Jump to content

Recommended Posts

G'day people,

Thanks for the kind comments. Today's progress,

I have finished painting the depth charges. I used a dark green to approximate bronze green and sprayed the yellow stripe.

IM000604.jpg

I have also refined the shape of the weapons pylons and I am starting to measure out where all the pylon support struts will go. I also added the two engine transmission housing drains/vents that exit from the bottom of the louvred cowl.

depthchargedcompare1.jpg

Those that have been following this build may have noticed that the winch is missing. I managed to knock it off whilst filling in the recessed fuel filler ports. These don't belong on a HAS.3 but Italeri was kind enough to include them anyway! I will do that after I attach the pylons.

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

G'day all,

It's been a little while between updates. I have made good progress in the meantime though. I filled in the three fuel filler ports that are not present on the HAS.3 version, but in the process managed to knock off the winch frame.

I ended up re-building the winch frame and have since added some wiring.

pylonrightside.jpg

I have also attached the left and right weapons pylons. I have not really resolved the connundrum of the different weapons pylons fitted to Humphrey in the FAA Museum at Yeovilton.

pylonright-1.jpg

I have also added the wire hoops and grab handles that live on the fin leading edge and rear fuselage

tailhandles.jpg

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites

G'day people,

More progress,

I have replaced the pitot probe with a new item made from two hypodermic syringes of different sizes. The white blob at the tip is the PVA glue that is still drying.

pitot.jpg

I have also made the tail tie down rings in front of the tail wheel. I used a punch set to make a disc, which I cut in half. This was attached with some CA and then the two rings were made from copper wire and also atatched.

reartiedown.jpg

The kit is now all masked up and just about ready for paint!

top.jpg

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites

G'day again,

I have the main colour. I used Xtracolor RAF blue grey. Xtracolor paints dry as a gloss and this is my first attempt at using them. The paint dried glossy and hard and it has only been 24 hours.

I have heard horror stories about these paints taking weeks to cure, so I decided to use the manufacturer's own brand of thinners. I thinned the paints 50% with thinners and they sprayed beautifully!

paintwinch.jpg

painttop.jpg

paintright.jpg

paintleftwindows.jpg

leftexhausts.jpg

paintleftnose.jpg

I also test fitted two of the exhausts to see if the paint build up would cause fit issues. The exhausts were painted a burnt copper colour (black + copper) and then masked. These were then sprayed Mettaliser buffing Titatnium, and given a dusting of blue eye shadow that I borrowed form the missus (but that's our little secret!) as I didn't have any blue pastels handy.

The end covers are simply styrene discs punched out with a die set. These will have rbf streaners attached to them once fitted.

I have had a minor modelling disaster.

I had applied the warning triangles to the main wheel flotation bags and brushed on a coat of Metalliser Sealer (I grabbed the wrong bottle, I thought I was reaching for semi-gloss varnish) and was horrified to watch the paint wrinkle up and react.

Does anyone have some spare Matchbox Wessex decals that they would be willing to part with?

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites

G'day again,

Update for today.

I have applied the decals, a panel wash and some weathering. A little bit of detail painting still needs doing as well as some ,ahem, touch ups!

The depth charges have been added in addition to the four antennas (three under the nose and one on the spine) and the pitot probe on the right hand side of the canopy.

progress2.jpg

progress3.jpg

progress4.jpg

progress5.jpg

progress6.jpg

getting close now!

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites
That looks so good, it's almost obscene!! <_<

I'm a huge fan of the Italeri H-34 and Wessex kits, and you've really raised the bar!!!

Astonishing, absolutely astonishing.

(Glad I won't have to compete against your work at contest!) :D

G'day TX,

Thanks for the kind words.

The panel was looks a little stark in the pics. I am using a very basic digital camera with an in-built flash. The flash tends to lighten the grey and increase the contrast with the panel wash. The kit is nearly done, and despite a couple of minor errors (tail rotor the wrong way around, the incorrect fuel filler ports) I think Italeri should be thanked for providing we modellers with a great little kit,

cheers,

Pappy

Link to post
Share on other sites

Really impressive job Pappy, from mounting and detailing (of course the tremendous credit to find the Italeri mistake in rear rotor blades), to painting... a fine and nice job.

You add me some light too, I always guess that Humphrey was in Oxford Blue scheme.

Im following very close your work, I have 3 Italeri Wessex/UH-34.

Congratulations.

Link to post
Share on other sites

G'day Pibe and Andrew,

Thanks for the kind words, it was getting a little lonely in here!

I'm glad the build is helping (BTW what does "El pibe vitina" mean, non es habla espanol!)

"Humphrey" originally wore the high visibility scheme of gloss yellow over the RAF blue-grey. During transit to the operations area, the yellow portion was over-painted with the same blue grey and the white portions of the roundels painted out. Most of the bright stencilling seems to have been either removed or toned down as well, for example the white "ROYAL NAVY" lettering on the tail was over-painted in black, and the turbine warning stripes either side of the exhausts were repainted in black.

G'day Andrew,

The Seahawk looks pretty good so far, I may have to pull out my kit and build in tandem!

cheers,

Pappy

Link to post
Share on other sites
G'day Pibe and Andrew,

Thanks for the kind words, it was getting a little lonely in here!

I'm glad the build is helping (BTW what does "El pibe vitina" mean, non es habla espanol!)

"Humphrey" originally wore the high visibility scheme of gloss yellow over the RAF blue-grey. During transit to the operations area, the yellow portion was over-painted with the same blue grey and the white portions of the roundels painted out. Most of the bright stencilling seems to have been either removed or toned down as well, for example the white "ROYAL NAVY" lettering on the tail was over-painted in black, and the turbine warning stripes either side of the exhausts were repainted in black.

Pappy

A long story Pappy... I drop out building kits since more than 20 years ago, and back to the modelling now, at 38 years old, came memories when I was a teen. "Pibe" means kid in Argentinean slang and "Vitina" is a healthy food's brand from that country. So Im feeling like that gullible boy I was in those days.

Back to the topic... thanks for your Humphrey scheme story. I confirmed it reading Arms and Armour Press "Falklands the Air War".

Wish to see more pics of your Humphrey, an excellent work in this subject.

Cya.

Link to post
Share on other sites

G'day again,

Today's update. I have added the distinctive twin aerials that run along the fuselage sides using a product called Ezy-line. This is an elastic rubber string that stretches up to 700% before it breaks. It only takes slight tension to look tight, so it won't place a strain on the the antenna bases. In addition, because it is an elastic, it can handle being bumped without breaking.

riggedspine.jpg

riggedleftrear.jpg

riggedleft.jpg

riggedfront.jpg

riggedtail.jpg

I have also added all the various aerials as well as all the window emergency release handles. I pre-drilled holes using a no.80 drill and made the handles with fine copper wire bent into an 'L' shape. once attached, the handle was painted the fuselage grey and the horizontal portion was painted yellow with black stripes.

handles.jpg

blly1.jpg

belly2.jpg

I just need to give the fuselage a satin coat and then the window masking can be removed,

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites

Pappy,

It's been a pleasure watching Humphry come to life. Fantastic work. Thanks for sharing with us all. I hope you'll post the finished item on the main forums other wise a lot of people are going to miss out on this.

Rich :woot.gif:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Update for today,

I have sprayed over some of the panel lines with a heavily thinned mixture of Tamiya smoke in order to post shade the panels. The whole fuselage was then given a coat of satin varnish so that the paint had a slight sheen. I was then able to remove the cockpit and cabin window masking.

leftnavlight.jpg

streamers.jpg

lookingback.jpg

landinglight.jpg

leftwindows.jpg

I elected to install the 7.62GPMG and some grab handles around the cockpit doors at this time. I also made some streamers for the engine exhaust blanks using thin strips of lead foil painted red and white. Finally a small landing light was made from some stretched clear sprue and attached to the 'chin' area underneath the nose.

gunclose.jpg

GPMGinstalled.jpg

I also added the end of the I-band transponder at this stage as well. I had removed the bottom of the transponder in order to add a styrene disc as my references clearly showed that there was a 'lip' around the larger diameter end piece. I left the part off during painting as it would have been too easy to keep breaking the fragile item, especially without the wheel fitted.

transponder.jpg

lookingforward.jpg

I still need to add the main gear flotation bags to the wheel hubs and a couple of tie-down rings to the top of the main struts.

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites

G'day people,

I am nearing the completion of my 1/72 Wessex HAS.3 "Humphrey" of the Falklands War fame. I need to know what colour the rotor hubs for the main and tail rotors are. I cannot tell if it is the fuselage blue/grey colour or black?

Thanks Ray, but I think "Humphrey" is definitely a 'he'

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites

G'day people,

More progress today. I have finished painting the tail rotor and attached it. I have also fitted the emergency flotation gear should Humphrey need to go for a swim.

tailrotor1.jpg

I have also made a simple base of a generic ship deck. I only had a few pics of Humphrey aboard HMS Antrim, and the deck details were a guess due to the camera angle. The chocks are made from a section of resin waste that was suitable shaped. The rope is made from fine solder.

base4.jpg

base3.jpg

bASE2.jpg

base1.jpg

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy121
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

G'day all,

I have sent these pics to the mods, but they have not been posted into the completed builds folder. Theser are the final completed pics for Humphrey

side.jpg

nug.jpg

nose.jpg

front.jpg

exhausts.jpg

back.jpg

base4.jpg

base3.jpg

tail.jpg

I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the pics as much as I have enjoyed the build,

cheers,

Pappy

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...