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

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

17 hours ago, hendie said:

as they succumb to my cunning plan.

With apologies to the Rolling Stones:

I see a red light and I want it painted tritium

but before I go..

In Pete's post 143 you can see a round hole in the soundproofing on the left.

I think the beam was suspended from there and another a couple of feet back.It was not flush with the roof and the fittings were quite close together at the forward end.I seem to remember it being very obvious when looking in the door.

My memories are mainly of 22's SAR cabs and the SH cabs from 72 I had trips in were SAR fit so don't know if they used the same attachment for the loadmaster in the trooping role.

I cannot for the life of me find a photo on the net so am now off to look through some 30 year old slides.

[hendie]

1 hour ago, Scimitar said:

I think the beam was suspended from there and another a couple of feet back.It was not flush with the roof and the fittings were quite close together at the forward end.I seem to remember it being very obvious when looking in the door.

 

I found a site with some good photo's - or at least the best I have found so far... due to copyright I'll just have to post a link over here

 

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

Photo 6 in there shows that I'm wrong in my assumption that the hole was for the beam!

Shame we can't find a picture taken from the door.

[Wafu]

14 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

Photo 6 in there shows that I'm wrong in my assumption that the hole was for the beam!

Shame we can't find a picture taken from the door.

Scim, the hole is for a D ring, used by the crewman for his harness (monkey) the rectangle panel is an access panel for the mid Main Gearbox Chip detector, not often used by half decent engineers, we preferred to take both out from the righthand side.

 

unlike the Puma, nothing was hung from the MGB, through the cabin. The SACRU was attached via four plate hard points. 

 

Absolutly lovin the build H.

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

1 minute ago, Wafu said:

Scim, the hole is for a D ring,

Was that in the SH cabs?

I was always plugged into the roller on the beam on my trips with 22 and could go right to the back without having an overly long harness.

[Wafu]

Double checked and I have to admit its not the D ring, that was next to the 'hole', the hole is for the Internal light. Ive sent Hendie a photo, amongst others of the inside of an ex 72 cab.

 

Sorry bud, should have checked then double checked, lol. You're right about the Para rail, 2 FTS used to have these but with only two attachments. The ones Ive fitted in the RN had ten for the Booties to para drop with.

[Pete in Lincs]

I simply do not remember that beam.

Maybe it was removed by the Sqn before servicing in ASF?

Or it wasn't used in my time at Odiham?

I do now seem to remember the D ring in the roof, it can be

seen to the left of the rail in the picture on the second row. 

I did note the red & green lights over the door.

 

As I said earlier, time and tiredness yesterday made my memory go weird!

[perdu]

2 hours ago, Scimitar said:

Photo 6 in there shows that I'm wrong in my assumption that the hole was for the beam!

Shame we can't find a picture taken from the door.

Well there is this one but I don't think it helps

 

Nor this one

 

But I may have a hundred of XR525 to skim through, I hope to skim through a few during the FP3 and quali in a few minutes

 

Don't tell me anything OK (I know the timings for FP3 but not quali) 

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

Nothing whatsoever to do with that beam but look at this..1/8th scale!!

http://www.redlodgehelicopters.co.uk/wessex.htm

[perdu]

Not my scale thank the powers

 

Scary though

 

I found this one of the lights above the door, but no beam

 

Hendie's old diodes do look remarkably like those junction units don't they 

 

Does this hanging strop have any significance?

 

XR525 when she was on the deck at Cosford but the door was shut 

Edited October 28, 2017 by perdu

[perdu]

Or how about this?

same day

door shut

But this strange beamy thing running along the ceiling...

Surely this can't be it huh?

 

I cannot find any pictures of the mounting points    grrr

 

I think this is simply a lifting dooberry left inside 525 whist the museum sorted out how to display her but you guys are the experts

Edited October 28, 2017 by perdu

[hendie]

That's the one Bill. 

 

31 minutes ago, perdu said:

Does this hanging strop have any significance?

 

Depends if you want to open the window or not.

 

 

4 hours ago, Wafu said:

the rectangle panel is an access panel for the mid Main Gearbox Chip detector, not often used by half decent engineers, we preferred to take both out from the righthand side.

 

No I didn't - 'cos I always ended up getting my arm scorched from the bottom of the gearbox as I was reaching under.    No-one ever told me you could just open a panel and it would be right there !

 

 

3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I did note the red & green lights over the door.

 

I have absolutely no memory of them but I assume we must have had them since we taxied Pongoes, Gurkhas, & the HK Dog Company on a regular basis

 

1 hour ago, Scimitar said:

Nothing whatsoever to do with that beam but look at this..

 

No !   I'm not looking. No I'm not!

 

 

[perdu]

Just looked at post 61 page three, looks like that is The Beam

 

And the orange (not red) pipes were not in the cabs during service in the Troubles years when some of mine were taken so definite up-/re-grades

 

Edit just for you H

 

Scorched arm policy huh?

 

RTF er M AP huh?

 

Well glad we found the  beam anyway

Edited October 28, 2017 by perdu

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

3 minutes ago, hendie said:

No !   I'm not looking. No I'm not!

[Pete in Lincs]

8 hours ago, Scimitar said:

Nothing whatsoever to do with that beam but look at this..1/8th scale!!

http://www.redlodgehelicopters.co.uk/wessex.htm

Dear Santa,

And for our friend, Hendie in Americashire.....

[Wafu]

Hendie me old mucker, after today's wander down memory lane, I've got some measurments for the oleo's and radius arms.

 

Lets just say Fly have under calculated. The actual oleo strut, taken at its average circumference is 11" 1/1 scale. The bulge measures at 11.75". My calculations put that at a diameter of 2.78mm for the oleo in 1/32 scale. The Fly one is 1.08mm, a drastic undersize me thinks;)

 

The Radius arm is actually just oversized on the kit, the Radius arm on the Wessex is 11.75", 3.67mm in 1/32. The Fly one to be fair, is not that far away and I will not be replacing mine.

 

Hope this helps when you get to the legs?

[Wafu]

I have absolutely no memory of them but I assume we must have had them since we taxied Pongoes, Gurkhas, & the HK Dog Company on a regular basis

 

Part of the BF was to check the dispatch horn and lights. I'm not sure I remember this on the 2fts cabs at Shawbury.

[hendie]

1 hour ago, Wafu said:

Lets just say Fly have under calculated. The actual oleo strut, taken at its average circumference is 11" 1/1 scale. The bulge measures at 11.75". My calculations put that at a diameter of 2.78mm for the oleo in 1/32 scale. The Fly one is 1.08mm, a drastic undersize me thinks;)

 

Excellent - thanks.  I'm sure I commented on this previously somewhere. The Fly leg just looks way too skinny.

 

1 hour ago, Wafu said:

Part of the BF was to check the dispatch horn and lights. I'm not sure I remember this on the 2fts cabs at Shawbury.

 

Nah, definitely not part of any AF/BF or TR in Sek Kong.  I guess we didn't have them there.

 

 

On 10/27/2017 at 9:37 AM, moaning dolphin said:

they are Beta lights so if you can get yours to glow in the dark i'll be even more impressed

 

Cue, cunning plan A.. (betcha didn't think I'd do it did ya!)

 

 

Which totally did not work as planned. 

I tried punching small discs but they were so transparent that you could hardly see them.  It really didn't provide the effect I was looking for, so common sense prevailed and I ditched that idea.  On the plus side, I now have a load of Disney Princess glow stars which I can place around my bedroom.

So I cheated and just used styrene rod, which by the time this is all buttoned up will only just be visible.  Well, I tried at least.

Oh, I also added some more of those little electronicky parts to busy the front end up.  I'm quite pleased with how they add to the effect.

 

 

Now it was time to tackle the overhead soundproofing.  In the 1:1 these panels are straight sided so I had a quick bash at that.. and didn't like it.  I initially thought I could get away with painting the plastic black and laying the soundproofing over that - in the end I thought in order to keep my sanity and get something done on this build that I would just follow the kit contours and be damned.

 

 

And we ended up with this - primed in etch primer.  As you can plainly see, it's not as geometrically bland as the original and the tinfoil pattern is somewhat to scale, though could be doing with being just a bit larger.  At this point, I am not redoing anything.

 

 

The first coat of apple green went on, as well as some primer and color on the floor panel.  I also, in another moment of hendism  madness, I started drilling out the tie downs on the floor to add a little bit of depth. The kit detail is rather good if a tad flat in this area.

 

 

So, going back to my earlier method of producing comms cable.... this time with a larger diameter drill

 

 

If you do this to the coils...

 

 

You end up with a whole bunch of these.... which coincidentally, fit nicely in the recess I just drilled in the floor.  Tie down rings!

 

 

A little drop of super glue to hold them in position, and we have a reasonable facsimile of the floor.  You'll notice that I didn't so every single tie down, only those that stand a chance of being seen.  The ones at the extreme left were my trial pieces.

 

 

Then back to the soundproofing, and adding one more drop of pale green to the mix I had left over from earlier, and we start to see a little bit of variation in the panels.  (I know there's only one light fitting so far - I forgot to add the second before I started painting, but it will be easy enough to incorporate later

 

 

A few more drops of green as each panel is revisited and we end up with a right mess.  Actually it's not too bad. Still miles better than the out of the box offering.  Edging was added with some dark green, and the studs were pin drops of steel.  There were a couple that end up being over-sized but all in all, I'm happy with this.

 

 

and a quick dry fit shows me that I'm on the right track.

 

 

The paint will have time to cure overnight and I'll follow it up with some Flory washes, hopefully much more subtle than the rear bulkhead cover. - you don't get as many grubby paws messing about with the overhead soundproofing.

there's still a few bits and bobs to be added to the overhead panels - the monkey harness beam for one, but I think I am getting close to being able to stick the floor and overhead panel ('ceiling' panel just doesn't sound quite right for a helicopter) in the fuselage

 

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by hendie

[perdu]

Kinda

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

Well

 

Excellent roofing material, we might have to sub out roofing to the American Wessex Ceiling  Company, Hendie Division in future huh...

 

Floor looking suitably Hendie too, she is coming along brilliantly

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, hendie said:

Well, I tried at least.

 

Oh master of the Wessex interior, I'm not sure you should give up that easily;

 

http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/glow-in-the-dark-paint-150-ml/601299-1000

 

Surely they must have something similar 'over there'?

 

Caveat - I have no idea if the stuff works...!

 

Keith

[hendie]

17 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

Surely they must have something similar 'over there'?

 

Caveat - I have no idea if the stuff works...!

 

well, just know that you are now wholly responsible for me spending the whacking great sum of $0.78 for a pot of the radioactive stuff all the way from China (including free postage).   If SWMBO finds out, I'm telling on you!

Edited October 29, 2017 by hendie

[keefr22]

7 hours ago, hendie said:

If SWMBO finds out, I'm telling on you!

 

It wasn't me, Perdu made me do it....!! 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Fantabulous!  I used your method for producing curly comms leads and tie-down rings (external, in my case) on my Sea King; seen from outside the windscreen they look spot-on - in the larger scale they’ll look even better.

 

The question us, did the HK dogs obey the green & red lights, what with them seeingba different part of the spectrum an’ all?

[perdu]

👅

[hendie]

8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

The question us, did the HK dogs obey the green & red lights, what with them seeingba different part of the spectrum an’ all?

 

I cannot think of a way to answer this question respectfully without implicating at least one branch of our revered armed forces.... so, moving on....

 

5 hours ago, perdu said:

👅

 

I cannot make my mind up whether Bill is indicating he would like to lick something, or show us his protective sports cup... so, moving on...