RAN Wessex HAS.31b

[Andwil]

21 hours ago, TonyOD said:

Love the little fire extinguisher!

Thanks Tony, adds a bit of colour to the cockpit.

11 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Love all the extra detail you are adding.

 

2 hours ago, desert falcon said:

the little details are certainly doing the difference

Thanks fellers.  This is my second helicopter model since returning to the hobby, my first was the Fujimi Seasprite, both that and this kit had nothing inside the cabin, just an empty space.  With large doors that can be posed open, there really needs to be something inside to look at, so I have just made up some fairly generic seats etc to add a bit of interest.

 

Finished off the interior detailing today, while nowhere near the level of some builds on here, I’m happy with it.   The cockpit got its fire extinguisher and collective controls, which Italeri omitted:

 

 

 

and the main cabin also got an extinguisher and a sound proofing curtain over the doorway to the rear compartment made from pie plate foil scribed to replicate the quilting:

 

 

 

Tomorrow I hope ro close up the fuselage, remembering to put in the windows first!

 

AW

[TonyOD]

Nice work. If your chopper goes up in flames, the crew have a fighting chance. If mine does, they're doomed.

[Andwil]

I realised today when I set out to close up that the side windows had not yet been given their clear bath.  So while they were drying I had time to attend to another task, namely correcting the tail rotor.

 

The problem:

 

 

Italeri have made the blades back to front!  So, deep breath and:

 

 

no turning back now.  (Actually turning back is the purpose of the exercise).  Holes were very carefully drilled into the rotor head and end of each blade with a .2mm drill.  Then short lengths of 13 amp fuse wire were inserted into the rotor head, a nice tight fit, and the blades pushed on and the joints given a flood of CA.  
 

 

Result!   Nice and firm, very happy with that.  Break for lunch and a beer.

 

With the windows dry the cabin components were assembled into the fuselage and a ceiling added from card and some more scribed pie dish:

 

 

 

and closed up:

 

 

Thanks for looking

 

AW

[TonyOD]

Looking great. I was just going to rely on a dab of CA glue for each of the rotor blades but it looks like I'm going to have to do it properly now.

 

The absence of a ceiling did strike me as a failing in the kit (to add to the list), nice job there.

[modelling minion]

Great job on the tail rotor, very nice work. 👍

[Col.]

Tidy upgrade work

[Andwil]

Nose and other fuselage parts added today, and started to work on the seams, adding a bit of filler here and there.  Fit has been ok so far other than the nose to fuselage join, which is not the best.  More filler added since these photos were taken:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[TonyOD]

Looking great!

[Hewy]

Aw , looking smashing  pal,  your doing a sterling job  on the extras , i must get one of these 72nd kits , I've only got wessex's or wessia, whatever's the plaural in 48th, 

Mrs hewy isn't here at present   for an english top up!

[TonyOD]

4 hours ago, Hewy said:

Aw , looking smashing  pal,  your doing a sterling job  on the extras , i must get one of these 72nd kits , I've only got wessex's or wessia, whatever's the plaural in 48th, 

Mrs hewy isn't here at present   for an english top up!

I keep thinking that if the plural of index is indices and the plural of vertex is vertices, the plural of Wessex must be Wessices?

[Andwil]

The seams have been given a rub down and today I got the dorsal fairing, horizontal stabiliser and canopy fitted:

 

 

 

Next job to tackle will be to sort out the underside, which will need some work as the parts provided by Italeri are not correct for the RAN version.  As alerted by @TonyOD’s build I’ll also have a look at the aerial post positioning before I go too much further.

 

AW

[TonyOD]

On 7/19/2020 at 9:14 AM, Andwil said:

As alerted by @TonyOD’s build I’ll also have a look at the aerial post positioning before I go too much further.

Just been touching up paint on those wrong 'uns. I'll get there... 

 

Looks nice. Mine was ridiculously scruffy at that point.

[Andwil]

9 hours ago, TonyOD said:

Looks nice. Mine was ridiculously scruffy at that point.

Thanks Tony.  I am making a conscious effort to be neat with my modelling.

 

Attention turns to the underside.  The Wessex has a number of lumps and pipes on its belly and they differ from one version to the next.  Needless to say, the part provided by a Italeri is not correct for the HAS.31 and other parts are not included.  So it’s  off with these bits:

 

 

and add to the kit with various bits of plastic card and rod and a representation of the Doppler radar ( slightly under scale) from scrap plastic and round sprue filed and sanded off to a dome shape:

 

 

It’s not 100% accurate but is, for me, a better impression of the original.  More shaping and sanding once the cement has hardened.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

A couple of more days messing around with plastic card and bits and pieces.  First I thought I would have a go at a 110 gal drop tank as most pics of RAN Wessexes show one being carried on the port weapons carrier.  A suitable sized tank was found in the spares box, all raised detail sanded off and the ends filed to a more pointed shape.  A small sliver of plastic rod was added for the filler cap and a couple of pins added for eventful attachment to the chopper.

 

 

Pleased with that I turned my attention to the weapons pylon arrangement.  A block was created by laminating 4 pieces of plastic card that was then filed to shape.  This was attached to the fuselage with bits of card and rod.

 

 

 

Being enthused I decided to have ago at the cargo sling, a suitable shape was cut from plastic card and holes drilled to receive pieces of lead wire that will be a somewhat simplified approximation of the tangle of hydraulic lines and cables of the real thing.

 

 

I have ended up doing a lot more to this kit than was originally intended, it may not be totally accurate, but I’m having fun doing it.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[TonyOD]

Blimey this is all a bit advanced. It's going to look amazing.

[Andwil]

2 hours ago, TonyOD said:

Blimey this is all a bit advanced. It's going to look amazing.

Still plenty of time for me to screw it up!

 

AW

[nimrod54]

Fantastic detailing AW, Keep up the good work.

[TonyOD]

14 minutes ago, Andwil said:

Still plenty of time for me to screw it up!

...and if you don't, Italeri might 🤪

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

5 hours ago, Andwil said:

it may not be totally accurate, but I’m having fun doing it.

And thats what its all about isn't it ? 

[modelling minion]

That is very nice work on both the weapons pylon and the cargo sling, very nice.

[Jur]

Ooh I like your Wessex and the extra bits you are adding. I might steal that fire extinguisher for my Choctaw!

[Hewy]

 That Really is great modelling , coming along very well indeed AW,  the litttle details your adding are going to make it a real looker, 

[Andwil]

On 7/23/2020 at 11:14 PM, modelling minion said:

That is very nice work on both the weapons pylon and the cargo sling, very nice.

Thanks mm, I think the sling is a bit over scale, I tried making another one today a bit smaller but it was awful, so I think I’ll stick with the slightly big one.

On 7/24/2020 at 4:34 AM, Jur said:

Ooh I like your Wessex and the extra bits you are adding. I might steal that fire extinguisher for my Choctaw!

Thanks Jur, steal away!

 

On 7/24/2020 at 3:06 PM, Hewy said:

 That Really is great modelling , coming along very well indeed AW,  the litttle details your adding are going to make it a real looker, 

Thanks Hewy.  I think that Helicopters need that little extra - while they often lack the grace and elegance of aeroplanes, they do have lots of interesting bits and pieces stuck on to them and great big doors and windows that reward a bit of extra effort.

 

The Wessex is up on its legs and got a few more bits attached.  The main cabin step got a footplate and I had to scratch a handle for the rear pylon from a thin slice of tube cut in half, as I managed to lose one of the kit parts somewhere.  I have also lost one of the air bottles for the flotation gear so have had to make a replacement for that as well.

 

Ready for the paint shop:

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[TonyOD]

Looking fantastic mate with that attention to detail.

[Andwil]

Gave everything a shot of primer today.  A couple of seams need a bit of  extra work, but generally quite pleased.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW