Revell Westland Wessex HAS Mk.3 & MRC S.58/SH-34 (MLD)

[Fernando N]

Hi Ian and all.
Great to see you've got a helo GB on and if you don't mind i'd like to join in with these two:



The Revell version will mostly be an OOB build with some etch and scratch-building trow in, the MRC one will be converted to a MarineLuchtvaartDienst (Netherlands Naval Aviation Service)S.58/UH-34 version.

Firstly the Revell sprues and the Eduard set I've bought for this one:



I'll show the MRC parts before I start work on that one.

As with all flying thingy's starting with the interior assembly, and also replaced the handles around the cockpit with brass wire:

Thanks for looking in.

Fernando

 

[flyjoe180]

Looking forward to seeing these Fernando. Both the RN and Marine One will look very smart and colourful.

 

[downscale model art]

Built the wessex myself last year. Spilt poly glue on the canopy and ruined it. Cracking kit though. Be nice if they done a crew set so you could show the winchman at work

 

[papa 695]

Hi Fernando, First of all, Thanks for joining in. Looking forward to seeing them both develop.

 

[Steve Jones]

You cant beat a good Westy. Looking fowrard to seeing some progress on these bad boys Good luck mate

 

[Fernando N]

Good evening all, sorry for the late reply guys….

Great weather, concerts, work and getting carried away with the build distracted me from updating the tread.

Joe, thanks, the Marine One has a great look but I’m turning it sort of into one of these:


Rob, sorry to hear about the glue mishap. Agree with you on the crew-set wish any of the manufacturers makes more 1/48 crew sets…
Ian, thank you, major development of no.1 coming right up…
Steve, thanks mate, the box-art convinced me to have a crack at it.

Modified the interior a bit, with most concentrated on the cockpit since that area will be best seen.
Used Miliput to create a little texture for the back wall, some seat-cushions and a rolled tarp for the cargo area:

Then painted all the interior following the instructions, added the pe bits with some trimming of the instrument panels since this set is for the Italeri kit.
All was finished by a dark grey wash for all to better show the detail and remove the pristine look:


I added some black painted rod to the cargo area too, just to busy up the otherwise blank walls.
Closing up the fuselage and adding all exterior parts was easy since there aren’t all that many to glue on, the only serious issue to contend with is all the seams when joining the major parts…

But hey, this is an old kit so that’s to be expected.
In my attempt to enhance its look some grilles were made from strip and mesh, the handles were mostly replaced too with brass wire as I found them to be a bit chunky:




Ready for painting now but that will take a week or so, with drying times and the work week starting tomorrow.
Thanks for looking in and have a great week.

Fernando

 

[Allen Dewire]

Hi Fernando,

These 2 look very interesting and knowing your work, they will turn out aces! The Wessex is looking real good so far. The interior is sweet and very neatly done. Have a great week and don't work too hard my friend. I only hope it's cooler in Almere as it is in Bamberg.

Prost
Allen

 

[papa 695]

Looking very good Fernando

 

[yak face]

Great start fernando , the grill and handles are excellent additions , cheers tony

 

[Fernando N]

Good evening all,

Allen, thanks for the kind words my friend, when you had 30 it was 20 degrees here and has been up and down from 25 to as low as 15 degrees but I'm not complaining as long there's enough sunlight to hobby.
Ian, thank you
Tony, thanks, I'm finding it more and more enjoyable to build these older kits just to improve them with scratch-built items, might be turning crazy too...

Well had a good crack at the paintwork last week, starting with VJ White primer followed by a VJ 71.001 White as the undercoat for the top yellow and VJ 71.406 Light Slate Grey and VJ 71.057 Black as pre-shades for the top and bottom respectively:

The Light Slate Grey turned out to be a bit too stark as a pre-shade for the VJ 71.002 Yellow which is pretty translucent IMHO.
Gave it two good coats of Yellow, then toned the still visible lines down with White followed by two more coats of Yellow, in the end I added two coats of Gunze H4 Yellow since that gave a much better coverage and let a little of the pre-shade shine trough:

The underside was painted with VJ 71.295 USN Sea Blue, I thought this blue came close to the real deal.
Application of this didn't go without it's fair share of troubles, since the Gunze H4 is a gloss its surface let the VJ paint crackle when dry, took 6 coats on certain spots to tidy up the worst....:

Still learning things each project everyday.
Rotors got their colours too, VJ 71.405 BS Dark Sea Grey for the tail and topside main rotor and VJ Black for the underside, the VJ Yellow went on fine on the tips here:

Just a bunch of corrections to do now before I can blast the gloss coats on for the decals and weathering.
Thanks for looking in.

Fernando

 

[Steve Jones]

Sorry to hear about the painting issues. It certainly was worth while as she is looking really great. Top marks for a tidy bench

Steve

 

[Jim R]

Hi Fernando
Missed the start of this - sorry. Interior looks great. The paint problems must have been annoying but looks fine now.
Jim

 

[papa 695]

You can't tel the problem you had painting Fernando, looking very good.

 

[JR]

Fernando.
Great start on the internals, think a mark of your work to me is the seat belts, they always look real .Sorry to read of the painting problem, but you seem to have coped well and it's looking fine. Could you have used a Vallejo yellow and gone over it with a gloss varnish, or is that a stupid question or was the Gunze the only correct colour ?

Leaving by side door .
John .

 

[rtfoe]

Missed the start if this too Fernando - Sorry. The two helis have a similar look and progress looks good even with the paint issue. Cockpit and interior nicely done. Built the UH-34 in 1/72 scale...detailed and loved it, have one in 1/48 but will be a BOB.

Will be weatching closely.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[flyjoe180]

Looking sharp Fernando, good looking paint work

 

[Fernando N]

Evening all,

Steve, thanks just a matter of perseverance during painting….keeping a tidy bench is simple just clean up after each session.
Jim, no problem it’s hard to keep up with everyone’s work over here too, thanks for the kind words.
Ian, thank you, even turned a bit worse after unmasking as some of the tape’s glue stuck to the gloss surface or lifted the gloss. Anyway looked like patches of matt on the gloss yellow, but after spraying the first gloss coat on I had an uniform surface.
John, no stupid question my friend, should have pointed it out better in the post that I used the Gunze Yellow as a last resort to get a proper coat of colour.
Vallejo Yellow works fine with an undercoat of White, just don’t be as dumb as me to use such a contrasting colour for the pre-shade.
Thanks for the kind comment.
Richard, thanks for the kind words and dropping in. Which one do you have in 1/48th?
Joe, thanks.

Nothing to show today as I finished the corrections yesterday and gave her the two gloss coats this evening.
If the mojo is still up I’ll have the detail painting and decals done this weekend.
Signing off for now, have to get up early for work once again….

Fernando

 

[scottie3158]

Hi Fernando,
You are making a great job of a very interesting old chopper

 

[Fernando N]

Good evening everyone,

Scottie, thanks for the kind words.

Managed to complete the detail painting, decals and weathering this weekend.
Lots of decals to give an colourful look to her, although being old Revell a good amount of MicroSol and patience was needed to make them settle in nicely.
Sadly they're not were sharply printed, resulting in fuzzy small letters on the stencils and some patches of extra white on the roundles and Royal Navy letters....
Careful correction painting took care of the extra white and here she is ready for the satin coat:


Used AK2071 wash for the yellow and AK 2072 for the dark blue parts, I tried to keep it cleanly just enough to show the rivets and panel lines.
Sadly the white stripe decals for the wheelhubs are way too small:

Handpainted those with the aid of masking tape, the rotors and side door were decaled and weathered too:


Once the satin coat is on, still some things to add like antenna wires and such but she's moving to finish line for sure.
Thanks for looking in and have a great week.

Fernando

 

[Fernando N]

Evening all, just back from the camping.

Firstly a correction on the previous post, I used AK-121 for the yellow as a wash the 2071 was for picking out the details on the rotor assemblies.
Sorry.....

A little to show now as bench time this week was pretty short due all the headbanging visiting a concert of Nine Inch Nails on Wednesday and going to the Jera On Air festival Friday and Saturday.
First time I went to Jera, a great punk and metal festival with great organization and a fine selection of artists:


Good thing the organization set up all the stages in huge tents, otherwise all would have roasted away with 30 degrees and all sun.
Highly recommended for any punk or metal fan, not just Dutch folk, a fair share of the visitors were German Belgium and British and all signs were in English...

Back to moddeling, after I sprayed the satin on I felt it exaggerated the wash too much so I went back to the gloss, photo's show them in gloss too.
Removed the masking and with a careful slice along the edges with a scalpel they luckily came off with out taking much of the paint with them:

Even with the cockpit closed, there's so much glass all the work inside is pretty easy to see.

Thanks for looking in and have a great week.

Fernando