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

[Bigdave22014]

This isn't a kit. It's an "aid to scratch-building".

 

[Massimo]

Exellent work on that trunking!!!

Those legs are state of the art!!!

All that soldering...You've got a gift !!!!!

[Wafu]

Hendie you never cease to amaze me with your skills in all arts of modelling.

 

The plumbing looks great and underside is as good as anyone can get it giving the misshapen parts from Fly.

 

 

[TheBaron]

11 hours ago, hendie said:

  I'd advise all of you - take the plunge... what's the worst that can happen?

I wish to associate myself with those comments by the Rt. Hon. Member for Over There.

 

The sheer pleasure and satisfaction of getting two pieces of metal to stick together does not tire.

 

That underside is really pulsing with structure now!

[perdu]

Now I have no intention to teach hendies to suck aigs but I would like to add a few words to the topic under debate on the previous page

 

Namely adding the small 'flare' at the bottom of the oleo sleeve

 

Ah did I mention 'gob-smacked' or 'overawed' or simply 'massively impressed' at the brass working at the point of impact on the viewer?

 

No?

 

Ah yes you are right, I was in too much of a hurry to add this little bit which might help in future

 

Sorry H, love the whole caboodle as it is already

 

 

Can I just pop in this little bit please

 

That elusive flare

 

Did you counter drill the inside of the tube before you pops it into a close fitting hole leaving a short piece sticking out?

 

With the tube thinned out inside at the point you wanted to stretch it (make bell shaped) a few gentle taps with a decent centre punch will encourage the tube to expand with the elusive flare

I know you will have the centre punch, I'm certain you will have a piece of scrap wood deep enough to make the form (tube) keeping hole and by counter drilling the tube you will make a tube that can allow easy widening at the end but which will progressively resist expanding and form a bell shape

 

Go on try it

 

p.s. if you have tried it and it didn't work shoot me, always works for me

 

I distort plastic this way too but that is obviously far easier than brass

 

I love the fuel dumping pipes, best I've seen yet on any model

Can't wait to see that bendy bracket come to life, thin shrink wrap rubber in thin size for the real life rubber?

[heloman1]

Very neat work on the under fus pipework Alan. It will make all the difference to the finished look.

 

Colin

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

Superb work there Alan.

Looking at your undercarriage,it is so good that I think that it will work like the real one.

Using that as the flimsiest of excuses to watch this video again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUBVXaNEnkM

Note how the whole thing moves back as she settles..Fly's attempt would just break!

 

[keefr22]

On 12/27/2018 at 9:39 AM, TheBaron said:

I learned just how many such pieces of brass had been effectively hiding in the pile beneath my hoofs the whole time. Am going to have to look into magnetizing some tweezers....

 

I think you might find that would be a waste of time Tony. Brass being non magnetic and all....

 

I'm sure this will be the Wessex to end all Wessexes hendie, absolutely superb metal work. What with this and a certain Anson there'll come a time when I foresee the end of the need for plastic kits....( for those of you with the right skills obviously!)

 

Cracking stuff!

 

Keith

[CedB]

More great stuff hendie - nice pipes!  

[hendie]

9 hours ago, perdu said:

Now I have no intention to teach hendies to suck aigs but I would like to add a few words to the topic under debate on the previous page

 

Not at all Bill, I am always up for learning new egg sucking techniques.  I meant to take a photo today of all the failed parts but got carried away in other things.

Believe me, I tried everything... I counter drilled the ends, I thinned the wall with rat tail files, I used a center punch, I used the lathe. I cursed I swore.  I tried a live center in the lathe, I tried a dead center.  I tried brute force by pushing, I tried turning in the lathe, I tried gentle taps with a hammer and nothing worked to my satisfaction at all. Nothing.

I think the problem is that the length of the flare is so short - I could get the ends to flare but it was always either too long a flare, or too pronounced.  I just couldn't find a happy medium.   That's not to say I won't revisit the topic as I have a long way to go before I fit the undercarriage.

 

which brings me nicely to todays adventures in basement land.   Still working on the undersides,  I took a gander at Fly's instructions and noted that there were several pieces of PE that fitted on the underside, so off I went and got the first part ready... ooohhh, not good.  I didn't like the PE at all, I thought it was a bit oversized, and it just didn't look right at all, so I made my own version.

Kit part in tarnished brass, and my version in bits of scrap styrene.  I have to say that I think my version looks better and more in scale.

 

 

You'll note that I also used some aluminum tape wrapped round the 'fuel' pipes to represent the joints.  Getting those joints in place without breaking the small mounting brackets was an exercise in patience.

Both brackets now fitted, along with another piece that I spotted Fly had missed (more of that later)

 

 

The more I looked it seemed the more that Fly had either missed, or just thought not important enough to include in the kit.  Panel lines are out of place, or non existent, or just not there, or even imaginary on some occasions.  

Yet more styrene bits added.

 

 

While I was working down the back end I thought I would try making the small bracket which attaches the fuel pipes to one of the hanging brackets

 

 

which no-one will ever notice in a gazillion years.

 

 

Then it came time to fit the very first official Fly PE part - the vents.  You might just be able to see here that I drilled some small indentations in the plastic to give the glue somewhere to go and hopefully provide some additional attachment.  You know how I feel about superglue so I wasn't even going to try it here.  Instead, I used GS-Hypo which I am coming to really like for attaching PE (when there's no alternative that is!)   The GS allows you time to position the part, and it remains somewhat elastic, so a small knock here and there won't dislodge the part.  Another nice feature is that if any GS squeezes out from under the part, wait a few minutes then it can easily be trimmed off with a sharp blade and judicious use of tweezers.

 

 

The two vents now in place, along with some other small pieces that Fly had not accounted for.  They provide a lot of PE parts all over the fuselage but very few parts for the underside.  Most noticeably, all of the hinges are missing, so I had to brew my own.

 

 

In the shot above, you can see that I have pencilled in the front of the left fork of the trunking as it leaves the box thingy.  After checking my references, it appears that part is not for an HC2, it's from the UH5.  Sloppy research by Fly (I don't think they provide any alternative, at least not that I could see).  I am in the process of deciding whether to try and remove it or not.  It may cause too much collateral damage so I'm not quite sure yet.

 

So, what's going on here then ?  Well, there's a bunch of warts missing from the front end of the nose.  I hate to keep harping on about Fly, but their detailing is very, very soft and will easily disappear under a coat of primer.  Nothing for it but to get out the drills and Meng rivets.

 

 

There, that's better.  I also spotted that the divider was missing from the intake vent so that got added too.   With all these carbuncles, warts, and danglies, she's really starting to look like a Wessex now.

 

 

The last thing (or so I thought) to add on the undersides was the strengthening ribs to the swing arm mounting plates.   These are added oversized and will be trimmed back down once the glue has cured - much easier to work that way.

 

 

A gratuitous shot of her belly now that she's looking more business like 

 

 

Then from the front...

you can see that I also added the three hinges for the dust vents at the front end (just beside the warts)

 

 

All done now are we?  Well no, not really.   Something else jumped out at me as I was working on the swing arm mounting plates - they looked too bland.  The real things looks rather industrial with lots of rivets showing. Well, no-one would be that daft would they?   The only mad riveter we have round here is Crisp.  

Well, I guess you can now add me to that list.... drilling started

 

 

and the first line of rivets added.   In case you are wondering, the heads on these rivets are 0.5 mm in diameter (I'm using a 0.4 mm drill)   I have to say that I am starting to like these Meng resin rivets.  Nice and cheap - thought that is offset by the number of drills I break in the process of fitting them!  However, they do the job nicely and look the part.

 

 

I'm trusting to luck here with these rivets.  With something so small, there's no way I can use any glue as  the drop would be larger than the rivet itself.  The rivet stems are quite long so they shouldn't fall out, and I am hoping that a quick shot of primer will be enough to hold everything in place when the time comes.

 

hmmnnn, I need to either add some filler, or bend the ends of the trunking down to close that nasty gap there.

 

 

that's all folks.  (SWMBO is starting to get edgy with me being down in the basement over the last few days).   Best I treat her to a night out soon

 

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2018 by hendie

[perdu]

yes

 

nice very nice

 

(and yes treat her to some Hendietime)

[CedB]

Marvellous detailing Alan - lovely bottom underside  

[Bigdave22014]

Lovely work as ever Hendie.

Before trying to flare the oleo's did you anneal the metal? It will make it much softer and easier to form.

And (I'm getting ready to run away and hide at this point...) shouldn't the end of the fuel dump pipes be hollow? Yours appear solid. 

You know you're going to remove that extra "arm" on the underside....

[perdu]

I don't believe the solid 'pipe' issue will matter when he slips the flared rubber pipes over the ends...

 

 

And adds the pipe clips

 

 

 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

46 minutes ago, perdu said:

 

I don't believe the solid 'pipe' issue will matter when he slips the flared rubber pipes over the ends...

 

You guys are a tough crowd...

 

Looks wonderful - hope you have a bit of mirror to stand the finished model on!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Brandy]

Well up to the standard we've come to expect from Hendiefix. Great stuff!

 

Ian

[AdrianMF]

 

20 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

Hendiefix

Hendiegawa or Hendiaya, surely?? 

[hendie]

17 hours ago, perdu said:

(and yes treat her to some Hendietime)

 

I offered,  and she refused...

 

That counts as a win in my book!      now, where's that basement...

 

 

15 hours ago, CedB said:

lovely bottom underside

 

it's been a long time since anyone has admired my undersides.    Thanks Ced.

 

 

8 hours ago, Bigdave22014 said:

Before trying to flare the oleo's did you anneal the metal? It will make it much softer and easier to form.

 

I *think* I did in some of the attempts, I'll need to go back and check

 

 

8 hours ago, Bigdave22014 said:

And (I'm getting ready to run away and hide at this point...) shouldn't the end of the fuel dump pipes be hollow? Yours appear solid. 

5 hours ago, perdu said:

I don't believe the solid 'pipe' issue will matter when he slips the flared rubber pipes over the ends...

 

Bill has it right Bigdave - there's still big rubber tubes to get fitted over the ends there, so rod or tube at this stage makes no difference

 

 

8 hours ago, Bigdave22014 said:

You know you're going to remove that extra "arm" on the underside....

 

Ggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

 

4 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

You guys are a tough crowd...

 

ain't that the truth.   Give a man a rivet, and next thing they expect a Shackleton

 

 

37 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

Well up to the standard we've come to expect from Hendiefix.

 

thanks Ian

 

 

17 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Hendiegawa or Hendiaya, surely?? 

 

That makes it sound like I almost know what I'm doing.... I grew up in the golden era of Blue Peter so I'll stick with Hendabodge, and here's some bits I stuck on earlier.

 

 

[Navy Bird]

Beautiful carbuncles, warts and danglies!   

 

And nice use of GS Hypo cement - which is manufactured right here in my home town, and originally formulated as a watch crystal cement. GS stands for Germanow-Simon, one of the oldest continually operating companies in Rochester (NY), and I'm sure they never dreamed that one day their product would be used to attach photoetch to polystyrene. The mother of invention as they say...

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Martian]

Those pipes have transformed the underside, well done Hendie. 

 

Martian 👽

[Calum]

Wow some great stuff happening here. excellent attention to detail and skill. Looking forward to seeing it progress more

[Martian]

On ‎28‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 20:39, hendie said:

that's all folks.  (SWMBO is starting to get edgy with me being down in the basement over the last few days).   Best I treat her to a night out soon

Mrs Martian always seems to be perfectly happy with me being in the Martian Cave. Something to do with me not getting in the way, making a mess and generally keeping out of trouble.

 

Henpecked of Mars 👽

 

PS: Mrs Martian confirms the above and when asked why she took me on in the first place replied with the immortal words, "It seemed a good idea at the time"!

[Martian]

20 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Beautiful carbuncles, warts and danglies!   

I trust we are talking about the model here. 😟

 

Martian👽

[hendie]

21 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

Mrs Martian always seems to be perfectly happy with me being in the Martian Cave. Something to do with me not getting in the way, making a mess and generally keeping out of trouble.

 

Henpecked of Mars 👽

 

PS: Mrs Martian confirms the above and when asked why she took me on in the first place replied with the immortal words, "It seemed a good idea at the time"!

 

I get the "WE are doing xyz today!" announcement (normally as I have coffee in hand and walking towards the downstairs door) without any prior warning or notification.  Then I have to wait for an inordinate amount of time for her to get ready. Y'know - that length of time that just long enough to be really annoying but not quite long enough so that there's time for you to go and actually start anything useful.

 

 

You must have a different model of SWMBO than me.  What year is yours? I just got the base model, it sounds like you got the GLS

[airscale]

my word, that is some exceptional detailing

 

real eye candy for those of us who love that sort of thing

 

bravo

 

Peter