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The best Destroyer/Frigate helicopter in history


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3 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Like every year!

 

[Jets are for kids]

So no hint of bias there at all then?

 

Martian the Even Tentacled 👽

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29 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Just doing my job in counter-balancing the habitual plank-wing bias of most aviation buffs, Martian!

Job? Its more of a vocation isn't it?

 

Martian 👽

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4 hours ago, Francis Macnaughton said:

For the 1/32nd version, have you looked at how you will do the decals since as far as I can make out there are no aftermarket options available?

I'll probably mask the roundels (and maybe the whole thing - I had very pleasing results from custom masks on my Seaking). If not masks, things like the serials will be from generic transfer stock numbers.  Stencils (of which there aren't that many on a Lynx) are already covered in the kit, so should be fine.  

 

That stage of the build is so far in the distance, and I have so many major bridges to cross before getting anywhere near painting the outside, that the above vague answers provide pretty good evidence about how much thought I have put into the decal/transfer business.  All joking aside, though, I am not worried about it.

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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The Black Dog resin engine set has arrived (thanks @DaveWilko for the heads up).  It’s designed for the Airfix AH-7 cousin of this kit, which means there are some differences - but it’s a great place to start:

resized_4a8195e7-73a4-4ba9-8313-275404f7

 

The set includes the engine and some nice thin engine bay doors & panels... but unfortunately they were clearly not designed by someone familiar with the real aircraft.  To be fair, Airfix’s kit design hardly helps; for some reason best known to themselves, they have split the ECU doors in two along a panel line.  

resized_62628d6b-6b0e-4036-abe1-cbe5e82f

 

That rectangular section centre left - with the pronounced square panel (firefighting access) in it - is actually the lower section of the door.  If you look here you can see the double fold (as well as a great view of a Gem):

resized_d8198249-8133-455a-acd6-3fa945e8

 

So after a very careful session of scribing and micro-sawing, the deed was done:

resized_f45dc065-954c-4c00-9d75-793e36c6

 

The top doors are also wrong for a Mk.3, so will require some surgery: here on the left is the Black Dog door (still attached to its pour stub) with a section removed, balanced on the RotorCraft replacement part (which itself has since been sawn in half to separate the starboard door):

resized_17e34a78-6019-4f9e-9bd0-4ab6ec53

 

And finally a view of the ECU held in position:

resized_5e777f0b-5cb4-474e-bcde-eff06f8e

 

Some work to do, but the basic fit is excellent. The resin walls are really thin - but thus also rather fragile; note the bite out of the bottom of the exhaust.  But hey, we’re modellers; we fix stuff.

 

The kind Black Dog peops also threw in a freebie tail set (I also ordered some Seaking & Merlin stuff, so they clearly took pity on my credit card).  This is also designed for the AH-7, which has a non-folding tail... but it includes a lovely delicate TR drive shaft and intermediate gearbox, so I am going to experiment with adapting it for a folded tail.

 

Watch this space.  More soon

 

Crisp

 

 

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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There's something rather pleasing about the shape of the Lynx. They always look more "streamlined" than other helicopters, which translates to "sexy".

 

My Dad was involved in the design process of the Lynx and I'm lead to believe the the sponsons/stub wings were the area of specific involvement.

On 2/2/2019 at 2:45 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

The manoeuverability made it the deck landing helicoper par excellence, which was the reason for the head; immediately responsive, agile, robust - and you can put the blades into negative pitch on deck, pushing you downwards while the guys get lashings on.

Silly question Crisp, but how did this get applied? The collective lever got pushed downwards past a neutral position perhaps? A bit like Beta on a turbine aircraft?

 

 

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2 hours ago, hairystick said:

There's something rather pleasing about the shape of the Lynx. They always look more "streamlined" than other helicopters, which translates to "sexy".

 

My Dad was involved in the design process of the Lynx and I'm lead to believe the the sponsons/stub wings were the area of specific involvement.

Silly question Crisp, but how did this get applied? The collective lever got pushed downwards past a neutral position perhaps? A bit like Beta on a turbine aircraft?

 

 

Yes, that’s a good analogy; colloquially we used to talk about “going into negative pitch”, but the official name is ‘Sub-Minimum’ [“sub-min”] pitch.  The lever (collective) has a normal bottom pisition when on the ground / in full auto-rotation, but if you pushed down it went further, and the engine power would rise again as pitch was applied (and the oleos were compressed fully).  You would absolutely NOT do it in the air, but it was useful on deck for two reasons: one as designed, to help the aircraft to ‘stick’ on deck in marginal conditions while lashings were applied; and two as part of post-ECU change ground runs, where you could try the engine out at more than ground idle power, but without getting airborne - useful if, for instance, the engineers were working on something else, so the cab wasn’t fully airworthy yet, but the engines and transmission were ready for test.

 

I assume that sub-min pitch was only available on the Navy Lynx, but I might be wrong.

 

Yes, lovely piece of resin casting... but there’s afair amount of modification needed to back-date it to the HAS3 era, so the original casters might need to cover their eyes!

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I say old bean, can you and DaveWilco knock it off with them positive vibes man

Too much of that Black doggerel is likely to send a man to the dark side..

 

Exquisite

 

 

 

 

 

So that crew of motleys mangulating the rotor head was youse and your merry men

 

 

 

To be fair I'm glad it got you where you were heading rather than park you on the/in the oggin

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You're most welcome Crisp(if I may call one that,I assume your surname isn't "Walkers"too).

That really is a very impressive bit of casting,I gather from the tone of these other members of the "audience" that

you will do a fine job of bringing it to life.

 

Excellent job of explaining about the aerodynamics of these machines,obviously from one's knowledge and forum "handle",

one once flew them for a living in the Fleet Air Arm,more power to one's elbow I say Sir.

Edited by DaveWilko
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There’s good news and bad news with this engine.  The good news is that it is, as many have observed, a really splendid piece of casting.  The bad news is that it doesn’t bear a great deal of resemblance to a Rolls Royce Gem 42, which was the engine for the Lynx HAS3S (and indeed the HMA8, in up-rated form).

 

OK, so the Gem 41 fitted to the AH-7 isn’t identical to the 42... but I’ll bet it doesn’t look all that different from the outside.  I rather suspect that a convincing looking generic helicopter turbine has been produced in the Czech Republic, without getting too hung up on what the original looks like... after all, who is going to know?  

 

Who can blame them?

 

This presents a dilemma to those of us who know what a Gem actually looks like.  On the one hand I don’t want to be too rivet-county about this, but on the other hand if I’m going to expose an engine, I’d like it to look plausible as a minimum.  So I am experimenting with scratch-building something to look vaguely like the very distinctive oil cooler section that sits on top of the Gem (and is the reason for those vents on top of the ECU doors).  [I’ll post some photos when I am home this weekend to illustrate what I mean].  That large pipe running across the top has already gone (which only confirms the exquisiosity of the casting, because the engine casing that used to be completely hidden under that pipe is still gorgeous).  If I can get it looking OK, I will adapt this engine.  If I can’t, I will probably revert to Plan A and scratch build a Gem in 1/32.

 

I am reasonably confident that I can get this engine to look pretty convincing, without going too completely nuts in the process.  But we will see.

 

[Note to passing Italians; exquisiosity is not a real word.]

 

[Note to passing Martians; your observations about whether I have already comprehensively demonstrated that I am completely nuts - though entirely accurate - are not required, thank you.]

 

Oh, and speaking of rivets.  There seems to be general agreement that one area where the Airfix 1/48 Lynx outscores the Revell 1/32 version is in its depiction of the rivets and strengthening plates along the tail.  This is undeniably true... if you are building an HMA8... which I am not.  The Mk8’s tail rotor turned in the opposite direction to the earlier marks (which could run out of tail rotor authority at certain high weights and/or if the wind was strong from the starboard bow).  Changing the TR fixed the problem... but the Mk8 was also significantly heavier than the Mk3, so the whole tail pylon was strengthened to handle the changes in power.  

 

Yes, you’ve no doubt guessed it.  I have just sanded all the rivets and strengthening plates off the tail, because they are completely wrong for a Mk3.  Shares in HGW are probably soaring as we speak.

 

Oh yes.  It looks like we’re going down that road again.  At least this time I only have to rivet a small section, as opposed to an entire 1/48 Seaking.

 

More soon.

 

Crisp

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44 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

[Note to passing Italians; exquisiosity is not a real word.]

 

It's not just passing Italians that are grateful for the clarifiction - this passing Welshy was just about to google it....!! 

 

Keith

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2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

[Note to passing Martians; your observations about whether I have already comprehensively demonstrated that I am completely nuts - though entirely accurate - are not required, thank you.]

And there's me just sitting here behaving myself like the saint I am. 😇

 

Martian 👽

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