Lee Chambers Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 This is a genuine blast from the past and as CP30 in the first Star Wars film said, "I have a feeling I am going to regret this!" A Revell 2009 rebox of a very old kit, I plan to build it in flight with the rotor and props motorised to give that real prop blur look. I am going to keep it fairly simple, tinting out the windows and front glazing, so that I can concentrate and fitting the power system. Battery will be housed in the fuselage and will be accessed via the rear opening clam shell doors. I will be using brushless rc micro helicopter motors to power the beast, installation will be "make it up as I go along" sort of plan. So I will not be following the instructions which means I don't have to paint those crappy passenger figures! Wish me luck on this one guys I am going to need it. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Chambers Posted May 6, 2020 Author Share Posted May 6, 2020 Hi all. The motors have arrived for the wing mounted engines; they were a tight fit in the cone shaped front cowling, so I had to grind about 1mm off the casing to get the correct fit. Also I had to beef up the wing mounting with a couple of long M3 bolts epoxied on to the lower wing; this would stop any droop and vibration. I used self tapping screw to hold the engine nacelles to the wing, as well as some Tamiya extra thin glue. So far so good, both engines in place and I had to shoot some video to capture the prop blur off my camera. Now I have to concentrate on the main rotor blade hub and figure out how to best mount the motor in the top of the fuselage. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted May 6, 2020 Share Posted May 6, 2020 Wow! What an endeavor! I have built the Airfix kit, and I was pleased having it around, it's an odd but attractive machine. You got lots of engineering involved there! Following Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bell209 Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Pity the only surviving pieces are only indicative of how pioneering this aircraft was - here's not much of substance left. The Helicopter Museum at Weston Super Mare has them if you get a chance to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Chambers Posted May 7, 2020 Author Share Posted May 7, 2020 2 minutes ago, Bell209 said: Pity the only surviving pieces are only indicative of how pioneering this aircraft was - here's not much of substance left. The Helicopter Museum at Weston Super Mare has them if you get a chance to visit. Yes i have been to the Museum about 10yrs ago,but another visit would be welcome in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Chambers Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 Hi guys, I have been busy making the power train for the main rotor assembly, I decided to ditch carrying a battery in the fuselage and instead using a section of 10mm alloy tube that was in my scrap box, I reamed out the tube to accept the electric motor. Also from my spares supply from my now retired RC heli days I found a bush that was a nice sleeved fit into the kit rotor hub. So once I had extended the wiring through the tube I cut the correct length of tube to fix into the fuselage. I then inserted some 8mm tube to act as a sleeve, this allowed me to work on the model and simply slot the mounting tube into the fuselage, as can be seen from the first picture, small holes either side of the tube would allow the prop wing mounted motor wires to be extended down the mounting tube. I think this is quite an elegant solution to both mounting the main rotor power system and a tidy mount for the model. As can be seen from the final pictures all motors are powered and provided a smooth scale like operation. Once battery power was cut the main rotor continues to free wheel so at least this part of the model rotor is operating as the full size aircraft did. Now that all of the Rotodynes power systems have been proven to work reliably I can get back to the business of assembling and painting the model. Fuselage is together, usual filling and sanding was to be expected on a kit dating back to the early 60's. On opening the clear parts bag I discovered the lower left cockpit glazing was missing. I had already decided I was going to black out all of the glazing, as it was far too thick and distorted to see anything through, so I had to fill and shape the missing glazing with epoxy. Once the white and silver paint was sprayed on the fuselage and rear fins and clear coated, I set about adding the decals. They gave me no problems; apart from the passenger window cut outs were a little out of alignment. However I found mixing Vallejo Model Colour royal blue with Game Air Ultramarine blue gave me a good touch up match for the kit decals. This colour mix was also needed to paint the nose and the window frames as there were no decals provided for this area. So another clearcoat to seal the decals and I will get the model weathered over the weekend. Stay safe and healthy people. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Lambess Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 (edited) Great work ! This is a great kit ...despite its advertised scale a lot of the bits (from memory the wings ) are the same size as the Airfix kit and a couple of bits are probably larger ... so for my money its close enough to 72nd (or the Airfix is underscale) .my plan is one day to cross kit the two as the Revell is a nicer kit .... (or maybe I'll just build it as the cutaway option Revell offer ) One of my modelling themes is "the way the Future wasn't " and the Rotodyne is a classic example Edited May 15, 2020 by Neil Lambess 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marklo Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 (edited) Maybe it’s me but I can’t see any if your pictures, just little lines where ( I presume) they should be. Hmm starting to come through albeit slowly, internet bandwidth again I reckon. Edited May 15, 2020 by Marklo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallBlondJohn Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 That looks very nice. You will need a big sound system to do the noise! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjaweijfopi4j48 Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 Excellent job! it is coming to live! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 Superb, can't believe it's painted and powered already! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 That's beautiful! I'm stunned by all the work of getting this thing to become "kinetic." The finish is really impressive. How did you achieve the bare metal effects on the wings? They are subtle. Alex T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Chambers Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 5 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: That's beautiful! I'm stunned by all the work of getting this thing to become "kinetic." The finish is really impressive. How did you achieve the bare metal effects on the wings? They are subtle. Alex T. Cheers,well i still need to add some oil washes etc,but the silver is just some paint i had sitting around my car paint store,it's Ford Stratos silver basecoat,with Hataka satin clearcoat ,then i decaled and added another clearcoat of satin Hataka. You will see the full effect in the final reveal once i get the beast up on it's base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhouse Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 9 hours ago, Marklo said: Hmm starting to come through albeit slowly, internet bandwidth again I reckon. It's because each photo is very large - 6000 × 4000 pixels and about 4MB. If you want photos to display quickly and not clutter up the webosphere, keep them to about 1000 pixels in the largest dimension and well under 1MB each. I'm not criticising, just trying to share the good advice that's set out elsewhere on the site 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 On 5/7/2020 at 4:59 AM, Bell209 said: Pity the only surviving pieces are only indicative of how pioneering this aircraft was - here's not much of substance left. The Helicopter Museum at Weston Super Mare has them if you get a chance to visit. Pioneering, yes, but also utterly impractical; the tip jets were so loud that they created physical pain in some circumstances. It would never have lasted as an urban transport (one of the design roles); even in the 60s they had some noise rules! And the RAF / Army had similar reservations about a tactical transport that the enemy could hear from 10 miles away... Cool model. Even cool aircraft... but don’t get lulled into thinking it was a missed opportunity. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 Wow. I had no idea this kit was around. Looks lovely (as did the full-size machine). If they'd got the noise issue sorted it might have gone further but physics is a tough one to beat. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Chambers Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: Pioneering, yes, but also utterly impractical; the tip jets were so loud that they created physical pain in some circumstances. It would never have lasted as an urban transport (one of the design roles); even in the 60s they had some noise rules! And the RAF / Army had similar reservations about a tactical transport that the enemy could hear from 10 miles away... Cool model. Even cool aircraft... but don’t get lulled into thinking it was a missed opportunity. Agreed with your cool headed analysis,but i can't help thinking with all the drone tech aircraft around today a fully electric version would have serious merit. Consider it's role as a fire bomber,it would deliver a very precise water drop,and in a protection of life and property role i doubt a bit of extra noise would really matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 How would electric tips jets work, exactly? I’m struggling to see what a Rotodyne offers that a large helicopter doesn’t. A dead end in aviation history. A fascinating dead end, certainly - but so were nuclear-powered aircraft (how on earth did anyone seriously think that would be viable?... but they did), aircraft carriers with flexible rubber decks, the Brabazon... But a dead end none the less, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Kay Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 1 minute ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: A dead end in aviation history. True, sadly. The idea showed much promise. It’s important to remember, though, that the rotor jets were only powered for take-off and hovering manoeuvres. Once airborne and at speed, the main rotor was unpowered and the machine was a gigantic gyrocopter. Roughly half the lift came from the wings, and forward motion from the turboprops. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 (edited) True, but all that means is that it’s essentially a conventional aircraft in forward flight... but the thing that was supposed to make it revolutionary was the other bits; the V/STOL capability, the bit in city centres and/or confined landing sights near the front, when the tip jet scream was unavoidable. If you have a Rotodyne concept, but it can’t operate to city centres or confined landing sites at the battlefront (or a flight deck, though as far as I am aware the Navy never seriously looked at it), then you might as well have a conventional aircraft of the same capacity, without the engineering complexity and expense. You could (probably) make a Rotodyne work well with modern technology, but what’s the advantage? There’s a reason why the Osprey is tilt-rotor rather than Rotodyne - and let’s face it, the Osprey was hardly cheap & took years to get right. Anyway, I’m distracting from a great model - I love the Rotodyne as an idea of its time. Just not the “if-only” myth. [See also *cough* TSR2]. Edited May 16, 2020 by Ex-FAAWAFU 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 Great paint work. Hopefully it's first flight will happen soon. Regards Robert 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Chambers Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 2 hours ago, Heather Kay said: True, sadly. The idea showed much promise. It’s important to remember, though, that the rotor jets were only powered for take-off and hovering manoeuvres. Once airborne and at speed, the main rotor was unpowered and the machine was a gigantic gyrocopter. Roughly half the lift came from the wings, and forward motion from the turboprops. There is an argument that fitting a dedicated motor for the lifting rotor would eliminate any need for tip jets,but i think i will close this can of worms for now,but if nothing else building this model has certainly been entertaining!😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted May 16, 2020 Share Posted May 16, 2020 Lee: Thanks for the explanation on your metal effects. Are you planning to use those awesome passenger figures for anything? If not, might they be "available?" Especially love the 1960s ladies, who are playing with their hair while sitting in this machine--as if all that hair spray weren't enough to keep things in proper alignment. I can send you a PM. Alex T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Chambers Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 3 minutes ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: Lee: Thanks for the explanation on your metal effects. Are you planning to use those awesome passenger figures for anything? If not, might they be "available?" Especially love the 1960s ladies, who are playing with their hair while sitting in this machine--as if all that hair spray weren't enough to keep things in proper alignment. I can send you a PM. Alex T. Sorry,but as you say they do have some historical fashion merit,and i will be making use of them in the future,they would have been wasted in this build unless the fuselage was left opened up. I have to agree about the hair spray,combined with the smokers of that era it's a wonder the whole machine did'nt go up in flames ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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