Revell 1:48 Westland Wessex Has Mk3 WIP

[Guest]

Started the wessex tonight, this is my first time building a scale model ( other than GW stuff). Any tips and pointers along the way would be amazing.

Box Shot



Obligitory Sprue Shot



Step 1 Parts Cleaned up, Ready for washing and Priming



Little problem with a broken leg, Looked in the box and could not find it. Not sure what to do about it atm. Any Ideas?



Its to late to start priming now, Will sort out priming tomorrow.

Matt

[Gern]

If you don't have anything that diameter in your spares box, you could stretch some heated sprue and make a piece. There are lods of threads and stuff on the web about stretching sprue if you don't know how it's done.

Gern

[Guest]

Just YouTube a vid on how to do it, will give it a try.

Thank you

Matt



Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[flyjoe180]

This will be interesting to watch, Matt.

[Guest]

Hi Matt,

I'm followimg you.

Francesco

[Guest]

now that's a great start matt

[Guest]

Be interested Matt to find how you tackle compared to the way I did.

Laurie

[Guest]

1/48th, now that's a nice size for a Wessex. Watching with interest...

[colin m]

A 1:48 Wessex - nice. I built the Italeri version, and couldn't believe how big it was !

[Guest]

A 1:48 Wessex - nice. I built the Italeri version, and couldn't believe how big it was !

Spot on there Colin. I was really surprised. The rotors take up loads of space on the shelf. I have mine next to a Sea Harrier & it looks dwarfed against the Wessex. Really enjoyed making that model probably on an equal par to a Swordfish. I like models with lots going on on the outside. You certainly get that with both. Their is a lot of "patience" rigging on the Wessex for the tail controls which makes the model very interesting. The two decals on the front of the Wessex make exciting stressful bad tempered hate moments but good moments when it is achieved. Certainly the most difficult I have come across with the decals , which are large, having to stretch around on two dimensions.

Laurie

PS Matt on the decals I would make sure you get a good gloss varnish coating. This is more for the ease of moving the decal around. I used water as it kept the decal fluid to enable the "creases" to be ironed out around the vertical & horizontal curves. Careful with the micros as the Revell decals are not thick & will disintegrate with the amount of manipulation required.

[Guest]

Been a very busy boy today. Not had any chance to model as I have been wrecking my brain over paint conversions.

As Many of you know I enjoy using Vallejo Paints, and with this being a Revell Kit, I only get the revell paint codes.

Having a little OCD where everything has to be spot on or it drives me mad, I have had a nightmare. Not all The Revell No. go directly into Vallejo and also there is some blending of more than colour in the instructions as well ( Real Head F**K) But I think I may have cracked a crazy way of doing things.

I have basically created a small table with conversions on it. I have used 3 standards as well to help get matches.

Basic Conversions I have done:

Revell – VMC

Revell – VMA

Revell – RLM

Revell – RAL

Revell – FS

VMA – VMC

RLM – VMC

RAL – VMC

FS – VMC

VMC – VMA

RLM – VMA

RAL – VMA

FS - VMA

VMC = Vallejo Model Colour

VMA = Vallejo Model Air

FS = Federal Standard

RLM =Reichsluftfahrtministerium - the German Ministry of Aviation

By Moving Revell into the 3 colour standards I can check for colour accuracy while doing the conversion. This in theory should make getting a close match to the real aircraft possible. In reality it show just how much colour variation there is between standards and that you will only ever get a similar / close match, Never a perfect match.

My Aim is to buy all the Vallejo colours listed on the conversion and make best judgement as to what I think is a good choice for the model by ways of doing colour test and swatches.

Here is the table : https://www.dropbox.com/s/73jf0vz85aea1fr/Revell Paint Conversion Westland Wessex Has 3.pdf

Now for the really hard part, Matching those last few blended Colours from the instructions. The Interior Colour, Exterior Blue / Grey colour and the exhausts. Also wanted to find the exact yellow for the outside. I knew seeing as the helicopter was flown by the RAF that the colour standard used would have been British Standards. But there are a few types of British Standard, and I was unsure of what colours where used. I placed a few phone calls to Aircraft Museums and asked a few small questions.

What Colour Was the interior?

What Colour Was the Yellow?

What Colour Was the Blue/Grey?

To my amazement they came back with some exact names.

Raf Interior Green.

Rescue / Golden Yellow.

Raf Blue / Grey.

After a little looking I matched the colour names to BS 381 C. This information gave me the chance to match the British Standard Numbers out to Vallejo, But Vallejo do not use or show the British Standard in there Equivalent Guide, So I need to convert to RAL, RLM and FS so I could convert back out to Vallejo.

BS381 283 Aircraft Grey/Green ( RAF Interior Green) – FS 34226 or FS 24172

RLM 2

BS381 356 Rescue / Golden Yellow - FS 33538

RLM 4

RAL 1003 or 1017

BS381 633 Raf Blue / Grey – FS 26044 or FS 25042

RAL 5008

Armed with this information I did another little chart.

Chart here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6qrk7395c5ptaiy/British Standards Conversion Westland Wessex Has 3.pdf

Notice how the rescue yellow matches out on both the VMC and VMA conversions to the First Conversion list. This is giving me confidence that I have found the right colours for the Interior and Exterior.

For the exhaust I just plan on using what ever colour I decided best at the time prob with a wash.

Having Spent 2 – 3 hours planning and writing all this out, I hope its correct and not to much of a head spin.

Looking forward to Making some colour Swatches and choosing the final colours now.

If anyone wants a break down of how I did my conversions please Pm and I will send the links to the websites and the information I used.

All The Best

Matt