Takom Focke-Achgelis Fa. 330

[Pete in Lincs]

Do Aliens hibernate? It could be that?

[Martian]

28 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Do Aliens hibernate? It could be that?

Not generally although there is a theory that the inhabitants of Slumberworld Seven might do. The trouble is that they have all been asleep for the past two hundred of your Earth years and nobody has yet had the nerve to wake them up to see if they are hibernating or just having a long lye in. 

 

Martian 👽

[Pete in Lincs]

10 minutes ago, Martian said:

the inhabitants of Slumberworld Seven might do

I wonder if they are the Alien equivalent of Elephants. If they sleep on memory foam, they'd never be able to forget anything.

[Martian]

5 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I wonder if they are the Alien equivalent of Elephants. If they sleep on memory foam, they'd never be able to forget anything.

You could go and wake them up and ask them but before you do, I should warn you that their tempers when woken unnecessarily, are said to be almost on a par with those of Mrs Martian when the same thing happens to her. Believe you me, that unless you have a death wish, that is one place you do not want to go! Your call.

 

Martian 👽

[Pete in Lincs]

Hmm, sounds like the sort of job that should be sub-contracted. I wonder if the SAS are busy at the moment...

[heloman1]

Ooooops, late for take off! honestly, how could I miss the start of a rotary wing build? I now the subject, from building the 1/72nd scale kit, which was extremely fiddly. The SS PE kit remains in it's packet. I think the scale for such as subject is perfect.

Neat start Martin, I follow, popcorn in hand.

 

Colin

[TheBaron]

Detail looking super even before onset of super detailing Martian. Crack on to the murmuring of an appreciative audience.

[Martian]

I decided to take a look at the tail surfaces of the kit and oh dear! it's a good job I did! the rudder is meant to be held in place by a flimsy butt join at the bottom and a butt join on a pimple of styrene no larger than and under nourished gnat's nipple. It's going to break off the first time you so much breath on the model. I therefore drilled 0.5mm diameter holes as deep as my drill bit would go into the fin and rudder and pinned everything together with brass rod and flexible CA glue, which gives us this:

 

 

 

 

This gets us to the point where we can start to think about getting the white styrene out and get on with the detailing.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

Martian 👽

[k5054nz]

It's looking terrific, excellent job! I'm excited for the next build update!

[Martian]

Much of the past few days has been spent making unfeasibly small clamps that guide controls and instrument cables along the main fuselage boom and up the rotor mast. I was going to make these from lead foil but the imperative of you have clearer pictures so that you good Earthlings can see better what I have been trying to do led me down the road of using white 5 'thou plastic card, cut into strips. This was a bit of a pain as I don't really like working with the stuff as it can be quite brittle and tries to melt into nothingness as soon as it gets the merest whiff of liquid cement. Still, we are almost there and I just await Royal Fail delivering some etched bolts that I have on order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we have a heads up. Parts B53 and B54 are tricky to both clean up and fit. The struts where they meet the landing skids are angled outwards. The angled part of the struts needs reducing by  about fifty percent, otherwise, they push the rear part of the landing skids away from their mountings. The kit instructions would have you glue parts B53 and B54 to the airframe and then attach the landing skids at a later stage, Don't. I attached the skids to the model and only then went in and added parts B53 and B54. I also used Tamiya White Cap cement for this process to give me plenty of working time. There is also an argument for using good old fashioned tube cement here. I flooded the strut to skid join with a touch of thin CA to make sure the join was strong enough.

 

 

This is one subject where the modeller has to take their time over the build due to the fragility of the subject. It is very much a case of doing a bit and then walking away from the model for at least twenty four hours to allow for glue to cure thoroughly. I do feel that this is one kt that Takom should have put "For experienced modellers only" on the box top.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

 

[Martian]

Sorry about progress being a bit thin on the ground this week but, during a dinner given by a friend for my Birthday, I experienced an ever increasing pain in my left ankle. Upon removing my shoe we were able to see the ankle rapidly swelling up and Mrs Martian said my Achilles tendon felt rather mushy. A consultation with my GP led to a diagnosis of an inflammation of the tendon, some drugs to reduce the swelling and orders for plenty of bed rest. Having had a snapped tendon before and not wanting to have my leg in a plastic boot for three months again, I feel it is best to do as I am told for a change. As a result, I can only sit at my bench for a very limited amount of time before the pain gets too much. It hurts: a lot. Therefore progress on my builds will be slower than a glacier that is out of condition and has a pronounced limp while trying to carry a heavy bag of shopping, until we can get the swelling and pain levels down.

 

Sorry about this but I amas frustrated as those of you who follow my builds.

 

Hacked Off of Mars 👽

[Martian]

Despite my temporarily increased immobility, I have managed to push things along with this build. Although the model is still very much at the slow adding of the kit bits to the airframe and preparing of the same for the scratch built detail still to come, I have managed to start adding some of this detail to the model. I began by adding some webbing to the back of the pilot's seat. This I fashioned from 0.5 'thou plastic strips. Lead foil would probably be an easier option here but, once again, my choice of medium was driven by the need to make my work more visible to you good Earthlings. 

 

I then turned my attention to the instrument panel/cluster. Here a modicum of work is going to be needed. The kit provides cabling for the instruments but part concerned is so flimsy, mine was already broken on the spue tht it is much easier to replace it it with some detailing wire. This necessitated in my having to deepen a couple of locating holes at the bottom of the arm that carries the pitot head. This led me to looking at the head itself and I decided that it would look much better fashioned from aluminium tube. This was a simple matter of cutting away the plastic head, drilling out the bracket holding the head and inserting an appropriate length of Albion Alloys' tubing.

 

On the subject of weak kit parts, there are a couple of supporting struts going from the rotor pylon to the plate that holds the rotor head. The rotor assembly is going to be quite heavy and it was a no brainer to replace the somewhat anaemic kit parts  with some made from brass rod.. If you make no other change to your build, make this one; it will save a whole lot of grief further down the road. I also strongly recommend that the rotor blades are well pinned the the rotor head as that is another potential weak spot. I will elaborate further on the rotor assembly in the next update when I have identified what extra work needs to be done in this area.

 

One thing that the kit completely omits is the communication equipment that was fitted to these machines. Fortunately the manual for the FA-330 both illustrates the necessary gear and how it was wired up but is less forthcoming as to how it was attached to the rest of the machine. I have almost worked this out and when I am sure of the arrangements, I will be dedicating a post to this subject.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

 

 

[LorenSharp]

On 11/26/2022 at 4:02 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

I wonder if they are the Alien equivalent of Elephants. If they sleep on memory foam, they'd never be able to forget anything.

*Rimshot*

[LorenSharp]

Martian I hope Father Christmas was kind to you this year with your tendon flare-up. I know how that feels, I severely damaged my Plantar Fascia some years back and it took a long time to heal. Though it is a pain, pardon the pun,  it's better to stay off of  your appendage and let it heal properly. Your little whirly scooter is coming along spectacularly. Here' s to a better year in 2023! And what ever you do don't drink any on that Venusian Jungle Juice. I heard t's like a combination of one of Baldrick's liquid concoctions and CC's rocket fuel. Only worse. But should you choose to, you're a better man than I Gunga Din. Sláinte

[Pete in Lincs]

Sorry to hear that you are still suffering from Lurgi of the perambulation gear. I can only send get well soon wishes.

Thank you for the nice update and your fortitude.

[Martian]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Sorry to hear that you are still suffering from Lurgi of the perambulation gear. I can only send get well soon wishes.

Thank you for the nice update and your fortitude.

Thanks Pete. the requirement to just do a few bits and then walk away to allow glue to thoroughly works out perfectly with this kit as it just about coincides with the time I can sit comfortably at the bench at the moment.

 

Martian 👽

[Martian]

I have been busy with the rotors and rotor head on this build. I actually felt like having a really good session and yesterday, I got to put in a twelve hour stint in the Martian Cave, working on all three of my main builds.

 

Takom have made a very respectable job of this area of the model But there a a couple of important heads ups.

 

Firstly, by the very nature of the beast, the rotor to rotor head as supplied in the kit is very weak. To get round this problem, I drilled as deep into the rotor arms as I could and glued a length of 1mm brass rod into the holes. I then drilled right through the rotor head and into the void that takes the rotor shaft. I then glued the rotor arms to the rotor head, using CA for the main join, Tamiya Extra Thin for the join that Takom intend you to use and when this is set and cured, Iran some thin CA into the Takom join.

 

 

The other issue we have to tackle is that as things stand, the kit rotors have a distinct droop to them dur to the weight of the rotors themselves normally this would be considered a plus point with a rotary wing build but the rotors on the FA-330 displayed a distinct dihedral and were kept in this position by cables running from the rotor head to each of the rotor blades. Takom provide parts for this arrangement in the kit but, as the rigging here is going have to be structural and play the same role as in the real aircraft we need to be sure that the PE anchor points on the rotor blades are not going anywhere. The plan I came up with was to glue the PE anchors to the rotor blades. The spigot that they attach to stands proud of the anchor plates and I filed these down until they were flush with the tops of the plates. then punched some 20 'thou discs of plastic card and used Tamiya Extra Thin to glue these to the tops of the filed down spigots, hopefully locking the plates into place. thus:

 

 

I  have a few detail parts to add to the rotor assembly but I think I will start work on the communications equipment next. This will have to be scratch built as Takom seem to have left this vital part of the aircraft's equipment out completely. Fret ye not, I have the references, have worked out how I am going to going to go about te job and am quite looking forward to tackling it.

 

Some more pictures with the rotor balanced in place and as always thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Twelve hours? Good gracious. I hope you took suitable refreshments and a small primus stove for stimulatingly hot but dyslexic alphabet soup.

I just managed a couple of hours in the manshed before it got too cold. Still, it's progress. And you are out-progressing me by miles.

Nice Mini Chopper your Alienship. Great details and well done in your quest to stop the droop. (snort).

It still looks frighteningly fragile for a Military machine.