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Westland Wasp HAS 1: 'Ambuscade Flight: XT778'


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The difficulty I had was she was displayed right next to a window....but I did my best.  If you need anything more or actual measurements then let me know.  This I guess is an overview etc.

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Here we go

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PHEW......hoepfully there is stuff in there of use.  As I said, let me know what else you need

 

Cheers Anthony

 

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G'evenin!

 

I'd like to open proceedings by proposing the the collective noun for Britmodellers be a 'generosity'. 

 

Over the course of the last week @Anthony in NZ and @Ex-FAAWAFU have provided me with a weallth of new visual references which - along with many of the visual gems over on the Westland Wasp Historic Flight timeline - inspired me to go back and basicallty tear apart much of the work I had done over the previous week.... :rofl:

 

Seriously though - this dimuitive machine seems to bring out a level of affection and altruism in others that it was not viable to push on without improving the quality of the designs. I'll take you through the alterations in a bit after readi ng what was tied to the pigeons legs...

On 16/09/2022 at 15:16, giemme said:

ducks and runs to the left, knowing that being pedantic with @Fritag isn't the best idea ever.

To the left Giorgio?  Sounds a bit sinister if you ask me....

On 16/09/2022 at 15:49, Brandy said:

Are you sure you didn't just hide the tail?

I did Ian! 😄

On 16/09/2022 at 18:44, Pete in Lincs said:

I thought I was on the DIY fusion reactor website.

You're lucky over in the UK Pete  - B&Q don't carry those products here.

On 16/09/2022 at 21:30, mark.au said:

Remarkably remarkable.

Remarked Mark... 😁

On 16/09/2022 at 21:37, Fritag said:

I’ll probably have to resign from the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn now I’ve been out-pedanted in English by an Italian

Your secret is  safe here on the Internet Steve. They'll never know...

On 17/09/2022 at 00:58, Anthony in NZ said:

and a bad car crash all slowed me up a bit lol. All good now.

Oh dear Lord Anthony - that can't have been pleasant. I hope things are ok.

Signed:

Man who asks friend recently involved in a car crash to go and crawl around under a helicopter for him. :facepalm:

On 17/09/2022 at 08:20, bigbadbadge said:

Remarkably flippin awesome Tony

I appreciate your remarks citizen. 😁

 

On 17/09/2022 at 19:35, wellsprop said:

This is utterly incredible. I'd love to CAD and print this in 48th!

I  must confess that the further I get into this helicopter, the more superficial its simplicity appears to be....

On 17/09/2022 at 23:28, Anthony in NZ said:

The difficulty I had was she was displayed right next to a window....but I did my best.

You did brilliantly Anthony and I can't thank you enough - you anticicpated the gaps in my references to an uncanny level! 🙏

On 18/09/2022 at 00:03, CJP said:

Hi Tony - just amazing how you developed the Wasp rendering from an ellipse on page 3 to its current 3D image

Kind of you CJ. From points and lines, mighty shapes do grow.... 😁

On 18/09/2022 at 08:30, The Spadgent said:

didn’t you have to mix something with the Buck to make them more sturdy to vac form with??

Yep - knowing I was going to have to make an indefinite number of copies of the canopy rather than just a single one, I cold-cast the bucks using aluminium powder for strength and durability.

On 18/09/2022 at 08:49, Terry1954 said:

I see a nice MB-339 in the background also i believe?

I just saw that as a window but you actually being able to tell the grade of glass from a photo is impressive. You're a wizard Terry!

 

So with augmented vision as it were from the influx of new photographs I was able to see more clearly a number of issues I wasn't happy with in the work up til now. A major one was that, as time went by, I realized I wasn't happy that I'd caught the flow of shape over the perspex roof successfully enough at the front above pilot and observer. Secondly, my designs for the framing around the roof sill did not take into account the interior structure that will be visible at this scale, to whit the fact that the tubular framework which runs around inside the aircraft skin inside of the roof sill and down the centre of the windshield. Regrettably this wasn't mentioned in the Flight article or illustrated in the maintenance manual, however it's not exactly bleeding invisible in photographs if I'd been paying proper attention.  Additionally, my ideas about how to break some of the cockpit/cabin structures down into parts for printing and later assembly were I realized naive.

 

As this set of problems are all inter-related I'm just going to start with the roof and talk you round these changes in the above order

 

These are the new 'eyebrows' of the Wasp roof that I has altered the designs for:

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I won't bore you with the CAD side of things but suffice to say that in terms of lofting those shapes, I went from using a purely rectilinear framework of profiles to actually drawing out and connecting many of the curves in three dimensions, off of the image plane(s). This let me  more effectively accout for the flow of highlights seen in photos and videos:

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In terms of how the 'shine' falls across my virtual version, it looks and feels a whole lot better now to my eye:

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It's obvious from the above shots as well that I'd gotten round to cutting out the transparent regions of the roof from the surrounding ramework:

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Turning to that next, a quick interior viewpoint lets you see the narrow strip of aircraft skin running around the sill between roof and side of the cabin.

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Previously I'd thickened this into a box section over 1mm thick but this ignored the tubular framework. Even at 1/24th scale it's not going to be feasible to print a scale skin thickness for that frame work so I'm having to settle on a compromise ofnhaving something like a 0.4mm thick skin around that sill, combined with the tubular framework inside of it (yet to be added):

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This may prove optimistic but the only way to know for sure will be a test print. With the roof added back in you can get a hint even at this early stage of the necessary level of detail that's going to be visible inside there:

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The rear cabin widows I've left a different colour to indicate another change to the design ideas I had for this complex intersections of parts:

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This has been frankly driving me mad as it's easy enough to design something that looks 'right' in visual terms but if you're not thinking ahead to how you intend making it and integrating it into the overall structure later on, you can indeed  walk yourself into all sorts of traps:

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With a mixture of linear sides and irregular/organic top and bottom profiles there proved no satisfactory way to design just the transparent window section on its own in such a way as it could be stuck into that gap between roof curve and rear quadrant shape (think sills and gluing surfaces). I went through about three different designs and all had problems in different areas until after a night's sleep I decided the most Occam-like solution would be to vacform that tan coloured part as a single element, masking off the transparent section of it during painting!

 

A buck was born:

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In fact I've been steadily accumulating a set of window shapes as objects to turn into vacforming bucks later on. Positive:

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Negative:

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At some point during that I wandered off down to the tail and finished thickening the boom and tailcone walls:

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Another compromise in printing terms was to have to make the thickeness of the tail rotor transmission fairing about 0.4mm at the front:

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Any thinner and it risks curling/warping too much during curing due to the tight curves involved. At least the gap at the top still looks authentic.

 

That's it for tonight - I've run out of steam and have to go back to the shed with the rest of the engines.

 

The best to all of you,

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

With a mixture of linear sides and highly irregular curved top and bottom profile,

Have you seen a Doctor about this?

 

Lovely shapes and curves. I'm glad that you're doing this and not me, I can well do without the stress and worry! Glue and filler is so much easier.

I'll stick some coal into the post for you. Or do you run on peat over there?

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13 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I just saw that as a window but you actually being able to tell the grade of glass from a photo is impressive. You're a wizard Terry!

 

🤣 Actually I was slightly unsure on the grade suffix so I left that off hoping no one would notice. Could impact my membership of the guild of glass graders I fear ..... 🤫

 

Can I also join the merry gang of curve admirers ...... assuming it's legal for folk of my age?

 

Terry

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I have to agree that the roof definitely looks better for that.

For the interior framework, would it work to slightly flatten off the tubular section where it meets the outer bodywork, so that the overall thickness appears correct? Or would that flat be too noticeable?

 

Ian

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On 9/22/2022 at 6:44 AM, TheBaron said:

You did brilliantly Anthony and I can't thank you enough - you anticicpated the gaps in my references to an uncanny level! 🙏

My absolute pleasure! I have a real affinity with helicopters and when I saw you doing this...I just have to help you!

Your new renderings look fabulous and I thought you had done a great job before.  make sure you tell me if you need any more info as we go and I will get it for you.

keep up the great work, I am totally loving this

 

Oh and I didnt mind crawling around her even if I was sore from the crash LOL.... haha dont feel bad it was a good excuse to go to the museum!

 

Cheers Anthony

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Sunday Service.

Brother Steven to lead us in the opening response.

On 21/09/2022 at 19:58, Fritag said:

Now I’ve dipped my toe into the world of fusion, my mind is even more boggled by what you’re doing than it was when I had no idea at all…

Be afraid of what it's like actually being inside of this mind Steve: Namibian dunes falling into the the sea as the night wind pulls feathers of sand from their crests. Except on Monday mornings: that's when the leather stream of bats flows upward from their cave to form a line of ink around the sun....

On 21/09/2022 at 19:58, Pete in Lincs said:

Have you seen a Doctor about this?

Yes.

Unfortunately it was the second Doctor and Patrick Troughton had very rough hands.

On 21/09/2022 at 19:58, Pete in Lincs said:

I'll stick some coal into the post for you. Or do you run on peat over there?

'Peat in Lincs' :rofl:

On 21/09/2022 at 20:18, woody37 said:

Having seen your SV's come to life, rather looking forwards to seeing these 3D images do the same

 

On 21/09/2022 at 20:32, giemme said:

Exactly my thought!

On 22/09/2022 at 08:16, perdu said:

Very ditto!

Now I feel like Dr. Frankenstein waiting for the lightning! :rofl:

On 21/09/2022 at 21:14, wellsprop said:

This is spectacular! 

On 21/09/2022 at 23:34, bigbadbadge said:

Lovely work on those curves Tony, a joy to watch them progress as we read further.  

That's very kind of you two - I'd love to have been present at design meetings for the original P.531 to learn why certain things looked the way they did!

On 22/09/2022 at 09:16, Terry1954 said:

Actually I was slightly unsure on the grade suffix so I left that off hoping no one would notice. Could impact my membership of the guild of glass graders I fear .....

Looks like it's curtains for you.

On 22/09/2022 at 14:52, Brandy said:

For the interior framework, would it work to slightly flatten off the tubular section where it meets the outer bodywork, so that the overall thickness appears correct?

We must have been thinking along similar lines Ian. :thumbsup2: I came up with a hybrid plan that managed to add that tubular detailing to the interior without impacting on the exterior lines (see below).

On 23/09/2022 at 21:05, Anthony in NZ said:

My absolute pleasure! I have a real affinity with helicopters and when I saw you doing this...I just have to help you!

And indeed I'm  most grateful for your friendship on here Anthony.

On 23/09/2022 at 21:05, Anthony in NZ said:

Your new renderings look fabulous and I thought you had done a great job before.  make sure you tell me if you need any more info as we go and I will get it for you.

keep up the great work, I am totally loving this

👍

On 24/09/2022 at 07:47, heloman1 said:

I've been away for a week, I'm stunned by your progress, the renders are simply extraordinary... I'd be happy to have it in 1/48th scale...

Most kind of you Colin. :nodding:

I fear that if I shrank this down to 1/48 however then the  curent design of the cabin roof would fall in upon the crew.... 😁

 

With the framework of the cabin roof the last major 'architectural' feature to resolve (in terms of structural strength) I figured that it should be possible to combine the tubular framework present around the interior junction of walls and roof with the (necessarily over-scale) skin of the aircraft in a manner that was not too jarring to appearances:

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With the thickness of the skin around the top at 0.4mm, that tubular framework now embedded within it is a way of emulating the appearance of the actual structure whilst adding a required strength:

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I think that should do now:

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Another theory wild surmise that may be proved wrong in the fullness of time is that this tubular section provides a recess to help with gluing the transparencies into place. We'll see...

 

With the major outlines of the airframe now established it was time to begin the second pass of the design process, namely, adding all of those prominent structural features that reside around the surface of this helicopter, ithe wrinkles and laughter-lines if you will I've no idea where this sentence is going.

 

Worth another stare at the airframe:

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Outside of the obvious exterior features such as the sponsons and stretcher bulge, it's those two sets of lateral lines along the tail boom and part of the engine deck - what the 1964 Flight article refers to succinctly as 'external longitudinal rivetted channels' - which stand out as characteristic features.

 

'Just a few lines', I thought: 'Shouldn't take long'. 🤦‍♂️

 

Westland - like their cousins at de Havilland - had a wry and self-effacing way of making such things look superficially simple so that the contemporary modeller  - in the role of 'unwary traveller' - soon finds themselves negotiating compound curves sat upon other compound curves. My usual method of solving such problems is 'repeatedly running up a steep muddy slope to slither back down as inertia and grip falter' until acquiring so much mud on my boots that I end up the same height as the slope. Others might call it learning but this smacks of a diginity and purpose that is alien to my nature.

 

The first set of slithers then led me to this stage - the base plates of said 'external longitudinal rivetted channels' (henceforth ELRCs):

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You can I hope see see the problem: build a set of linear features of uniform width along a varying conic surface. Oh, and make two of them splay out at laterally one end into oar-like features....

 

Many of the travails/silent swearing here were due to me foolishly insisting that I could 'design once and duplicate'. A short and bitter summary is that of course this approach didn't work and each channel had to be adjusted individually from its own set of dimensioned drawings to keep widths etc. uniform along their length. Jubilation was short lived however upon finding out how much more complex it was to build the channels themselves:

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The central one was a simple set of adjustments but getting those 'oars' looking similar on two separate parts of the radius top and bottom was decidedly of the 'not' category.

 

Once in place though it felt good to have persevered/sworn so much:

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Don't @ me that there's another ELRC along the underside of the boom - I'm ignoring that for now.... 🙄

 

The (relatively) more simple channels for the side of the engine deck were also done up at this stage, along with the prominent access panel in their midst:

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Those bolts are just generic 'Baron-bolts' - a simplified one I drew up to save on memory importing actual ones from the Mcmaster Carr catalogue you can access in Fusion. I used some of those back on the Avon engines previously and although authentic, the extra detail really added to the pressure on RAM/loading times when used in any siginificant quantity.

 

Installed:

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Back to the tail then:

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The reason for the splayed appearance of the top and bottom channels seen above is of course to accomodate the hinges of the transport joint of the tailcone. Under no illusion that they would be a simple affair (and thanks in no small part to a revelatory oblique/overhead shot of the hinges supplied by @Ex-FAAWAFU) I took care to fully test the interaction between the hinges in drawing form first before committing to shape:

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Aside from accuracy of shape and placement, the other factor here is ensuring there is sufficient clearance withthe sides of the boom:

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This latter function I invetigated with a variation on the 'poke it with a stick' method:

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At last - something that works first time! :rolleyes:

 

I've yet to build the correspoinding fairing for the rear set of hings on the tail cone so ignore that unfinished look to the way they curently stick out of the side:

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Did you hear a slight squeak from somewhere?

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You shall have a working tail fold Cinderella:

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The diameter of that temporary rod in the stbd hinge is 0.4mm so using a metal rod of that diameter on the printed version should allow for safe operation:

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I didn't mention that I initially got the male/female arrangement order of the hinges quite literally back to front because you already guessed that didn't you? 😁

 

I'd like to thank Mrs Tancredi and Miss Twicenightly for the flower arrangements.

 

Autumn from east to west:

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:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mr Leader wants his typical autumnal/wintry skies back please.

 

And I, stunned as ever am struggling to learn how I can set a series of ribs on a curved parallel invisible plane the way you just casually popped it into the narrative.

 

I am actually learning quite a bit on the coat-tails of you experten, praise be.

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

the wrinkles and laughter-lines if you will I've no idea where this sentence is going.

I'll follow it. I brought sandwiches and a bottle of cold tea...

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

quite literally back to front because you already guessed that didn't you?

I didn't like to say.

Epic Sunday update, Tony. Channels, hinges, framing and then flowers. What more could we ask for? (Maybe popcorn?)

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That slight squeak is probably your mouse complaining!

Said mouse has, however, done more marvelous designery stuff. I was wondering why the stiffeners flared out, then you answered my question with the next sentence.

 

Ian

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I'm not sure I've ever had the need to try and tell the sex of a hinge. This can be a funny old forum and sometimes you learn things you never even knew could/should be learned.

 

Admirable bit wrangling Tony and now the boring old basic shape is done you can get down and dirty and revel in the joy of detailing.  In that scale I hope you can tell your Avdels from your Choberts :D

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