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Airfix Westland Scout - ## FINISHED ##


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Today I painted up the cockpit, fixed the side glazing in place then glued the cockpit in place before closing up the fuselage and gluing the engine deck in position. I have also assembled the skids in readiness for painting.

 

49884450192_973b519297_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

49884139646_b2e560085d_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

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12 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Very nice work John, I remember struggling with the skid assembly but you have done a neat job on yours.

 

Thanks Craig, it wasn't all plain sailing mate, and took a bit of juggling to test fit the assembly. That's the worst thing about building a helicopter you need an octopus to help, there's no wings to balance the darn thing. :winkgrin:

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

 

I built this when it first came out and I seem to remember an article in Airfix Mag saying you should add small wheels to the landing skids near the rear - I think it was to make it easier to push around on the ground. Now whether or not that was correct, or maybe only applied to certain versions I have no idea, but I found some suitable wheels and added them. Maybe they were getting confused with the naval version which had 4 castoring wheels as I recall.

 

Speaking of the naval version I have had a Scout in my stash for years whilst I contemplated a conversion to one of HMS Endurance's Wasps that attacked the Argentinian Sub Santa Fe during the Falklands War, but have still not got round to it.

 

Nice kit.

 

Pete

 

 

Edited by PeterB
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Great work if the real thing looked that fragile, there was no way i could have built one as a nipper, it would never have survived. 

Looking forward to seeing this one completed. 

cheers Pat 

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20 hours ago, John_W said:

Very nice. The Box art always annoyed my Brother as he was REME/AAC and the scout was the first aircraft he worked on, and the upper canopy was black tinted, not green...

Thanks for your comment John, and also for the info re the tinting. I tried to create a black tint look on a recent build using a pre mixed enamel wash over a clear part, but it dried matt and rubbed off so that experiment wasn't too successful. I think that a thinned black gloss over a slightly scuffed surface would work better, time for experiment number two methinks. :)

 

17 hours ago, PeterB said:

I built this when it first came out and I seem to remember an article in Airfix Mag saying you should add small wheels to the landing skids near the rear - I think it was to make it easier to push around on the ground. Now whether or not that was correct, or maybe only applied to certain versions I have no idea, but I found some suitable wheels and added them. Maybe they were getting confused with the naval version which had 4 castoring wheels as I recall.

Hi Peter

Thanks for posting and if you check this link to a walkaround (it is more of a stroll really, but still a valuable reference) :)  here on Britmodeller you will see that the wheels are fitted, and the photos that I have come across have them on too. So the article in Airfix Mag was correct in suggesting that they were added. It looks to be quite a robust bit of kit and I'm sure that I will have some suitable wheels, which will be a nice little scratch building job.

 

I built the kit not long after it was released. I remember buying it with the money that I had earned as a young choirboy after singing at a wedding, and I was still able to sing solo's, so my voice would not have broken at that time. :angel:

 

17 hours ago, Dansk said:

Amazing quality work at that size and scale John, very impressive.

Thank you Paul, I'm amazed that the fit of parts on this kit has been so good, with the exception of the canopy which from memory is just as bad as it was when I first built it. I am trying to stick with to using the parts from the box, and have achieved a reasonable fit with that bit, but it is not great. There is a Tasman replacement available down in the Antipodes, so I may have to bite-the-bullet and order one if the shipping costs are not too costly.

 

13 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Great work if the real thing looked that fragile, there was no way i could have built one as a nipper, it would never have survived. 

Looking forward to seeing this one completed. 

cheers Pat 

Cheers Pat. I recall that did have a struggle with the canopy and ended up with the inevitable gluey fingerprints on it, amazingly that's a feat that I am still able to achieve now. :winkgrin: 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/11/2020 at 9:22 PM, nimrod54 said:

Today I painted up the cockpit, fixed the side glazing in place then glued the cockpit in place before closing up the fuselage and gluing the engine deck in position. I have also assembled the skids in readiness for painting.

 

49884450192_973b519297_c.jpg

What colour did you use to paint the cockpit John? The instructions suggest Hu27 which is Sea Grey. Looking good already.  I've pulled one out of the stash and hope to get started soon. 

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6 hours ago, 825 said:

What colour did you use to paint the cockpit John? The instructions suggest Hu27 which is Sea Grey. Looking good already.  I've pulled one out of the stash and hope to get started soon. 

I gave it a couple of light coats of Halfords Grey Plastic Primer, and I used Revell Aquacolor Anthracite for the seat cushions and control stick.

The instructions in my kit do not give cockpit paint callouts and as I had not planned to do much work to the cockpit, I felt that it was close enough to images that I had found. A bit rough and ready I know, and if you plan to add more detail you may find Hu 27 the better option.  Incidentally, the two schemes on offer on the back of my box refer to the old Airfix M and G paint numbers, but I found a conversion list for those here.

Cheers

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Some reference photos, and a question..

288B963F-2C97-4718-A8E8-D3A7B01D7E4D

How do you get a scout off of a low loader?

 

 

8177C5D7-D124-460F-8CDD-9C2A6D904A1A

With a Fork lift obviously...........

 

One of the reasons I’m standing so far away from my truck......... “nothing to do with me guv”

 

 

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4 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

As I hadn't planned to do much to the cockpit, I gave it a couple of light coats of Halfords Grey Plastic Primer, and I used Revell Aquacolor Anthracite for the seat cushions and control stick.

The instructions in my kit don't give cockpit paint callouts and as I had not planned to do much work to the cockpit, I felt that it was close enough to images that I had found. A bit rough and ready I know, and if you plan to add more detail you may find Hu 27 the better option.  Incidentally, the two schemes on offer on the back of my box refer to the old Airfix M and G paint numbers, but I found a conversion list for those here.

Cheers

Thanks John. I've some Akan Dark Admiralty Grey which will do the trick. 

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5 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

Some reference photos, and a question..

288B963F-2C97-4718-A8E8-D3A7B01D7E4D

How do you get a scout off of a low loader?

 

 

8177C5D7-D124-460F-8CDD-9C2A6D904A1A

With a Fork lift obviously...........

 

One of the reasons I’m standing so far away from my truck......... “nothing to do with me guv”

 

 

626 got trapped by the Lockdown on her return from North Weald and only managed to be ground run for the first time this year last Friday. It also looks like due to lockdown causing the cancellation of most airshows she may not even fly this year.

Anyone building a model of the Scout (or Beaver, Sioux, Auster AOP9, Chipmunk and Tiger Moth, which are the aircraft in the Historic Army Aircraft Flight) should look for the HAAF on social media. The flight's web master is a 'born again modeller' and photographer and has posted many inside and outside views of the aircraft both complete and stripped for maintenance.  He even offers a bespoke detail photograph service.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have had a look at the canopy on the Scout today and decided that, with a bit of adjustment and some gentle persuasion, I should be able to achieve a reasonable fit. Whilst I could get a good fit along the port side, the starboard side fit was poor and the small rear window was quite a way off, it could due to some misalignment on my part during assembly but I am not sure. It was time for a bravery test, using a razor saw I removed the small window, this has been bagged up and popped in the box for later fit. The next job was to do something about the frames, these are represented by moulded lines on the canopy so I opted to replace that detail with some thin plastic strip, this would also help to cover the small crack that was in the canopy when I received the kit. With some more polishing followed by a dip in a clear gloss and frame painting, it will be ready to fit.

 

Here is a photo of the canopy work so far.

 

50012956696_192b5f0437_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

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@Dansk, @modelling minion, @Jinxman

 

Thanks for your comments fellas. I hope to get some colour on the internal side of the frames this afternoon, whilst Mrs N is out doing her horsey thing, once that is dry I can fix the canopy in place and seal up any gaps with Glue 'n' Glaze. I then have to come up with a solution for representing the black shading on the top.

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37 minutes ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

Sounds like a nice afternoon in dude. Wellies and raincoats needed over here today. Now who’s coat is that jacket?

 

I'll be a lot drier than Mrs N will be, it's a wee bit moist here today too. :)

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