The BHC BH8 Warwick - FINISHED!

[PR19_Kit]

The BH8 Warwick hovercraft was a licence built version of the Textron LCAC as used by the US Navy and the JSDF but heavily modified for the UK's Royal Navy.

I have the Trumpeter LCAC kit in both 1/72 and 1/144 scale but I've decided to go for the 1/144 version as the modifications I want to make would require much less work in the smaller scale.

Here's the mandatory box pic.

[PR19_Kit]

The BH8s were considerably wider than their American equivalents, the RN having particular requirements in mind for the vessels. To this end 4'6" was added to the each side of the deck space, leaving the actual air cushion the original width.

Here's the starboard side extension and the original deck in place, the port side not having been modified yet.



Cutting off the outer deck section wasn't exactly straightforward as I still needed the lower hull parts to engage with the all vinyl skirt surround when it's finally assembled. It needed some precision razor sawing and scalpel work to do it........

[zenrat]

Kit can even find a way to give a Hovercraft longer wings...

 

[PR19_Kit]

Kit can even find a way to give a Hovercraft longer wings...

 

[Blush] It's in my nature............ 

[PR19_Kit]

I've sawn off the port side outer decking and added the extension, then put the decking back again. Then added a few other odds and ends that would have to mate with my extended deck and that went OK too.



Then I thought I'd try the skirt assembly, just to see how it fitted. What a drama THAT was! The thing is all in one piece, a black vinyl moulding that's obviously meant to fit right up against the deck edges and around the fore and aft ramps, but they made it a tight fit, presumably so it won't fall off as you can't glue it with anything, at least I don't think so. The trouble is GETTING it to fit, you fit one end, then go to the other and the first bit comes off, and so on and so on.

Eventually I managed it but I think explore 'vinyl glue' before I fit it finally.

[kerick]

The only glue to hold vinyl I can think of at the moment is silicone caulk. That stuff sticks to everything. Or maybe Gorilla Glue.
This will be fun to see take shape.

[PR19_Kit]

I think this is the first Trumpeter kit I've built, it may also be the last.................... 

They're obviously card carrying members of the 'We've got more parts in our kits that you have' league it would seem. The fore and aft decks of this kit are STREWN with the tiniest of items, like mooring bollards, tie rings, railings etc. all of which are attached to their sprues in the STUPIDEST places! The railings are attached at the junctions of one railing with another, meaning that when you try and cut them off, BOTH railings snap! Of the four bollards on the bow, my model will only have one, the others all fired off into orbit when I tried to cut them off the sprue. I had to resort to gripping each piece with tweezers in one hand while trying to cut them off with the other.

Some of these parts would have been MUCH better moulded onto the main structure, and maybe cheaper to mould in the first place too. But no, they HAVE to add more and  more parts to the parts list because it makes the kit seem worth more! 

It's also got lots of PE grilles as well, none of which have any location tabs and neither do the plastic parts they're meant to be attached to.

It's a good thing this is a Whiff as there's NO way I could build an accurate LCAC out of it!   

[kerick]

I'll try to remember that if I ever try to build an LCAC! Sounds like madness!

[PR19_Kit]

I haven't looked closely at the 1/72 one I have too, maybe that's a bit more sensibly moulded.

[PR19_Kit]

As an example of how utterly ridiculous this kit is, take a look at this!



The tiny clear thingie (in the red square) perched on the top of the forward port deck house is some sort of observation point I guess, simply because it's clear. It was difficult enough gluing the two halves of it together (Yes, they split it in two!) but then you're meant to attach a PE windscreen wiper on each side! 

The wipers are ringed in red in the fret below, and note how stupidly small they are, that's why the rule is in the shot.

Needless to say any observer on my BH8 will have to do without wipers, in any case the Royal Navy developed air jet wipers ages ago!

[Rick Lowe]

I had a similar potential problem when I built the 1/200 P-8 and all its' aerials.
I left them attached to the runners, and clipped them off when the aerial was good and attached.

FWIW & HTH, but probably too late now... 

[PR19_Kit]

The itty bitty bits fired off into orbit WHEN I tried to cut them off the runners! They're somewhere in this room, but I'll never find them as a) they're pale grey and b) they're impossibly small.

[Gondor]

Perhaps next time try cutting small etch parts free inside a large clear plastic bag so you can see what you are doing. Another way is to use sellotape, or a similar brand, placed over the part and tree/runner so that when you cut the part free it don't anywhere. As for replacing the wipers, a very fine marker pen should do the trick.

[PR19_Kit]

It wasn't the etch parts that went into orbit, it was ordinary styrene parts, but doing the 'in a plastic bag' trick may be the solution that irritating problem when I have to chop some more tiny parts off, thanks for reminding me.

With all due respect to our colleague on here who helped design the LCAC, it's hardly a thing of aesthetic beauty, is it? It looks like a collection of Portakabin sheds bolted down onto a platform, totally unlike the quite stylish BH7 Wellington, or indeed all previous BHC military hovercraft designs. So building the kit is like a small Portakabin production line, all sorts of different shaped 'sheds' spaced along each side. In many cases they have PE grilles all over them too, which is a bit of a fiddle, but they fit OK eventually.

Here's the first two 'sheds' on the port side.



You can see the second 'shed' has the puffer port on its roof, and that swivels around to direct steering air flow in the RW. There's a grille section between each 'shed', and in Trumpeter's world each one is made from SIX parts. 

Currently I'm working on the third 'shed' on the port side, which I think is the one that holds the engine. Sadly work on it has come to a grinding halt as one end has vanished and been swallowed whole by the bloody Carpet Monster! As it's a strange shape I can't scratch another one, so I'm stumped at the moment. 

[Captain Canada]

Kit can even find a way to give a Hovercraft longer wings...

Haha ! Good one.