The BHC BH8 Warwick - FINISHED!

[Captain Canada]

https://www.amazon.ca/Silicone-Anti-Freeze-Sealant-Gearboxes-Superchargers/dp/B0D2HHT54L/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3EUOx0EI55NTVV_6n7jFF1Gf4ljZyMTsWk93vBP3xwvgBRFcq_Mvgsd544TSRPwc3zB-tbxYCWKdEH9H51l-FO7b8SBIf3z4EVm8ScrY7TrdtYjNESqYdYxp34tpKgFaZyKQHRpZvFk7yE-R3ZS2542Nka-hKD4xEjLGLnfUWsR-zNvE5L9UzhYQ_AitNat-cfjBcNrpdn0cHWOm8hVpEbAvvIRIzJLWlZgoDCVsdPZ3RxeeTi2LciIUDN9BOUozWxX89G0A0ppuISCxuTzwsZqTqZSAWNHsrVlbBZ0MTSU.iZXkfAKg0v-7LF2NQvE1ljQw3OuNj1Z31tqVVBRHyPQ&dib_tag=se&gad_source=1&hvadid=600343376765&hvdev=c&hvexpln=0&hvlocphy=9222584&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=4954414635867692677--&hvqmt=b&hvrand=4954414635867692677&hvtargid=kwd-296986791818&hydadcr=28589_14616118&keywords=permatex%2Bhigh%2Btemp%2Brtv&mcid=080aa7330491305ab93e5fce00330397&qid=1764764008&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1

[Weaver]

Trumpeter's other vice is "we've got slide-mould technology so we HAVE to use it so we boast about it on the box", the coda being, "- even if it means putting a totally uneccessary line of flash down the whole length of a fuselage, which the modeller will have to clean up between the engrave panel lines..."

[PR19_Kit]

As luck would have it I don't actually need that missing part as it's totally invisible on the completed model, thanks to one of those grille thingies which sits right on top of it.

RESULT! 

[PR19_Kit]

Got the engine 'shed' and its associated grille panel in place, minus some of the stupidly small greeblies that should be on there, according to the instructions anyway. On which point, many of the drawings bear little or no resemblance to the plastic bits they're meant to represent! Presumably the artists couldn't be bothered to look at the actual sprues, let alone a completed model! Some parts were so unrecognisable that I just didn't bother  to fit them, and in any case the BH8 version of the LCAC wasn't fitted with a lot of the USN specific kit anyway. (Kit's 2nd Rule applies....)

In any case I'm just going to fit many of the greeblies just where I feel like anyway, after all it's a Whiff and it's MY Whiff too!

I was going to fit the port thrust fan too, but I reckon I'll need to paint the actual fan first as I won't be able to get at it later, and the guide vanes that are meant to fit on the aft end of the ducts are too short by about 1 mm and there's no way to glue them on as they are.

I've got to work on that of course.

[PR19_Kit]

I'm steadily working through building the 'sheds' on the starboard side of the BH8, but as they're identical to the port side ones it's a waste of your and my time me posting pics of them. The one exception is the forward 'shed', which is the 'Bridge', 'Cockpit', 'Conning Tower', call it hat you will, from where they steer the thing.

(The word 'steer' is used here in its widest possible sense, as you'll know what I mean if you've ever travelled aboard a hovercraft! Precise they are not!)

I'm in the process of 'British-ising' the 'Bridge' as I'm sure BHC would have added their own stamp to the original Textron shape, and I'm adding a larger observation 'capsule' on the port side forward 'shed' too. The one in the kit is a) woefully small, b) in the wrong place for what I have in mind, and c) totally opaque thanks to the strange clear plastic Trumpeter use! It'll be converted to an ESM dome or similar, just by painting it black maybe.

My new one comes from a 1/144 scale Apache helicopter. 

Maybe some pics later.

[kerick]

What happens with an air cushion vehicle if it has to cross a ditch. I was just thinking about how one would work on the flat farm fields in the Midwest. Many of the creeks have been dug out and turned into drainage ditches. Some of them 20 feet across and nearly as deep.

[PR19_Kit]

It depends how large the hovercraft is, I doubt an SRN4 would even notice a 20 ft ditch as an example. An SRN5 however is only twice as long as your 20 ft ditch and would probably nose dive into it and have quite a job getting back out.

[kerick]

I'm just wondering if a +- 20 x 20 opening on each side would let out enough air to deflate the cushion.

[PR19_Kit]

I guess it would if the craft was going slow enough, but some craft have divided cushions so the air supply wouldn't all vanish at once.

[kerick]

I guess it would if the craft was going slow enough, but some craft have divided cushions so the air supply wouldn't all vanish at once.

Now that would make sense, especially if cruising around on land very much at all.

[PR19_Kit]

The Textron LCAC has such a cushion divider, and I believe the BH7s did as well, but I can't find any pics of them.

My LCAC kit, from which I'm building the Whiffed BH8, has a divided cushion like this.



The bow is toward the right in that pic, so it would have half of the forward cushion isolated over your 20 ft ditch.

[PR19_Kit]

And here's the Warwick with most of the 'sheds' in position, lacking only the one forward on the starboard side, which I'm working on to 'Britishify' it a bit.

[jcf]

BHC cushion design evolution. You cannot view this attachment.

[PR19_Kit]

Hm, the recent forum glitch erased my comment on this.

I said 'The chart doesn't show the SRN3, the first real military hovercraft. That would have been interesting to see'

It's notable that the LCAC has the same planform as the much larger SRN4 but reversed, the longitudinal 'barrier strip' is forward on the LCAC.

[jcf]

I said 'The chart doesn't show the SRN3, the first real military hovercraft. That would have been interesting to see'

It's the third one down, the listing is confusing because the SRN3 originated as a military version of the stretched 150 passenger SRN2 Mark 2. The design was finalized in December 1962 and the company decided to proceed with construction without a contract in hand. If the military hadn't purchased the machine, which they did in May 1963, it would have been completed as the civil SRN2 Mark 2.

Paraphrased from the book 
From River to Sea: the Marine Heritage of Sam Saunders,
Raymond L. Wheeler, Cross Publishing 1993.