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Westland Wasp HAS 1: 'Ambuscade Flight: XT778'


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That storm looks like dodgy special effects to me. Must have been Hell to clean out the airbrush. I like the Guinness clock though.

Grand roofing work. That should keep the rain out. And thanks for the video's. D'ya hear there? Clear decks!

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Evening all.

 

Straight down to business as the build - can I call it a build yet? -  'proto-Wasp' manybe? - anyway, whatever Schrodinger-like condition this currently exists in it requires some decisions to be taken at this early stage about how it will eventually be printed in sections. The first step down this path was to complete  blocking out the main interior spaces. This basically involved cutting in through the underside of the engine deck so that the triangular gimp-cupboard and fuel tank areas are all one unified volume, as well as adding the cockpit floo and rear cabin wall to define the main volumes there as well.

52353063841_7fe143cf6f_b.jpg

Punching some measurements up you can see in theory that it would be possible to print the entire front section and engine deck as a single unit:

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In theory; but this would ignore the realities of  the printing process in terms of supporting such a long structure without either wrecking the nose in a forest of supports (if printing from the front) or having too little a support area to be of use at the rear of the engine deck (where it meets the boom). It makes sense then to divide the airframe into three for printing purposes, namely, nose/cabin, engine deck and fuel tank bay, tail boom. This should ensure that each section has a good sturdy 'base' to support it during printing.

 

The other matter rapidly approaching is the need to begin turning what are currently just a series surfaces describing the shape of the Wasp into solid bodies that can be printed. You could - again in theory - simply stitch together and thicken all these existing surfaces into a set of solid objects and later on cut out things like doors and windows, but I reckon it makes more sense to cutout the required shapes from the surfaces first, like a tailor marking up a suit. This should prove easier when - as is always the case - you need to go back and make alterations as more parts gets added and errors emerge in previous work.

 

I started down this route then by setting out the front and rear doors:

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Swiftly followed by using the same drawings to produce the corresponding framework in the cabin walls:

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Every now and again I pop everything back together to check the overall look & feel:

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It's too easy to get tunnel vision working on individual sections and you have to keep reminding yourself that what you're working on is intergrated within a larger structure

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VVry much like those old abandoned airframes in this condition....

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You wouldn't be human if you didn't pop the doors back on at this point and waggle them open and closed:

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The windows need doing next and I must remind myself to keep the cutout panes safely tucked away to turn into bucks for vacforming.

 

I havent quite finished with building the shell of the airfame yet though - there are a number of symmetrical features still to add to it at this stage before it all gets thickened and mirrored:

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That graphic isn't entirely true; after doing it a few days back I've had a closer look a that lamp housing under the nose and it isn't a symmetrical shape in it's own right, plus it has some detailed work needing doing on it with regard to the lamps and their housings which means it makes more  sense  to add it later as a fitting. The other three though I'll do up as surfaces next time.

 

Looking out the bedroom window on Saturday night I caught Jupiter gleaming in the moonrise:

52353493970_16dcf5d354_b.jpg

Hope your weeks are off to a good start in this mad world.

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

as well as adding the cockpit floo

 

I knew the Navy had it cushy like, but they got fireplaces in their helos?

I guess they needed both hands for flying so the mantel would be handy place to rest their G & T's.

 

Nice update Tony. The little fella is surely creeping out of the larval stage now. Prints by the weekend?  :D

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, hendie said:
11 hours ago, TheBaron said:

as well as adding the cockpit floo

 

I knew the Navy had it cushy like, but they got fireplaces in their helos?

 

Floo?  have you checked compliance with the latest building regs Tony?  Wouldn’t want you to have to dismantle it all would we?

 

PS. Out of interest/nosiness, have you been test thickening as you go along? or leaving it till sections are stitched etc.

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11 hours ago, giemme said:

Shaping up properly, Tony - albeit still virtually

'Virtually there in fact Giorgio! :laugh:

10 hours ago, hendie said:

I knew the Navy had it cushy like, but they got fireplaces in their helos?

🤣 Now I know what that mysterious triangular box beneath the engine deck was for Alan - it was the coal bunker! 

1 hour ago, Fritag said:

Floo?  have you checked compliance with the latest building regs Tony?  Wouldn’t want you to have to dismantle it all would we?

Have...have I just been libelled by a lawyer in my own thread? :rofl:

Get me Carter-Ruck on the phone Matthews!

1 hour ago, Fritag said:

Out of interest/nosiness, have you been test thickening as you go along? or leaving it till sections are stitched etc.

Important question Steve: am periodically testing (especially on tightly-curving sections) to see what adjoining surfaces can receive a 'stitch&thicken', as distinct from those that will need to be thickened individually later prior to combining as solids.

 

I think you raised a similar related matter in your Hawk thread a little while ago whereby sometimes you can simply leave solid bodies overlapping/up against one another (without combining in any way) and they will quite happily print as one. Iirc on the Vixen there was more than one section that wouldn't combine due to a Boolean error but happily printed as part of a larger assembly - as long as there were no gaps greater than the print tolerance. A classic case of established orthododoxy succumbing to the 'whatever works' rule of thumb: mind you, I wouldn't be too keen on a designer of real aircraft adopting this procedure.... :laugh:

 

 

Edited by TheBaron
Due to feelings of shame and inadequacy with regard to spellling.
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The floo?

 

Is this it at the back of the cabin wall?

w%2049.jpg

 

Looks like a very nicely styled chimney breast doesn't it?

 

We should surely hold it in awe, very superior design features.

 

Although I am bemused that the Royal Navy should refer to the floo in such an archaic term, whatever is wrong with the modern Anglicised word Flue?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comedy, albeit lame and feeble like this doesn't detract from the brilliance of what we are watching unfold.

 

Lead on Tony, I'm trying hard to follow the designs and brickbats of the structures.

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So it's not a gimp cupboard after all, it's for the floo-zy!

 

Nice shot of Jupiter, I wouldn't know that was what I was looking at even if I did see it.

 

I hope you don't have the same problems I did with thickening. It will show a lot more in this scale.

 

Ian

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10 hours ago, Fritag said:

Out of interest/nosiness, have you been test thickening as you go along?

I'm sorry but that does deserve a Snort! and maybe even a chortle.

That's Jupiter? My eyesight must be better than I thought.

As for the flue. If a Star Wars X wing fighter can have a steam engines smoke box at the back, then why not?

https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2195/2196982489_49981fd2dd.jpg

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Friday lunchtime so a rather picture-heavy update to round off the week.

Reading out of the telgrams first though.

On 13/09/2022 at 09:12, perdu said:

Looks like a very nicely styled chimney breast doesn't it?

Our one in the living room looks like a space helmet:

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When the fire's alight of an winter's evening it's like being stared at by the burning soul of Alexei Leonov.

On 13/09/2022 at 16:13, Brandy said:

Nice shot of Jupiter, I wouldn't know that was what I was looking at even if I did see it.

Humanity will never claim it's place amongst the stars with that sort of attitude Ian. :rofl:

By contrast I skilfully navigated up to the garage shop using the moon last night... #themodernmagellan

On 13/09/2022 at 16:13, Brandy said:

I hope you don't have the same problems I did with thickening.

I just know somebody's going to-

On 13/09/2022 at 18:26, Pete in Lincs said:

I'm sorry but that does deserve a Snort! and maybe even a chortle.

Knew it. 😆

On 13/09/2022 at 18:26, Pete in Lincs said:

As for the flue. If a Star Wars X wing fighter can have a steam engines smoke box at the back, then why not?

Doncha just hate historically inaccurate detail? 🙄

11 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

I’ll pull up my chair….I’ve been off line lately, nice to be back and see this thread 

Nice to have you back Anthony - I do hope all is well with yourself?

11 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Oh I also ment to say that I have access to a RNZN Wasp if you need any help 

Most kind. :thumbsup2: One thing I'm missing definitive shots of is the release gear for the Mk.44/46 torpedoes if you had anything in that line? I've a couple of poorly angled shots (when it comes to discerning detail) but could really use front, side and plan elevations to help establish accurate profiles &etc....

 

Sponsons!

52355718481_34bf746a09_b.jpg

I've made the walls of this about 1.5mm thick as this part wil lneed to help support the landing gear later.

 

This next sequence bascially explains my thinking during the design stage about the exigencies of having to print collections of shapes as an airframe later. With the sponson shape above cut to match the compound curves of the airframe where the two join, I then cut a ccorresponding ole out of the helicopter prior, to thickening the surface into a physical body:

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With that engine deck and boom area all thickened I could then plug the sponson in:

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From the inside you can see the reason for that weird sponson shape at the start - it plugs into the surrounding contours in such a way as to be printable as part of the airframe:

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(Or else I've just summoned a demon screeching from the void..)

 

Next up was to add the stretcher bulge to the rear door. Anything that's shiny and curved is notoriously difficult to identify clear outlines from in photographs but I was lucky in this instance  that the Navy Wings walkaround I posted previously has a nice sequence of the rear door being opened which  helped visualize matters:

52355718526_c6c415fce8_b.jpgIn particular there is one frame where Mr. Daniels had the door open almost eedg-on to the camera which I was able to use as a screenshot in Fusion to get both bulge shape and door thickness reconciled:

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 - which became a...err...bathtub:

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The complementary hole cut out from the rear door:

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which allows all t his all to be printed as a single part now:

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I couldn't make out in the video if the inside of that bulge has a covering inside the door when not in use for that function - there isn't one in this AFMNZ video but of course that wouldn't necessarily clarify the presence/absence of one on operational Wasps of the period. There's nothing in that section of Pilot's Notes describing such matters: I can leave it as is for now and always retrofit something after printing if need be.

Door fitted:

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@Fritag you'd mentioned about surface/thickening strategies previously, and this is a prime example of some of the complexities that can emerge at the junction of sections when turning 'flats' into 'walls':

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Where the door and the rear cabin wall meet there's an overlap in: not a problem, just requires the 'combine' function to cut the door recess out of the surrroundings to match such features on the actual aircraft structure.

 

With all the doors cut out from the cabin I was then able to go about thickening all the framing:

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Wall thicknesses here are 1.15mm, which sseeed pretty good match to what you can see in photos. Load bearing areas like the floors and undersides I've bumped up to 1.5mm for strength:

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This shot above shows the region that drove me closest to Lovecraftian madness so far on this build - that meeting point between the side of the nose, side frame of the door and sill of the windshield. I thought it was tricky enough to handle atrick surfacesbut by goodness once thickened there was some mullarkey - if not outright shenanigans - involved in getting the various walls trimmed and filled to avoid having overlaps and gaps in the structure.

 

With both doors fitted, the sshapesappear to be coming together quite nicely now:

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Another of those little oddities within Fusion that surprise you from time to time is that everything mirrored from stbd to port quite happily except the stretcher bulge as you can see above. It was a valid body so there was no clearly discernible reason for this to (not) happen so I simply re-lofted the drawing for the port one again and everything worked fine. I guess something buried back in the timeline caused a conflict.

 

Tipping the Wasp up revealed this one to be a rare 'bomb-bay variant:

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There was an underside there earlier so I'll have to go look for it... :laugh:

Whilst it was upside own though I realized that this helicopter could double up as a quite futuristic-looking submarine:

52360875894_7a2dfa4133_b.jpg

The Dutch navy did try this but trials were not a success...

 

From this point onwards I just went raving mad with drawings and body-splitting to create the windshield framing and 'cheek' windows:

52361940519_d1b24640b4_b.jpg

Also added was that notched mounting box on the nose for the two prominent blade antennae:

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As with the stretcher bulge, the mounting plate for this part is a feature raised about 0.15mm proud of the airframe to match the details of the original. This should print in what I hope will be a subtly raised manner but tests later will tell.

 

As you can see I've managed to misplace the tail boom in the design tree somewhere as well:

52361630901_92098f809e_b.jpg

Note to self, keep all the cut-out window bits safe to make vacforming bucks from later.

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Out driving yesterday and think I may have discovered the building I want to retire to when the time comes:

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A cabin will do.

 

Thanks for looking in as always and hope you have a good weekend.

:bye:

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Remarkable. Now I’m pretty sure I haven’t used that particular superlative for ages (one worries about being repetitive), so I should be able to get away with a couple of usages. Remarkable.  There.

Edited by Fritag
typo
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Remarkable does indeed sum all this up perfectly. Unashamedly re-using Steve's own repeat of that superlative.

 

The whole set of drawings so far look so Wasp like, this one particularly took my fancy..........

 

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

52361940519_d1b24640b4_b.jpg

 

I feel I want a set of varying shades of Naval Blue grey, and colour it in!

 

Terry

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31 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Remarkable. Now I’m pretty sure I haven’t used that particular superlative for ages

Maybe because it isn't a superlative....

 

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

 

Ciao

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Looking waspier and waspier with every post. 

Are you sure you didn't just hide the tail? Not saying I've done that myself and then forgotten, but just a thought!

 

Ian

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7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

 there was some mullarkey - if not outright shenanigans

I'm sorry, but we're used to precision on this here, ah, sorry, I thought I was on the DIY fusion reactor website. My apologies.

 

Erm, Nice bulges. Am I forgiven? Oh, nice submarine too. Fire one! 

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6 hours ago, giemme said:

Maybe because it isn't a superlative....

 

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

 

Most remarkable.  Better G?

 

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 :blush:  :D

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11 hours ago, TheBaron said:

One thing I'm missing definitive shots of is the release gear for the Mk.44/46 torpedoes if you had anything in that line? I've a couple of poorly angled shots (when it comes to discerning detail) but could really use front, side and plan elevations to help establish accurate profiles &etc....

Thanks, nice to be back and keen to crack back on with my 1/32 FG-1 Toom conversion. Sickness several times, job restructuring and a bad car crash all slowed me up a bit lol. All good now.

 

Consider it done on the torpedo release gear…leave it to me 

 

The unremarkable thing about this remarkable project is that remarkably you just have the talent to get these complex shapes to fit together so remarkably well!

Amazing:drunk:

 

Cheers Anthony….leaving now 

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7 hours ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Thanks, nice to be back and keen to crack back on with my 1/32 FG-1 Toom conversion. Sickness several times, job restructuring and a bad car crash all slowed me up a bit lol. All good now.

I'm sorry you have had such a bad time Anthony, sounds awful.

 

How's that steel aeroplane? I haven't kept an overwatch.

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