Gazelle Airfix 1/72

[Invictaag 2,636]

Richard kindly sent me this kit at Christmas and this seemed a good time to build it. It will be built "out of the box" or in this case bag. 

When I first moved here I lived in East Belfast and had a room that looked out over the city, I used to sit there in the evenings and watch the aircraft going in and out of Belfast City airport and there would also be 1 or 2 Army Gazelle helicoptors buzzing about over the city, especially north and west Belfast. I had a radio scanner tuned into air traffic control at the City airport and Belfast Approach Radar control. One dark evening a Jersey European Shorts 360 was on approach to the City airport when it radioed a Mayday to say there was a problem with it's Undercarriage. This flight would have come from some remote outpost (Glasgow I think) at about 20:30 every evening and then wait for the last flight from London Gatwick which got in about 21:00, the Shorts 360 would then head up to Londonderry. The 360 headed off over the Irish Sea so the pilots could try to solve the problem and the aircraft reappeared a little while later with the pilots reporting that the Undercarriage was not showing locked down. The pilot of a Gazelle flying over the city offered to fly along side the 360 to see if they could see if the Undercarriage was down. The aircraft headed off up Belfast Lough with the Gazelle turning on it's seachlight and me watching from my room. Unable to confirm the Undercarriage was locked down, the Shorts 360 made an emergency landing at the City and as it turns out the Undercarriage was locked down. The Gazelles were based at RAF Aldergrove by the International Airport but I'm not sure if there are any there now, I hadn't seen one for a few years and then a few weeks ago I saw one buzzing around Coleraine up near the north coast.

I will not be starting this just yet, I have a Tank to finish off first.

Cheers Andy

[Grunhertz 17,460]

great choice andy 

[RWG686 33,100]

6 hours ago, Invictaag said:

I'm not sure if there are any

Yes..665 Sqn still at Aldergrove.

This gives you a list of the current based cabs should you decide to do a local one.

https://www.scramble.nl/index.php?option=com_mildb&view=search

[Invictaag 2,636]

Thanks Richard, I had a quick look at 665 Squadron, I see they also operate Britten-Norman Defenders, there is nearly always one of these flying about and sometimes you can see them doing touch and go cicuits at Aldergrove . 

[Blue Noser 3,549]

Nice choice and love the golden oldie version. I once had a couple of weeks in Aldergrove repairing a couple of Lynx, but we weren't allowed out of the base so just ended up getting smashed in the Sergeants Mess, great days indeed! Looking forward to seeing this progress.

Bob

[Invictaag 2,636]

6 hours ago, Blue Noser said:

Nice choice and love the golden oldie version. I once had a couple of weeks in Aldergrove repairing a couple of Lynx, but we weren't allowed out of the base so just ended up getting smashed in the Sergeants Mess, great days indeed! Looking forward to seeing this progress.

Bob

You were probably better off staying on base at Aldergrove, not much else around there, only Crumlin and well, the best thing about Crumlin is the road out of it. I used to fix printers in several of the RAF offices there, I remember going to the Photo Reconnaissance Unit several times. I used to get sent to the base a lot because I am English and it was easier for me to get in there than some of the local lads, although I had to be escorted everywhere I used to mention that I was interested in aircraft and I got shown round some of the hangers if it was quiet. One thing I liked about going there was you always got a cup of coffee and you could get away with spending ages there, you just said that you'd had to wait at the Main Gate Office for an escort.

Cheers Andy

[Invictaag 2,636]

I found a photograph of a Gazelle in Woodvale Park which is at the top of the Shankill Road in West Belfast. Every summer there was a local community event in the park and a Gazelle was landed, the locals shown round it and the children got to sit in the Cockpit. I am going to use this photo for the markings of the aircraft.

The first thing was to mask up all the glass, or what looks like a greenhouse in this case. It's not something I like doing so I thought I would get it out of the way first so the build doesn't stall later. Next up was to start on the Cockpit and I soon realised that there are some parts missing, namely the Control Sticks and one of the Pilot's Seats so this is going to turn into a bit of a Gorby (Mark) scratchbuild. There is a bit of flash on some of the parts which will need cleaning up and when that is done I'll attempt to make another Seat.

Cheers Andy

[RWG686 33,100]

3 hours ago, Invictaag said:

there are some parts missing,

Sorry about that.

Suggest you'd be better making two seats using the kit one as a template. I have never been able to get them to match but seem to manage two the same.

[Invictaag 2,636]

6 hours ago, RWG686 said:

Sorry about that.

Suggest you'd be better making two seats using the kit one as a template. I have never been able to get them to match but seem to manage two the same.

It's not a problem Richard, I'm grateful that you sent me this kit. I'm guessing you used the parts on another of your "little" projects because they have been neatly cut from the sprues. Thanks for the tip about making 2, trouble is I don't have any plasticard so it's going to be a cut up plastic tub or something similar. I toyed with depicting a helicoptor flown by one of the Squadron's C.O's who was such a bad pilot that no one would get in the aircraft with him so they used the spare seat when another seat got damaged. 😉

[Grunhertz 17,460]

Nice choice Andy will be watching closely 

[Invictaag 2,636]

I had a long think about how to make the second Pilot's Seat, I don't have any Plasticard but I did find some thinnish plastic sprue which would be enough to make 1 seat. After some careful (?) trimming, filing and guesswork I ended up with this, see below.

I'm not going to tell you which one is which. On the kit seat there is a bit of thin edging on the lower part of the seat,

This had me stumped for a while, I thought about using some paper and then I noticed the Rotor Head had a lot of flash on it, that is thin and there was enough for both sides of the seat, ideal.

Ok so they're not totally identical but once I fit the greenhouse to the front, put it at the back of my display cabinet and look at it from the other end of the room it will be fine . Before I fitted the nigh on identical seats it made the handbrake lever and the gear change lever, well that's what they look like.

The seats were then fitted.

I was then going to make some Seat Belts so I had a look at some pictures online and noticed my aircraft needed foot pedals and control sticks. I bent up some brass wire to create the control sticks and used some cut out sprue for the foot pedals.

I now need to make some Seat Belts, does anyone have any pictures of the Rear Seat Belts I can only find front Seat Belts,

Cheers Andy

[Grunhertz 17,460]

good solution mate 

[Blue Noser 3,549]

Well worked recovery, looking very nice. Cant remember what the seat belt formation in the back is, maybe a 3 point harness?

Bob

[Invictaag 2,636]

6 hours ago, Blue Noser said:

Well worked recovery, looking very nice. Cant remember what the seat belt formation in the back is, maybe a 3 point harness?

Bob

Thanks Bob, I they might be "lap" belts like you have on commercial aircraft. 

[RWG686 33,100]

15 hours ago, Invictaag said:

does anyone have any pictures of the Rear Seat Belts

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/7938707

Looks like a car type inertia reel.

[Invictaag 2,636]

I studied numerous photos of Gazelle helicoptors and finally decided to fit make up the Seat Belts using Tamiya masking tape in the way shown in the pictures below.

Now before anyone says anything, they may not be totally accurate and perhaps a bit oversized but my aim is to have a helicoptor that people will be able to say "that's a Gazelle" so 100% accurate is not important to me. 

I fitted the glass to both Fuselage sides and then fitted the Cockpit assembly into the Fuselage, the fit was good with no gaps, just a little bit of smoothing down was required.

Before I could fit the Engine I discovered that the Compressor area of the Engine was also missing so I therefore needed to make a replacement part.

This had me stumped for quite a while. What I needed was some "Gorby" type imagination when I noticed that the under Wing Fuel Tanks that I'm not going to fit to my Vampire were the right sort of shape. A quick check and I soon had the Compressor area made up.

Cheers Andy

[Grunhertz 17,460]

Nice fix Andy, I love it 

[Invictaag 2,636]

When I went to fit the Tail Rotor I noticed that the mounting piece was missing from one of the Fuselage side parts. I managed to glue the Tail Rotor in place and fit it's end piece. 

I looked at the instructions and there are 3 small mounting brackets and an end piece. Turning to the Vampire kit I was able to use the wheels up Under Carriage Doors, there are flat and quite thin. 3 pieces were soon made up and the disc was cut from a piece of round sprue. 

At this rate I am going to have to change my name to one beginning with a G and move to Coventry . So anyway onwards and in this case forwards, I next fitted the 2 Side Doors and the upper Cockpit Panel. I had masked the Side Doors but had run the tape over the side of the Doors, a brief image of Jim Morrison covered in tape, so off came the tape. 

I decided to fit the Rotor Drive Shaft without the Rotor Blades because the fit wasn't too good, and then fitted the 2 Tail Winglet thingies. 

I've just noticed that the 2 small fins that fit under the Tail Boom are also missing so it's going to be back to my donor aircraft, this is rapidly becoming a Gazpire or may be Vampzelle aircraft.

Cheers Andy

 

 

[Grunhertz 17,460]

I have a new idea andy, Give the rest to gorby, 

great recovery 

[RWG686 33,100]

1 hour ago, Invictaag said:

the mounting piece was missing

Looks like I sent you a poisoned chalice Andy. 

Was there a hole in the packet? 

[Invictaag 2,636]

12 hours ago, RWG686 said:

Looks like I sent you a poisoned chalice Andy. 

Was there a hole in the packet? 

It looks like all the missing parts had been neatly cut from the sprues, possibly for one of your classic , take a basic kit and produce something that has more detail than the real thing, builds ☺️.

I am enjoying building this, what I thought was a fairly straight forward build has left me having to think about what I need to do next, and what bits and pieces I have laying about and how I can use them. The trouble is I am starting to get a "midlands" accent which is leaving me in a bit of a mard, something to do with me being caggy-handed.

[RWG686 33,100]

4 minutes ago, Invictaag said:

It looks like all the missing parts had been neatly cut from the sprues,

AH!..my cunning plan to make that caggy-handed bloke with the funny accent do some modelling has been revealed. 

[Gorby 17,213]

23 hours ago, Invictaag said:

G and move to Coventry

Finally I get the chance to say “This town aint big enough for the both of us”.

So I hope you won't be having any more ideas about moving to Cov.*

* (Because it's a s***hole).

 

Very nice work so far Andy.

[Invictaag 2,636]

I decided to dry fit the front Cockpit glass (greenhouse) just to make it fits ok before I get on with the painting. It wouldn't fit, there was a gap of a couple of millimetres. This had me well and truely stumped, was it the correct part for this kit I asked myself. Then I had another look and noticed that I had the Instrument Panel in the wrong place, a bit of careful work with a knife saw the Panel removed, cleaned up and fitted correctly. The greenhouse now fits perfectly.

The 2 "Fins" that fit underneath the Tail Boom were made from the spare Under Carriage doors from the Vampire kit and glued into place.

I am now already to start on the paint work. Now the more observent of you will have noticed that the greenhouse at the front and the air conditioning unit that fits on top just behing the Pilots are missing, I am going to paint them off the aircraft.

Cheers Andy 

[Grunhertz 17,460]

Lovely progress