Rotodyne, yet again....

[PR19_Kit]

I searched through the Forum last night for 'Rotodyne' and ended up with 11 pages of stuff, some of which was useful to the idea I have and some not.

One thing that struck me was there were numerous photos of various 'dyne projects in build, but very few of the finished articles. Is there a mental block when it comes to finishing a 'dyne' or is there somewhere else to file finished projects that you can't 'see' with a search on here?

[upnorth]

I don't think it's the Rotodyne in particular, I've seen several projects of various descriptions in progress but not to completion in these forums and I'm guilty of it myself. The reasons can be many:

1:
Typical of forums, we have members come and go for one reason or another. Perhaps they finished their projects after the left these forums.

2:
Mental blocks, as you mentioned, can hit anyone. Perhaps the model just got put aside until inspiration hit again.

3:
Loss of inspiration, sometimes you just run out of steam for a project and it languishes. I had an RAF A-4 Skyhawk project very near completion when the junction between a resin nose that I put on it and the plastic opened up on me and ruined the paint around it. I don't know if the resin shrank or if the CA glue was bad, but that project is languishing right now, I can barely stand to look at it because of how close I got to finishing before the problem came up.

4:
Accidents, sometimes the model gets damaged or destroyed before completion. I had a Whiff of Airfix's 1/72 TSR.2 about half done when a shelf collapsed on it and crushed it beyond repair.

5:
Life interferes, I have a whiff Hawker Hurricane project in the in progress forums that I had planned as a "summer project". Life interefered a bit more than I anticipated over the summer and then the fall semester kicked in so work on the project really came down to a crawl. It's still modestly on the go and almost done.

I would say the best thing to do if you want to know if those Rotodynes got finished is to try to PM the folks that were building them and see what became of the projects.

[JayBee]

Have you seen the book "The Alternate RAAF & RAN Fleet Air Arm (Australia's Little Asian Wars 1951 - 1975) by John Baxter.
This is almost an Antipodean WHIFFING catalogue, being full of 'History' drawings and lots of photos of models all deffinately WHIF.
The vast majority are colourscheme Whifs whith little or no surgery having been done, but having said that they all look fantastic.

Yes, the Rotodyne features.
In side the front cover are three colour profiles :
A MkI RAAF in green/brown camoflage over light grey undersides.
A MkI RAN overall dark blue with white fuselage top and pylon.
A MkII (Stretched fuselage) RAAF overall light grey with white top.

There is also a couple of photos (one in colour) of a model of a MkI RAAF machine in overall sand  with Tan and Green mottling. Absolutely gorgeous!.

If my memory serves me correctly I got my copy of the book from Midland Counties.

JayBee

[JayBee]

and I forgot to mention, all the Australian Rotodynes have tip tanks!

JayBee

[The Rat]

I can see three major problems finding pics of finished Rotodyne models:

1) The scarcity of kits

2) The price of the ones you can find

3) Some people (amazingly) still have no bloody idea what the hell a Rotodyne is! (heathen swine muttergrumblefeck!)

I have seen some great whiffs of them, there was one a couple of years ago, I believe on HyperScale, of one which had been turned into a submarine, quite creative. They are out there, and one of these days the one in my stash will get done.

[Mossie]

I can see three major problems finding pics of finished Rotodyne models:

1) The scarcity of kits

They're not that scarce, at least on this side of the pond.  Airfix released it not too long back & you can still get hold of one at a reasonable price if you look just that little bit hard.  Kingkit till have them listed, which is where I got mine a couple of years back, for a reasonable price of £11.  They export too, the postage isn't ridiculous & it might be beneficial for those on the US & Canada now that the Pound is a lot weaker.  It'll work out at a total of £18 ($32C/$27US) for surface postage, or £23 ($42C/$35US) by air if you want it quicker.  I checked this against Trumpys Chinook on Squadron, that retails at around $31US, so pretty comparable.

Here's the link, just type in 'Rotodyne' in the search box:
http://www.kingkit.co.uk/kingkit/search1.php

[Hobbes]

Revell will release their Rotodyne again this year, so if you're looking for them...

[PR19_Kit]

I have two Airfix re-released ones, and an original Revell (price 12/6....) that's missing its port lower wing, and always has done.

The Revell rotor head is MILES better than Airfix's rather basic offering, but then the whole thing is slightly too small, maybe 1/76? But it has a full interior as well.

I was thinking of re-engining one with Tynes from a Bobcat C-160, and fitting a rotor from a Merlin or a CH-53 perhaps. Oh yes, both fuselages were going to be made one as well, with a sort of Argosy beaver tail...... 

But I don't want to do it if someone's been there already.

I found the 'Yellow Submarine' one in my search last night, a real hoot.

[Martin H]

sounds like u should be ok to go ahead with the project Kit, ive not seen any modded the way your thinking. Here or at the shows

[Captain Canada]

I'd love to build one if they release it again......cool !

[Mossie]

I was thinking of re-engining one with Tynes from a Bobcat C-160, and fitting a rotor from a Merlin or a CH-53 perhaps. Oh yes, both fuselages were going to be made one as well, with a sort of Argosy beaver tail...... 

I've got the Heller incarnation of that kit with a similar idea in mind, although I hadn't thought of an Argosy tail!   Mine would probably just be a production version of the Rotodyne Y with Tynes.  I wanted to build a version of the definitive Rotodyne Z (still might, in time) but I realised my skills just aren't up to it, it's quite a different aircraft & would require just about a whole scratchbuild.

[PR19_Kit]

Heller? I never knew they issued it, presumably the same mouldings with French instructions?

At least that's another scource to look for on eBay, if I wanted to build a Rotodyne-400 anyway.

[Mossie]

Yeah, I think it was originally one of the Heller moulds that was done for the Bobcat range, under the Heller-Humbrol label.  There's two versions of it available, the C-160A & the C-160G 'Gabriel' version.  It's worth getting the Gabriel (it's no difference in cost) for the extra sprue with the ELINT bits & bobs, you neve know they might come in handy!

Mine is not a particularly great kit, the wing is warped terribly.  If you still wanted to build a Transall after robbing it's engines, I'd say go for the Revell kit, maybe put some jets on?  Also, make sure you don't pay too much for the Heller kit, the're a few places listing it as high as £25!

[kitnut617]

I think Kit is talking about a Rotodyne Simon,    I was thinking the same as him when reading through the posts    I've got a couple of those Heller C160's, the Gabriels.  One is slowly, very slowly (can you say glacier movement) being transformed into a Quad Tilt Rotor.  Another source for Tynes is the Revell Atlantic

[Mossie]

Ahhhh,......  Penny drops!