The Last F.A.R.T. !

[TheChronicOne]

Looks cool...  I rather like the foil treatment going on there.   

[chrisonord]

Been sat in the background watching this Alastair, and the foil usage is something I will remember for any future shado builds. Marvelous work by the way
Chris

[Gondor]

Thanks for the kind comments guy's. I think I have the padding sorted out now, just got to get the interior painted so I can close up the fuselage and get on with that part of the build.

Unfortunately the auto focus on my camera does not help with the following pictures as it was looking mainly at the nearest part or the model and not the back of the cabin 

Roof and Starboard cabin wall



Port cabin wall. I had to reposition some of the "padding" as I could not close up the fuselage fully 



This should be showing the rear cabin wall but the auto focus went for the instrument panel that I knocked off earlier. That was a blessing in disguise as I found out I had mounted it too high and had thinned the combing in front of/behind it.



Here is the interior dry fitted into the Starboard fuselage to give a rough idea of what things will look like



And an attempt at showing the interior of the cabin from the front, but thanks to the auto focus you get a nice picture of the nose 



So that's the model so far. Some interior painting and probably rotor assembly during the Grand Prix of after that today if everything goes well, still got to bake the cake for Telford too. 

Ideas or information on what colour the interior should be are welcomed, I do want it to be fairly realistic as it's the purpose of the aircraft that's the whiff, not the interior in general.

Gondor

[Weaver]

I like the interior quiliting: it looks soft, strong, and very, very long....

[Gondor]

Paint has been applied to most of the interior although some bits will require a touch up and detail painting is required it is starting to look more as if I may have it finished in time.

Gondor

[Gondor]

So not much was done last night due to my suffering from a cold 

Today I decided to get the rotor head assembly together along with the Pavla BERP blades. You guessed it, the blades join on the opposite side of the blades in the kit 

I decided that it would be better to remove part of the kit blades then glue them to the new blades before pinning them and reversing the process for the rotor hub. Probably a lot of work but a better result I think. 

I am also thinking that I will not manage to get this finished for Telford as I will not be able to do any modelling after Monday night.

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

So not much was done last night due to my suffering from a cold 

Situation normal for Telford I'm afraid. I've managed to have a cold at Telford time for years now, must be something to do with the weather..........

[Thorvic]

So not much was done last night due to my suffering from a cold 

Today I decided to get the rotor head assembly together along with the Pavla BERP blades. You guessed it, the blades join on the opposite side of the blades in the kit 

I decided that it would be better to remove part of the kit blades then glue them to the new blades before pinning them and reversing the process for the rotor hub. Probably a lot of work but a better result I think. 

I am also thinking that I will not manage to get this finished for Telford as I will not be able to do any modelling after Monday night.

Gondor

You probably wanted the Airfix Has8 kit for the Berp blades, or the Airwaves set from Hannants as I guess the Pavla ones are for the Hobby Boss kit.

[Gondor]

So not much was done last night due to my suffering from a cold 

Today I decided to get the rotor head assembly together along with the Pavla BERP blades. You guessed it, the blades join on the opposite side of the blades in the kit 

I decided that it would be better to remove part of the kit blades then glue them to the new blades before pinning them and reversing the process for the rotor hub. Probably a lot of work but a better result I think. 

I am also thinking that I will not manage to get this finished for Telford as I will not be able to do any modelling after Monday night.

Gondor

You probably wanted the Airfix Has8 kit for the Berp blades, or the Airwaves set from Hannants as I guess the Pavla ones are for the Hobby Boss kit.

I did and they are. I don't exactly remember why I got the ones I did but they were from Hannants. I also didn't know there was an Airfix Has8 kit 

Gondor

[Thorvic]

Yeap first released as the Navy Lynx in the late 70's, updated to Lynx HAS3 in the late 80s and then to a HAS8 in 2001 with a new nose, BERP blades, new tail rotor (goes the other way) and the inflatable seat for the cabin. However the model your doing is as a Target tug/drone so would be the older unmodified model anyway so you can get away with just doing the blades 

[Gondor]

Yeap first released as the Navy Lynx in the late 70's, updated to Lynx HAS3 in the late 80s and then to a HAS8 in 2001 with a new nose, BERP blades, new tail rotor (goes the other way) and the inflatable seat for the cabin. However the model your doing is as a Target tug/drone so would be the older unmodified model anyway so you can get away with just doing the blades 

That's what I am doing, the old Airfix kit with new blades, obviously the wrong ones or I would not be having to adapt them. I think a nice Lynx could be on my shopping list for Telford 

Gondor

[Gondor]

No more progress on this at the moment and this situation will probably remain for a while, at least until Telford is over. While in Halfords today buying spare bulbs and fuses for the car I bought a couple of rattle cans to paint this build.

Volkswagen Mars Red and Fiat Broom Yellow. They look close enough to the colours used on other British Drones which as I have at least two more Drones to build at some point, both real world, I thought I would get the rattle cans.

Gondor

[Gondor]

A slight update as I make a vain attempt to get this build done for the Scottish Nationals.

To save a little time I swiped the rotor blades from an Airfix Lynx HAS8 in the stash rather than use the after market set I had started to use as that would require far more work that I thought necessary to get the build done in the time I wanted.

Next up will be some painting of the cockpit interior so I can get the fuselage buttoned up.

I hope I can get this done in time as it would be great to put something into the competition to see where this ends up 

Gondor

[Gondor]

The Last
Fast Airborne Rotary Target
(F.A.R.T)

The last F.A.R.T. is the surviving aircraft of a short production run of Drone helicopter targets used by the UK Services, specifically the Royal Navy. The Lynx D.12 was the winner of a little known requirement issued in the mid-eighties, for a "Fast Airborne Rotary Target" to tow a gunnery banner or carrying various ECM pods enabling it to act as a hostile target/missile for various sections of the armed forces. The fact that it was a helicopter allowed the Drone to operate from various locations including ships and it's various unique inherent aerial manoeuvring as it was a helicopter enabled the resulting drone to be a difficult target for all types of gunners trying to shoot at it.

The six airframes that were re-manufactured to D.12 standard were all early naval aircraft which had been replaced by newer versions but still in good condition even though their maritime operating environment was detrimental to them. Various enhancements were included as well as the multi-channel full axis drone flight control system, such as the BERP blades to assist in the manoeuvrability and speed of the aircraft and a multi-channel camera system to assist the drone controller fly the aircraft, a Towed Radar Decoy was suggested as well, or rather that the plan was to have a Towed Radar Decoy, but I decided not to follow through with the idea.

Operation of the F.A.R.T. was with a joint forces flight of 100 Squadron Royal Air Force. The tasks were divided into three main groups or Jobs with different names depending on which service was being supported, Blue Jobs for the RAF, Wet Jobs for the Navy and Brown Jobs for the Army.

The end for the F.A.R.T was both loud and drawn out. Loud due to the frequent failures of the drone equipment and the consequent lack of service they were able to provide all too frequently. Drawn-out due to the unwillingness of the powers-that-be to spend so much and yet get so little in return especially as there was the potential to export the type. Operating the type was getting such a bad reputation that when one "customer " finding out that one of the assets to be used against them was a F.A.R.T., is reported to have said "This will be s**t then!".

The cause of the failures was well known to the engineering teams that looked after the F.A.R.T.'s, the electronics didn't like getting wet! Numerous failures known as "Blow Outs", especially when operating with the Royal Navy, showed up almost immediately from the start of operations with some claiming that the problems were only temporary. In the end, despite the heroic efforts of all involved, the problems were just too many and the aircraft was withdrawn from service. All except one airframe was scrapped with the survivor having been put quietly in a corner of a hanger in the hope no-one would find it, reputedly still having the distinctive smell of the type, a mix of wet and burnt wiring.

Universally unloved by all involved with the operation of the type, no-one was sad to see the type withdrawn from service, although the type showed a great amount of promise and the fact that it worked well in good weather, the fact that an aircraft operated by the British Armed Forces in the climate of the U.K. which for all intents and purposes was allergic to water did not bode well, after all, no-one likes a wet F.A.R.T.!


We;
ll that's the backstory done, will see about getting the model finished or worked on suering the holidays as I still have a lot of work to do with storeing the stash.

Gondor

[Rheged]

I expect a sudden flush of postings congratulating you on this backstory!!

Was this the airframe with the extra sound-reduction and warhead that was hoped would become an offensive item  named the Silent But Deadly?