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The best Destroyer/Frigate helicopter in history


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Apologies to all for my silence of late.  Partly I’ve just been ludicrously busy.  But I’ve also encountered a problem: I can’t paint in the flat I stay in during the week.  [My mate’s flat: my mate’s rules]

 

But since I started this job 90% of my modelling time has been on weekday evenings.  So I’ve had a rethink.

 

Dido has been (very carefully - & successfully) transported home, since she now needs paint before she can go any further.  The Seaking is too fragile to risk SouthWest Trains, and other stalled builds (Walrus, Seafire 47) are also at the paint stage.  

 

So I have decided to start a new build, on the grounds that I can do building stuff during the week & paint at weekends.

 

I’m typing this on a phone in a cafe, which isn’t ideal, so more later when I have something more user-friendly to hand.

 

But for now, a sneak preview, which I’m sure you can work out easily enough.  I actually plan to build 3 of these fairly simultaneously, 2 in 1/48 (my “normal” aircraft scale) & the other in 1/32 with some major detailing.  I foresee much scratch building in my near future...

 

[This is from the 1/32 beastie]

 

resized_9dfb8f35-2276-4ab0-b927-cc780581

 

More soon, including a bit more info about what I’m planning.

 

Crisp

 

 

 

 

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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The thread topic is intriguing, but yes

6 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

More soon, including a bit more info about what I’m planning.

I'm gonna need that. You know I know nothing about helicopters ... 🤷🏻‍♂️ What's DD/FF, for instance? TIA

 

6 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

on the grounds that I can do building stuff during the week & paint at weekends.

Sounds like a plan! Although I would have liked to see that Seafire 47 completed ....

 

Ciao

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Destroyers (DD) and frigates (FF) - nothing more complicated than shorthand; instead of writing "destroyers" or "frigates" all the time in documents and avoiding just d or f which could be mistaken for typing errors, DD and FF (and SS etc..) are used.

 

Jeff

Edited by pinky coffeeboat
Updating a hastily written post
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He's doing a Wopse of course

 

 

Ah me, wrong again

 

Looks 'sactly like the dear little Lynx in nautical guise to me

 

hoooooorayyy!!!!!

 

I hope its to be the one I dont have the nerve for...

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

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Oooohhhh. As Bill said: Hoooooorayyy!

 

I have one of those big Revell Lynxes in the stash, simply because the price:plastic ratio was too good to resist. So a Crisp build can show me how it ought to be built, even if the result is something to which I can only aspire. And I appreciate the bottleneck that comes from being restricted to weekend painting.

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Blimey!  Wasn’t expecting that much reaction.. [No pressure...]

 

So what am I planning to build?  [And to answer your assorted questions].

 

As already mentioned, DD/FF = Navyspeak for Destroyer/Frigate.  The Lynx was designed from the outset to operate from small decks, and it was brilliant at it (I’ll try to explain the reasons why as I go along).  It was also immensely capable, especially in the anti-surface warfare mode - a Cold War design aimed at countering the Soviet fast patrol boat threat (which would have been considerable in and around Norwegian fjords, for instance), with 4 Sea Skuas it out-performed pretty much everying else.. particularly anything else that was likely to be available to help out a DD/FF close in shore.  Lynxes destroyed the Iraqi Navy pretty much on their own in Gulf War 1, for instance.

 

It was also immensely fun to fly.  I have around 1,200 hours on type (almost exactly 50:50 with Seaking hours).  The Seaking was fun, and a first tour in a carrier ASW squadron would be hard to beat.  But the Lynx as a pure flying machine beats it in every possible way - not least in generating large grins on the pilot’s face!.

 

The builds, in no particular order.

 

First up, my first cab on Broadsword Flight, XZ722/346/BW.  I don’t actually have a photo to hand, so this shot of her successor (ZD260) will have to do (note recent replacement of Observer’s windscreen after a bird strike!).  XZ722 ws a standard HAS3 at the time (ZD260 was an HAS3S).

 

resized_544fe020-e6c2-44ad-be03-0525007b

 

To be built in 1/48, using the Airfix HMA8 kit...

resized_84b075d8-70f6-44ad-9601-1589caa4

 

...and the excellent HAS2/3 conversion kit produced by one of our BM colleagues, Colin @heloman1:resized_d1e60d08-9696-4e1c-8b5f-5edf93b5

 

There were several significant differences between the HAS2 or 3 and the HMA8, of which the most obvious were... tail rotor rotated in the opposite direction, back-date the blades from BERPs to metal (XZ722) or composite (ZD260) ‘conventional’ blades; different nose.  Colin’s set is superb, and I also have Eduard PE to tart up both inside and outside.  Likely to be built folded, hoist fitted but folded away, weapon carriers but no weapons - which was our bog standard fit.

 

Second build, using the Revell HAS3 kit...

resized_c17bb888-e9d2-4884-a8dd-9d07f5e1

... will be the second cab I had on Broadsword flight, the aforementioned HAS3S, ZD260/346/BW.

 

This one is out of my 1/48 comfort zone, and I plan to use the extra size to detail the Heck out of it.  You have already seen the sliding aerodynamic fairing from the cabin roof - the part you correctly identified from my first post.  Revell build that in a single piece with the cabin roof, so you may reasonably infer that I will be trying to reproduce the stuff that the fairing normally covers up (control runs, generators, hydraulics etc.), inspired by the stunning work of @shark 64.  This kind of thing:

6adeb6d9-28cd-4eb1-aa30-6249ab954e16.jpe

 

Also very possibly this kind of thing (though I expect only one of them!):

2fe1af90-d9ec-4515-af53-d52e9abdf608.jpe

resized_d02a06d8-a716-401e-8b00-85c03af7

 

I have the full Eduard monty for this kit, too, as well as the Scalewarship blade fold conversion set.  I haven’t yet quite decided on the final configuration, but possibly something along these lines:

resized_33ffa506-41bf-4918-b534-57610325

 

[Removing the main rotor head from ZD260 in preparation for a main gear box change, HMS Broadsword at anchor at Ascension Island, 1990].

 

The Airfix kit has some decent moulded rivet-ry.  The Revell has none at all.  So yes, @hendie, there will be rivets.  Large scale ones.

 

The third build is one I have wanted to do for years, and is easily the most ambitious.  7 years before I was Broadsword’s Flight Commander, on 25 May 1982 she came mighty close to catastrophe in the same raid that sank HMS Coventry.  A bomb bounced off the sea, went through the side of the ship and upwards through the flight deck, taking off the nose of XZ729 which was sitting on deck at the time.  It didn’t improve her looks:

9ca79f6b-29a6-4b87-9ab0-438e108ed362.jpe

 

This cab survived and was re-built; it was the penultimate aircraft I flew in the Royal Navy (in 1997 as an HAS3S) and subsequently went on to become an HMA8.  Apart from the involuntary nose job, note a) the Mk.44 torpedo on the starboard weapon carrier (the bomb must have missed the warhead by inches) and b) the ASQ-81 MAD ‘bird’ fitted to the starboard stub-wing.  Only a handful of RN Lynxes were fitted with MAD (I can only find definite evidence of 2 airframes), so it’s Modelling Sod’s Law that this was one of them, because references of how it was fitted are very scarce...  

 

I first mooted building this cab several years ago on BM, and a fellow BM-er kindly sent me the unused ASQ-81 MAD parts from an SH-60B he was building at the time.  Very rudely, I have forgotten who it was; but thanks anyway!   I also have a nice resin Mk.44:

resized_60f14846-9ab0-46fc-8256-c8be1d09

 

This too will be based on the Airfix 1/48 HMA8 / Rotorcraft conversion (to HAS2 in this case), but it’s pretty obvious that they will only be the starting point for some exploration of damage techniques.  I have ideas, but no doubt there will be a lot of trial and error.

 

Obviously, I have been thinking about these builds for ages, but now seems the right time to make some progress - XZ722 will be a reasonably conventional build of the Airfix kit, albeit converted.  But the other two are both going to need some major, major imagination and scratch work, which should suit my London evenings nicely.

 

Watch this space!

 

Crisp

 

 

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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P.S.  Apart from working on the 1/32 sliding fairing that I teased you with yesterday, I have already done a few exploratory bits and bobs, such as this.  Unlike the Seaking rescue hoist, which is permanently rigged, the Lynx one can be removed altogether. Even when fitted, it folds away inside the cabin when not in use.  A lot of my Broadsword time was spent on patrol in the Falklands (two tours there in consecutive years), so we flew with the thing rigged almost all the time - so XZ722 needs a folded hoist.  On the right, the part as moulded by Airfix (with the winch drum above); on the left, my modification to fold it.

 

resized_c1322291-5efd-4881-8dc7-eda17db3

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

So I have decided to start a new build, on the grounds that I can do building stuff during the week & paint at weekends.

Welcome to the club!!!

Nice to see you back!!!!!

I love this aircraft and i'm sure you'll get the best from this kit!!!:like:

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45 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Blimey!  Wasn’t expecting that much reaction.. [No pressure...]

None at all. You may proceed. :poke:

 

Incidentally, I have a cunning plan that cannot fail that will allow you to paint away from home. Why not paint in the art classroom at St Trinians? 

 

Martian the Helpful

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Hey Crisp is back !!

Glad to see you starting a new project !!

Another flying piano !! Now, I can't see a wooka wooka without thinking of a Flying piano !

May I join the fray, is there one more place at the bar !

CC

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A Lynx (or three), should be very good this one. If ever I stray away from the one true scale (more and more likely these days) a 1/32 Lynx could steal my heart for sure. 

 

Terry

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2 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

None at all. You may proceed. :poke:

 

Incidentally, I have a cunning plan that cannot fail that will allow you to paint away from home. Why not paint in the art classroom at St Trinians? 

 

Martian the Helpful

At 0300 in the morning? With Crisp"s reputation???

Glad to see you back Crisp. Back in the day when I was a young sprog in sixth year (1976) a Lynx displayed at my school which was a big standard normal(??) comprehensive. Very impressive display it was as well. Think it would have been RAF rather than RN but I've liked the aircraft ever since. Looking forward to this immensely though no slacking on the Sea King will be tolerated! 😁

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6 hours ago, Harley John said:

Think it would have been RAF rather than RN...

Her Majesty’s Crustacea never operated the Lynx; it would have either have been RN (Oxford Blue, with wheels) or Army Air Corps (skids and camouflage) in those days.

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Jolly good to see you back at work Crisp. :thumbsup2:

18 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

can’t paint in the flat I stay in during the week

Not to worry. When the weather's warmer you'll be able to get a bit of painting done out on Hampstead Heath:

jack6.jpg

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9 hours ago, hendie said:

 

well, that didn't work very well - it ended up on the wrong page... I was trying to point you towards these - Masterclub resin rivets

A possibility, certainly, for the larger ones.  But I note that HGW do rivets in 1/32, so I will probably stick to what I know from ZE419

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