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Fifty shades .. H-19 the circle closed, ciao baby


perdu

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2 hours ago, perdu said:

Right its Steak Night at 'spoons and I need to get ready

I thought you said 'spoons at the ready' Bill!

All that primo transparencing and bladery of yours is giving me odd quiverings to likewise do something in the rotational vein. Reckon the last time I ever built one would have been the itsy-bitsy Wasp that went on the back of the Airfix Leander class frigate, sometime at the end of the 70s...

1 hour ago, hendie said:

I'm sorely tempted to put the Fly to one side and start on a diversionary build.

The Fly is a diversionary build hendie.

For those of us watching who are Friends of the Greeble....

 

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Excelent choppery Bill. Loving the new little one. 😊 that wiring looks the business.

 

aaaaand what’s this?

@TheBaron

“All that primo transparencing and bladery of yours is giving me odd quiverings to likewise do something in the rotational vein.” Come on in Tony the waters fine. 😈

 

Johnny Wocca.

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No sorry

 

I absolutely forbid Tony from messing with the best helicopter on the planet

 

NO GREEBLING BLARRY WESSEXES -- OK TONE...

 

Mind you

 

I have a Skeeter available for anyone that needs a therapeutic helicopter to build...

 

Melchie started one a half century-ish ago

 

Little thing, take two days kind of build

 

That got lost in the ether of industrious research

 

Mine hasnt even got out of  the box, anyone tempted?

 

Alan we KNEW from day one that the Fly thing was going to be a thing and you have almost perfectly sorted it

 

We can hang on 'til you get her done if you feel like it, I quite like to see that railway carriage develop too...

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I'm certainly tempted Bill, but it would probably languish in the stash for a while, and given I'm a man of principle (well sort of), I think if someone is going to build it soon then it should go to them.

 

I trust you are suitably nourished after your steak and beer. Time for modelling :whip:

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29 minutes ago, perdu said:

We can hang on 'til you get her done if you feel like it, I quite like to see that railway carriage develop too...

I've long wondered if Roy Chadwick came up with the Shackleton by putting one of Cravens' finest between a pair of Lincoln wings.

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On 1/31/2019 at 11:26 PM, Scimitar said:

Italeri based their model on this one.

 

Disintegration-of-the-Merlin-helicopter-

I'm halfway through doing an Algerian SAR one using the HC3 as a starting point. 128 modifications (excluding the different interior.)

Luckily the Navy one doesn't have the added panels on the boom and ramp section or you may have come across some new words!

😣I think there could be a lot of money to be made by the manufacturers of quality model filler there...........

I also think that the CO2 trolley was pretty optimistic.

On 2/1/2019 at 8:02 PM, azureglo said:

Meh, cant make Homer Simpson stencils  though (doh) ..

 

BTW is it true that Lotus Esprits used re-purposed Triumph DOHC lumps? I'm curious as I was the "proud" owner of a new S3 in the early eighties that did everything from destroying its own water pump to drop an intake valve within six months, maybe it wasn't Colin's fault after all..as a Triumph man, you should be able to shed some light..

Quite so,those of us that are old enough to remember know full well what it is that LOTUS really stands for😕

On 2/1/2019 at 8:46 PM, perdu said:

As a happy ex-Dolomite owner I cant answer the question although after my experiences with THAT ENGINE I'm happy to add that I will never own another car using the damned thing

 

I needed to change the cylinder head gasket, in the Relay base at night with no prospects for immediate call-out we tried

 

And tried

 

And tried

 

The head nuts came off easily but the studs had rotted the aluminalike substance the head was made of and would not unscrew to allow the head to lift

 

Dissimilar metal corrosion from early stages of the head gasket leaking had welded (ish) the studs to the holes in the head

 

The head studs were inserted at two different angles to 'assist the head nuts to seal the joint' [Triumph company explanation, later discovered] and because of  the acute angles stopped me sliding the head up past the studs as per normal practise

 

I had to make a tubular rotating saw that could cut away the rotten ally so the stud could be released and unscrewed

 

I made the tubular saw from a thin walled copper tube with teeth filed into the lower edge which when rotated allowed the corrosion to be cut away without cutting the cylinder head metal

 

N E V E R  A G A I N

 

My Father had a 1971 Triumph 2000(and a 1975 2500 PI,but that's another tale)that he decided need a de-coke.

Similar problems to yours with that Dollymint's head were encountered.

IIRC,much "PlusGas",blow lamp fuel and midnight oil were expended before the head relinquished it's grip on those head studs.

 

As a lover(in those days)of RWD Escorts and RS2000's in particular(My Dad deemed them way too fast when he borrowed my own RS2000)

and therefore not liking the fabled(by some)Triumph Dolomite Sprint(Dollymint Stripe we called the horrid things)because they

were a bit quicker than our RS2000's but also far more fragile than the good old Ford Pinto 2ltr in the engine stakes.

 

We"Ford men" reckoned the best way to strip one of their temperamental beastly Triumph engines was to poke a stick of dynamite

into a suitable place(possibly between the exhaust or inlet manifold),"light the blue touchpaper",scurry off a safe distance and

await a satisfying bang.............

 

One less of the damned things to harrass our "superior"Escorts

Edited by DaveWilko
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2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Yes, but we'd end up with a brass rotor head! How long would that take?

And then it would be top heavy and fall over.

A bit like the ill-fated Westland Katieprice.

The twin radomes set the centre of gravity too high, regularly prompting the pilot to snatch at his collective and cause her to land heavily.

1 hour ago, perdu said:

I absolutely forbid Tony from messing with the best helicopter on the planet

I can confirm that it is safe from me Bill. I only have eyes for the K190 - look at all that tubing! :laugh:

7fdb8557c18f4979ff8e174182c38945.jpg

 

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Or was it Brasshouse Passage?

We Brummies know that answer to this little conundrum, it was.

 

I have been spending time loving my little Ultra, it's a piece of cake to clean and keep spraying

So good I might get another...  :)

 

Anyway what was I doing in an inhospitable garage this arvo?

 

Working out how to do this


I present exhibit one:

 

This Merlin helichopter was spotted lurking in a hangar at Yeovilton two summers ago

P1120994.jpg

 

I will draw the jury's attention to the colour of it, no OK the colours of it

 

The tail end, near the white ROYAL NAVY and roundel is a fair example of the standard Tamiya Medium Sea Grey and which is pretty much the same as the Vallejo and Humbrol colours with the same label

I found the Mr Hobby paints to be similar but slightly shinier and a slightly darker grey and the Xtracrylics similar but prone to destabilising under spraying into separate little globules of paint and water as this is almost certain to be operator error I made the decision to leave them in their box and stick to Tamiya

So, to the grey Merlin

 

Is it all medium sea grey?

My eyes are telling me nay

 

Ahead of the rear window around the area of the defensive measures racking (I believe I have that right and am sure any or all of several type exposed experts will be around to blurglecruncheon me if I'm at fault) that coat of grey looks blue to me

 

How about you?

 

And near there, just above the aforementioned window the grey looks white-er to me

 

How about you?

 

Even the bits that do look MSG have massive colour density differences, it's a proper pickle

 

Anyway I have a mule (No I'm not Clint Eastwood with his poncho, and wasnt it Shirley Mcclaine?) anyway this mule is a Sea King which has sacrificed her snout for a better cause and which agreed to be painted for the sake of the Merlin

 

I started with Tamiya MSG straight from the jar and sprayed some of the tail

 

Then in search of the actual (AKA similar) blue-grey I added some white and sprayed other parts of the airframe, then added a few little blobs (I wont pretend to have used science in this process, except the science of stirring fluids in small spaces) of blue to give me that decidedly blue looking grey

 

P1010192.jpg

 

I added more white, did I mention adding white? and got the colour where the steps are

 

I quite like that for the bluey-er look

 

I added some of Tamiya's wonderfully named Royal something grey which I take to mean RAF Light  Aircraft Grey because it has that very light brown component like real LAG and sprayed some of the mix to the bluer bit on the other side of the mule

P1140337.jpg

 

This is it on the tail cone, does it do it for you please chaps?

 

I did put some LAG into some of the MSG and got a satisfactory base coat colour

 

So maybe a little more detail addition will get us into the paint shop soon

 

Meantime, roof windows of the Kiowa are now blue clear

 

à bientôt

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Originally they were a nice clean overall MSG, the photo of the crashed (sorry, heavy landing...) Merlin would confirm this - 2004 they were still shiny and had that new car smell, kind of. Over the years as panels and damage have been changed and patched up, the interpretation of MSG seems to have varied. We use tins of paint and small two part paint syringe mixed kits all marked Medium Sea Grey with the relevant BS ref number. However, when applied, it seems that either a) the manufacturer has a casual approach to paint mixing or b) the original MSG has faded massively.

I lean towards a) as there are so many variations on the airframe, many applied within months of each other. The newer paint patches vary from a blue tinged MSG through to a green tinged MSG, covering everything in between.

The aircraft hadn't been repainted since introduction but noticeably many are now coming out of Mk2 conversion and upgrade with what appears to be extensive areas of the airframe repainted - I even saw the "tiger" striped (grey mackerel) aircraft yesterday looking very resplendent in freshly applied stripes and MSG. 

Not much help, but this is one aircraft where that hideous (IMHO) pre-/ post shading could be appropriate but don't overdo it.

 

So, feel free to use a whole host of various MSG colours to paint the model.

 

Jeff

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Looking at your above pic of the 1:1 Merlin I think some off the colour variation is to do with the lighting of the subject and also some discolouration caused by the engine exhaust. Just my two pence worth.

 

   Roger 

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Super photo GB, thanks

Roger in my huge collection of outdoors flying around Merlin's, the same colour abberations are rampant

 

As we've had explained the repatching facilities have to use what they're given

Which makes for a God-given open door when its paintshop time

 

I'm gonna really enjoy this

Probably today or tomorrow...

 

 

Yummee

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Some great photos there, which illustrate the variation on a no-longer-young, hard-working airframe very well.  

 

 

 

But I am still trying to see whether I can forgive you for that “mule”.  We all have mules of some description... but how could you??  A Seaking...  For shame!

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1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Some great photos there, which illustrate the variation on a no-longer-young, hard-working airframe very well.  

 

 

 

But I am still trying to see whether I can forgive you for that “mule”.  We all have mules of some description... but how could you??  A Seaking...  For shame!

Sadly Crisp she had to donate her nose to a noble-r cause and on discussing it with the lady she agreed it was a worthwhile and noble deed to work towards a decent Naval Merlin

 

And a good thing to add, if the missing nose ever turns up she can become a bagger as was her previous destiny

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6 hours ago, Hamden said:

 

Looking at your above pic of the 1:1 Merlin I think some off the colour variation is to do with the lighting of the subject and also some discolouration caused by the engine exhaust. Just my two pence worth.

 

   Roger 

I can assure you, with all due respect, that lighting has nothing to do with the variation in paint colour/ tone/ appearance- what is in the photo is what you'd see on any Merlin. Before the current repainting that seems to be happening (and something I'll enquire about) most in service Merlins exhibit the same faded/ worn/ battered/ lightened/ fresh paint appearance.

As Crisp says above ^ these aircraft are hard worked (when they're serviceable!!) Especially when they go on board. Although primarily ASW aircraft they have just as important secondary roles too - surface search, troop movement, load lifting all of which is practiced frequently. They are fresh water and foam washed regularly but used a lot. 

As a modeller, the one thing I've had a keen eye on is the appearance of the aircraft from a modelling perspective- it really is noticeable how much the paint has faded compared to the freshly applied paint. And as much as loathe modern weathering techniques, especially that uniform lightened panel (crikey some people lighten ALL of the panels in a uniform way!!), this is one type that could benefit from using some of that technique to show the RANDOM way in which weather and environment affect paint finishes.

The exhaust stains are there especially that from the APU, but not as pronounced as say the APU stain seen on Typhoons - the Merlin staining is more of a Tamiya smoke tainting, slightly heavier closer to the exhaust nozzle.

HTH and not meant to sound rude or know it all - but I see and work on these things everyday!!

 

Jeff 

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1 hour ago, pinky coffeeboat said:

I can assure you, with all due respect, that lighting has nothing to do with the variation in paint colour/ tone/ appearance- what is in the photo is what you'd see on any Merlin. Before the current repainting that seems to be happening (and something I'll enquire about) most in service Merlins exhibit the same faded/ worn/ battered/ lightened/ fresh paint appearance.

As Crisp says above ^ these aircraft are hard worked (when they're serviceable!!) Especially when they go on board. Although primarily ASW aircraft they have just as important secondary roles too - surface search, troop movement, load lifting all of which is practiced frequently. They are fresh water and foam washed regularly but used a lot. 

As a modeller, the one thing I've had a keen eye on is the appearance of the aircraft from a modelling perspective- it really is noticeable how much the paint has faded compared to the freshly applied paint. And as much as loathe modern weathering techniques, especially that uniform lightened panel (crikey some people lighten ALL of the panels in a uniform way!!), this is one type that could benefit from using some of that technique to show the RANDOM way in which weather and environment affect paint finishes.

The exhaust stains are there especially that from the APU, but not as pronounced as say the APU stain seen on Typhoons - the Merlin staining is more of a Tamiya smoke tainting, slightly heavier closer to the exhaust nozzle.

HTH and not meant to sound rude or know it all - but I see and work on these things everyday!!

 

Jeff 

 

Rest assured Jeff, I may be out of my depth with this uber-weathering malarkey but I will do me bestest

 I just crazy fell for that patchwork effect

 

Once I have finished plastering odd bits and bobs underneath it's hey-ho for the paint shop

 

This afternoon I am entering into the scandalous art of masking over windscreen wipers

 

I  know I will be regretting not taking them off and polishing the screen flush...

 

ohhh

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Do Eduard or the like not make an etched set for the Merlin that includes wiper arms? That would make it all so much easier!! Especially as the arms are mounted below the windshield on the fuselage and from memory, I think the arms are moulded onto the clear part in the kit?

If you're going to paint freshly applied MSG to a faded MSG, make sure it's done in a straight edged shape - masking tape is used to mask off the area giving a block of fresh green or blue tinged MSG, often the nearest row of rivets is chosen as the border for the repaint . Very rarely will you see a brush shaped patch of MSG unless it's a very small repair. Hope that makes sense?

 

Jeff

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Yep, noted and already in the paint plan from early on Jeff, straight demarcations along panel lines

 

I have already prelightened the panel around the starboard door, I think we will be happy when she's done

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