Fairey Rotodyne

[Natter]

On 10/7/2020 at 5:28 PM, JOCKNEY said:

Hi @Natter

Did you ever get a chance to make any more progress with this one  ?

cheers Pat 

 

Hi All,

 

Despite efforts to fight back with this one I have made little progress, allowing myself to be distracted by some rebuilding work on my Series 3 Landy.  So far this is where I am at.

 

The undercarriage doors are very thick on the model, some where in the region of six to seven inches thick if scaled up.  I have done a bit of crash moulding before to produce small intake scoops, so gave it a go for the u/c doors.  After a few botched attempts I had some reasonable success.

 

 

The new doors' thickness is much better than the original now.

 

 

The jets on the rotor tips were poorly moulded with various degrees of misalignment and short-shot moulding.  I remedied this by cutting off the exhaust ends, inserting some suitably sized plastic tube and then sanding to shape.  They're a long way from perfect but they're much better than the model originals.

 

 

The elevators are part of the 'working features' of the original, and their fit is even less perfect that the 'approximate' fit of most other parts.  I don't have an 'after' photo but I filled the gap with a plasticard shim on each side to close this gap.

 

 

Mmmm...  The interior detail.  This had me more perplexed than anything else as I wasn't sure how to go about trying to replicate the seats and the test instrument panels.  I tried using stencils (fail), made an attempt at home made decals (fail), tried mini punches for the instruments (fail) and then just drew them in (badly) with a permanent marker.  As it is just about none of the detail in the cabin can be seen, which is a blessing, but I am not an 'I know it's there' sort of a model it was all a bit of a waste of time.

 

 

 

The work on the cockpit was worth the effort though.  I added collective columns, circuit breaker boards behind the left hand seat, fire extinguisher behind the right hand seat, rudder pedals and some detail on the centre console including throttle levers.  There is a decal for the console but I didn't like it, and though the detail I added is a long way less than perfect it doesn't look too bad from a distance.  The cockpit transparency is commendably clear so this can all be seen.

 

 

The fit was far less impressive than the clarity and I have tried to fill the gaps with Mr Surfacer, which I now have to try and blend in without ruining the transparency.

 

This won't be finished by the deadline, for which I humbly apologise.  It may yet be consigned to the shelf of doom as it has been a mojo destroyer.  This has a brilliant GB, just look at the othere contrbutors efforts, but I simply picked the wrong model!

[JOCKNEY]

Ah you can't beat a Landrover I can honestly say I think I've spent more time under a mates one that in it !

 

Rotodyne looks really impressive congratulations. 

I really hope you can still see that interior when its buttoned up.

 

Cheers Pat

[AdrianMF]

Looks good! That cockpit is super-clear.

 

Regards,

Adrian