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Westland Wessex, 1/72 Rugrats resin


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We have here a situation that often repeats in this hobby: a superbly attractive plane that hardly any mainstream manufacturer would touch, produced by a smaller outfit with less resources and the unavoidable higher price tag that always accompanies the need to spread higher costs on a smaller number of produced items.

For us modelers that translates into the above-mentioned higher tag price, with a technology that no matter how much love, time and energy invested, may fall sometimes a tad short of modeling comfort.

I have to credit to this manufacturer first and foremost the will and valor to produce a wonderful civil type that is not universally known, and the inclusion of items such as highly detailed decals, photo-etched parts, white metal parts, documentation, detailed plans, and such.

The bulk of the kit is constituted by resin parts, the casting is fair enough, and better than other offers like the old Dujin issues, but not on par with more refined kits in the market of equal price.

The engineering is a bit unusual, but this plane is not easy to translate in kit form, so I guess they shall be given a pass on that. But the aggregate of several resin and white metal parts that makes for the outrigger engines, associated struts and landing gear does not fit exactly well and produced many a headache.

This is far from being an easy kit to build, as you can see in the work-in-progress post:

The decision lies on the modeler: spend the higher sum and have a laborious build to enjoy the rewards of a lesser known type of great appeal...or not.

I guess that as usual it boils down to how much you want a Westland Wessex, and how a reasonably experienced modeler you are.

A great deal of thought and resources has been poured into this kit, still you need to work with skill, patience and care (and no little love), sometimes solving manufacturing issues, to get a nice replica. But then you will have your beautiful Wessex.

 

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Another absolute beauty Moa. The quality of your builds is superb, and yet you seem to produce such masterpieces so quickly ....... certainly compared to me!

 

I particularly like this one a lot.

 

Terry

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Absolutely stunning Moa. Love the flying shots - looks almost real. What an beautiful aeroplane too.

 

Well done for persevering and solving the many problems in the build. I am sure the quality of your models improves too!

 

Cheers

 

Malcolm

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32 minutes ago, Baldy said:

Well done for persevering and solving the many problems in the build

Hi Malcolm

I was tempted to freeze this one, too many issues almost at every step, but yes, the training at the Shaolin Modeling Monastery kicked in, and I heard the raspy voice of Master Sandpaper saying:  -"Little trash-hopper, even when the moon is invisible, NASA can still send rockets to it".

Cheers

 

 

 

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Wow - magnificent. This aeroplane has intrigued me since I decided to include it in a multi-type pencil drawing many years ago, especially as many of my work colleagues at the time were former RAF Westland Wessex helicopter aircrew. The model looks 'the business'; seeing it in as a 3D replica (I know: I'm looking at it in 2D!) instead of an old black-and-white photo is fascinating.

Jon

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29 minutes ago, Jonners said:

Wow - magnificent. This aeroplane has intrigued me since I decided to include it in a multi-type pencil drawing many years ago, especially as many of my work colleagues at the time were former RAF Westland Wessex helicopter aircrew. The model looks 'the business'; seeing it in as a 3D replica (I know: I'm looking at it in 2D!) instead of an old black-and-white photo is fascinating.

Jon

Thanks, Jon, the original plane indeed has a lot of appeal, somewhat inexplicably, since it is not stylized, not particularly harmonious, and surely not graceful.

I think it's all that "bussyness"

Cheers

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Oh yes hat's much more realistic with all those clouds and gloom!!

I really like this aeroplane it reminds me of a miniature Ford Trimotor. And there was I thinking a Westland Wessex was a helicopter!

Superb modelling again Moa, keep it up!

Cheers,

Ian

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2 hours ago, Turbofan said:

Oh yes hat's much more realistic with all those clouds and gloom!!

I really like this aeroplane it reminds me of a miniature Ford Trimotor. And there was I thinking a Westland Wessex was a helicopter!

Superb modelling again Moa, keep it up!

Cheers,

Ian

Thanks, Ian

I think Brits shun corrugations.

Cheers

 

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Hi Moa 

What a cracking build of a beautiful machine, your work is inspiring and I thank you for sharing it. I love the photos, especially the in flight and atmospheric ones. Congratulations on another superb build.

All the best

Chris

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9 minutes ago, Dave Swindell said:

Excellent results there Moa, thanks for highlighting the problems with the kit, I've got the Royal Flight version to build some day....

Thanks Dave

Hope the WiP is of help.

This kit as you have probably seen requires time and a careful approach.

Good luck with your build and looking forward to see the model, I am sure it will be a beauty.

If the decals of yours are printed on a continuous carrier film as mine (i.e. no individual subjects, you have to cut the images one by one eliminating the carrier), and the windows on the fuselage sides decals are really white (the carrier for those images in your kit is white) then I guess you have to cut out the area of the windows in order for them to show the transparency; are you able to confirm that? (don't bother please if the kit is out of reach or stored, it's just curiosity).

I left the "transparent" window areas in some of my window frame decals (the ones I could not cut the clear areas out -the carrier in mine was "clear"), and of course they happened to be not very transparent at all.

Again, with some steady work and firm commitment they can be turned into a fair rendition, but there are many things to solve and sort on the way.

Cheers

 

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Hi Moa, don't hold yor breath waiting for my build, I've got a stack of part built stuff to complete first!

The decals in my kit are much newer than yours and don't show any sign of yellowing, but they are on continuous film, and yes, the cabin side windows are printed on white so will definitely have to be cut out. I've used continuous clear film over windows before where the film has been good, but I know what you mean with the yellowing as I have some of their earlier Dragon kits and these are badly affected. Fortunately I have both ALPS and colour laser printer, and I always scan a decal sheet before using, so I should be able to reproduce or adjust the artwork if needs must.

Thanks again for the excellent wip and your efforts to overcome the kits shortcomings. A fair bit of effort but a spectacular result of a litlle known aircraft (OK, not quite as rare as some of your scratchbuilds, but still one most modellers wouldn't recognise)

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I echo the comments from other modellers on here. The final result is fabulous. I hope you feel it was worth all the effort and you can be very proud of what you have achieved.

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