Who the hell would fly this?

[Leigh]

Right in the grand tradition of enlisting help from those more educated/intelligent than me I'm gonna let you guys fill in the blanks/ help decide on this one for me.
Seems to have worked for me before so I'll trust you again.
Here is our starting point, one Airfix rotodyne, a coupla chopper detail sets, an awsome collection of cargo seats from Todd and some chocolate biscuits. Ignore that Lynx lurking in the corner.




So its gonna be a military Rotodyne, the obvious advantages of speed and range over yer average chopper, for when you need to get some stuff/people somewhere in a hurry but you can't land a plane. Forward Commando units, backup for troops caught in a firefight, rescuing downed pilots, delivering Airfix TSR.2's you know the drill. Sort of an S.A.S. Limousine.
Now I don't know if anybody's ever checked the accuracy of an Airfix Rotodyne but she's pretty tiny, you can't fit a 1/72 Landrover inside and there's not much headroom for 1/72 figures either but I digress.

Changes I'm planning on making is losing some windows, putting a decent cargo size door on the side. Losing the Clam shells on the back though I love em, and putting a ramp in.
I'm thinking it needs guns, to cover those hostile landing zones while the troops disembark, but with the engines and U/C in the way I'd probably need one on each corner. Or could I put a turret at the front? Maybe a chin gun?

What's still up in the air is who to give it to? British Army or Royal Air Force? Remembering it's primary mission is troop transport.

Also undecided as to where to put it, this is probably gonna end up as a diorama (that's where the Lynx may come in)
The Falklands sound appealing because of the mission but  Desert Storm offers wild painting and more plausible reason to have ground equipment, fuel trucks etc.

Suggestions?

[AeroplaneDriver]

Sounds like a great project Leigh!  Can't wait to see her done.

I think RAF would be best.  Falklands sounds good, it could be the sole survivor or the Atlantic Conveyer, taking hte place of the sole Chinook.  On the other hand, a Desert Storm (Granby) machine would look incredible, maybe in the desert camo worn by the Lynx fleet instead of the monochrome RAF aircraft/helos.

Another possibility may be a completely whiff camo scheme serving in Kosovo, or a cold war arctic scheme for deployment to Norway.  

For any of these I think a chin turret would look great, as well as some sort of rear mounted minigun mount.

Finally, one possibility that doesnt fit into your outline, but which I think owuld look great would be a shiny red, white, and blue Royal Flight version.

Whichever one you end up with, I'm sure it will look great!


Nick

[Ollie]

Duh Leigh, RCAF!

 

[lancer]

Got the same ideas as you Leigh, but mine is going to be Royal Marines.

[K5054NZ]

Go Falklands! Falklands all the way! The Atlantic Conveyor idea sounds cool!   Chin turret definitely, a diorama is a must! Imagine Rotodyne
Bravo November gingerly touching down amongst the peat fields of East Falkland!    

[Leigh]

Got the same ideas as you Leigh, but mine is going to be Royal Marines.

Yeah going through my decals I found some Royal Marines ones and I was tempted but I'll let you have that one.
So today wasn't so much a day of scratchbuilding as getting it ready. I think I'm gonna leave the chin turret out 'cos I really like the glazing. Not enough room  at the front for a cargo door and a gun hatch, but a forward cargo door probably wouldn't be much use for the troops to go diving out of in a hot zone anyway, bit too close to the propellers   . Not a bright idea to go jumping out of a door with people shooting at you, big donkey .50 cal on one side and a bunch of spinning blades on the other.
So I cut in three gun hatches and a cargo door, and I think I'll put a gun by that door on some kind of swing mount, and plugged the windows.

[Leigh]

Well it's Airfix and that means rivets, no intention of rescribing the panel lines so I'd like to keep as much rivet detail as possible. Here's where the A.M.S. sets in I didn't want the window plugs to be obvious smooth ovals in a sea of rivets and I don't know how to scratchbuild raised rivets so my solution was to use plastic with rivets already on it. So an Airfix Beaufighter donated large portions of it's wings, time consuming to get the patterns to line up but I think it'll be worth it in the long run. I don't want to say it was a chore because I actually love doing stuff like this, but if it took this long to do a few window plugs how long is a complete cabin gonna take
Beautodyne anyone?  

[K5054NZ]

I really like Rotodynes, so this will be so cool!

[nev]

Leigh, I'm loving this!  

Only you and barry would be crazy enough to do that window/rivet thing, but hats off you for accomplishing it  

Definately RAF - it is their job to transport the troops (for now).

I see 3 possibilities

1)  Bravo November in the Falklands

2)  That Spec Ops chinook with the funky night camoflage over the desert sand with all the Granby special fits

3)  A 21st Century Rotodyne, Spec Ops.  Glass cockpit, bigger engines, fuel/avionics sponsons down the side, refueling probe, the works    

[Brian da Basher]

Leigh this one's a blast to watch! I love how you made those plugs. That's attention to detail that has me watching in awe!

Brian da Basher

[Captain Canada]

Like everybody else, leigh...I'm pretty excited about this build ! I like the Falklands idea best, dirty it up a little. It would look pretty cool in service around the Kosovo area as well, with some UN logos on the tail.

Also, the Italeri single engined huey has a wee gun and gernade launcher thing that bolts to the front of the chopper, as used by the yanks in Vietnam. It mounts without clogging up all the window glazing.  That might be an idea as well. I have one somewhere, but I don't know where or what I did with it.......

[retro_seventies]

not sure about who should fly her leigh, but am leaning towards the army - what i was thinking though was that a couple of motorbikes or a quad or two could be a fun thing to have in there...i'm sure that there could be military applications....

looking great so far mate!

[K5054NZ]

FalklandsfalklandsfalklandsFalklandsfalklandsfalklandsFalklandsfalklandsfalklandsFalklandsfalklandsfalklandsFalklandsfalklandsfalklandsFalklandsfalklandsfalklandsFalklandsfalklandsfalklandsFalklandsfalklandsfalklandsFalklandsfalklandsfalklands





Bravo November all the way!






BTW lovin' that chin turret idea!

[Leigh]

what i was thinking though was that a couple of motorbikes or a quad or two could be a fun thing to have in there...i'm sure that there could be military applications....

Great minds think alike, a quad was probably in the offing or a sand buggy or both.
I know on big construction sites we see quads pulling trailers as little runabouts for smaller items so don't see why we couldn't see them on airfields.

Nick, Nev if you guys are gonna suggest schemes can you gimme some links to piccies?
I tried googling the Lynx flight scheme and all I came up with was Desert pink lynxes and what's the funky night camouflage?
Still not decided but summat incorporating this Barry's acid trip has been on my mind for a long time, and now coupled with Eddies gauze spraying method. Should be enough to make you lose yer lunch.

Or maybe overall Barley Grey  

[Leigh]

are we talking about this?