Falklands/Malvinas War 30th Anniversary GB

Is the system from the USA by any chance?

DARN YOU OFFICE WEBFILTER!!!

Hannants is unfortunately blocked here, but Sprue Brothers gets through?

Just looking through Hannants, and this set of decals is in their top 10 sellers. Not sure if its brand new or a re release, but an interesting mix of Argentin aircraft.

http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72154

Bish

He is well on his way.

I remember i first flew in a Wessex when i went to Londonderry in 91. I was sat right oposite the door, and hadn't done up my seat belt. It took off and banked and i found myself steering at the ground about 500 feet below through the open door with only the G holding me in my seat. I don't think i ever moved as fast as i did then doing up my belt.

Helo, if possable, i will get some photos of the Whirlwind here before i leave.

Saw some video on Youtube of an RAF Puma, almost touching down then spinning out of control as the tail rotor failed. There were 3 or 4 guys casually sitting on the open doorway, legs dangling....  then pulled themselves inside & outta sight in a hurry. Couldn't believe how many tiny pieces that thing turned into, even so close to the ground.

He is well on his way.

I remember i first flew in a Wessex when i went to Londonderry in 91. I was sat right oposite the door, and hadn't done up my seat belt. It took off and banked and i found myself steering at the ground about 500 feet below through the open door with only the G holding me in my seat. I don't think i ever moved as fast as i did then doing up my belt.

Helo, if possable, i will get some photos of the Whirlwind here before i leave.

I was kinda hoping for a story about how a Wessex S&R machine plucked you and your family from raging flood waters, thereby cementing a need to build every one ever made as a tribute... 

taxtp

Hi John

That is an excellent series of Helos. For some reason, seeing a series of aircraft like this really rings my bells. I'd be fascinated to know what started you off on this series.

Cheers

Tony

Hi Tony;

In regards to my obseesion with the H-34 helicopter ,for many years we all saw the standard Italeri UH-34D Choctaw kit No.066 in the LHS ...

I think it was around 2007 when Italeri released the UH-34J kit No.1066 ...

I bought two of these kits and was suprised to find that Italeri were now offering the V-style landing gear on the sprue frame . I then found out about Len Lundh's awesome book on the History of theSikorsky H-34 and bought a copy ;

The book covers all the countries that used the Sikorsky H-34 with lot's of reference photo's (B&W) as well . With a nice colour photo section in the last chapter .

There's not a lot of aftermarket decals to suit U.S H-34 versions but I managed to scrounge around and find a lot of suitable markings from other decal sheets from other kits in my stash and I also bought quite a few alphabet numbers and letters decal sheets in 1/72 and 1/48 , black and white to help with the different schemes I wanted to do . As I mentioned earlier , unfortunatly it wasn't long before italeri deleted the V-style landing gear pieces and went back to offering the bent gear legs only ; So there is no way of telling if the kit contains which type of landing gear but 99% of the time it's the early bent gear legs .

I was lucky recently and won some Revell boxings (H-34G) off ebay which have the V-style gear , I now have six kits in the stash to suit .

There are plenty of aftermarket decals to suit the Westland wessex HAS-1/3 HAR/HC-2 and HU-5 versions and I picked up quite a few sheets on-line from Hannants in the UK .

There will be about 21 Sikorsky/Westland builds I'm currently doing now for series two , with about 18 more for series three .

Back on my HU-5 Falklands Wessex , I gave her a few light coats of H-30 Gloss Clear and she is now ready for decaling . However I just discovered I have made two small errors .

Firstly , I don't have the correct size RAF letters "XP" in black to suit , I thought I did but those ones are all white

I just checked Hannats web site and there are plenty of RAF Black letters in 1/72 and 1/48 in the size I need so I ordered a whole bunch of them . In the mean time I can still place the rest of the markings into position and it usually only takes a week for decals to arrive from England and I can add the two large code letters then ;

The second error I made was glueing the landing struts in place . I forgot about the small section around the boarding steps which is usually 'non slip' flat black . It will just be a little more difficult masking with the landing gear strut right next to the section I will want to paint black .......'stupid me' .

Anyway I'll start the decalling next and then add all the smaller bits and pieces .

Bish , there is a small difference with the Whirlwind and the Wessex HAR-10 and 2 ....

Whirlwind HAR-10

Wessex HAR-2

You will also notice the square fuselage cabin window on the starboard side of the wessex just behind the cabin door as I mentioned earlier .

I also plan on building a fleet of Whirlwind Helicopters sometime in the future and I picked up some nice RAF Whirlwind decals called RAFDec Westland Whirlwind RF7211 . I have 6 italeri H-19 kits in the stash and another 6 on order along with Rotor Craft and Airwaves resin nose and tail boom conversion sets .

Anyway I'll start some decalling on the HU-5 .

John .

My mistake, the gate guard is a Westland Whirlwind Mk 10. Are the two types related, they look very similar.

I will be going past it in a bit, i will have a look. I think they sued to be based here before the Chinooks moved in.

Helo H-34

 

Bish:

 

Some lovely looking builds there John. And if thats your idea of crude, i can't wait to se what you do when you put some effort into it.

And looking at those completed builds, i am sure we have one of those as a gateguard here at Odiham.

 

 

Thank's Guys ;

Bish , I think the Wessex you might be referring to as a gateguard might be a HAS-3 dressed up as a HAR-2 . Italeri's Wessex HAS-3 No. 1258 kit has markings to suit a HAR-2 , however the HAR-2 and HC-2 Wessex birds all have the square fuselage cabin windows like on the Sikorsky H-34 version according to my two Westland Wessex reference books

So for my HAR-2 and HC-2 builds , I've been combining Italeri's UH-34 fuselage halves with HU-5 Wessex nose /engine fronts

This  means using two kits to build one helo , however the extra set of main rotors can be used to replace the ones in the Hobby Boss H-34 kits as they are molded going in the wrong direction and the extra cabin seating left over from the HAR/HC-2 builds you can use in the utility version of the RAN/RN HAS-3 versions .

John .

You ARE the helo man here!!!

Hi John

That is an excellent series of Helos. For some reason, seeing a series of aircraft like this really rings my bells. I'd be fascinated to know what started you off on this series.

Cheers

Tony

I got some painting done this evening and the HU-5 Wessex is looking good

I started with several coats of Gunze H-330 (BS381C/641) but the wessex was looking a little too dark green ; So I added an equal amount of Gunze H-52 'Olive Drab' to try an achieve a slightly more Olive-Green appearance . Photo's in my reference book seem to show quite a variation with the overall Green HU-5 and I think my colour mix is not too far off compared with this reference pic ...

My finished Wessex won't be as glossy as the pic above , I'll try for a more flat finish after decaling .

John .

Fine work Helo if i get the third italeri h-34 will be probably the has.3 ialeri box!! the one in yellow is for me

Bish

Some lovely looking builds there John. And if thats your idea of crude, i can't wait to se what you do when you put some effort into it.

And looking at those completed builds, i am sure we have one of those as a gateguard here at Odiham.

Thank's Guys ;

Bish , I think the Wessex you might be referring to as a gateguard might be a HAS-3 dressed up as a HAR-2 . Italeri's Wessex HAS-3 No. 1258 kit has markings to suit a HAR-2 , however the HAR-2 and HC-2 Wessex birds all have the square fuselage cabin windows like on the Sikorsky H-34 version according to my two Westland Wessex reference books

So for my HAR-2 and HC-2 builds , I've been combining Italeri's UH-34 fuselage halves with HU-5 Wessex nose /engine fronts

This  means using two kits to build one helo , however the extra set of main rotors can be used to replace the ones in the Hobby Boss H-34 kits as they are molded going in the wrong direction and the extra cabin seating left over from the HAR/HC-2 builds you can use in the utility version of the RAN/RN HAS-3 versions .

John .

Some lovely looking builds there John. And if thats your idea of crude, i can't wait to se what you do when you put some effort into it.

And looking at those completed builds, i am sure we have one of those as a gateguard here at Odiham.

John - your "crude attempt" at the undercarriage looks pretty good from here.  You certainly are the detail-guy for this piece of machinery. You're kinda making me want to dig mine out of the stash… MUST STAY FOCUSED!!!

I sure am glad I'm not the only one who builds multiple versions of the one kit ; Although my family still raise their eye browse with what's in my stash . Even though the Italeri H-34 helicopter goes together quite well , it's really frustrating that italeri are too miserable to include both type of landing gear on the sprue frame .

99.9% of the italeri H-34 kits only have the bent gear style legs like you seeon the Wessex  kit's . the kits that contain the V-style landing gear are very , very rare . Up until recently I only had 3 kits with the V-style gear included but these last few months I was able to win some of the Revell boxings of the italeri kit 'H-34G' , which is marketed as a Geman Army or Navy versions . Ironically my first attempt to scratch build a V-style landing gear from evergreen plastic strip and rod was a Geman Marinefliegeshwader 5 and I had to raid the decal spares box to try and scrounge up enough markings to suit .

Italeri's V-style gear ...

My "crude" scratch-built version ...

End results ...

Other builds ...

One other great thing about Revell's H-34G kit , it comes with those nose antenna pieces which will be perfect for future U.S. Army UH-34 builds .

Back with the HU-5 Wessex , I was checking through my reference books and noticed that there was only one  refuelling port on the lower starboard fuselage so I puttied over two of the three Italeri have molded on

I also notice that my cable ducting piece wasn't sitting forward enough under the cockpit window while looking at reference pic's so I repositioed mine to suit .

Should be able to start the masking now .

John .

GRIN -- I have about ninety Phantoms in the stash, but to be fair that's spread across theree scales, eleven variants and eight of the 13 services that used it. My target is to build three a year for the next thirty years...

M/TB379

I have not done something like that with multiples of the same exact kit since I was in High School with my F-105 collection... Now mind you I have multiples of the same plane or tank in my stash currently but different boxings and variants.

Still nothing on Aztec's Website...

Helo H-34

Thank's bsyamato ; The current on-going Sikorsky/Westland builds I dubbed series 2 , there are lot's more in the stash for series 3 ...

Bloody hell. I guess that answers the question as to whether you buy multiple kits. I thought i was bad with my 251 stash. You have me beat there.

Help H-34 …. yep, the gates to the GB are open until started kits are finished up. And HOLY STASH BATMAN!!! That's the round-three cupboard?? I have one of the Italeri HU-5 kits in my stash - apparently you are the go-to guy if I have any questions!

Sheffield is coming along nicely Tony.

Thanks for extending the deadline fellas. I'm pushing on with the Sheffield. Some more superstructure completed, again just placed for the photo, and a host of small parts all painted and ready to fit. I've also reshaped the rear deck, and attached it, although obviously the join needs to be made good.

Cheers

Tony

Before:

After:

bsyamato

Helo i think you build more wessex / s-58 than the real production

even a pleasure to see your builds

Thank's bsyamato ; The current on-going Sikorsky/Westland builds I dubbed series 2 , there are lot's more in the stash for series 3 ...

Thank's also Bish for allowing me to continue in the GB

For reference I've taken the same approach with the wessex and Sikorsky builds through out and here a several WIP pic's of what I usually do .

First up airbrush the interior pieces FS.36231 (H-317)

Italeri mold everything in blue with the HU-5 wessex and with the cabin seating blue in colour anyway I only had to paint the seat legs and frame with some silver

The only addition to the cabin section is a ceiling piece cut from sheet plastic which I scribed some lines on at 45 degree angles and painted it light gray . The scribe lines are to simulate soundproofing material along with a couple of small pieces of resin block to represent the rotor drive shaft covering . You can see how it looks on this next reference pic

I do the same on each build .

The only other minor issue with the Wessex is the removal of the molded on lugs directly above the top of the landing gear strut ;

You need to do this so the cable ducting piece can fit under the cockpit windows ;

I also filled in the lower step recess as the Wessex has protruding footstep pieces and the lower one is directly below the upper step ..

Everything else fits quite well with no issue's , so it's on to masking and painting .

John .

Helo i think you build more wessex / s-58 than the real production

even a pleasure to see your builds

Hiya Helo, no worries, i know things can get in the way. Vance can confirm, but i think we are letting the GB run for builds to finish. Theres still a couple on going. So you can still keep it in the GB if you want. Would be nice to have that in the line up.

Hi Bish ;

My apologies for not being a good participant with you Falklands War GB . It's the second time I haven't finished a build for a group build you have been running , shame on me ...

I used to thrive on multiple builds at the one time but with a lot more family commitments this past 6 months , I've been struggling to finish anything .

I failed to do any WIP pic's for my Westland Wessex HU-5 build and this is where I'm am at the moment with the build ;

The Westland Wessex builds are part of a larger Sikorsky / Westland S-58 fleet I started a while back and I finally have some of the builds ready for masking and then painting

Anyway the Falklands HU-5 is close to masking , I'm dry fitting the canopies but leaving them off to paint seperatly as I've been having issue's with helicopter canopies of late showing smudge marks and the like from the inside , which is very frustrating .

My apologies again Bish for missing out on all the awesome WIP pic's and finished builds everyone has done ;

I guess when i finish my build and the others , I'll post them in the helicopter section .

John .

Grear paint job Stik!!! I love those deltas! I hope you get the Aztec decals on time.

I think I will start a Dagger in a couple of weeks.

taxpt, you are almost there too, a little more of work to correct that problem and you are done, looking forward to see her finished.

Cheers,

Jeremias

Thanks for the photo Bish, It answers a lot. The kit has some overhang, but it doesn't look like this. The supports for the deck are shaped differently. They also attach to the part of the deck that I nee to shave off, so there is a little bit of work in correcting this.

Has to be done though.

Cheers

Tony

Looking good Tony. I think your right about the stern deck.. Does your kit have an over hang at the bck as well. I found this photo showing the stern.

Here are some progress pics, the superstructure is not glued on yet. Have a look at the stern deck, it's a separate piece, and it wider than the main deck. Can't find any evidence to support it.

Cheers

Tony