enter and exit the cockpit.

Oh and its on upside down 😉