Hiller YH-32 Hornet

[Martian]

Although I have plenty of projects on the go at the moment, one of those "shove everything to one side and build e now" kits dropped through the letterbox a few days ago,  AMP's 1/48 rendition of the Hiller YH-32 Hornet. I was immediately struck by it's similarity in appearance to the Fairey Ultralight helicopter, hopefully AMP will scale up their 1/72 kit as they would make ideal companions. It also occurred to me that here was a model that even at my glacial pace of building, I could scarcely fail to finish for Telford.

 

A trawl through the interweb turned up quite a bit of information on the aircraft and revealed that the fuselage consisted of a tubular metal frame, covered with fibreglass panels. The framework is not included in the kit so It was time to get the plastic rod out and scratchbuild one. There is a frame protruding form the sides of the rotor housing which holds the seat harnesses and AMP would have one fashion this from two pieces of plastic rod. I decided that I wanted something more robust on my model and drilled right through the housing and inserted a length of Albion Alloys' brass rod.

 

The door frame and the frame on the kit transparency did not match up and research indicated that it was the door frame that needed fettling. Accordingly, I cemented some plastic stock to the top of each door frame and carved it to shape. Looking forward, I will be scratchbuilding some better collective levers and doing the same for the rudder pedals. On the underside of the helicopter there are two large openings in the fuselage and I am currently attempting to find out what is behind the seats in order that I may be able to accurately detail this area. I would expect to find at least some sort of pump to supply fuel from the fuel tank below the pilots' seats to the ram jets on the rotor tips.  I have also bought some HGW seatbelts for the model as although they can be a bit fiddly to put together, every bit of detail added to this model will be able to be seen and they should have a real visual impact.

 

Tanks for looking

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

 

[longshanks]

 It's like you've run off with another woman …….    You wait, I'll tell the Lady Martian 

 

How could you abandon the Super Slinky Albatross ???

 

Don't Think we're going to let you forget about her

 

 

 

In the mean time I may just see the attraction in your new flighty bit of stuff and look forward to seeing you finish create a masterpiece for Telford (77 days to go)

 

Kev

[Terry1954]

Cripes, I thought it was just me who had loads of a few projects on the go at once! I must say it is a neat little gem though. Should have it done in a day or so?

 

Terry

[Martian]

20 minutes ago, longshanks said:

 It's like you've run off with another woman …….    You wait, I'll tell the Lady Martian 

 

How could you abandon the Super Slinky Albatross ???

 

Don't Think we're going to let you forget about her

 

 

 

In the mean time I may just see the attraction in your new flighty bit of stuff and look forward to seeing you finish create a masterpiece for Telford (77 days to go)

 

Kev

I just posted an update on the Albatross, in fact, she is sitting beside me as I type these words. Hang on a minute, what's that? Miss Albatross says "how very dare you"!

 

Martian 👽 

[Martian]

20 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

Cripes, I thought it was just me who had loads of a few projects on the go at once! I must say it is a neat little gem though. Should have it done in a day or so?

 

Terry

I am notorious for my lack of won't power, in fact I think I am only second to @corsaircorp in the number of builds I have on the go. Still, every so often a completed model seems to materialise on the bench.

 

Martian 👽

[Hamden]

 

Interesting subject I've not heard of this one so will sit quietly at the back and watch and learn.

 

  Roger

[Martian]

31 minutes ago, Hamden said:

 

Interesting subject I've not heard of this one so will sit quietly at the back and watch and learn.

 

  Roger

It is often the subjects that I have never heard of that intrigue and motivate me the most.

 

Oddball of Mars 👽

[corsaircorp]

So, another Hubschrauber fur unsere Martian !!

How much I understand you my Dear Alien !!, someone has counted 27 projects on the run…..

But That's just what I show

The Hiller look interesting, how did you evaluate their Sikorsky, good kit ??

Now, you gonna have a 50% AMP and 50% Martian !! Good deal !

May I sit at the bar as usual ??

That's a wheelhub starting !! Congratulations !!

Sincerely.

CC

 

[Martian]

Thanks CC. I haven't quite reached double figures on projects on the go. I haven't started the AMP Sikorsky kit yet but it looks reasonable in the box and with a bit of TLC it should look good when built.

 

Martian 👽

[corsaircorp]

8 minutes ago, Martian Hale said:

Thanks CC. I haven't quite reached double figures on projects on the go. I haven't started the AMP Sikorsky kit yet but it looks reasonable in the box and with a bit of TLC it should look good when built.

 

Martian 👽

I trust in my Dear tentacled one !, I will buy one and make a FAA Dragonfly

Side by side with the Fonderie one, it can be funny !!

I'm amazed by the way you use the plasticard and rods and so !! very inspiring !

Sincerely.

Chimay sipping and modelling CC

[corsaircorp]

3 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Cripes, I thought it was just me who had loads of a few projects on the go at once! I must say it is a neat little gem though. Should have it done in a day or so?

 

Terry

You never walk alone…. If I dare to say !!

CC

[Martian]

Thanks CC, al I do is make what I see though, no black arts or anything. I just break any part of a model down into the simplest possible sub-assemblies. It just looks fancy when they are all put together.

 

Martian Master of the Smoke and Mirrors 👽

[Andwil]

5 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Thanks CC, al I do is make what I see though, no black arts or anything. I just break any part of a model down into the simplest possible sub-assemblies. It just looks fancy when they are all put together.

 

Martian Master of the Smoke and Mirrors 👽

Martian master of understatement more like.  You make everything look so easy, and that is surely a testament to great skill.

 

AW

[Martian]

2 hours ago, Andwil said:

Martian master of understatement more like.  You make everything look so easy, and that is surely a testament to great skill.

 

AW

Thanks AW, I think what people interpret as skill in me is more likely to be starting to run out of things to screw up and fifty two years of uninterrupted modelling. A colossal degree of bloody mindedness helps as well and those who know me can attest that I am possessed of that by the space freighter load!

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

[k5054nz]

Ever since I learned Kermit Weeks has a 1:1 one of these in his museum I've become quite interested in this kit! I'm curious to see how the build goes...I'd hate to have downloaded all these photos of Kermit's for nothing!

[perdu]

Well, there we are!

 

Martian on another flight of fancy (looks good already) and willing co-conspiritors hanging on his every pixel

 

OK I'll ask, Zac do you have any handy pictures of the insides of 'the holes wot Mart needs to research' please?

[bigbadbadge]

Ooooooo this looks very interesting.  Great work so far.  Looks very dinky especially looking size of the keys on the keyboard it is resting on.  

 

Keep up the good work. 

All the best 

Chris 

[Martian]

6 hours ago, k5054nz said:

Ever since I learned Kermit Weeks has a 1:1 one of these in his museum I've become quite interested in this kit! I'm curious to see how the build goes...I'd hate to have downloaded all these photos of Kermit's for nothing!

Thus far the build is going well. There is a bit of flash here and there, especially on some of the finer pieces. The fit is pretty good for a limited run kit and the only real issue has been the mismatch between the engraved framing on the windscreen and the top of the door frames. A plus point is that it is possible to keep the interior separate from the assembled fuselage for much of the build, just sliding it in and out of the fuselage as necessary. This is going to make painting a lot easier further down the line. A massive plus for this subject is that any extra work that is put into the model is going to be visible to a greater or lesser extent.

4 hours ago, perdu said:

Well, there we are!

 

Martian on another flight of fancy (looks good already) and willing co-conspiritors hanging on his every pixel

 

OK I'll ask, Zac do you have any handy pictures of the insides of 'the holes wot Mart needs to research' please?

Anything on the insides of the openings would be really helpful as they are quite large and the kit is short on detail of what goes in there. I don't think for a minute that it will be hard to scratchbuild the detail as this is a very simple machine, we just need to know what it looks like.

2 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Ooooooo this looks very interesting.  Great work so far.  Looks very dinky especially looking size of the keys on the keyboard it is resting on.  

 

Keep up the good work. 

All the best 

Chris 

Thanks Chris. I think the small size of the model is the main area of concern as there are many delicate parts to add and one is going to have to be very careful in handling the model. This may be one occasion where it would be wise to glue the finished model to a base if it is going to do any amount of travelling to shows so the base can protect the model from any knocks.

 

Martian 👽

[Martian]

Having had an unexpected day off from VS duties, I took full advantage by working on this build, the Albatross and the Roc. I decided to bite the bullet and tackle scratchbuilding the collective mechanism for the Hiller. This was mostly built up from Albion Alloys slide fit tubing. Whatever did we do before this stuff became available? This took several hours to make, the whole assembly being no more than an inch by half an inch and left little room for error.

 

I also started preparing the mounting for the rudder pedals (I'm sure that @Ex-FAAWAFU, aka Crisp will be along to enlighten us as to their proper name) and worked some more on the seat mountings. 

 

Next up, I think I will finish off the attachment points for the shoulder straps and sort out the visible structure for the tail cone.

 

Thanks for looking and so to bed. 

 

Done in of Mars 👽

 

 

 

 

 

[Courageous]

Not my type of subject or scale but their is some nice work going on here and your extra touches make all the difference.

Carry on Martian

 

Stuart

[Martian]

Thanks Stuart, I love these type of quickish, quirky builds where you can see every bit of detail that goes into the model. They are a splendid antidote to AMS.

 

Martian 👽

[perdu]

Quirky    and nice

 

I asked that q. about the pedals once (in my usual silly, inconsequential manner I seem to recall) and one of 'the usual suspects' told me in no uncertain manner " You mean the yaw pedals" so that might be it... 😱

 

😉

 

It looks so full in there, I love the little beggar already 

[Martian]

2 hours ago, perdu said:

Quirky    and nice

 

I asked that q. about the pedals once (in my usual silly, inconsequential manner I seem to recall) and one of 'the usual suspects' told me in no uncertain manner " You mean the yaw pedals" so that might be it... 😱

 

😉

 

It looks so full in there, I love the little beggar already 

Thanks Bill, yaw pedals it shall be lest we get a slapping from Crisp. 

 

Martian 👽

[Twentecable]

Very nice modelling

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Yaw pedals is correct - though we often referred to them as “rudder” pedals too (despite not actually having a rudder).  

 

Collective often called “lever” - both terms used inter-changeably, but “lever” is shorter; e.g. “your lever” when asking the non-flying pilot to look after height/power at night while you adjusted something or other.

 

Cyclic is just cyclic.   Definitely never a “joy stick”, but then I never heard that term used in military fixed wing, either.

 

 

 

The box-top artist has gone to town on this one.  Flames coming out of the tip-jets??  Even so, I imagine this was a seriously noisy wee beastie!

Edited August 27, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU