New Gazelle Please - 1/72

[david_fleming]

Please! I've made more than a few of the old one, but I'm fed up doing all the changes/mods you have to make to turn it into a production standard aircraft, to say nothing of all the updates that the Army Air Corps aircraft have had over the years. Time to retire that old mould and do a new one!

It's such a significant aircraft - every British Military helicopter pilot trained on it for over 25 years, it's the only aircraft to have been used by all 4 Military services and the Research establishments, it has a huge range of colour schemes and it's still in service - and that's not considering the non-UK forces.

In fact. I'd even consider doing 1/48th for a decent Gazelle!

[Tweezers]

 Was the molding that bad?  Surely just a case of additional parts and decals?

The same can be said for the Scout helicopter.

[david_fleming]

It's not bad, just based on a very early prototype and simplified in several areas> To make a production example, this is the list of changes I usually make:

 

1) Pitot tube needs adding to under the nose 2) Rotor head/blade attachments - these are very crude - at a minimum, remove and re-attach the blades at a centre point on the rotor hinge, not on top. 3) Engine air intake filter - on the kit, it's a straight cone shape. It should be a tube with a mesh cone on the rear half 4) The rear of the fin beneath the nav light needs modifying with a cut out and a loop added 5) Fenestron hub - all UK Gazelles had 'open' starboard hubs, the kit is solid 6) Antennae - the antenna fit is a very early one (e.g. the two blade antennae under the nose) - this is probably accurate for the HT2/3 but they are very thick! 7) Cockpit - you need to add control columns as a minimum, probablly collective as well but lots can be added 8) Rear side windows are a poor fit, and you need to scribe rear doors and add hinges

9) Circular mesh in intake (?) on starboard fuselage side

 

These are just the changes to make an early AH1/HT2/3. To do later AH1s, the following are options:

 

Mods over time (Cumulative for modern AH1s – aircraft can have some or all of these fits) 1) Fin tip anti-collision light - current fit is higher and a different shape 2)'H' aerial on nose (Heller release had this) 3) Ferranti sight on port roof - the ability to carry this appears to be on all current AH1s, but not all have it. Heller kit (Or Airfix kit with wrong roof) provides a start, but UK sight is different 4) Sand filter - for a Gulf/Telic aircraft, 5) IR reduction exhaust (Sugar scoop) - not always fitted, came in the Airwaves set 6) - IR exhaust cowling -  first seen on OP Telic aircraft, usually only seen on operational aircraft

 

7) Nose and tail now have vertical blade antenna fitted 8) Doppler box under rear of fuselage pod (there are also various small boxes under the main fuselage) 9) - skid wheels if fitted 10) Flotation bags if fitted (& associated gas tubes) 11) Antenna - the forward blade aerial was replaced by an 'L' shaped one 12) Stores boom sometimes fitted; Hele-tele and Nightsun on NI and other theatres (e.g. Iraq); Rockets on Falklands aircraft

 

13) There is an alternative antennae fit on the port side for communications fit

 

14) Some AH1s have an ECM fit that involves RWR and MAW receivers on ‘pins’ on the fuselage and on the outside of the ‘H’ antenna Many (all?) AH1s were also fitted a more powerful engine, and apparently a slightly larger fenestron (in 1/72 it would be negligible?). I have also heard a comment that the Airfix fenestron has the wrong number of blades, but I can't see that.

 

[Oliver Hyett]

is that the same as the make and paint as i did that and it was a let down