Agusta Westland HMA.1 Merlin - Italeri 1/72

Hello,

great work for such a small scale. can't wait to see the finished thing. Keep the pics coming.

Rich

A small step forward. I think there are heating wires i made on the windscreen. So many details to do, taking a lot of time, and slowing the progress. Side cockpit windows are going to be a pain. Edge of thick and a bit thiner plastic is on the visible side, begging me to make new ones from scratch.

I tried to make top windoes tinted, mixing water colours with future. Not so much for the desired effect. Lucky me, the mistakes from experementing aren't visible when the canopy is in place.

Wow! Really looks great. Keep us posted.

One thing: my Czech (or is it Slovakian) is a little rusty  ... what do the comments say?

Thanks, wilco

Comments from the pictures, top to bottom:

1. maps and Aircraft logbook

wires to some connectors

comm wire

vent lines

2. cutouts to be covered with PE mesh

3. more cutouts

4. more maps, so the crew won't get lost :)

5. cutouts and ducts for vents

Almost done with interior, only comm wires to be cut and put in place. Damn, forgot to drill holes for them in the over head panel. The whole panel had to be scratch built, couse italeri forgot about it. I also made the frame for the windscreen, all coloured and fits perfectly. I had to make the courtains too. At first i tryed making them with wire going through the paper sheet, but later ended up on a more realistic variant. Assembly to take place tomorrow.

Curtains in place... almost (fitting them through small holes)

Parts waiting for assembly

The most difficult task was making new side windows of the cockpit, couse italeri made me wanna throw up with the ones they make. Cockpit is all masked up and waiting for the finishing touches. Than the exterior Can't wait, i'm sure it'll be way easyer.

All that i'm worried about now, is the windows geting fogged up in the process of painting. Those curtains took a while of playing around, getting hair through small holes in the styren.

Comm wires, finally...

BTW: Does anyone have a small 1x2mm decal "200 Volts"?  I should make one, and place it above the curtain.

Thank you mate!

A little bit of progress. Wheel bays are on the frame, a few cuts here and there. I removed the central engine exhaust, couse it was disgusting. I'll modify other two too.

Had to do some filling on the sides, gaps between the "panoramic" cut outs were just too big.

Had a little time, and i made the hydraulics radiator on the top of the front dog house. Its made from PE leftovers and moms hair... she was the first long straight hair subject in the vicinity.

I decided that i have to make the engines, at least the parts, that are visible through the fire access holes in the cowlings. I'll add some boxes adn links from wire and styren. I found the chimney's too thick, so i made them from lead foil. Three more to be done, indlouding the one from the APU. I'll make the particle separator duct too.

http://makete.net/galerija/albums/album243/untitled.jpg

2300 in horse worth RTM322, i'll try to make it look real through those fire access holes.

http://makete.net/galerija/albums/album243/HMA_1_Merlin_49.sized.jpg

Thanks for the link Dandog! I hope mine turns out as well as your did. It's great! Did you have any problems with colouring? Did the paint chip on the rotor? The rotor plasic look kind of weird.

A little bit of progress. I've been working on the chimneys... "ho ho ho", and i have metalized them in steel colour. It's not perfect but, a lot beter than the plastic ones. A little bit of gold brown and it has the right tan.
Nr 2 chimney is in place, with the particle separator duct right on. On 1 and 3 these ducts are missing, yet to be built. On the photos, the exhausts are a bit off, downwards.

The engines got their particle separator ducts, i hope tomorrow they get some "black boxes" and wires.

I threw up today, seeing the italeri rotor... or some ideas of it...

That's how it should be...

Any reference photos? Could sure need some, this needs scratchbuilding.

As far as i can tell, the rotor head is finished. A few more things to do, like cleaning styren around the edges i have to cut the pins to fit the holes and i have to install back the lead/lag dumpers. I tryed to make it as accurate as possible, but a few tenths of a mil can not be corrected. I simplyfied the lead/lag mounting, it won't be seen anyway.