Westland Wasp HAS 1: 'Ambuscade Flight: XT778'

[keefr22]

Glad to see you back Tony and now as well as the black magic of CAD/3D printing we have alchemy as well. Learnt how to turn lead into gold yet....?!

 

Keith

[Fritag]

Well that's quite a return your Lordship.

 

Not unlike if Captain Oates suddenly opened the tent flap and walked back in with a portable heater and a Chinese take-way for 4.

 

And as well as the (at least a squadron of) shackletons of rivets (with credit to Alan) we also have aluminium casting...

 

Mind duly boggled.

 

Bravo.

 

 

[Terry1954]

Welcome back indeed Tony, and can I also say what a re-entrance that was! Very impressed with your ability to not only think through new materials and techniques needed in this build, but also how to make the stuff needed to make the bits!

 

 

Terry

[bigbadbadge]

Great to see you back Tony, what an update, the workings and the work,  phenomenal stuff fella.

Chris

[AdrianMF]

Vacuum aluminium casting! Ooooh. I'm curious now. I get vacforming obvs and vac+resin casting makes sense, but a home-made mix of molten metal and vaccuum 🫣😱.

 

Magnificent return Tony. Glad to see you resisted the call of balsa+penknife.

 

(I was going to say "hammering" of rivets but "Shackleton" wins hands down)

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Dave Slowbuild]

16 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

but a home-made mix of molten metal and vaccuum 🫣😱.

I’m glad it’s not just me that had that reaction!
My dad used to work in a foundry, I heard some stories that would….  No, let’s move on…

[perdu]

Somehow doubt that Tony is dashing headlong without full access to proper H&S into this new alchemy.

 

Tony I am very happy to have you back on our horizon mate and landing with the echoes of your supersonic journey.

 

I don't know what colour amazement comes in but please colour me that magical hue.

 

 

[AMB]

Wow 23 pages later and a couple of years down the line. I am in awe at this incredible work, but call me the devil's advocate, the S&M 1/48th Wasp kits were made and just waiting for boxes and decals, when Mel Bromley suddenly passed away. So where are these kits now? Will they suddenly emerge under another brand name?

[CedB]

Good grief. How many more techniques will we see here? Impressive!

 

Great to see you back on BM Tony. 

[Serkan Sen]

Glad to see again your more progress here Tony. The result of metal casting is amazing.

Serkan

[Hamden]

 

Welcome back Tony and WOW       I can only echo those above this is just stunning!

 

   Stay safe          Roger

[Pete in Lincs]

Talk about up and running from a standing start! A great comeback, Tony. The old place certainly hasn't been the same without you.

'Sanity be Damned' I'll go with that. For the rivet collective noun, in this case, I'd go with 'shedload'.

I'm glad that you didn't manage to blow yourself up during your metal experiments, and I'm certainly very impressed by the results.

Your technical knowledge has come on in leaps and bounds with this one. Not to mention your abilities. Whatever is next? A Moonshot?

Vacuum casting. Reminds me of a TV programme I saw about glass blowing. The advice was, 'Always blow. Never suck'.

Luckily I bought a season ticket for this long term extravaganza of a build, so my seat is still available. WooHoo! (The snacks are out of date though

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Blimey [though for the record, the rivets on my Sea King were HGW, not Archer]

[TheBaron]

The skies here have been dreamlike for days now...

Clear blue today and for days now so that it's almost criminal to be inside writing this, but if I don't summarize where things now stand then the traitorous brain is going to forget vital details.

 

Professional courtesies to acknowledge first though:

On 29/05/2023 at 14:40, hendie said:

Glad to see you back Tony and a very interesting update to celebrate with.  The metal castings look great. 

Well you (and Colin) suggested it! 

My initial ambivalence pretty soon turned into a fascination for learning the process, especially since lacking all those fancy temperature-controlled kilns etc. that jewellery designers use meant having to develop an eye for heat colour and an ear for the sound of the furnace running at an optimum level. 

On 29/05/2023 at 16:12, Brandy said:

Welcome back Tony!

And what a return. Not only exquisite rivetry, but also a whole new skill set. I have no clue how you figured out how to make all that equipment,

Cheers Ian.

There was frankly a nostalgic vein about the undertaking too in respect of the particular noises and smells involved: living in Somerset in the early 70s an ex-Army farrier worked as a blacksmith behind our cottage and hours were spent along with his own kids milling around the old barn he used as a smithy, deafened by the clangour of hot metal and high on the fumes of singed hoof.

 

Perhaps I could start out on Shetland ponies and in a few years work up to a Percheron...?

On 29/05/2023 at 16:18, giemme said:

Metal casting, uh? Now, if only 3D printers for metal alloys were more affordable....

You said it G: I've been keeping - no doubt along with Alan - a keen weather eye on developments there and in respect of a metal cutting laser for home use also. Still a while yet before the required capability and affordability meet at the right level.

On 29/05/2023 at 18:04, keefr22 said:

Learnt how to turn lead into gold yet....?!

'Fraid not Keith.

But I have been offering a service on the dark web for people needing jewellery and bullion melted down discreetly...

On 29/05/2023 at 18:15, Fritag said:

Not unlike if Captain Oates suddenly opened the tent flap and walked back in with a portable heater and a Chinese take-way for 4.

😁

That sounds delightfully like a long-lost episode of Ripping Yarns Steve...

 

I've spent a lot of time in recent months admiring with the work of a number of of modellers in Japan and have to say that the sensitivity and skill they show in terms of the fidelity of detail and variety of surface finishes they achieve is utterly stunning,  easily knocking anything I've done into the proverbial cocked hat several times over.

On 29/05/2023 at 18:17, Terry1954 said:

Welcome back indeed Tony, and can I also say what a re-entrance that was! Very impressed with your ability to not only think through new materials and techniques needed in this build, but also how to make the stuff needed to make the bits!

Gracious of you as always Terry. 🤝

For the purposes of thoroughness I should note that the aluminuium used in those casts was equal parts Monster cans to saucepan to rotary washing line!

On 29/05/2023 at 19:15, bigbadbadge said:

Great to see you back Tony, what an update, the workings and the work,  phenomenal stuff fella.

You're a diamond Chris - many thanks.

On 29/05/2023 at 20:02, AdrianMF said:

I get vacforming obvs and vac+resin casting makes sense, but a home-made mix of molten metal and vaccuum 🫣😱.

 

On 29/05/2023 at 20:20, Dave Slowbuild said:

I’m glad it’s not just me that had that reaction!

Conincidentally those two emojis are probably pretty close to what my face looked like on the first attempt Adrian and Dave!

On 29/05/2023 at 21:49, perdu said:

Somehow doubt that Tony is dashing headlong without full access to proper H&S into this new alchemy.

Exactement Bill. Minimum levels required, along with stout footwear:

Prudish of the neighbours to complain about the fact that that's all I wear out in the garden though... 😁

On 29/05/2023 at 23:09, AMB said:

Wow 23 pages later and a couple of years down the line. I am in awe at this incredible work, but call me the devil's advocate, the S&M 1/48th Wasp kits were made and just waiting for boxes and decals, when Mel Bromley suddenly passed away. So where are these kits now? Will they suddenly emerge under another brand name?

Cheer Adrian.

Even in the limited period of my return to modelmaking, rumours about Wasps and Scouts seem to have swirled so regularly that they appear to be 'the Brigadoon helicopters'....

On 29/05/2023 at 23:22, CedB said:

Good grief. How many more techniques will we see here? Impressive!

You are as always an absolute dear Ced. 🤝

On 29/05/2023 at 23:59, Serkan Sen said:

Glad to see again your more progress here Tony. The result of metal casting is amazing.

Most kind of you Serkan

Learning to 3d print with jewellery-grade wax resins was an additional issue to deal with here but proved surprisingly straightforward in the end, albeit the post-processing involved is more arduous:

On 30/05/2023 at 07:19, Hamden said:

Welcome back Tony and WOW       I can only echo those above this is just stunning!

Thank you very much Roger, and hope this finds you doing ok yourself my friend.

On 30/05/2023 at 18:47, Pete in Lincs said:

Your technical knowledge has come on in leaps and bounds with this one. Not to mention your abilities. Whatever is next? A Moonshot?

Not quite, though close! The world has yet to possess a decent 1/24th Gemini capsule (speak not of the Revell bauble) and I feel (gravitationally) attracted in that direction, post-Wasp.

BTW, saw this in my journey through the Japanese modelling world recently and thought of you immediately:

 

 

On 31/05/2023 at 10:20, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

[though for the record, the rivets on my Sea King were HGW, not Archer]

😁 That's me assigned extra duties on rivet inspection for the next fortnight then...

 

Egad, this is turning into a rather lengthy post already so I might split the new material up into two updates rather than something too monolithic.

 

The engine deck/Nimbus is I would estimate about 75% complete now, that is to say, with all the fittings and their associated pipework and wiring runs present in the design. This process began a while back with work upon creating the fuel control unit, which sits toward the front of the Nimbus on the stbd side, Characteristically for this helicopter it was in itself a complex set of exposed forms to replicate:

With this established as a datum point I was then able to work progressively backwards along that side adding, in sequence, the mechanism for the torch solenopid igniter valve and HP fuel cock:

Down at the other end, on the rear of the heat exchange unit you find the prominent upright of the flamestat and fuel temperature detector:

All brass coloured fitting are obviously going to be PE (with the required mounting slots designed for them incorporated into the design of the central Nimbus 'tunnel') along with brass tubing being added during detailing for the fuel and throttle control rods linking to these components from their ribbed rubber cuffs on the stbd floor of the engine deck:

In similar fashion, the various boxes and fittings for the electrical system were added to the top of the engine, using a PE fixture to secure them in place:

A survey of various Nimbus engines (on both Wasp & Scout) shows there to have been two similar but distinct designs of that electrical mounting bracket structure used over time  - as indeed there is for the solenoid valve assembly as well - but I've only belatedly noticed earlier today that the one clear shot of XT778 I have in her Ambuscade period showing this feature indicates her sporting the altenative bracket to the one I've used here, as you can (just about) see below:

I'm bloody furious with myself for not noticing this at a much earlier stage as it means unpicking a lot of quite complex design work in that area, but it has to be done for historical accuracy.

 

I'll post up the modified work in a few days, along with other progress already made on completing the pipework layouts and hydraulic system.

 

Have a great weekend and see you soon,

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

 There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio....

 

Fascinating, captain....

 

[AdrianMF]

11 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Learning to 3d print with jewellery-grade wax resins

Oh my giddy aunt...!

 

I first thought "why is he printing alliums with eyeballs?"

 

I'm looking forward to an exposition of the whole metal casting adventure.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[bigbadbadge]

Hope it's not too much work to sort out the bracketry Tony, Oh boy, I have missed seeing those lovely 3D renderings, they look superb.

Chris

[TheBaron]

Sheltering from the midday heat in the cool of the studio, I managed to get enough done on the electrical units to correct my mistaken use of the wrong version of this assembly for XT778 in her Ambuscade period.

Mail first though.

On 03/06/2023 at 07:44, Pete in Lincs said:

There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio...

😁

I love this one Pete:

If that doesn't come from a Studio Ghibli film, it should have done!

On 03/06/2023 at 08:18, AdrianMF said:

I first thought "why is he printing alliums with eyeballs?"

It also reminded me of a Soviet-era monumental sculpture for 'Dalek Revolution!' 😄

On 03/06/2023 at 08:18, AdrianMF said:

I'm looking forward to an exposition of the whole metal casting adventure.

I'll assemble some photographs and writing and post over in the 'techniques' section in a few days Adrian. I want to put another cast on later in the week and then distil what's been learned into some sort of coherent precis - I'll drop you a line when it's up.

On 03/06/2023 at 19:51, bigbadbadge said:

Hope it's not too much work to sort out the bracketry Tony, Oh boy, I have missed seeing those lovely 3D renderings, they look superb.

Thanks as always Chris  

Whilst it did turn out to be more involved than anticipated, as is often the case, the quality of the designs in several areas have benefitted from it.

 

So this was the previous housing for the electrical and air units on top of the Nimbus:

And this is the now-correct version of this installation for XT778 in her Ambuscade period:

A quick glance is enough to reveal that (aside from that obvious in the new shape of the metal bracket/enclosure) a lot of pipework and harness features in that area had to be re-routed:

Much of this was to do with the units inside that enclosure, not least of which being the 3-way motorized air valve unit on the inboard side of theenclosure:

The original designers of that part must have been a pretty forward thinking bunch as from the number of blanking plates in the original design it was clear that this set of valves could be plumbed in in a number of configurations, which I was able to emulate here by swapping those plates and pipe entrances around. This process also required the addition of a new part in the form of this throughly steampunk air temperature switch and shield, bolted onto the forward end of that enlosure:

That has to be my favourite part of the Wasp so far! 😄

Another new part added to the outside was an air pressure switch (that cylidrical feature immediately to the right of that big boxy HT ignition unit):

You can see this item is connected to the engine by that (orange) air pipe emerging from the top of it, along with another new one added further down the side of the casing, and  which enters underside of the three-way valve unit. Those twin 'flying-saucer' shaped items bolted to the side of the Nimbus are I understand surge dampers for the oil system (yet to be plumbed in). A companion to those two sits at the rear and already has it's rather fiendish loop of pipework applied:

That green segmentof pipe visible to lower right above isn't a Very Hungry Caterpillar but does in fact repesent the hydraulic supply for the rotor brake calipers:

Those pipes was another feature that required considerable photographic detective work in photographs, due to the fact that if they are shown present at all, they are usually obscured in shadow. A useful digital technique to help recover such shadowed detail is to bring the image into Photoshop (or similar) and raise the gamma value: I've lost track of quite how many times this technique has helped the identification of such features in aircraft photography, especially where the airframe is outdoors and subject to strong directional sunlight.

These coloured festoons require explaining:

blue/turqoise = oil

yellow = fuel

green = hydraulic

orange = air

purple = electrical / sensor

 

There is no practicable way to print that web of pipework. Early test prints of the oil system a few months back already convinced me that even at 1/24th, the fragility of such parts in relation to their convoluted paths means that the complexity of supports required will do little more than create an Sisyphean cycle of breakages:

Certainly you couldn't offer this state of affairs to others in kit form (except perhaps to the S&M fringe of the hobby) so, as is often the case, a material compromise is necessary. By its nature, any scale model of a subject is always going to to omit certain features on grounds of material strength of feasibility of assembly. Resin only takes you so far ( as indeed it already has on the rotor forks) so for pipework I've set ⌀ 0.3mm as the scale threshold below which such features will be omitted. Tests have shown me that down to ⌀ 0.8mm they are a going concern in resin-printed form, below this threshold necessitstes their addition in the form rof metal tube/wire,  down tas far as the  0.3mm minimum diameter used in the designs. All features to which such pipework attach now incorporate the required mounting holes to support this hybrid approach:

In terms of the specific colour-coding in use here, all darker-toned items like oil pumps, main core of the electrical harnesses &etc. remain as printed parts, with lighter versions of that colour indicating items attached to them later during assembly in the form of metal wire/tube. I've already invested in some jeweller's wire of various diameters to have some fun playing around with them on the Nimbus mule; in relation to the designs above you can see below what the ⌀ 0.3mm baseline looks like (here in embarassingly shaky macro):

A few odds and ends to complete on the oil system and then it's onto the hydraulics, starting with this control unit:

 - and then moving on to all those lovely complicated control linkages for the rotors under the main gearbox. In relation to the latter I recently found this rather elegant period advertisment from the Timken Bearing Co.

Not a trace of mechanical grime here - those graphics and colours wouldn't disgrace an advert for gentleman's cologne! 

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PeteH1969]

Always good to follow your progress it will be a very impressive model when done.

 

Pete

[Brandy]

I'm still not sure which is more impressive:

The fact you've managed to track the routing of all those pipes and wires from photographs, or the 3d design and colour coding of same.

 

Lovely to watch!

 

Ian

[bigbadbadge]

More lovely CAD work Tony,  wow, it's certainly going to look an impressive engine with all that pipework etc.

Great work

Chris

[Pete in Lincs]

5 hours ago, TheBaron said:

outdoors and subject to strong directional sunlight.

I have the same problem with my publicity shots. Ah, fame is so cruel at times....

Fabulous pipery your Baronship. If only it had been colour coded on real Aircraft. Life could have been so much simpler. Sadly all we had were symbols on stickers.

The 3D shots of the engine are just fabulous. The real thing should be mouth watering!

Love the Japanese fishing walker. That's thinking outside the factory. Never mind the box!

I have some old fifties Flight magazines. The adverts were, literally, works of art, and never fail to entertain.

As always, many thanks for posting. Regards, Pete

[giemme]

17 hours ago, Brandy said:

I'm still not sure which is more impressive:

The fact you've managed to track the routing of all those pipes and wires from photographs, or the 3d design and colour coding of same.

Exactly my thoughts! Utterly impressive in so many respects!   

 

Ciao

[TheBaron]

@AdrianMF - I've just put up an account of the metal casting process over in the Tools & Tips  section.

 

On 06/06/2023 at 12:20, PeteH1969 said:

Always good to follow your progress it will be a very impressive model when done.

Cheers Pete. 

We'll all certainly be older by the time it's finished. 😁

On 06/06/2023 at 16:09, Brandy said:

I'm still not sure which is more impressive:

The fact you've managed to track the routing of all those pipes and wires from photographs, or the 3d design and colour coding of same.

Thanks Ian. I have to sat that without a number of schematics in the maintenance manual for the Nimbus it would be an impossible task to achieve, however the job is complicated by the fact that there were obviously configuration changes over the lifetime of the Wasp that can catch you out - as they did me with the electrical and air units.

On 06/06/2023 at 17:49, Pete in Lincs said:

I have the same problem with my publicity shots. Ah, fame is so cruel at times....

Been flaunting your abs again?

On 06/06/2023 at 17:49, Pete in Lincs said:

I have some old fifties Flight magazines. The adverts were, literally, works of art, and never fail to entertain

You're right! It's not a false nostalgia but really helps to give you an idea of visual world that surrounded people at the time.

On 06/06/2023 at 17:49, Pete in Lincs said:

As always, many thanks for posting.

My pleasure.

11 hours ago, giemme said:

Exactly my thoughts! Utterly impressive in so many respects!

Your hired! 😁

(Thanks as always G.)

[perdu]

Tony amigo, your absence inspired many worries and fears for your well being

 

Your triumphal return just inspires

 

 

Superlative adherence to a subject's little bits oh so close to my heart, thank you Tony