Allan Robertson's Scale Wessex
In his Own Words:
After following many great build threads, I thought that it was about time that I started one myself. This is my second attempt at my very first scratch build, the first one I cut up into four large pieces and dumped it in my local council skip, a mistake which I regretted as soon as I had done it. However after encouragement from fellow club members I decided to have another go. The project is a Wessex HC2.
I obtained drawings in 1/72nd from HPC Publishings in the war paint series. Using Copier scale (a freeware program on the internet), I rescaled the drawings to 1/8th scale using a photocopier at work which was about the largest that I can go and still get it in my car, I hope!
In preparation I converted my vario petrol trainer to electric using the scorpion 400kv motor, a castle hv110 esc on a 10s LiPo setup giving me a headspeed of 1250 rpm.
The build started by transferring the drawing onto 5mm ply for the central spine. At this stage the tail boom rear cover and tail gearbox cover was cut. In addition the nose and main mechanic access was also cut before the addition of the ply formers to the main spine using a hot glue gun. Once the formers were all attached it was time to start adding the foam. Originally I used cfs.net for the foam but this was expensive, so this time I settled on white insulation foam from B&Q. Wow, the foam was building up very quickly. "This is going to be a beast!" I told the wife to which she replied something about men with big toys or something...
With the foam in place the next stage was to carve it out with a hot wire cutter which made very quick work of the foam. After a light sand I covered the foam with ronseal filler which is a lightweight filler easily sanded. The few photos which are included are two from the previous build and three from the present as this time it went together so quickly that I didn’t have enough time to take photos. I will as this build goes on keep you up todate with photos.
Added: 8th Nov 2011
Other Scale Projects
Welcome to the scale and turbine heli page.
Scale helis are becoming more popular at the the club. If sports or 3D flying is not for you, scale could be the next best thing. When you have mastered the basics of flying you could start with small 450 size scale heli and there are lots of kits to chose from starting from around £60.
Click here to see a clip of an electric scale Airwolf like the one above flying.
If you have the money or the time large scale helis can get very big and expensive, as more time is spent on the detail and build. Unless of course you buy with the work all ready done. Some builders spend thousands of pounds and hours on a project to get the smallest detail right.
Click here to go to the videos page to see a quarter scale Lama scale heli with a jet turbine power plant in action.
There are few members in the club who have scale or turbine projects on the go. Dave Jones' Hirobo Bell 47 is a great example. Dave did not have the time to do a build but came across this bell 47 for £700. It has some super detail on it and was based on an actual heli.
Click here to see photos of the real helicopter that Dave's helicopter is modeled on.
Have a look here to read all about club member Danny's EC135 project and here to find out more about Russ' EC 145 Eurocopter Armed Aerial Scout.
