Italeri 1:48 Wessex UH 5

colin m

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The Italeri Wessex.

View attachment 60607

I've fancied building a helicopter for ages, so I bought the above. However, I was more than a bit surprised to discover it's a big beast comming in at about 32cm long and about 27cm rotor tip to rotor tip ! oh well too late now.

Unfortunately, the wife has only gone a booked a holiday in the sun, so no building for me, for a week or so - How dare she !!

Anyway, the hotel has wifi, so I can keep a watch on all the other builds.

View attachment 62221

3D_2720_Falkland.jpg
 

yak face

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Nice wessex colin, does this hol mean we wont be seeing you at cosford this year? , that'll be a shame , tony
 

Ian M

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Hm a week in the sun, a week in the study .....

A good choice Colin and yes its a big ol' bus in'it

Ian M
 

colin m

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\ said:
Nice wessex colin, does this hol mean we wont be seeing you at cosford this year? , that'll be a shame , tony
Funny you should mention that. A few weeks back I said to the 'ball and chain' " Cosford soon - when she sort of pulled a face - an apologised. She realised some time ago, I wasn't going to be able to make it to Cosford. Doh........
 

yak face

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Shame about that mate ,was looking forward meeting up again, ..next year eh? cheers tony
 

flyjoe180

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Enjoy your holiday Colin. Look forward to seeing your Wessex come alive.
 
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Caledonia

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Life's tough for some - good choice by the way. Cheers Derek
 

geegad

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looking forward to seeing you get going with this a hele is the next thing that i want to try so i will be watching all the way
 
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CDW

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nice choice Colin, are you doing it out-of-box or playing around with it a bit?

with you mentioning the size i've just double checked mine, its not a huge aircraft in reality but as it's 1/32 it'll end up about 32cm long with a 34cm rotor ....hmmm storage issues methinks.
 

colin m

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Mainly OOB Colin. I comes with some PE, but being so big, it's crying out for a bit more work.

Anyway, even though I can't build, I have got this for my hols. View attachment 60709 Not many pictures, but looks like a good read.

View attachment 62318

scram-the-gripping-first-hand-account-of-the-helicopter-war-in-the-falklands.jpg
 

colin m

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Well it's been a while, but finally, I've pulled my finger out and done something. Gentlemen, I present, my Westland Wessex cockpit - well most of it anyway. It's all kit items, no extras. Although the colours quoted in the instructions don't seem to fit in with the many pics floating around, so I've used a 'bit of this and that' to get here.

View attachment 61832

View attachment 63316

Seats.jpg
 

mossiepilot

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A nice looking cockpit Colin.

Tony.
 

colin m

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Here we are again, quiet but not totally idle.

View attachment 62399

The insides are all built up. Including those strange blus seats. Not sure how accurate they are, but all the pictures I found showed blue seats. I'm normally used to slotting the cockpit into a fuselage and job done, but here it's perched up on the cabin - most unusual.

View attachment 62400

So the fuselage (is it still a fuselage with a helicopter?) stuck together. For a new mold the seam wasn't great.

View attachment 62401

The main rotor has been molded with a nice droop to the blades - it was a bit of fun getting this into shape.

View attachment 62402

Underside view of where the nose will meet the fuselage. The main part of the nose is made of three parts, which by peoples previous experiences can be a bit of a pain to join up without bits of filler here and there. Well I managed to build mine without any filler - great I thought, then this appeared. The bottom of the fuselage is about 1.5mm wider than the slot it fits into. Time for a bit of hot water I think. Now, tea or coffee ?

View attachment 63855

View attachment 63856

View attachment 63857

View attachment 63858

The insides.jpg

Fuselage.jpg

Main rotor.jpg

Something not right.jpg
 

flyjoe180

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Colin, that is great work on the interior. They look like time machines with the masts sticking up out of them I reckon. It looks to be a rather tricky fuselage to get right. You should be able to file or sand that edge down? It's not an ideal thing to have to do but I'm sure you'll feel the force and get it sorted.
 

Ian M

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Difficult to say from the photo, but I think the best idea is to trim the bottom part where its to wide, or to narrow, lol.

Erm coffee please.

Ian M
 

colin m

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A time machine, it certainly does have a Dr Who / HG Wells look about it. Anyway, problem fixed. Just a tiny amount of sanding followed by hot water, allowing the nose to slip on. Which then had quite a good fit - well I was surprised anyway.....
 

flyjoe180

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You expanded it using hot water? What a great idea.
 
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