BN ‘The Survivor’. R.A.F. Chinook HC1

[Pete in a shed]

Hello all, here's the latest from the shed.

 

I have been making this for a friends 70th birthday. In all its taken about five months to do.

In 1982 my friend found himself bobbing about in the South Atlantic on the Atlantic Conveyor heading for the Falklands. On board were Chinooks, Wessex, Harriers and Sea Harriers.

 

                        

 

                         Him at the top

 

                      And here

 

Prior to departure the Chinooks had their blades taken off and placed in bespoke racks inside the aircraft. Other external items were also removed and stored away. The aircraft were then enclosed in greasy purpose made ‘Banana Bags’ to protect them from the harsh Atlantic elements on the way down to the Falklands.

 

                            

 

 

On arrival the Chinooks were de bagged and the smaller external items and blades refitted, and the ‘Cab’ prepared for flight.

BN was the first in line, BT was to be next.

 

             

 

 

BN was successfully flown off and was engaged in a task when the Conveyor was hit by two Exocet missiles.

My friend was part of the small contingent of 18 Sqn groundcrew on board the Conveyor who were carrying out the Chinook rebuilding process. BT was being worked on and was almost ready but had yet to have the bolts on the blades wire locked.

Fire now spread through the ship and despite firefighting efforts by those on board it became apparent the ship was lost. My friend and the rest of the servicing team donned their emergency immersion suits and prepared to abandon ship!

                                     

                                         The remains of BT

 

By this time there was much smoke and heat, the decks becoming too hot to stand still in one place for any length of time. It was not possible to pass the bridge superstructure which was burning so people at the front of the ship climbed down scramble nets, people at the rear climbed down rope ladders that were draped over the side. Being at the rear of the ship with BT my friend started to climb down a ladder to the sea, this was made more difficult because of the immersion suit and by the people above treading on the hands of those below them. He recounted how compressed gas bottles stored below decks started to ignite and burst through the side of the ship. Because the ship was wallowing in the swell, the lower part of the ladder was being submerged every time the ship rolled. To prevent a dangerous dunking there came a point where jumping became necessary. He did this from a considerable height and then had to try to swim to dinghies that had been put over the side and were now drifting around the hull of the ship. After an exhausting swim he and the others in the water hauled themselves into the dinghies and awaited rescue.

For my friend this came in the form of a Sea King helicopter which winched him aboard and deposited him on the deck of the Hermes.

For others not winched up by helicopters there were more scramble nets to negotiate, this time having to be climbed up to the deck of the rescuing ship. Difficult enough without being cold, tired and waterlogged.

 

He and the other survivors were returned to the UK.  12 people were killed in the attack.

 

                                

 

Ground crew are often overlooked in such conflicts, but had it not been for these men there would have been no helicopter heavy lift capability in the Falkland’s at all. So I have written this precis of the events that befell my friend and the other shipborne 18 Sqn ground crew to bring their bravery to light once again.

 

 

And so to the model and some pics.

 

It is the original Airfix Chinook model with the following:-

Blackdog resin Chinook big set. A72006

Airwaves Photoetch set. AC72-12

Photo etch pre painted canvas troop seats.

Loads of scratch building in the cabin

Re arranged/scratch rotor heads.

Scratch built blade rack and chocks.

Model Alliance Decals.

RBF tags by Flightpath

 

Deck Base: Coastal Kits

3D printed Resin containers and palettes from Rail Reality

Case: Trumpeter

Brass plaque: Timpsons

 

The kit wasn’t to bad, only a few minor fit issues, probably brought about by the amount of surgery involved to get the resin parts in place. The interior details were pretty much made from plastic card and brass rods.

Its finished using Xtracolor paints and varnishes with panel lines picked out using Flory black wash. Minimal weathering as they were newly delivered airframes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scratch made blade rack. Each Chinook had its own blades inside it for the journey down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you like it, he did which was the aim of the project.

Thanks for looking

Pete

Edited June 25 by Pete in a shed
picture problems. Binned one drive, using Flikr

[Farmerboy]

Well, there’s a gold medal model if ever I saw one, STUNNING!!

[wellsprop]

Amazing! 

[NorbertBu]

Very detailed and nice result. Thank you for the background story!

[Drakendk]

Really really great work. It looks absolutely amazing, both the Chinook and the diorama.

thanks for sharing 🙂

 

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Superb model and display. A great tribute to all concerned.

colin

[Britman]

Fantastic job Pete. Your friend must be chuffed to bits, and so he should.

 

Keith 

[Keeff]

That is outstanding!  Superbly detailed, finished and presented .... 

 

Keith 😁 

[eng]

Thats absolutely outstanding, beautifully modified and finished Chinook, there's a lot of effort gone into that. The diorama sets the whole thing off beautifully, lots of superb detail touches. 

 

Superb work, really love this.

 

Eng

[Clashcityrocker]

Great idea, well executed. All elements are very well done.

 

Nigel

[Pantherhawk27263]

That is stunning work, made even more amazing by the fact that it's 1/72 scale! Fantastic job!

[Richard E]

Am I alone in not being able to see the pictures in the original post, just a series of "spacer.png" icons?

[Mynimal]

Really amazing. Great job.

[Captain Glumbo]

Excellent job, I’ve just had my kit delivered and look forward to getting some near half way your endeavour. If I hadn’t failed the medical at biggin hill in 1979 due to myopia I would have been a pilot in the Falkland’s so it’s has resonance with me even though I never actually made it there.

[Space Ranger]

49 minutes ago, Richard E said:

Am I alone in not being able to see the pictures in the original post, just a series of "spacer.png" icons?

You’re not alone. I don’t see any images either.

[ted angus]

Nor here

[Richard S]

Judging by the comments this is an outstanding model, unfortunately I can’t see the pictures, am I doing something wrong or is there a problem?

Desperate to see it now!

[Dave Fleming]

2 hours ago, Richard S said:

Judging by the comments this is an outstanding model, unfortunately I can’t see the pictures, am I doing something wrong or is there a problem?

Desperate to see it now!

No, I suspect Onedrive is limiting access

[Blue Monday]

Ditto - pictures are now unavailable for some reason. Hopefully you can host the photos on a different photo website and we can all see your model. Thanks.

 

BM.

[perdu]

It sounds rather wonderful, please use a different photo host so we can see it.

 

I use Postimages.org which is free and easy to use

[sprue]

Same here I can't see any pictures

[Pete in a shed]

16 hours ago, Richard E said:

Am I alone in not being able to see the pictures in the original post, just a series of "spacer.png" icons?

 

15 hours ago, Space Ranger said:

You’re not alone. I don’t see any images either.

 

15 hours ago, ted angus said:

Nor here

 

1 hour ago, perdu said:

t sounds rather wonderful, please use a different photo host so we can see it.

 

25 minutes ago, sprue said:

Same here I can't see any pictures

 

Heartily sick of One Drive arbitrarily binning the link to photos, so from now on I'm using Flikr to see if that's any better.

Hopefully you can all see the pictures now, thanks everyone for letting me know they were not visible.

[perdu]

Now I  can say that is a beauty Pete thanks for the tribute to the hard working ground crews

 

👍

[Dave Fleming]

That's really nice - I hadn't realised it was the 'old' Airfix (Italeri) kit until i re-read your text. How did you do the seat webbing? 

 

And thank you for including the personal photos, always interesting to see new Falklands pictures.

Edited June 25 by Dave Fleming

[JWFP]

Lovely model and a great story. Thanks for sharing