Sikorsky S-58 and Westland Wessex

[Weaver]

The Air Graphics set is a resin version of the ones that used to be on Shapeways, which in turn was based on the Airwaves set, so should be OK and will look the part on an Omani based unit, coud do with a pink panther to go with it 

Just arrived today and it's a bit rough to be honest. The platforms and the missiles have lots of flash on them, the rocket pods have very vague details on the ends, and the instructions are perfunctory and far from clear. Not very impressed overall.

[Gondor]

The Air Graphics set is a resin version of the ones that used to be on Shapeways, which in turn was based on the Airwaves set, so should be OK and will look the part on an Omani based unit, coud do with a pink panther to go with it 

Just arrived today and it's a bit rough to be honest. The platforms and the missiles have lots of flash on them, the rocket pods have very vague details on the ends, and the instructions are perfunctory and far from clear. Not very impressed overall.

Thank you for that, I shall avoid it.

[jcf]

One thing I've always found interesting is that while the Wessex was turbine powered, the H-34 was piston powered. An S-58T in US service would be a good whiff.

Air-craft models do an S-58T conversion:
https://www.air-craftmodels.com/product-page/aca72118-sikorsky-s-58et-klm-helikopters-resin-conversion-set-1-72nd

Because the movie Full Metal Jacket was filmed in the UK, the piston-engined USMC "UH-34D Choctaws" were actually played by rented Wessex 60s, which were the civilian equivalent of the HC.2. That means you could paint a Wessex model up in USMC colours and it wouldn't even be a whiff, just a movie prop. However that opens the door to other what-if movie schemes where a Wessex stands in for an H-34. For instance, you could do one in VH-34D Marine colours as the president's helicopter, or paint one in French colours for a movie set during the Algerian War.

That's an awfully interesting site by the way - I can see myself spending some money there...

Really mess with people and paint up an S-58/H-34 as a Wessex.


But however one builds an S-58/Wessex it's important to get the colours exact as
the services were sticklers about paint matching.

Yes I always find it amusing to watch the Colour Police start twitching when you show them pics of how rough some D-Day invasion stripes actually were, or C.J.Heatley's pic of a deck full of A-7s, every single one of which has a different combination of warning markings, radome paint and anti-glare panel design...

That's a good idea about painting an H-34 to play a Wessex. You could have an S-58T playing a Wessex in a US-made movie about the Falklands War, for example. Just nick the markings from the donor Italeri FAA boxing, and make a tail-boom "radome" that's very obviously a cut-down plastic waste bin...

Yes, but then those pics of quickly applied stripes lead many people, too many, to claim
that all invasion stripes were quickly, and sloppily, applied with brooms and mops. They
usually get very stroppy when presented with evidence to the contrary. They also tend
to ignore that most of the really sloppy stripes don't look so sloppy when scaled down to
scale model size, or from a distance in the real world.
🙄

[Weaver]

One thing I've always found interesting is that while the Wessex was turbine powered, the H-34 was piston powered. An S-58T in US service would be a good whiff.

Air-craft models do an S-58T conversion:
https://www.air-craftmodels.com/product-page/aca72118-sikorsky-s-58et-klm-helikopters-resin-conversion-set-1-72nd

Because the movie Full Metal Jacket was filmed in the UK, the piston-engined USMC "UH-34D Choctaws" were actually played by rented Wessex 60s, which were the civilian equivalent of the HC.2. That means you could paint a Wessex model up in USMC colours and it wouldn't even be a whiff, just a movie prop. However that opens the door to other what-if movie schemes where a Wessex stands in for an H-34. For instance, you could do one in VH-34D Marine colours as the president's helicopter, or paint one in French colours for a movie set during the Algerian War.

That's an awfully interesting site by the way - I can see myself spending some money there...

Really mess with people and paint up an S-58/H-34 as a Wessex.


But however one builds an S-58/Wessex it's important to get the colours exact as
the services were sticklers about paint matching.

Yes I always find it amusing to watch the Colour Police start twitching when you show them pics of how rough some D-Day invasion stripes actually were, or C.J.Heatley's pic of a deck full of A-7s, every single one of which has a different combination of warning markings, radome paint and anti-glare panel design...

That's a good idea about painting an H-34 to play a Wessex. You could have an S-58T playing a Wessex in a US-made movie about the Falklands War, for example. Just nick the markings from the donor Italeri FAA boxing, and make a tail-boom "radome" that's very obviously a cut-down plastic waste bin...

Yes, but then those pics of quickly applied stripes lead many people, too many, to claim
that all invasion stripes were quickly, and sloppily, applied with brooms and mops. They
usually get very stroppy when presented with evidence to the contrary. They also tend
to ignore that most of the really sloppy stripes don't look so sloppy when scaled down to
scale model size, or from a distance in the real world.
🙄

Ah, well that's a subset of the wider scale detail/scale colour debate that's rumbled, and will rumble, on forever.

[Weaver]

One thing I've always found interesting is that while the Wessex was turbine powered, the H-34 was piston powered. An S-58T in US service would be a good whiff.

Air-craft models do an S-58T conversion:
https://www.air-craftmodels.com/product-page/aca72118-sikorsky-s-58et-klm-helikopters-resin-conversion-set-1-72nd

They also do an auxiliary fuel tank for the Wessex, and skis for the S-58, although the latter work out a bit pricey as they only come with the full Operation Highjump conversion. Still, only one of the two S-58 airframes in that conversion had the skis, so you could always nick them for a Wessex and build an S-58 with the other one.

One of the S-58s in that set also had something I've never seen before: a V-shaped lower main wheel strut that pivots off the fuselage at two points like a car's wishbone suspension, instead of the normal S-58/Wessex setup, which is a single tube that works more like a trailing arm.

[chrisonord]

I have a mil mi-4 kit which is going to get fiddled with to look similar to the wessex. I will arm it with rockets and anti tank missiles, and have it in the service of the Uranium mining corporation during operation Saladin.

[jcf]

One thing I've always found interesting is that while the Wessex was turbine powered, the H-34 was piston powered. An S-58T in US service would be a good whiff.

Air-craft models do an S-58T conversion:
https://www.air-craftmodels.com/product-page/aca72118-sikorsky-s-58et-klm-helikopters-resin-conversion-set-1-72nd

They also do an auxiliary fuel tank for the Wessex, and skis for the S-58, although the latter work out a bit pricey as they only come with the full Operation Highjump conversion. Still, only one of the two S-58 airframes in that conversion had the skis, so you could always nick them for a Wessex and build an S-58 with the other one.

One of the S-58s in that set also had something I've never seen before: a V-shaped lower main wheel strut that pivots off the fuselage at two points like a car's wishbone suspension, instead of the normal S-58/Wessex setup, which is a single tube that works more like a trailing arm.

The "V" landing gear was the later
production type for the S-58/H-34
and has also been retrofitted to
earlier models. From looking at
photos it appears that it's only the
Wessex series that didn't make the change.

[Weaver]

I have a mil mi-4 kit which is going to get fiddled with to look similar to the wessex. I will arm it with rockets and anti tank missiles, and have it in the service of the Uranium mining corporation during operation Saladin.

Funny you should say that: I have a Mi-4 stashed away with the plan to turn it into another British company's rival to the S-55/Whirlwind. You tend to casually assume that the Mi-4 was just a copy of the S-55, but it was actually significantly larger nad more powerful.

[kerick]

And another interesting one from the same thread of a Wessex armed with a WE.177 nuclear depth charge.

You cannot view this attachment.

Ahhh, he!! no!
Ain't gett'n me in that thing!
It better be just transporting that nuke and not planning to use it!

[Mossie]

And another interesting one from the same thread of a Wessex armed with a WE.177 nuclear depth charge.

You cannot view this attachment.

Ahhh, he!! no!
Ain't gett'n me in that thing!
It better be just transporting that nuke and not planning to use it!

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/5c4f027f-bab7-4cd1-9320-22b1c188a5c2

[Weaver]

And another interesting one from the same thread of a Wessex armed with a WE.177 nuclear depth charge.

You cannot view this attachment.

Ahhh, he!! no!
Ain't gett'n me in that thing!
It better be just transporting that nuke and not planning to use it!

Think that's bad? They used to carry them under Wasps. They were so long that they had to be carried at an angle to fit under the fuselage...

[jcf]

Came across an interesting bit of
trivia related by a Vietnam vet USMC H-34D pilot, evidently the H-34 was still flyable if the tail rotor malfunctioned or was lost. The S-58 has so much side area that when allowed turn to about 45° off the direction of flight it would stabliize and you could keep flying and land safely.

It was also able to land in surprisingly small spaces. The pilots would come in hot, descend in a corkscrew using full power but letting the machine rotate around its centre a few times. Once close to the ground they'd straighten out and let the tail drop so the tailwheel would touch first, the wheel acting as a "feeler", then drop onto the main gear. The wider track V-type landing gear, larger wheels/tires and stronger oleo absorbing the shock. 

[chrisonord]

I have a mil mi-4 kit which is going to get fiddled with to look similar to the wessex. I will arm it with rockets and anti tank missiles, and have it in the service of the Uranium mining corporation during operation Saladin.

Funny you should say that: I have a Mi-4 stashed away with the plan to turn it into another British company's rival to the S-55/Whirlwind. You tend to casually assume that the Mi-4 was just a copy of the S-55, but it was actually significantly larger nad more powerful.

Great minds and all that 

[kerick]

And another interesting one from the same thread of a Wessex armed with a WE.177 nuclear depth charge.

You cannot view this attachment.

Ahhh, he!! no!
Ain't gett'n me in that thing!
It better be just transporting that nuke and not planning to use it!

Think that's bad? They used to carry them under Wasps. They were so long that they had to be carried at an angle to fit under the fuselage...

We don't worry about no stink'n radiation!

[Weaver]

We don't worry about no stink'n radiation!

It was a bit like training F-89 pilots to use Genies: "Instructors are advised to be upbeat..."

I've read somewhere that the official (secret) estimate for the Wasp surviving the detonation was 50/50...