Dan Vadas

Starting the main rotor blades :


 
I made an extra rib to support the end of the reinforcing wire. This is a rare design flaw in the kit, they just leave the wire floating around :

 
This was one of the most challenging pieces to glue due to the length of the seam - 235mm with a minimal amount of twist in the blade. One of the blades finished up with a slightly bigger twist than the others, but not enough to lose any sleep over :

 
The blade temporarily fitted to the rotor control while I fit the hydraulic lines, made from 0.2mm wire :



 
I'm thinking of making the rotor blade as a removable part for ease of transport to model shows etc. They are a snug fit onto the shafts and fairly easy to attach and the hydraulic lines slip into a slightly oversize hole in the end of the blade. The overall diameter of nearly 0.5 metres would make transport difficult.
 
Danny

Starting the main rotor blades :


 
I made an extra rib to support the end of the reinforcing wire. This is a rare design flaw in the kit, they just leave the wire floating around :

 
This was one of the most challenging pieces to glue due to the length of the seam - 235mm with a minimal amount of twist in the blade. One of the blades finished up with a slightly bigger twist than the others, but not enough to lose any sleep over :

 
The blade temporarily fitted to the rotor control while I fit the hydraulic lines, made from 0.2mm wire :



 
I'm thinking of making the rotor blade as a removable part for ease of transport to model shows etc. They are a snug fit onto the shafts and fairly easy to attach and the hydraulic lines slip into a slightly oversize hole in the end of the blade. The overall diameter of nearly 0.5 metres would make transport difficult.
 
Danny

A drop of strategically placed medium thickness CA glue can do the trick. Don't rely on it as a permanent glue though, use the PVA glue as normal. A little experimentation may be needed.
 
Danny

Starting the main rotor blades :


 
I made an extra rib to support the end of the reinforcing wire. This is a rare design flaw in the kit, they just leave the wire floating around :

 
This was one of the most challenging pieces to glue due to the length of the seam - 235mm with a minimal amount of twist in the blade. One of the blades finished up with a slightly bigger twist than the others, but not enough to lose any sleep over :

 
The blade temporarily fitted to the rotor control while I fit the hydraulic lines, made from 0.2mm wire :



 
I'm thinking of making the rotor blade as a removable part for ease of transport to model shows etc. They are a snug fit onto the shafts and fairly easy to attach and the hydraulic lines slip into a slightly oversize hole in the end of the blade. The overall diameter of nearly 0.5 metres would make transport difficult.
 
Danny

The top cap :

 
The five support arms. Once again I used a piece of wire to keep everything aligned while fitting :





 
A control arm fitted to each support arm :



 
Danny

Starting the main rotor blades :


 
I made an extra rib to support the end of the reinforcing wire. This is a rare design flaw in the kit, they just leave the wire floating around :

 
This was one of the most challenging pieces to glue due to the length of the seam - 235mm with a minimal amount of twist in the blade. One of the blades finished up with a slightly bigger twist than the others, but not enough to lose any sleep over :

 
The blade temporarily fitted to the rotor control while I fit the hydraulic lines, made from 0.2mm wire :



 
I'm thinking of making the rotor blade as a removable part for ease of transport to model shows etc. They are a snug fit onto the shafts and fairly easy to attach and the hydraulic lines slip into a slightly oversize hole in the end of the blade. The overall diameter of nearly 0.5 metres would make transport difficult.
 
Danny

The top cap :

 
The five support arms. Once again I used a piece of wire to keep everything aligned while fitting :





 
A control arm fitted to each support arm :



 
Danny

Starting the main rotor blades :


 
I made an extra rib to support the end of the reinforcing wire. This is a rare design flaw in the kit, they just leave the wire floating around :

 
This was one of the most challenging pieces to glue due to the length of the seam - 235mm with a minimal amount of twist in the blade. One of the blades finished up with a slightly bigger twist than the others, but not enough to lose any sleep over :

 
The blade temporarily fitted to the rotor control while I fit the hydraulic lines, made from 0.2mm wire :



 
I'm thinking of making the rotor blade as a removable part for ease of transport to model shows etc. They are a snug fit onto the shafts and fairly easy to attach and the hydraulic lines slip into a slightly oversize hole in the end of the blade. The overall diameter of nearly 0.5 metres would make transport difficult.
 
Danny

The top cap :

 
The five support arms. Once again I used a piece of wire to keep everything aligned while fitting :





 
A control arm fitted to each support arm :



 
Danny

The final pieces of the exhaust coolers are two flanges :

 
The coolers fitted. I'll fit the right side one later, as it will be in the lowered position :





 
I've re-installed the part that broke off earlier and fitted the guards around it :

 
Then I fitted the weapons platforms :




Danny

A drop of strategically placed medium thickness CA glue can do the trick. Don't rely on it as a permanent glue though, use the PVA glue as normal. A little experimentation may be needed.
 
Danny

Several members have added Indexes to "Points of Interest" to their Build Logs. This helps both themselves and others to quickly find the page or post to certain items during the course of construction - e.g. selecting "Capstan" will take you directly to the first post dealing with it's construction.
 
Here's how you do it :
 
The Index is merely a collection of Links. For those of you familiar with the method of creating a Link you can skip this next bit.
 
How to create a Link :
 
Find the Post you want to create a Link to, preferably by opening MSW in a separate Window. RIGHT Click on the Post Number :
 

 
This will bring up a Menu. Click on "Copy Link Location" :
 

 
Click on the "Edit" button in the post you want to create a Link :
 

 
Select the word (or words) that you want to turn into a Link by dragging your mouse across it while holding down the left button or using Shift + Arrow on the keyboard :
 

 
Click on the "Add Link" Button in the menu bar :
 

 
This brings up a small Menu. RIGHT Click in the "URL" bar. Make sure the cursor is inside the bar. Click "Paste" in the menu :
 

 
The Link is now attached to your selected word/s.
 
Example of an Index
 
It's helpful to place the Index in the first post of your Build Log, but if you can't do that for whatever reason you could create a Link to the Index page in the first post of the Log.
 
You can Format the text in the usual way (font, size color etc)
 

Starting the main rotor blades :


 
I made an extra rib to support the end of the reinforcing wire. This is a rare design flaw in the kit, they just leave the wire floating around :

 
This was one of the most challenging pieces to glue due to the length of the seam - 235mm with a minimal amount of twist in the blade. One of the blades finished up with a slightly bigger twist than the others, but not enough to lose any sleep over :

 
The blade temporarily fitted to the rotor control while I fit the hydraulic lines, made from 0.2mm wire :



 
I'm thinking of making the rotor blade as a removable part for ease of transport to model shows etc. They are a snug fit onto the shafts and fairly easy to attach and the hydraulic lines slip into a slightly oversize hole in the end of the blade. The overall diameter of nearly 0.5 metres would make transport difficult.
 
Danny

The top cap :

 
The five support arms. Once again I used a piece of wire to keep everything aligned while fitting :





 
A control arm fitted to each support arm :



 
Danny

Starting the main rotor blades :


 
I made an extra rib to support the end of the reinforcing wire. This is a rare design flaw in the kit, they just leave the wire floating around :

 
This was one of the most challenging pieces to glue due to the length of the seam - 235mm with a minimal amount of twist in the blade. One of the blades finished up with a slightly bigger twist than the others, but not enough to lose any sleep over :

 
The blade temporarily fitted to the rotor control while I fit the hydraulic lines, made from 0.2mm wire :



 
I'm thinking of making the rotor blade as a removable part for ease of transport to model shows etc. They are a snug fit onto the shafts and fairly easy to attach and the hydraulic lines slip into a slightly oversize hole in the end of the blade. The overall diameter of nearly 0.5 metres would make transport difficult.
 
Danny

The top cap :

 
The five support arms. Once again I used a piece of wire to keep everything aligned while fitting :





 
A control arm fitted to each support arm :



 
Danny

The top cap :

 
The five support arms. Once again I used a piece of wire to keep everything aligned while fitting :





 
A control arm fitted to each support arm :



 
Danny

Yep  - the S-61  Sea King had them fitted  because of the dust  in  certain climates  and they just kept them fitted.
 
OC.

Well, the 'Meteor' finally has a stern!  The major elements of the transom framing are now in place so she's looking like a ship at last.  Still some detail pieces to fit around the transom and then some final fairing up and sanding of the exterior before I give her a bit of planking to firm up the whole structure.
 
It will be a little while until my next update as I won't be in at the museum for the next three weeks.
 
John
 

Now for a REAL fun bit - the control system for the main rotor. Here are most of the parts :

 
The lower part :




 
A "drive shaft" part which controls the angle :


 
The upper part. I used a 2mm punch to keep the centres aligned while gluing the pieces together :





 
The upper and lower parts fitted to the main shaft :


Danny

The final pieces of the exhaust coolers are two flanges :

 
The coolers fitted. I'll fit the right side one later, as it will be in the lowered position :





 
I've re-installed the part that broke off earlier and fitted the guards around it :

 
Then I fitted the weapons platforms :




Danny

A Weather Vane sits atop the light dome. The orientation of North is correct (before you check it John  ) :

 
There is an Anemometer where the original radio antenna used to be. I think the antenna was removed when radio technology improved :

 
With the fitting of the safety railings the model is FINISHED :










 


 
Danny

I took it to her place this morning - she's stoked with it  . She's giving it to her grandson who's name happens to be ......... (drum roll) ........ BYRON  .
 
Thanks for the comments guys  . Now it's back to the Hind helicopter.
 
Danny

Thus ends the German phase; Graf Zeppelin, Seydlitz and Emden. 

Parked up in the digital graveyard. 
 
I live in hope they will make a USS Langley so I can build that as my third US ship, but I’m not really inspired by anything at the moment as anything I build I want to weather heavily as it’s fun. I’m really not a fan of doing that many aircraft again, so as a break I intend to do a couple of flying boats in ‘Shore Leave’. I haven’t built a plastic aircraft since the very early 1980’s. 

Aerials added, Ships crest, pretty much done. I’ll get some better images tomorrow when I have better light