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Shapeways' 1/72 Gyrodyne QH-50C DASH


hsr

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This is my 1/72 Gyrodyne QH-50C DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter) 3D printed by Shapways. My understanding is that these were used as anti-submarine homing torpedo delivery devices for ships had sonar and other submarine sensors but that were too small to carry a full size helicopter such as a SH-3 Sea King. As anyone that has tried to fly an RC helicopter can attest they were very hard to fly, especially with 1960's technology, so they were somewhat dangerous and accident prone and were eventually replaced by SH-2 Seasprites. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrodyne_QH-50_DASH for more information.

 

It comes from Shapeways as a 3d printed block:

 

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 with an instruction sheet

 

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The block also has a template for the wire used for struts, and the landing gear 

 

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You just need to supply the .02 wire, .01 wire and decals. I could not find any suitable .01 wire so I either left it out or used the .02 wire. Once separated from the block you have the following parts

 

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Because of the way the 3D printing process works all of the hole for the wires are "printed" into the pieces and just need to be cleaned out of the printing powder with a small drill bit. Also because of the printing process the parts have some striations and are little grainy. After printing they tumble them  to clean and polish them smooth but this doesn't get into all the nooks and crannies of the block so some clean up is required. Because of this I used Eduard Brassin Mk. 44 torpedoes rather end the one supplied.

 

Assembly was straight forward. I used CAA glue and epoxy.  And hear is the results.

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Here it is between an SH-3 and SH-2 for size comparison

 

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Next up is the Olimp/ProResin Edo OSE-1 floatplane.

 

Enjoy 

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That looks pretty amazing, I am really surprised how smooth it came out!

 

Just primer and paint, or was there more to it?

 

Really little cool thing, something to be proud of

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All of the parts needed some light sanding and the underside of most of the parts where the tumbling didn't reach needed a little more. This is the bottom of one of the torpedoes

ffIqv1eJ_o.jpg

 

I could have cleaned it up but since it got a metallic finish I went with the smoother resin ones from Eduard. They say that acrylic paints work best but I used Tamiya Fine Surface lacquer primer and Humbrol enamel.

 

Thanks  

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5 minutes ago, Eric Mc said:

I assume those were test colours.

All the pics I saw had some variation of those colors. Most were from museum displays so have to be taken with a few grains of salt but even shipboard ones had it 

300px-QH-50_DD-692_1967.jpg

 

Thanks

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Now there's a type I never thought I'd see in kit form. That is a stunning build, bravo!

 

For anyone interested in how you operate one of these I found this fascinating video on YouTube a couple of years back (it's a long watch but worth it if you're interested in this type):

 

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4 minutes ago, k5054nz said:

For anyone interested in how you operate one of these I found this fascinating video on YouTube a couple of years back (it's a long watch but worth it if you're interested in this type):

Note that this video shows a D version which had the tail removed.

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Lovely work!

 

Even better is learning about this things existence, which had evaded my knowledge until now! 

Poor little thing was way ahead of its time, and i would be highly surprised if we dont see some spiritual grandchildren of the Dash on the decks of naval ships in the next 10-20 years.

 

That there were some variants buzzing around till 2006 clearly indicates it wasnt too unreliable! 

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2 minutes ago, Kushan_Farsight said:

Poor little thing was way ahead of its time

With modern computer tech it would practically fly itself. Without that I read somewhere that 80% were lost due to accidents.

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6 minutes ago, hsr said:

With modern computer tech it would practically fly itself. Without that I read somewhere that 80% were lost due to accidents.

I think the issue was 1960s remote tech (and all off the shelf commercial parts too, so not exactly cutting edge military grade) and that your working above a bottomless blue sea.  I would bet that you could give one of these over to some modern RC Heli enthusiasts and have an autonomous drone in a day or two!

This build has really opened my eyes to early unmanned attempts so thanks @hsr :) 

 

 i foolishly kind of assumed that nothing significant was done in terms of unmanned vehicles bar target drones and V1's until development of the D-21 drones, but i am quickly learning that was not the case!

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Tidy little model of an obscure type?  I like it!  

 

All I could think of reading your original post was the "Contrabulous Fabtraption of Professor Horatio Hufnagel" and the first response was from a guy whose avatar is Troy McClure. My day is made.  😀

 

The_Contrabulous_Fabtraption_of_Professo

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