Topic: HMS Zulu build

[radio joe]

The bridge wing decks were quite tricky to do, so I thought I would build them one piece at a time with the bridge module in place on the deck, covered with masking tape to stop accidental sticking, this way I could make sure the outboard plates would line up with the edge of the deck, I think it turned out quite well. Joe.

[Tanzy]

Excellent Joe... If I lived down south I think I would be asking to pop round for some tuition before starting mine! Enjoying the build.

[radio joe]

I added the lookout stations from the vacuforms and decided not to do any more detailing to bridge structure till I have made all the deck structures in their basic form so I can use them to get all the deck accesses marked, then add all the upstands to each opening, when done I'll bond the decks in place and make good the deck/hull joint this will complete the hull up to painting, then comes my favourite bit, all the  detailing, started midships structure and deviating from instructions a bit by adding cross members that serve to keep the sides square and a support for upper deck

[colin]

started midships structure and deviating from instructions a bit by adding cross members that serve to keep the sides square and a support for upper deck

i don't think that could be classed as deviating.... i think that's called commonsense, i would have put some support in there as well, as it looks a rather large sub assembly. 

[radio joe]

Yes I agree with you there Colin, I tend to over build, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Joe.

[Dennis]

I agree with you both. There is nothing worse than having spent all that time to build an amazing ship only in the end for it to sag or come apart at the seams. It's time well spent. Also I have found that even though it adds some weight to the model it is not enough to affect the ballast. In fact in all of my builds I still had to add more lead weight to the ship after it was built. By the way Joe it looks like it shaping up to be another amazing build from you. 

[radio joe]

Thanks Dennis,   Yes you are right considering the amount of ballast you have to add to the finished boat, I don't think there is any thing you can do in the build that would add "too much" weight, even Bramble that is quite small has a fair amount of lead in her which would equate to a great deal of plastic. Joe.

[radio joe]

Made the mid ships structure and formed the access hatch, on this one I followed the shape of the module to make the access as large as possible to get reasonable access to the batteries, again I'm not adding any more detail to the module at this time, next I'll build the Helli  hanger to mark out the last access, I'm not cutting the tiller flat hatch out there is not much to go wrong in there, looking at photos of the 81's I noted that most of the superstructure corners are "soft" the corners of the hanger in particular have quite a large radius, as you can see in photo, so I have been rounding off the corners as much as possible, for the hanger I'll build up the inside of the corner to get a bit more of a radius, Been searching for a 1:100 Westland wasp but no luck so far.  Joe

[radio joe]

Thanks Dave, Sirmar dose have a resin wasp fuselage which may very well fit the bill, with a few bits of plastic added and a lot of imagination, I have seen a 1:72 kit but I think it would be too big Zulu's wasp was a fairly snug fit on the hanger lift, the lynx would be close with the nose ground off but the engines would be too high. Joe.

[mikearace]

Joe

Barrys at Sirmar does have a nice fuselage that makes into a good wasp but he is hard to get hold of.  He is doing Sirmar very much as a part time job and he can take a while to reply from my experience.

For my HMS Yarmouth build I got a Wasp kit from a guy on Model warships at 1/96th:

http://modelwarshipsuk.informe.com/forum/for-sale-f9/1-96-scale-aircraft-t2021.html

At the time he either sold it assembled or as a set of parts inc rotors etc.  It did make into a very good wasp. It was done in resin using 3d printing.  Not sure if he still does them but worth a message. 

Mike

[rondean]

Hi Modellers
 We are working on a model of the wasp helicopter at present, our designer has said that a good model would help him be able to produce the kit with lots of detail from the 3D printer. It has to be made hollow and very light to not effect the stability of the model, i,e Tribal class frigate, as it sits very high up.
 This is the biggest scale I could buy, 1-1 scale, will that help ?  its a bit battered and worn and rough round the edges, but I like it and it looks pretty good ?
 not saying if I am talking about the heli or the crew, could get me in trouble
  Happy modelling
Deans Marine

[mikearace]

Very nice ron.  Any idea of the history of this particular one - 829 Squadron ex Osprey perhaps?

[radio joe]

Just the job Ron, now if you could just shrink it down 96 times and pop it in the post that would do fine. LOL.

[radio joe]

Built the basic hanger again not doing any detailing yet, and formed the access hatch, bonded the main and fore decks, another area where the 81's had rounded corners was on either side of the fwd. focsle break so I did some minor alterations to accommodate these. Joe

[radio joe]

Bonded the foc'sle deck on and finished the forward foc'sle break, It was quite tricky getting the larger radius corners to bend but with the help of a heat gun and a bit of filler I managed it, and I think it was worth the effort next I'll tackle the aft foc'sle break. Joe