Jump to content

1/48 Westland Wasp HAS1 Op Corporate *** FINISHED ***


Recommended Posts

Xtradecals from Hannah's do white and black lettering in 1/72 scale

Many of these will also work for 1/48 scale and have the advantage that the occasional letter style variations are accounted for.

 

I can't remember which does what size and I'm away from my records but I do not think you would feel let down by them

Do a Hannah's search for white lettering and you'll be OK

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t think I ever saw bulged doors on a Wasp, either; as Chewy says, the standard Wasp solution to lack of room in the cab was to take the doors off.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I don’t think I ever saw bulged doors on a Wasp, either; as Chewy says, the standard Wasp solution to lack of room in the cab was to take the doors off.  

And gain range or payload...

 

😅

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, perdu said:

Xtradecals from Hannah's do white and black lettering in 1/72 scale

Many of these will also work for 1/48 scale and have the advantage that the occasional letter style variations are accounted for.

 

I can't remember which does what size and I'm away from my records but I do not think you would feel let down by them

Do a Hannah's search for white lettering and you'll be OK

That thought did cross my mind but I dismissed it.  I'll have a look.  Thanks

 

8 hours ago, perdu said:

And gain range or payload...

 

😅

That is very true.  I vaguely recall our one of the Wasp Flt Cdrs on 829 Sqn when we were a dual Lynx/Wasp squadron telling me that a full set of doors was equaivalent to about an extra 20 mins fuel.  That said, I think the main reason for taking the doors off if there was anyone in the back, certainly over the sea, was that if you ditched, once the flot bags inflated you couldn't get the cabin doors open anyway

 

2 hours ago, dolphin38 said:

Heres a couple of pictures that show some of the airframe stencils and markings on High Vis Wasps if they are of any use.

 

They're very good, thank you.  My Wasp reference folder on my PC has over 300 photos now of different wasp's/Scouts and different parts thereof, but they are some of the clearest and that second one is by far the best one I have ever seen to date of the winch.  If nothing else, apart from the hook itself, it shows that my rendition is broadly right!  Wish I'd seen it at the weekend just gone...

 

I've got a good idea of where most of the stencils are; interestingly the one that shows quite prominently in most photos of the starboard side that's going to be challenging to replicate owing to its white nature and tiny writing (in 1/48 at least), namely the fuels list, isn't on that aircraft.  Years ago when I converted the Airfix 1/72 Jetstream to the TMk2 in which I flew my final air test at 750 Sqn and I needed a white "564" to go on the dark blue side panel, I painted the model, and photographed it, pulled the photograph into an image manipulation programme to get the RGB colour mix which I then put back into Corel Draw (my drawing programme of choice 14 years ago) as the background to a 564 in the correct font and size that I then printed on white decal sheet.  I could try that again with this especially as the whole decal will only be about 3 mm x 4 mm.

 

12697451544_894457a285_c.jpg

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks - they're excellent photos.  The fuels one is perfect because not only does it show all of the detail, it also shows that it was probably a sticker in its own right rather than a stencil and the background is a slightly different colour which means I don't need to worry about colour matching the background blue/grey.

 

That'll probably just get cropped and printed directly onto the decal paper!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not much to report.   Rotor blades and hubs are all painted, jut waiting for the masking tape to come off.  I've sprayed the white areas to take the red crosses and masked them and then got the first couple of coats of top coat on.  I do have a photo but under flash it's come out looking just like primer grey rather than Tamiya XF17 blue grey!  The actual colour looks to be a fairly good approximation of the actual colour but tomorrow will tell when I decide whether or not a third coast is needed.  Then I can start assembling the engine area and getting some Klear on ready for decals.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Had a choice today.  Press on with the Wasp or finish taking the wiring loom out of a classic British sportcsar?  After a lazy BBQ lunch, the thought of bending over the engine bay and performing contortions in the footwell meant that the Wasp won by a mile!

 

Started detail painting the transmission deck ready for the engine to go on and fitted the reduction gearbox/aft engine mount.

 

50105791246_71662274b0_b.jpg

 

So far so good.  Then I did a trial fit on the engine and realised that the 2 fixed control rods on the starboard side fouled what I think is some sort of filter and the engine.  I cut down the filter but even so the rods still pushed the engine too far over to port so being wire, the simplest solution was a pair of pliers, pull them out and start again.  At about the same time, the orange hose that I had fitted/painted on the starboard side broke off whilst I realised that the pipe on the engine that it attached to was in the wrong place so that too has been removed and will be replaced in due course.

 

While I waited for the paint on the new rods to dry, I thought I would put a couple of coats of Klear on ready for decals that I am hoping to print this week.  the kit ones had yellowed but a week sat in the sun in our conservatory seem to have done the trick; nevertheless, I've got to print the red crosses, the tie down markings,and a few other bits and pieces so I am going to print a full set.  The kit roundels are out of register anyway.  If the RN logos (both large and small) and the registration numbers don't work printing the background blue/grey on white decal sheet, I can always get some 1/72 letters as @perdu suggested above.

 

Given that Wasps were generally kept quite clean and glossy, even in wartime from the PX24 that was sprayed over them as a water repellant, , I won't be matt coating this at the end so I thought once the Klear coats were dry i could remove the canopy masking.  I always face this bit with some trepidation because I admit my masking is not good at the best of times, I always get a lot of bleed through no matter how hard I press it down and I saw the state of @Bell209's Scout once he removed the masking, and his wasn't on as long as mine had been. 

 

50106032492_ce9fb8d2eb_b.jpg

 

Surprisingly, there was no bleed through of the paint but there were a whole raft of nasty solid white marks which I can only assume must be as a result of PVA glue when I had to re-attach the canopy after knocking it on the floor as reported in #90.  Strangely some were in the middle of panels where the masking tape overlapped? 

 

50105794911_b751e59deb_b.jpg

 

Fortunately, careful sanding with micromesh did manage to get most of removed and another coat of Klear plus some appropriate weathering will probably cover up what's left.

 

50105228378_6ce0c231f3_b.jpg

 

Blades and rotor head are now also all painted.  Just got a little bit of detail to finish on the rotor head.  The engine is now fitted.  Unfortunately it's only held by the stbd and aft mounts as the port one is at slightly the wrong angle and if I try to bend it it will break.  So I'll put a small plasticard shim in there tomorrow.

 

Thanks for watching.

 

 

  • Like 13
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I'm starting to get really grumpy with the decals.

 

With no 1/48 white decals available anywhere, I've got some 1/72 Model Art white lettering on back order from Hannants which might suffice for the serial number and the small ROYAL NAVY logos just underneath the transmission deck.  No idea of when they might be in stock though.

 

But that still doesn't help with the red crosses, the yellow tie down markings and a few other small bits and pieces so  got them all drawn up and scaled in PowerPoint, at which point I found that my colour laser printer has stopped working.  Won't even print the test page despite re-installing all of the drivers etc.  The test says that it is there and is fully functional, but absolutely nothing happens when you hit the print button.  My son (who has an engineering degree and is currently designing and building a networked computer system for the MOD) has no idea why it's not working whilst the Microsoft help desk ( I think its a Windows issue because I have the same issue on both printers from different manufacturers) offers all assistance short of actual help and just blames the printer OEMs .

 

So I had to go into the office yesterday and thought I'll print them there after work.  The proofs print perfectly onto standard paper but as soon as I set it up for 120gsm glossy paper, it proceeded to print the images in two half tones about 2 inches apart.  Result - 2 completely wasted decal sheets.

 

Now I know that I could mask the crosses and spray them, but with my propensity for bleed through I don't fancy my chances, but I've got no hope of cutting masks for the other smaller markings.  Thus whilst progress over the past few weeks has been good, I fear I'm about to stall while I try to sort out this printer issue.

 

 

  • Like 2
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ralph X72129 is Hannants own transfer sheet with 16, 18  20, 24, 30, 36 and 48 inch serials

I am sure the larger one will supply big enough letters they are big enough to go under Canberra wings in 72th scale.

 

Big H suggests they have over 50 in stock

 

If you are having printer problems have you considered buying a red body colour decal sheet and cutting ribbons of the colour to make crosses?

 

It is going to be worth all the hassle, the Wasp is becoming a little beast of beauty

 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks everyone for your kind words and encouragement

8 hours ago, perdu said:

That decal sheet has ROYAL NAVY, ROYAL AIR FORCE and various other Arm of Service placards too

Assorted sizes

Unfortunately it's not the large ones but the smaller ones that are causing me grief.  After a week in the sun the original decals have lost their yellowing so they may be usable for the main ROYAL NAVY along the tail boom (but I still think they're going to break up as soon as they hit the water).  If not, noting that those letters are, I think, 12 inches in real life, the 18 inch equivalents on 72129 will provide suitable individual letters of the right size (though I don't see any specific ROYAL NAVY logos on that sheet, just individual letters).  The ones that are causing the problems are the smaller letters for the serial number (the kit gives me XT423 but I need XT420) and the small ROYAL NAVY logo directly underneath the transmission deck.  These are, I think, 4 inch so in 1/72 I need the 6 inch equivalents which fortunately Model Art does include.

 

However, that's a great idea about using red decal sheet.  I didn't even know that you could get it - in fact I still can't find anywhere that does it!  I got to the 4th page of a Google search and nothing but white and clear with one company offering what they claim is blue on which you can  print white, but as far as I can tell its white on which you print blue!

 

Only thing I did find which as a last resort I could go to are these: https://www.themightybrush.com/product/assault-arrows-waterslide-transfers-decals-red/ but they're pretty expensive for what they are.

 

I think the next thing to try will be my printer on a different computer and see if a clean install will fix it.  If not I've got my late father-in-law's inkjet.  I can try that but the last time I used inkjet decals the ink started to run as soon as I sprayed the fixative and even 4 coats of varnish didn't stop the ink running when they went in the water. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try these

P1010115.jpg

 

You can have one of these red strips and I see from research that Hannants have reduced the 'free' title service they used to operate.

 

They took over the white and black letter sets from Modeldecals when the shop stopped selling them I suppose, I wasn't around at the time

 

As you can see MD36A and B used to present titles as well as letters in several sizes, presumably the titles are uncommercial these days hence the change of artwork to eliminate the title strips. :(

 

I can let you have the above white letter sheet if it will help but the only ROYAL NAVY strips are either 4.4mm high by 28mm long or 6mm tall by 38.05mm long, yours if you can use 'em. There are lots of smaller letters available though.

 

P1010118.jpg

 

PM if you need these

 

Bill

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Bill, that's really kind of you.

 

Let me have a play around with installing my printer on a different computer to see if its my Windows set up that causing the problem (which I won't be able to do until the weekend).  If I get no joy with that, I'll come back to you and take up your kind offer.

 

Best rgds

 

Ralph

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK Ralph, no worries

 

Can I suggest that when you get the printer working you use magazine or photograph settings on printing.

 

I understand you will be using a laser printer  and it may be different to my inkjet but I found I got grainy dot-ty images unless I improved the output settings.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Bill.  When the laser printer worked previously it wasn't bad.  We're not talking Cartograph standards but passable.  If I have to go down the inkjet route I'll have to experiment - this inkjet is brand new to me.  I only have it connected to use as a scanner because Canon refuse to produce a Win10 driver for my old one.

 

In the meantime, I've done some more work connecting up the engine with various pipes, hoses etc though still a fair way to go.

 

50121500613_1c83d638e8_b.jpg

 

50122067996_28b05f6c79_b.jpg

 

50121500433_627db4fba0_b.jpg

 

 

  • Like 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...