Fiddlers Green

I noticed that the oil cooler seems too small compared to the space it is to occupy. Also, the main landing gear struts were too long- although a simple snip of the scissors will solve that.

Otherwise I am very impressed by the fit and overall shape of this model.

Anyone know where I can find COLOR photos of a Westland S-55 in BEA colors? The only ones I can find are B&W. I was hoping to do a repaint...

Ask and ye shall receive ...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/BEA---British/BEA---British/1192144

www.airliners.net is a terrific source for photos - albeit you have to try different things with their search engine to extract what you're really looking for.

MOCR,
with the oil cooler cowling, I usually take a strip of paper from the same area that the part was cut from (keeping grain the same direction) and splice it in with strips. I have a picture here that you can just make out the piece

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/ ... G_2930.jpg

The strip is noticeable on this one because I used a different piece of paper. DOH!!

On this one I used the strip from the same area. You have to zoom in to see the strip.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/ ... G_3237.jpg

That's just bloody amazing airport kid! It turns out, that was the EXACT ship I was looking for. Another website has several B&W shots of it, but none in color. Turns out the fuselage is now at a helicopter museum, but it's in very bad shape. I remember reading that BEA only used like maybe 5 or 6 of these back in the day, so I knew photos would be rare.

I must admit- I liked the model but wanted my first heli to be a Huey. Then I watched "A Hard Day's Night" on the telly and my interest changed to do this model first. The Westland was what the Fab 4 made their getaway in at the end of the film. I liked this model enough I figured I'd try to do a simple repaint of the ship they escaped in. I just needed a color reference and you did that very well!

And good job on stretching the oil cooler cowling willygoat! That's a nice trick.

Stretching the Oil Cooler fairing may work for the model, but the original is closer to correct scale. Take a look at all the S-55 pictures in www.airliners.net and you'll see that the fairing is quite short.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Associat ... 0707052/L/

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Denmark- ... 0579299/L/


BTW, the Grand Canyon Tours turbine S-55 would make a gorgeous subject - the lengthened nose and cleaned up turtledeck really make a slick looking machine - and that paint scheme is exceptionally attractive.

Five blades, too (to soak up all that turbine power) would make it look like a serious machine.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Papillon ... 0918375/L/

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled ... 0366335/L/

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Papillon ... 0139447/L/

No doubt! That is a slick aircraft. I'm curious though- was this a mod of an old airframe, or a completely new bird? I'm not up on my S-55 history, but it seems most would be past their usual service lives, and if this was a mod, why they chose this variant over others.

Certainly more horses with the turbine, is the engine larger compared to the radial? Aside from aerodynamics, I'd like to know if the lengthened nose was for more room for the turbine, fuel or cargo deck?

Looks like the vents just below the cockpit are the intake for the turbine? The exhaust is on the starboard side it looks like...

Another fun thing with the turbine version, not all had the nice cone over the engine. Some had a more exposed nose.

For the application, carrying 8 or more sightseers at once, there are no cost effective modern airframes I'm aware of, and modifying an old S-55 would have been fairly inexpensive (compared to buying something new). Airframes aren't what's life limited (look at at how many DC-3s are still putting in 10,000 hours years after year around the world), it's engines and rotors that have life limits. You can bet that 5 blade rotor is new equipment all the way through the transmission to the engine, and the turbine is, of course, new as well.


The nose in lengthened for one reason: weight and balance. The turbine is both smaller and lighter than the original radial; it has to be located further forward to preserve the helo's CG. Look at the pictures of S-55s in airliners.net - there are several pictures of turbine helos with their cowlings open so you can how small that turbine is.


I assume that's correct as there aren't any other openings (unless the intake is taken from below, but risk of FOD (foreign object damage) would argue against locating a turbine intake close to the ground).