Gern's Osprey for Photo GB

[yak face]

Looks fine to me dave,the cabin is probably a bit spartan on the real thing anyway. The cockpit and pilot look excellent. cheers tony

[Gern]

Got the cockpit and cabin interior fitted.

I'm disappointed in the lack of detail in the cabin. As you can see from the pictures, there is nothing, no detail at all, anywhere in the cabin above the top line of the seats. Even the underside of the roof is totally bare. I've seen walkaround pictures which show all sorts of wiring, plumbing, boxes etc. in this area. The rear bulkhead also leaves a gap of about 6mm on each side at the bottom. Methinks this one would be better built all closed up. Then, the windows are so small you couldn't see that there's nothing there!

Still, other than the gaps on the rotor blades, I've only come across minor niggly bits of clean up on the parts so that's why the build is going so fast (for me at least!). I have tested the fit of the wing and it looks like there are some serious gaps there so I've taken the precaution of fitting a thin strip of plasticard to the edge before I join them. That will leave only a tiny gap to fill.

Gern

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[Guest]

man dave you aren't kidding. that's pretty bare inside. i'm assuming it would be hard to see even with the rear door open, but still. that's bare bones. looking good so far though.

[Gern]

I'm going to see what it looks like when I've finished. If it looks too bad, I may decide to close the rear doors - I think in my photo they're only partly open anyway.

Gern

PS The instructions call for about 40 grams of weight in the nose to stop her tail-sitting. There's loads of room in the side bulges and under the cabin floor for weights so there's no need to worry about trying to hide whatever you put in the nose - you can just about see past the control console through the cockpit window. I have no idea what is there on the real thing, so I'm leaving mine empty.

[Gern]

I've also just spotted I didn't make myself clear in my earlier post. The gap on the wing I mentioned is the one where it joins on to the fuselage. The pieces for the wing all join together with only minor bits of filling needed.

Gern

[Guest]

Hi Gern,

Just came accross this and watching with interest.

I love your first photo line-up of completed crew....is it only me or did anyone else start humming YMCA?

Look forward to seeing more of this project. By the way where will you store it after, I know SWMBO would kill me!

Rich

[Gern]

I love your first photo line-up of completed crew....is it only me or did anyone else start humming YMCA?

Rich

Hi Rich. I think it was probably just you! :lol

I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to find room for this. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I have no SWMBO so I've only got to find somewhere flat to set it down.

Having enjoyed this so far, I started thinking about doing another, 'normal' type helicopter. I've got two I really like. One is the Trumpeter Chinook and the other is the Heller Super Frelon. Problem is, both are in 1/35 and they are absolutely gihugeous! I think they're both about 750mm long with something like a 500 mm rotor diameter! Oh well. At the rate I build there's no desperate rush to find shelf space.

Gern

[Gern]

Got the carrier 'deck' done.

Gern

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[Ian M]

Thats the one thing that puts me off of doing helicopters, the space needed for them once done.

I am though waiting for the Airfix release of the Lynx and later the Merlin. 1/48 scale, should be able to find a place for those.

If you want a mahusive chopper (?!?!? oh er! ) Have a ganders at the Hind that Trumpy do. 1/35 scale and totally wicked.

Ian M

[Gern]

That's on my 'Most wanted' list Ian. Did you ever come across this one:

Mil 24 Hind | Precise Modeling

That's some build!

Gern

[Gern]

I guess most of you know what ambidextrous means. There ought to be a word 'ambisinister' meaning the exact opposite - 'cos that describes me to a T! B****y useless with both hands!

My Osprey was coming along quite nicely 'til I joined the two fuse halves. I had to clamp it to make sure the joins were tight. I don't know what went wrong, but when I took it out of the clamps, I'd either not placed them right or I'd knocked it when setting in down. Either way, the join to the tail had slipped out of alignment by nearly 2 mm on one side and that had thrown up a step between the fuse halves all along the top of the fuse!

Lots and lots of 'fill, sand repeat' to get it looking half right. I'm sure I can fix the seam along the fuse, but the tail is going to have to remain on the skew. Fortunately I don't think it will be too noticeable - especially if I get my camera angles right!

Gern

[Guest]

hey gern. just curious how this is coming along. made any progress with the beast?

[Gern]

Hi Jim. Yeah I've made some progress but I'm late again with a GB entry!

I think I've managed to sort out the problems I mentioned about the skewed tail joint. I've certainly spent long enough filling and sanding! Have to see when I put a coat of paint on it.

I also found a dirty great scratch on the windscreen. I've just got hold of some very fine sanding sticks from John so I'm going to have a try at cleaning it up.

I only started a new job at the beginning of this month so I've not had any real quality modelling time. I think I've got to grips with the job so hopefully I'll be doing more. I'll try and post some progress shots this weekend.

Gern

[Guest]

glad things worked out with the job. look forward to seeing some pics.

[Gern]

I wouldn't say I've got everything sorted at work. I managed to get myself locked in when we closed on Friday! Poor girl was half way home and had to turn round and come back to let me out.

Anyway, a little progress. Just a last minute bit of cleaning up I noticed when I took the pics and the fuse is ready for paint.

Had a go at the scratch on the canopy using the extra fine sanding stick from Squadron. I might as well have stuck a sanding disc in my Black and Decker and used that! Just spent an hour with toothpaste and a cosmetic nail polishing block to get rid of the marks left by the sanding stick. There's still a faint haze of marks left but I reckon a dunk in Klear will take care of that. I have noticed there are a few small black flecks on the canopy which seem to be embedded in the plastic so they'll have to stay.

I haven't taken pics of the canopy as my camera is only a cheap thing and my photography skills aren't good enough.

Gern

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