Westland Wessex HAS 3 Interior (1/48 Scale)

[hendie]

Hendie's at it again I'm afraid.  I had hinted at this some time back in my other Wessex bits for sale thread, but for various reasons - mainly being too busy - that development got put on the back burner... until now.

The usual caveats apply. I know enough to know the difference from the front end and the back end of a Wessex, and I know zero, zilch, nada about the HAS 3.  Everything I'm doing here is based on photographic evidence from the BM Walkrounds, and trying to make it fit within the ITaleri Wessex body shell

 

I picked this project up again last week and started delving into it trying to remember where I left off. It was roughly around this stage.

 

 

 

Starboard forward station - just inside the cabin door where the loadie usually sits

 

Port forward station

 

 

The bit that sits under that station

 

 

Finally - very early stages of trying to figure out the winch mechanism and the Sonar Rig.

 

 

I ran some test prints the other night, and was very impressed with the level of detail of the prints. The issue I ran into was that I had been trying to follow the 1:1 framework as accurately as possible and that the assembly very liable to deform under handling, so I've had to add some features to impart some structural integrity so that numpties like me can actually handle the parts under "normal" modeling conditions. I am trying to add the additional supports in places where they would not be visible whenever possible.

There's still a long way to go on this and it's going to take some time, but I thought I'd throw it out there to gauge the interest level.

 

I'm going to try and model as much as I can but I only have a few reference photos to go on, and having never seen an HAS 3 in the flesh I have no idea what is missing from those references, and I assume, quite a lot. Any additional help or info will be gratefully received. 

 

I managed to snag an Italeri HAS 3 the other day for what I consider to be a reasonable price - I.e. Not what they're asking on ebay, thankfully.   That should be with me sometime next week and I can start test fitting against the target kit as soon as I get some available time to myself.  I might also get around to modeling some of the external bits n bobs - I'll know more once I receive the kit and can start comparing it to photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hendie]

Placeholder post for the moment. I'll put finished article pics in here... eventually

 

 

 

[perdu]

Preliminaries look pretty good so far Alan

 

I have several shot which might be of use, I'll collate them and send them to you by PM if you'd like them.

[bootneck]

These dimensions might also help if building the sonar gantry.

 

 

 

 

cheers,

Mike

[hendie]

1 hour ago, perdu said:

I'll collate them and send them to you by PM if you'd like them.

 

thanks Bill, yes please.

 

Thanks Mike.

 

All info is useful - there is very little in the way of good photos to be found. The best I have are from the Walkrounds section on BM

 

 

[hendie]

A bit more work has been performed on the sonar fit out.

 

 

Still lots of tweaking to be done

 

 

I only have one photo of the winch and the resolution is not great so it's difficult trying to determine what goes where, and even what the what is since it's all painted black. In addition I have no shots of the rear face so will have to make up some pretend mecha-gubbinses.

 

The good news is that I managed to grab an Italeri HAS 3 for a very reasonable price the other day so I can at least make sure this all fits within the cabin (and may do some extra bits for the HAS 3 when I get time).

One potential stumbling block is that I may lose my access to SolidWorks in the next month or two - if that does happen, I may have to recreate all of this in Fusion.  

 

I'll try and get some test prints of this done over the next week or two

 

 

 

 

[perdu]

Photos sent via Googlemail address Alan

 

If you have a better one to use please add it on a PM

 

👍

[perdu]

Your Fusion lessons for me would indicate there will be an almost seamless transition 'Uberguru'

[hendie]

*tweak*

 

Thanks to Bills wonderful photos I spotted some errors on my earlier modeling. I'm not saying that this is 100% accurate but it's closer to the 1:1 now

 

 

still a long way to go.

 

 

[hendie]

I finally got around to running some test prints.

 

Be aware that these are not pretty. Nor were they intended to be - this was purely a functional "will it print" as designed test.

I ran the test prints at a low resolution, did no clean up apart from remove the supports (in some cases, very badly), and squirted primer over them. End of story. This run was purely for my own edification, just checking to see if (1) the parts were printable, and (2) if I was in the ballpark regarding dimensions, since these parts were all created using what few reference shots I had available. i.e. guesswork.

 

First up, the box frame for the winch to sit on, and some other contraption that sits behind it. Yes, I am not at all familiar with the HAS whatever so I have no idea what these parts are actually called.

 

 

Next up we have the instrument rack that sits just inside the loadies door on the starboard side.  The handles look a bit on the thick side, but they are only around 0.35mm in diameter.

 

 

Followed by the rack that sits on the starboard side.

 

 

and lastly, for this episode, we have the winch.  The winch is still very much a WIP and I knew this wasn't going to be a good print, and just used the auto support feature in Chitubox for convenience and speed of set up (wife was shouting at me for something). 

I broke a few pieces and a few hydraulic hoses during the fairly aggressive support removal afterwards. At this stage I am more concerned with how it fits into the overall scheme than producing a completely accurate rendition of the winch.

This will only get better as I move forward as there is quite a bit more pipework/hosework to be added which will help support itself during printing.  More on that when the time comes.

 

 

So that's the individual parts so far.

There is a compromise to be made between getting these designs somewhere near accurate but also being able to be handled by the average user and clumsy sods like myself, while also being able to survive packaging and transit.  Some areas of these parts are so fragile that they can easily be deformed if you're not careful, so I plan to add some additional support structure to give them some more strength. Where possible I will add the additional support in places where it will not be seen when the parts are fitted.

 

Talking of fitting... do they? 

Well, using one of my own Wessex cabin bulkheads as a rough guide it looks like everything is going to fit into the available space - that's good news.

When I get time I plan to mock up the HAS3 to test everything on a final fit, but that is a ways off yet - still lots more modifications (and more parts) to be done before that.

 

 

As I mentioned above, these are very rough first run test prints.

 

 

The masochists among you can have a go at wiring up all the instruments if you feel so inclined. I won't.

 

 

If nothing else, at least the winch will be visible through the cabin door. I should mention that I only have very limited photos of the winch so the design is going to be pure fantasy on my part for the rear face, and 95% of the forward facing side. 

 

 

Now that I have this first test print under my belt, I have a good idea of what needs to be modified to make the structures more manageable. It's just a case of getting the time to do it. 

I'm also working on the seats and instrument consoles, along with the sonar dipping rig and whatever other gubbinses I can find decent photos of.  

 

what was that quote again?  If you build it, no-one will know it's there ?  - or was it If you build it, no-one can hear you scream?  One of those I'm sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CJP]

Wow that is looking suitably good so far Hendie - I might be tempted at a future date but got to finish the HAS31B first.

Chris

[hendie]

9 minutes ago, CJP said:

I might be tempted at a future date

 

I'm sure they'll still be here 

[AlxBNE]

More hendie Wessex magic.

I have been tempted before......these latest offerings are an additional temptation.

[perdu]

Looks excellent Alan.

 

So now I have to find imagery for the sonar dunkers's mate's  chairs huh?

 

 

Searching begins...

 

Referring the back of the winch I doubt if anyone, let alone a modeller will ever see it.

 

Even on the airframe I examined at the Helicoter Museum the architecture of the hidden spaces was inaccessible, maybe Mike @bootneck could grab a picture, might be worth asking him.

[hendie]

^{I've got some shots of the chair Bill, there's some useful stuff in the BM Walkrounds section - which I remembered for once.}

 

^{wots going on with the front in this reply box???}

[perdu]

Tiny fontitis?

[hendie]

Apparently. No matter what size I selected it stayed tiny.

This post is drop my phone and it is working fine