Jump to content

1/72 De Havilland Dominie (Dragon Rapide) "Merlin V" FAA air ambulance, crashed 1946 Scafell Pike (Heller etc.)


Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Tony 

That is a cracking photo with the Coastguard helicopter in . Stunning fella. 

Chris.

 

Cheers. Just an iPhone shot to be honest. I quite fancy a crack at modelling the Coast Guard helicopter actually. It's not FAA, but it is maritime.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

spacer.png

 

Nice pic - it brings back lots of memories, both in much better weather and much, much worse! Tuesday, by any chance, about lunchtime? Injured walker on the Miner's Track.

4 hours ago, TonyOD said:

Later in the day we saw it (well, assumed to be the same aircraft) hovering directly over the summit of Tryfan

Same aircraft, different crew. Fallen climber on the east face of Tryfan. Both bread-and-butter North Wales summer SAR jobs.

 

4 hours ago, TonyOD said:

something folded and strapped to the wall on the right? Another chair?

I'd go with that - it looks like a tubular-framed folding canvas attendant's seat.

 

All interesting stuff!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems Sir,that many Rapide/Dominie aircraft built to this contract: Contract No B.104592/40 passed through

No.9 M.U at Cosford,X7349 certainly was and did.

Quite a number of these machines were built at the Brush Coach Works in Loughborough.

One wonders whether they went from there to Phillips and Powis at Desford for final assembly/flight test and then

onto Cosford for fitting out before being taken on charge?.

Wartime RAF Cosford was a far,far busier place than the quiet West Midland airfield it is today.

Edited by DaveWilko
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jonners said:

Nice pic - it brings back lots of memories, both in much better weather and much, much worse! Tuesday, by any chance, about lunchtime? Injured walker on the Miner's Track.

That's exactly where and when it was. Is there a report somewhere? Also for the Tryfan callout?

 

1 hour ago, Jonners said:

I'd go with that - it looks like a tubular-framed folding canvas attendant's seat.

I've never actually been in a DR but the cabin appears to be pretty cramped if you're talking about squeezing two stretchers plus required personnel in there. My theory is that the aft stretcher cradle was raised so that chairs could etc. could be stashed underneath it until the patient/s was/were loaded and comfortable - not a lot of room to work with otherwise. The chair in the interior shot is clearly the classic Dragon Rapide type but other folding chairs might have been thrown in there at a pinch.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

That's exactly where and when it was. Is there a report somewhere? Also for the Tryfan callout?

 

I've never actually been in a DR but the cabin appears to be pretty cramped if you're talking about squeezing two stretchers plus required personnel in there. My theory is that the aft stretcher cradle was raised so that chairs could etc. could be stashed underneath it until the patient/s was/were loaded and comfortable - not a lot of room to work with otherwise. The chair in the interior shot is clearly the classic Dragon Rapide type but other folding chairs might have been thrown in there at a pinch.

Very possibly so.

One's first ever flight was in a Rapide,there were seven adults and three minors aboard(self included)plus the pilot.

One remembers it was pretty cramped,as a young boy,one was more interested in watching the pilot going about his business

(one sat at right front and could see right into the cockpit)than the cabin or exterior scenery!!!.

 

David.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

Is there a report somewhere? Also for the Tryfan callout?

Yes, as with all SAR helicopter tasks in the UK, but the details are internal and not published. I think the Llanberis mountain rescue team may have been involved in the Snowdon job and the Tryfan rescue would have involved the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation; they might have mentioned the incidents on their respective FB pages.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Jonners said:

Yes, as with all SAR helicopter tasks in the UK, but the details are internal and not published. I think the Llanberis mountain rescue team may have been involved in the Snowdon job and the Tryfan rescue would have involved the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation; they might have mentioned the incidents on their respective FB pages.

The Tryfan incident was a climber with a serious head injury after a 10m fall from the east face according to Ogwen MRT’s website, airlifted to Bangor. Hope he/she’s OK.

 

Guessing fixed wing air ambulances wouldn’t have been much help in an incident like this!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

Guessing fixed wing air ambulances wouldn’t have been much help in an incident like this!

No, but the RAF Mountain Rescue Teams were formed at the wartime RAF Llandwrog and carried out lots of rescues in Snowdonia. RAF Llandwrog is now, of course, Caernarfon airfield where the SAR S-92 in your photo is based (and where I've 'guested' now and again). 

 

Anyway, apologies for aiding and abetting the thread drift! I must get round to building one of those Heller/Airfix Dragon Rapides myself sometime. I'll be taking notes...

Jon

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

7 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Crikey,  is he issuing you a refund fella? Hope so. 

Chris 

That's the suggestion I've thrown their way!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, after over a week of mountains, helicopters and general procrastination I've made a start with a task I ordinarily wouldn't bother with, namely removing ejector pin marks from the inside of the fuselage. I'm planning to keep the doors open so the walls will need to look decent. For some reason the rear of the cabin is moulded as a "step" (the piece at the top of the pic), which is nothing like the real thing and has the effect of artificially shortening the cabin floor; by getting rid of this, extending the cabin floor and scratchbuilding a new rear bulkhead I'll have a cabin somewhere near the proportions of the real thing. It adds the equivalent of 20 inches to the length of the cabin floor which will be important if I'm trying to squeeze two (let's say) six foot stretchers in there and still allow access to the cockpit. 

 

spacer.png

 

The first bit of aftermarket gubbins has arrived, masks for the glassware and chrome window frames from Arcticdecal. I'll need a second set of these as I plan to mask the inside of the windows too while I'm doing the cabin interior. The window frames are a notable feature on the DH.89, actually on Merlin V they were painted white with the rest of the aircraft and in fact they are proud of the fuselage by only 8mm = a tenth of a millimetre at 1/72, but there they are. I'm sure they will be infernally fiddly to apply, so the second set might come in handy!

 

spacer.png

 

Cheers

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great background to an interesting subject Tony - I'll follow along if I may :) 

 

I built the kit as Classic Wings' G-AKIF back in 2017. Feel free to have a look at the build which might help, if only to avoid my mistakes!:

 

 

 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, CedB said:

Great background to an interesting subject Tony - I'll follow along if I may :) 

 

I built the kit as Classic Wings' G-AKIF back in 2017. Feel free to have a look at the build which might help, if only to avoid my mistakes!:

 

 

 

Thank you, I’ll certainly be spending a bit of time with this and a few cups of coffee later on.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/15/2020 at 12:34 PM, TonyOD said:

True that. The thing with this modelling game is that eventually you can find yourself as much an amateur detective or historian as a modeller, and that can be part of the pleasure, or the frustration. When I'm knocking a 'plane together I like to have at least some awareness of the history of the actual aircraft, and sometimes I might do one that was flown by a notable pilot in a notable action, but this is a bit different. There are just hints of information out there on the web about the type, the specific aircraft, the crash and the servicemen, and I'm sure there must exist, or have existed, documents like service records for the crew and patient, an official accident report, coverage in the press, a De Havilland specification for the military ambulance variant of the Dragon Rapide (what I wouldn't give for that...) There may be stuff out there buried in old books or magazines on eBay etc. but I could spend a small fortune on this stuff and turn up absolutely nothing useful! The question is... where to stop and make a policy of "educated guesswork". I've even tried reaching out to the gentleman who did the impressive research for the Tasman kit but haven't got anywhere yet...

Great idea Tony,

I really enjoy these stories, researches about the model you're building is one of my favourite game.

I agree, sometime detective, historian or even archeologist... Fascinating job indeed.

I'll follow your thread if you don't mind it !

Sincerely.

CC

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back from my latest trip and some very modest progress with the interior has been made this morning. I've extended the cabin floor using a bit of the dodgy Tasman kit, as well as filling the placement holes for all those little chairs as I won't be needing them. It'll no doubt need some fine tuning to fit. Also started adding a bit of detail to the forward bulkhead. All you you get in the moulding is an elongated, random box thing on the front which I've removed as I'm not sure what it's supposed to represent, and a bunch of ejector pin marks on the back. It's quite difficult to turn up pics of what's going on behind the pilot's seat in the cockpit, and as always with the DR every one is differently configured. A kind of bracing set up seems to pop up frequently, and it's very visible in De Havilland's 1930s cutaway drawing which also includes some kind of wires or cables that look interesting, in the absence of definitive information on Merlin V I'm going to take this as a cue, I've used Tamiya tape to represent the bracing bits that should look alright with a bit of paint on them.

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

A massive thanks to Chris @bigbadbadge who has sent me some enormously helpful bits through the post!

 

Cheers

 

Tony

 

 

Edited by TonyOD
  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Great progress on the floor and cockpit bulkhead, what a cracking idea to use the tape.

As it turned out I took the idea a step further, the tape’s very thin and wasn’t going to add much, as I have two bulkheads to play with (well three actually) I used the tape as a template to cut one into the bracing pattern, then stuck it on the other and sanded it back a bit. Offers a better impression of depth. It’s not quite as clean as I’d like it to be on the right (the cement mushed the plastic slightly) but that bit will be hidden in the corner next to the pilot’s seat and there will be some other stuff on top of it so no dramas.

 

spacer.png

Edited by TonyOD
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, bigbadbadge said:

Good idea Tony for the cockpit wall.  I might have to steal, ahem use that idea with some plasticard.  

Great work. 

Chris 

I have a bulkhead left over if you want it posting! 😁

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Done a little fire extinguisher. Actually I swiped it from another kit, it’s a resin part. Originally it had a hose and nozzle a bit like modern extinguishers but research suggests that actually it would have been the “Pyrene” type with the pump handle on top (which, if I was being strictly accurate, would have had a bit of a curve to it) so I adapted it.


spacer.png


Needless to say, this painstakingly crafted bit of detail will not be visible when the build is completed, as it will be hidden at the bottom of the front of the cabin. 🙄

 

(But I’ll know it’s there... 😉)

  • Like 3
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...