Topic: HMS Zulu build

[radio joe]

After a bit of a fiddle I made the main and tail rotors and made them folding, the engine casting came out quite well so much so I am going to use it on Mk 1. also made the skids and fitted them it is now ready for a paint job.
I made skids for Mk 1 because it was the easiest option, if I get the inspiration on Mk2,  I may try and make a wheeled under carrage, from the information I've managed to collect the Scout was retro fitted with a wheeled under carrage after it was used in a feasibility study on landing and carrying helicopters on warships and was fitted with fully castoring wheels so it could be pushed by crew on to the hanger lift, shorty after came the Wasp which had a longer flat area under the cockpit/engine to fit a longer wheel base for stability. Joe

[Tanzy]

Look very good Joe, not being picky but the helo should of landed the other way!    Flyco is not happy

[radio joe]

Words will be had with the pilot, no shore leave for him !.

[mikearace]

Nice work indeed Joe.  Making me itch to get back to starting my next build. 

Hopefully I can get back into the workshop in the next couple of weeks once the new puppy requires less attention and the bite marks on my hand start to clear up!!  Getting up at 5 am each morning to answer the cries of 'wake up everyone I want to play'.  The older dog aint impressed! 

[radio joe]

 Thanks Mike, but please no more photos like that if er' in doors sees them she'll go all broody, for a puppy that is, LOL . 

[Horatio123]

Nice work on the Wasp Joe , I like the folding rotor blades , nice touch . 

[swiftdoc]

@Mike & Joe: Nevertheless I will take the risk and show the photo to my wife and daughters.
@Joe: I appreciate your job on the heli very much. Maybe I will buy a moulding set as well. Your results are very impressive. I watch your progress with great interest.

[karlgalster]

Very impressive work on the moulding Joe - an inspiration to those of us who have held back on this.
Robin

[radio joe]

Thanks for your interest chaps, there is another reason for the folding rotors David, as well as an alternative display, I wanted to stow the helicopter in side the boat for transporting and it will fit snugly under the forward funnel in a purpose made stowage so it doesn't rattle about in the boat

[radio joe]

Had a bit of a cold the last couple of days and haven't felt like doing much,and as all us males know man colds are soooo much worse, LOL. but got back to it today and finished the stowage for the heli. it just clips into the foam rubber, also did a bit of painting

[mikearace]

Nifty solution Joe.

[swiftdoc]

You can be proud of your result, Joe. How will you do the windows? Bare metal foil might be an option. I used it for the windows of the lifeboats of my Muirneag. From a distance it looks quite realistic.

[radio joe]

Thanks Arno, yes I agree with you, I wasn't happy with the windows, tried a bit of foil but some of the windows are compound curved so the foil had wrinkles in it and looked a mess so I settled for charcoal grey paint with some metallic silver mixed in, from a distance the effect is not too bad,, I'm happy that I've achieved what I set out to do and have a representation of a helicopter similar to what would have been carried by Zulu albeit with skids instead of wheels, it could do with some royal navy decals in 1:100  to finish it off, but have'nt found any yet, and I won't ruin the whole thing by trying to paint them on.

[swiftdoc]

Hi Joe, the result looks OK. Wrinkles surely are a problem with the foil. My windows luckily did not have such curves.
Have you ever tried to make decals yourself? I use decal paper for ink jet printers and it works very fine. You produce the file on your computer and then print it on the paper. Covered with a special decal varnish you then can use it as you usually do, i.e. apply softener, etc. For my next build, the E.S.F. Surveyor, I scanned the self adhesives in the kit which I do not want to use and transferred them on waterslide-decal-paper. The method also cures your nerves: if you make a fault, you can easily print a new set.

[ship's doctor]

Helicopter looks brilliant- raising the bar again!!

I think the silver paint approach on the windows looks good. Another approach I've seen is to use gloss black which is effective for smaller windows but probably not for the large curved ones on the Wasp.

James