Airfix 1/72 Sea King HAR 3 : Over the top 3D Printing madness.

[alxzinbox]

7 hours ago, perdu said:

alxzinbox have you considered moulding a transparent disc in acetate or PETG with a conic section pulled into it as a rotor disc in flight?

 

Blade droop is exactly what you don't need here isn't it?

 

Jonners is dead right about how good yours looks so far, indeed I'm stunned by how good the tail rotor is for example, I'm going to wish I had one of those filters for my HC4.

 

(interaction from previous users is a characteristic of Britmodellers, we have some wonderful people sharing our hobby-space in here don't we?)

Hello Perdu, thank you for your reply

I used acetate discs on my Bristol Beaufort rotors. I had considered it on the Sea King as well, but a disc wouldn't sit right with the 3d printed rotor head with the individual blade arms.

My next attempt will be blades printed out in grey resin which is less prone to droopage, and while the shape will be very similar to the kit blades, I plan on adding some motion blur lines to trailing edge. Not sure how that'll look, but it's the only hope left for portraying a moving blade.

Oh yes! the community here on Britmodeller is amazing as seen in this thread and a multitude of other threads. In fact a lot of my research was based off walk-arounds of the Sea King from the relevant section on this site.

Edited December 8, 2023 by alxzinbox

[perdu]

Do you know I meant to produce a cone and cut away the centre to allow you rotor head to interface with it under the model?

 

A bit like this disgraceful rapid sketch

 

I'm sure that you will get it sorted 

[Steve Coombs]

Late to the party, but those printed parts are splendid.

I shall have to be abstinent until I retire and have the time (and the inclination, I'd hope) to investigate and implement a printer of my own. It'd be too much of a distraction at the moment.

[alxzinbox]

2 hours ago, perdu said:

Do you know I meant to produce a cone and cut away the centre to allow you rotor head to interface with it under the model?

 

A bit like this disgraceful rapid sketch

 

I'm sure that you will get it sorted 

This could actually be the best solution. The cone shape would hold the lifted orientation of the blades, and airbrushing the transparency would be the easiest thing to do. The seam could be hidden inside one of the blades. Amazon has some 12"x12" sheets which will work perfectly for the scale.

Thank you for the idea!!

I tried this approach to rotor blur, I'm not the biggest fan of the comb shape though. This can however be printed in the more rigid grey primer. Will put some test prints down tonight. I wonder if the style will match that of the tail rotor

[sandros]

A really difficult equation. You need something to be solid AND clear at the same time. It also needs to incorporate threads starting from the comb teeth in a circular manner.

I wonder if anyone else have ever tried to replicate this before.

I would never had the skills nor the patience to start such a project. I wish you all the best.

[heloman1]

An interesting approach to the rotor blur. I hope it works.

 

Coin

[alxzinbox]

3 hours ago, heloman1 said:

An interesting approach to the rotor blur. I hope it works.

I didn't come up with this idea myself. I'm heavily borrowing ideas from others on this site, as well as the possible original creator https://www.propblur.com/store/c1/PropBlur.comMain

 

On 12/8/2023 at 12:07 PM, perdu said:

Do you know I meant to produce a cone and cut away the centre to allow you rotor head to interface with it under the model?

Got the Acetate sheets today. Will spend some time this weekend creating a jig that I can install on a power drill to airbrush the blades on. I hope simple masking will be sufficient for the blade tips and the lone yellow blade.

[alxzinbox]

Made another variation of the rotor blade blur with more 'teeth' and on both sides of the blade

 

 

The print for this is in progress at the moment with a few hours to go.

I also redid the tail rotor blur to match the style of the main rotors. Creating supports for this will not be as straightfoward, but the end result atleast in 3d looks pretty sweet with some colors slapped on it for fun. Had to share!

 

 

The next update should hopefully have the rotors installed on the aircraft! fingers crossed!

Alex.

Edited December 12, 2023 by alxzinbox

[alxzinbox]

3d Printed and painted the blurred tail rotor. A few printing errors (no idea why)

 

A lot of fiddling around with super-glue to get the small contact area to join perfectly and this is looking pretty cool in real life (the close-up macro lens does reduce the effect highlight a lot of flaws)

 

Now on to tackling the challenge of the main rotor blades....

[alxzinbox]

 

The main rotor blades are less successful, primarily due to the additional thickness of the motion lines. I initially added some upward bend to simulate the hover effect, but combined with the lifted armature of the rotor head, and the curing bend, it's now too much....

I struggled with the hydraulic lines on the rotor head and finally called it quits after the little i've done. I don't think I'd want to go thru that again on a 2nd attempt at the blades.

 

Calling this done for now, and moving on to the diorama itself. Now to hunt from some beautiful rocks (easier said than done when you live on a former mud plain)

[PeteH1969]

And for your next trick?

 

Wow those look very effective.

 

Pete

[alxzinbox]

Build completed. She won't be flying anymore. Rotor prop blur just too damned hard.

[scautomoton]

RFI link goes to a page claiming its been deleted??

[Dave Swindell]

2 hours ago, scautomoton said:

RFI link goes to a page claiming its been deleted??

The link posted went to an edit page, the thread is here

 

[Martin1962]

Speechless.

[heloman1]

Quite convincing, congratulations. A lot of work and the results is great.

 

Colin