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

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

On ‎06‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 6:40 AM, speedy said:

 

Also does anybody know of a pressure tube behind the rear cowling aft of the cockpit.

Is it this just forward of the aerial ?

http://web.fc2.com/jump/?url=http://nabe3saviation.web.fc2.com/images8/waWW-462.jpg

[Nigel Heath]

Great looking extinguisher.

[Pete in Lincs]

Sheepskin. Someone on here recently (last few months) did

sheepskin covers on ejection seats. The result was excellent.

Memory (again!) says he used tissue paper? I think he daubed

a matt varnish on it which 'pulled' up chunks where it touched.

This then dried leaving a 'shaggy' finish.

It may be worth a try.

[TheBaron]

Ofergawdsake.

Just had to laugh in appreciation at that fine (fire) extinguisher. It looks, well, like it was just meant to be. 

Modelling at its most Roxy Music. 

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Sheepskin. Someone on here recently (last few months) did

sheepskin covers on ejection seats. The result was excellent.

Memory (again!) says he used tissue paper? I think he daubed

a matt varnish on it which 'pulled' up chunks where it touched.

This then dried leaving a 'shaggy' finish.

It may be worth a try.

Alternatively...

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Modelling at its most Roxy Music. 

“...but you blew my mind...!”

[Bandsaw Steve]

The Wessex is pretty,

The Pullman a palace.

Modelling perfection,

but what paint’s on?

What to brush there?

Better spray there!

[Nigel Heath]

Poetry inspired by Hendie's lovely work. Nice.

[Bandsaw Steve]

2 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

Poetry inspired by Hendie's lovely work. Nice.

It was written ‘For Your Pleasure’ Of course 🤔 😁😀

 

I hope someone somewhere is understanding all of this obscure Roxymania,

 

 

[perdu]

Roxy

I recall when the only Roxy I'd ever heard of was the cinema in Hamilton

 

But cue the passing of a few years and Roxy was music 

 

Those sheepskin covers, I read it here in BM and tried it happily

 

I use 'used' and dried tea bags, there is always a surface variation and the colour of sat-on sheep is ideal

[Wafu]

On 14 March 2018 at 2:23 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Never flew the Wessie (& certainly not a Mk.2), but don’t see any reason why the seat arrangememts would be different to every other type in service at the time.  Rock hard yellow seat pack, plus “sheepskin” pad (whose purpose was to contain more survival aids, rather than protect our delicate posteriors).  Even Royal aircrew had the same arrangement - though no doubt the Royal Flight ones were more in touch with their inner Interior Designer.

 

Just as Ex-Woo says but a bit of an engineering stance....

 

The 'rock hard yellow seat pack' (better known as the PSP) held the dingy and a few comforts like bagged water, sweets and everything a downed aircrew thinks they need while the SAR comes to get them. The sheepskin pad was in fact a double Velcro green pad shaped the same as the top of the PSP with a thin sheepskin topper, to reduce sweaty bums. The whole PSP, foam pad and sheepskin topper was removed in a one'r with great care that you didn't snag the pull cord for the dingy, lol.

 

In times of need, the pilot could exit the aircraft with the PSP attached to his backside via two lanyards clipped to his life jacket. Once in the water he unclipped the PSP and deployed the PSP dingy via the lanyard attached to his life vest.  Whilst we're on the seat, the vertical cushion was, when new from stores, olive green, after a while of being in service it soon went to a almost black green with all that wear and tear, oil and bodily fluids. 

 

When I first started on Wessex the dingy was in a parachute style pack strapped to the pilot, the seat was in those days, a hard hollow grey affair that sat in the aircraft seat assembly, by 1981 almost all Wessex had the psp fitted, although I did see a few Wessex 3 of 737 NAS operating the parachute style seating. With this older style, the vertical cushion was not fitted as the pilots pack was strapped to his back and so afforded some sort of back rest, this style was hated by the pilots as they perminatly had a 30lb pack on their backs and if you've every climbed in a Wessex cockpit, you'll know it's no mean feat without a pack on your back.

 

Loving the cockpit build Hendie, looking forward to the map stowage and blinds. I do have a small rhetorical question though, why did they paint the speed selectors blue as well (in the picture of the quadrant) as the HP, LP fuel cock levers, as memory servers, only the Speed selectors were painted to show the newer modified fuel computers?

 

cheers the Woo.

[71chally]

10 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

The Wessex is pretty,

The Pullman a palace.

Modelling perfection,

but what paint’s on?

What to brush there?

Better spray there!

Very good!

 

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

With all this educational stuff going on and some culture creeping in, I was deeply disappointed to find out that Thomas Hardy's Wessex poems had nothing to do with 'Walter'.

[Pete in Lincs]

I need not go 
Through sleet and snow 
To where I know 
She waits for me; 
She will wait me there 
Till I find it fair, 
And have time to spare 
From 72 Squadron. 

 

(Thomas Hardyish)

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[hendie]

Back from my wandering travels, this time the Shangri La that is otherwise known as Detroit, where we did manage to find a fantastic middle eastern restaurant.  So good in fact that we rated it in our top 5 restaurants.  A complete surprise, but welcomed nonetheless.

 

It looks like while I was away, you lot got some modeling in so I had better try to catch up.  Sheep seems to be the order of the day so we started off with cutting some windows in some masking tape.

 

 

Which was then smeared with plastic putty and embossed, debossed and generally just messed up by dabbing some wire wool over the putty as it started to cure.  Can you tell what it is yet? can ya can ya?

 

 

After the putty had cured, I threw some paint on.  First was a coat of aged concrete which was more of a buff color.  When I realized that shade was too far off, I added some aged white, more washing it on than painting it.

 

 

It's really difficult to photograph such a light color so I have adjusted the contrast in this shot to hopefully show the texture to more effect.  Even at 1:32 scale you would be hard pushed to see the strands of wool on the sheepskin. The 1:1 tended to get a bit flattened and matted after them aircrew bums sweated on them for many hours.

'Scuse the horrible paint job on the seat - there's a lot more work to go into that seat before it's ready for general consumption, but you get the idea.  The sheepskin also need trimming to shape. This is just the rough cut.  Directors cut later.

 

 

I think I'm happy with the level of texture on the sheepskin. A Flory wash should help bring out the texture a bit more.

 

I'll apologize now - the next photo's are very repetitive but I took 'em so you're going to see 'em.  I had my cloak and pointy hat on this afternoon.   That hat must have been a bit cockled over 'cos things didn't turn out as good as I had hoped.

But on the bright side - we have some cockpit parts to be getting on with.

 

 

But do they fit?  Well, they fit at least as good as the kit parts do!  (Yes, I know the IP is back to front in this shot!).  It's close enough and I'll be able to get it fitted without too much drama.  One of the things that I wanted to capture were the small notches above the smaller gauges.   In CAD it looked easy - it always does on the big screen.  It wasn't until I printed it out that I realized just how small everything really was.  The notches are there, but they are tiny.  In fact there's just a hint of notch so whether they are still there after painting remains to be seen.

 

 

IP with center overlaid panel (this time facing the right way!)

 

 

Then with another smaller panel overlaid in the center panel and a comparison against the kit part.  If I'm being fair, the kit part isn't bad, and is pretty accurate - I just didn't like all the bezels around the gauges which don't exist on the 1:1

 

 

this shot just because I took it....

 

 

Followed by a rather poor shot of the dry fit.  It was difficult to get anything to focus on with the brass being so shiny

 

 

and now I really must tidy my desk up - as Perdu pointed out, things are being assimilated into the desk and it's getting harder and harder to find anything

 

toodle pip and all that.

 

 

 

 

 

[Nigel Heath]

Hmm, I can't see any of your photos. Problem your end or mine?

[keefr22]

No problems here Nigel, showing up fine.

 

More cracking work going on there hendie, I like the sheepskin, though how you thought up that method to replicate it is beyond me!! 

 

Keith

[Nigel Heath]

The problem must have been at my end, I can see the photos fine now.

 

Marvellous looking work on the IP and sheepskin cushions.

 

Quote

I had my cloak and pointy hat on this afternoon. 

 

Now are you a member of the KKK or what? Not sure I approve of that AH.

[CedB]

Lovely stuff Hendie, both i/p and sheepskin looking very smart

[perdu]

The I.P. is scary realistic

 

If only we could get the same ' look' in God's own scale huh

 

😇

[Pete in Lincs]

Excellently epic etchery.

 

Oh, and, Baa! 

[Hamden]

 

Stunning IP and your sheep skin padding is superb!

 

   Roger

[Martian]

Love the effect on the cushions.

 

Martian

[hendie]

13 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

Problem your end or mine?

 

judging by others comments, I think it's yours

 

12 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

The problem must have been at my end, I can see the photos fine now.

 

See! Told you so!

 

12 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

Now are you a member of the KKK or what? Not sure I approve of that AH.

 

That's a different club entirely Nigel and their garb is an all in one pointy cloak.    I'm much more sartorially inclined... think along the lines of Rincewind shopping at the Army & Navy Surplus.

 

 

13 hours ago, keefr22 said:

though how you thought up that method to replicate it is beyond me!!

 

I must have seen it or at least something very similar.  It's far too much hard work trying to be original.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bigdave22014]

Well, we already knew he was a Master of Plastic Manipulation , we now know he is a Alchemy Magister 

So the question on everyone's lips is....

Will he even bother with a kit next time, or just make it from scratch? 

[TheBaron]

I say.

IP.

VG.

Fake sheepskin technique also added to the 'I Got It From Hendie Bumper Book for Boys.' 

That smell of garlic seems to have abated too...

All is good.