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Reviewer: Pete Noyle (peternoyle@kw.igs.net)
Kit Review submitted:  8 August 2004

The aircraft

Length                                   40 ft 4 in (12.29 m)

Rotor diameter                      32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)

Height                                    11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)

Max speed                             131 mph

Service ceiling                      15,600 ft

Range                                     316 miles

Engine                    One 685 SHP Bristol Siddeley (Rolls Royce) Nimbus Mk 503. The Wasp used the 1,050 SHP Nimbus derated to 710 SHP.

The design of the Westland Wasp (the Scout is the Army version), originated with the Saunders-Roe P.531 as a five seat general purpose helicopter optimized for ship board operations. The Scout A.H.1, the subject of this model, was used by the British Army and the armies of Jordan and Uganda. The Royal Navy used the Sea Scout HAS Mk.1 (the first, XS463, delivered on 28^th October 1962), at which time the name changed officially to ‘Wasp.’ The main difference between the two machines was the skid undercarriage of the army helicopters and four-wheel undercarriage of the marine version. The Wasp was used by Australia, Brazil, Netherlands, New Zealand and the British Royal Navy.

The kit

Airfix kit number 01042 (my kit was made by Heller), is contained in a sturdy end opening box where four spru’s, one clear parts and three in gray plastic, lie within a plastic bag. There is quite a lot of flash evident which points to the age of the moulds (I remember building this kit 40 years ago), but all the parts are finely detailed with raised panel lines and large rivets. The clear parts have ejection pin marks that will need careful removal.

The box art depicts a Scout in a battle field situation and on the reverse side of the box alongside of the description is a reproduction of the Army helicopter shown in the box art without the background scenery and a very blurred picture of a Navy Wasp. All text is repeated in four languages. Skill level is put at 2.

With my kit one of the ‘arms’ of the rotor hub (part 45, although the sprue does not have the little number label, the part number is only referenced in the instructions), was missing and did not appear in the plastic bag. Airfix replacement parts service came to a speedy rescue and a new part arrived soon after I had asked for it.

Instructions

A single sheet of paper printed on one side only.

There is no colour call out for either of the models i.e. British Army or Jordanian, or decal placement information. The box art is the only reference available and if you are making the Jordanian model, then you are on your own.

Thanks to David Byrden, here is the colour information from 1960's header card on Jordan markings

In three languages the following is provided –

• General instructions.
• Brief description of the helicopter (as at the time of the kit’s manufacture?).
• Construction sequence (5 stages), in easy to understand drawings.
• Special instructions for a stretcher version.

Decals

Awful! Minimum markings for the British Army are provided and the decals for a Jordanian helicopter are so out of register that they are simply unusable. Get aftermarket decals, don’t insult your model by using the ones from the kit.

Construction 

We all make mistakes or have mistakes thrust upon us by the kit itself – mine are highlighted by the words AW GAWD.

Step 1 – Cockpit interior.

Turning our attention to the crew clones first. They are quite well detailed but of course, being from the same mould, they are identical and have no ‘personality’ of their own. I selected one to be the pilot and butchered his arms such that the left one was holding a collective pitch lever and the other the control column. The legs having to be separated to reach the turn pedals that alter the tail rotor pitch. The other figure was to be the observer/navigator so he had his head turned as though looking out of the side window and a map was attached to his right hand. The coveralls were painted Earth Green with splashes of Olive Drab to simulate camouflage coveralls (I don’t know if the British Army used that colour scheme in the 1960’s, but it looks OK when viewed through the thick plastic of the clear parts). The bone domes were coloured Earth Green with a gloss Black visor. The face and hands were Native Flesh lightened with White and the boots were semi-gloss Black.

I made up a fret instrument panel, painted mat Gray, and stuck it to the kit instrument panel that I had previously painted semi gloss Black. This gave a reasonable instrument panel. The centre console was painted mat Gray and the various switches and buttons represented with paint and with discs punched out with the Waldron punch set. The rest of the cockpit interior was painted mat Gray, the stretcher being Pale Green. The seats were mat Gray with semi gloss Black squabs. Assembly was as per the instructions.

AW GAWD. - I trial fitted the side window clear parts but the fit was very poor and I decided to replace the complete side window moulding with scratch made parts. I searched through my box of ‘useful clear parts that were once packaging materials’ and found a sheet of thicker than usual Perspex (actually 0.021 in), and large enough to glaze half a dozen Scouts. I cut side windows to be a gentle push fit into the frames and secured them with beads of Future. This method is not durable and does not stand up to handling well, but we are making a model here and not a toy and the benefit of having clear glazing far outweighs the durability factor - plus the appearance of flush fitting windows makes the model. Before finally installing the windows I used the panes as patterns for the masks to be applied later. The curved windows at the ‘bow’ were challenging and at one point I cut off the kit part to see if that would fit well enough to use but once again the clear part was just not good enough in both fit and shape. I raided my ‘useful’ box again and found some clear material of about the right curvature and cut and fitted new bow windows.

Once the side glazing was in place the cockpit interior was fitted and the two fuselage halves joined. The bulges in the rear door that accommodate extra tall casualties have location pins that are too long and they impact the rear cabin wall. Trim these down before applying glue!

Now for the cabin roof.

AW GAWD. - The cabin roof is a one piece moulding that incorporates the windscreen, roof and two rear windows. All I can say is that it fits where it touches. The rear windows just do not locate anywhere near where they should and the windscreen produces a tapered gap of 1 mm on one side down to nothing on the other at the fuselage. The fix for the windscreen was simple; I cut a piece of plastic to the wedge shape and glued it to the fuselage, finishing of with files to produce a matching contour. The rear windows were another matter. I cut off the offending windows and made new ones using more bits from my ‘useful box.’

It is a pity about these fitting problems because the part itself is really quite good, nice and clear and very little distortion, especially after being soaked in Future over night. Perhaps I should have purchased an after market vacuum formed cabin roof.

Step 3 – Engine, engine deck, tail rotor.

The kit Nimbus engine is minimalist simplicity and cries out for some detailing. I added a fuel control to the forward right side, a starter just above and a panel with a connection block with two pipes leading from it the purpose of which is a mystery to me. On the left side I added the igniter box with a shelf above, two bleed valves and parts of the electrical harness. Various pipes were represented with copper and steel wire of suitable gauge. At the rear, below the bifurcated exhaust ducts is the take-off from the power turbine. I made one from scratch complete with disk brake, making sure that the shaft to the tail rotor lined up with part 19. The shaft to the main rotor tower (part 21) was used without modification. I added an oil filler cap to the oil tank – that round bit at the front of the engine. Basic colour was Silver with ModelMaster Jet Exhaust for the exhaust ducts and the odd bit of red was added where needed. The engine was not installed until after the fuselage painting exercise had been completed.

The main rotor tower is represented by part 21 that sits on a raised pad on the engine deck. The rotor shaft (20) is retained by a collar (22) at its lower end and needs to be inserted before the tower is attached to the engine deck. On the actual aircraft four bracing tubes rise from the deck to the top of the tower and these were represented using stretched sprue. The tower casting has deep strengthening ribs but I could see no easy way of reproducing them in 72^nd scale so I left the kit part as it came - a round cone.

AW GAWD. – I thought that I had made sure that the rotor shaft/collar assembly was well out of the way when I glued the tower to the deck. Well, it was, that is until I accidentally pressed on the rotor shaft and pushed it downwards into the still setting glue (I bent the shaft as well). I had now a non-rotating rotor! I drilled upwards from the underside of the deck plate, gradually using larger drills until I had opened a hole the same diameter as the inside of the tower (21) and the rotor shaft dropped out. Using an electric drill I turned two bearings, one upper and one lower, and pressed them into the tower. For the rotor shaft I used steel rod of 0.032 diameter so the bearing holes were drilled 0.034 diameter. The bottom retainer was a similar piece of round plastic drilled to an interference fit of 0.031 diameter and this was pushed on to the steel shaft. The upper retainer was drilled to the same diameter but the OD was stepped as per the kit part. The new (replacement from Airfix), rotor head was drilled out to 0.031 and press fitted to the steel shaft. I now had a much sturdier rotor shaft and nice tight bearings.

There are four pitch control lever assemblies that emerge from the upper part of the rotor shaft and these have connector arms linking the levers to the rotor blades at the hub. These I reproduced from scratch using stretched sprue and sheet plastic.

I scratch made the tower oil tank with its associated pipes and connections and glued it to the engine deck just behind the rear of the cabin wall on the left side.

I did not fit the tail rotor at this stage.

Step 4 – Undercarriage skid, antennae and tail plane.

The undercarriage skid is a delicate tracery of tubes and fittings reproduced quite well in the kit. I started with the fuselage attachments (parts 32 and 33), ensuring that they were horizontal in respect to the fuselage centre line. I allowed a day drying time then attached the skids, 36 and 37, and to ensure that they were vertical and horizontal I set the fuselage down on a suitable block while the glue dried. The shock absorbers attached with no problem. The tail plane part 28 had two ejection pin marks that had to be filled otherwise fitting was without trouble although you have to take care to ensure that it dries horizontal. On the aircraft the tail plane is supported by rigging wires stretched from the tail boom. These I reproduced with stretched sprue. The antennae and tail skid were added without comment.

Step 5 – Main rotor.

At rest the Scout exhibits a distinct rotor blade droop which seems to stem from the blade attachment at the rotor hub as well as bending of the blades themselves. As my model was to be ‘flying’ this droop did not bother me but modelers depicting a parked Scout may want to droop the blades.

Painting

As previously mentioned, there is no guidance for paint schemes provided with this kit. I consulted the readers forum at the Heli-Kit News website and was advised that British Army Scouts had the following paint schemes –

Early machines:

Olive Drab BS 381C:298 with mat Black stripes.

Late machines:

Olive Green BS 381C:220 with Medium Sea Gray BS 381C:637 stripes.

There are several web pages devoted to the Scout helicopter, the most informative one being (for my use), http://212.158.133.3//hwa/alec_revelle/scout/index.htm This provides 88 high quality images of a Scout at Middle Wallop taken by Alec Revelle and is invaluable for detailing the Airfix kit.

Before the main rotor, tail rotor and engine were fitted I applied masks (cut from Frisket Film), to the glazed areas. The clear cabin roof does not have any defined ribs to show where the glazing is positioned. I overcame this by applying strips of coloured masking using the box art as the guide. Once the limit of the glazed area was established I could cut the masks to suite and then remove the temporary masking. I sprayed Tamiya Light Gray primer on to the model and when any defects in workmanship were corrected, I applied a coat of ModelMaster Olive Drab. To save a tedious masking job I hand painted the stripes with Tamiya mat Black acrylic. This was a bit of a guessing game in that the only photograph I had available of the complete aircraft was of the right side. The left side image had been taken as the sun set and was in deep shadow.

Details such as the rubber shock absorber covers and navigation lights were picked out with the appropriate colours. The kit decals, as mentioned above, leave a lot to be desired. The Jordanian ones were consigned to the trash can. The British Army decals settled down quite well but the red, white and blue bars at the tail needed several applications of Testors ‘Decal Set’ to settle them down on the oversized rivets.

Removing the masks revealed quite a large amount of paint bleed across the glazing. I scraped the excess paint off using a piece of sprue cut to a chisel edge and then wiped the ‘glass’ with a Microsponge dipped in Future. This restored the glaze to nearly new.

Final assembly

The engine was installed and, after painting (black with white tips) the main rotor blades were attached. I painted the tail rotor white with black bands as per the Middle Wallop aircraft rather than the white with red bands as suggested by the box art. The hub was painted Olive Drab.

Options

The stretcher folded away or down, ready for use, seems to be the only choice to be made.

Versions

Only the choice of the decals produces different versions of the kit although, as listed below, aftermarket parts and decals are available.

Accuracy                                                                     model equivalent

Length                                   40 ft 4 in (12.29 m)                                40 ft over main and tail rotor discs.  

Rotor diameter                      32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)                                  31 ft 6 in

Height                                    11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)                                  9 ft 3 in

Conclusions

If I was just starting out making model aircraft and this kit of the Scout was my first try then I would never buy another Airfix kit again. Fortunately I have bought other Airfix kits and most of them have resulted in positive experiences.

This is not a kit for the beginner, treat it as a limited run offering or a vac-formed cheapy (not to denigrate vac-formed kits in any way), and be prepared to do a lot of work! I really like the model itself, it is just the things around it that let it down, the fit of the parts, the decals, and the colour call out just are not there. Arm yourself with plenty of information from other sources and you will build a delightful model of one of the earlier British helicopter productions. I paid $6.49 Canadian for my kit in 2004, do you get what you pay for I wonder?

References

http://212.158.133.3//hwa/alec_revelle/scout/index.htm (which is part of Helicopter Walkarounds web site) provides a wealth of detail of the British Army Scout at Middle Wallop. My thanks to Alec Revelle for the clear and detailed photographs.

Heli-Kit News web site www.5chr.freeserve.co.uk

© Pete Noyle 2004

The following information has been taken from the excellent web site ‘The Definitive 1/72 Scale Model Census’ www.72scale.com Not all of the accessories referenced are still available.

© Pete Noyle 2004

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