GLENCOE 1:72 BRISTOL SYCAMORE MK.51

 

Reviewer: Pete Noyle  (peternoyle@kw.igs.net)
Kit Review submitted:  18 December 2002

 

Aircraft:

Four seat helicopter for military and commercial use.

First flown on July 24th 1947 the Type 171 was the first British helicopter to receive a commercial certificate. (The Bell 48 also made its first flight that year). Two prototypes were made powered by a 450 HP Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior R-985 engine, but subsequent machines were powered by the Alvis Leonides engine. The main rotor was fully articulated and the blades were made of wood. In military service the helicopter is known as the Sycamore and has been used by the RAF, the German Bundeswehr (Federal Defense) serving with the Marinefliegertruppe (Naval Aviation) in a SAR role, the Belgian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy.

Aircraft:

My home city was Bristol where the Bristol Aeroplane Company had its factory. My Dad worked there where he was an inspector on the Blenheim and Beaufighter aircraft. Bristol produced many classic machines such as the Bulldog of WW 1; the Britannia (Whispering Giant) airliner; the Brabazon with a wingspan of 230 feet and later, when Bristol became part of British Aerospace, the Concorde. The Sycamore was the first of several helicopter designs produced by the company, the twin engined, twin rotor Type 173 utilised much of the knowledge gained with the Type 171. The 173 went on to become the Type 192, the Belvedere. Living so close to the factory, experimental and unusual aircraft were often seen in the skies above Bristol and if you drove past the factory you could see the helicopter rotor test rig, complete with its ring of torpedo netting.

Kit Parts:

Four sprues of harder than usual gray plastic contain the 36 parts, the actual number of parts is greater than this, but similar parts have been given the same number. The number of the parts is referenced only in the instructions – there are no numbers on the sprues. The fuselage halves have slots for a stand although no stand is provided in the kit. Clear parts come on one sprue and all appear to be of good quality except for a door window (9) that had deep scratches in the surface. All the plastic ‘bits’ are contained in a single plastic bag. Two parts had become detached and were loose in the bag. Some flash needs to be taken care of and the ejection pin marks are very evident and need to be filled. Many of the small parts have additional sprue attached, presumably to assist in the molding process, but one part of the rotor head (34) had lost some of its detail. Panel lines are raised and there is a full set of rivets festooning the fuselage halves. The rear door outline is recessed, the front door is molded separately and can be posed open or closed.

Instructions:

This comes on one piece of paper 8" by 14" One side gives the assembly details in one large diagram with smaller diagrams for the cockpit interior and the rotor head detail. Assembly instructions are shown as 6 steps where numbers indicate which parts are to be glued together and which parts must not be glued. The description of the aircraft is on this side. The position of the instrument panel (11) is not clear, the illustration seems to indicate that it is horizontal whereas it is vertical in the aircraft.

The reverse side of the instruction sheet gives the painting and decal positioning for RAF, Belgian Air Force, the West German Wehrmacht and the Royal Australian Navy (three aircraft). Color names are repeated in a table in 5 languages. The words ‘Caution, not suitable for children under 3 years, contains small parts’ is repeated in 9 languages.

No reference is made to adding weight to the nose area but it seems to me that the model will be a tail sitter unless some weight is added.

The references to the decals is confusing – see heading ‘Decals.’

Construction:

All painting was completed using Testors Acryl unless otherwise stated.

Construction followed the sequence shown in the instructions except where noted below.

Rotor head

Most construction of model aircraft starts with the ‘office’ but this time I decided to begin with the complicated rotor head. There are 17 small parts to be put together within about a 2 cm diameter. Care needs to be taken but the effort is worth it because the result is an admiral representation of a 1940’s helicopter rotor head. I do not know what the various parts of a rotor head would have been called in the 1940’s, so I made up some of my own and I apologise to those ‘in the know’ for any blatant error on my part!

I had run out of space on my display shelves so I needed the Sycamore to be modelled with the rotor blades folded. The break line is not defined on the rotor blade root attachment plates so I guestimated that a saw cut at 97 mm from the blade tip would be near enough. Only two blades need to be folded. Photographs showed three tongues in the stem forging with corresponding two plates in the blade connector provide the elements of the hinge. I cut slots in the stem and for the blade root I added two plates from 0.010" sheet set into saw groves in the blade. Dressing the parts with the craft knife gave them a more ‘engineering’ look. I added a short length of 0.015 wire to the center of the rotor stem to represent the dowel used in the actual rotor head but I did not drill a corresponding hole in the blade – it would not be seen. I did not join the separated parts at this time, that would come later when the folded blade support assembly had been scratch built which would show the precise place to glue the blades back on.

With so many parts to be assembled the order that parts should go together can be numerous. What I did was as follows (it seemed to work out OK).

The blade carrier blocks (31) were glued to the tri-lobed hub (30) with the assembly placed on a flat surface while the glue dried. Next the uncut blade (32) was attached and at the same time the pitch control davit (34) was added which gave the true position of the blade before the glue finally dried. This was repeated with the other two davits and cut off blade stems. The rotor head was then painted ‘Aluminum’ – not silver. The rotor blade mount dampers (36) were then painted with aluminium and semi-gloss black while they were still on the sprue. (I use semi-gloss black to represent rubber, as on aircraft tires for example, rather than flat black). The torsion tubes (33) were also painted aluminium and semi-gloss black at this time. The torsion tubes were added from underneath the assembly and the dampers added from above. The photograph of the original machine that I have shows some black square marking on the blade carrier blocks and I reproduced this with flat-black using a round # 0 brush. The final part to be fitted is the top cap, but the moulding of this part in my kit was not satisfactory so I turned up a new one using my trusty electric drill as a lathe. The final application of aluminium paint was brushed on and the odd bit of over painting dressed out. Each blade has a red, yellow or black color band around the stem and the corresponding davit and these were painted on.


© Pete Noyle 2002

Cockpit/fuselage

Weight

I did a simple balance check by holding the two fuselage halves together with an elastic band and then trying to balance the assembly over a round pencil. The tail won every time. I added some plasticine to the nose until the assembly more or less balanced. This showed that I needed at least 10 grams at the point where the weight was. Naturally I could not finish the model with a lump of plasticine sitting in it, but I could make metal weight of about the same mass. Using a piece of 0.093 (3/32) thick mild steel I cut a plate 2 cm by 3 cm that could fit under the cockpit floor. 45 degree chamfers were needed along the 3 cm sides to accommodate the curve of the fuselage and two small cut-outs were also needed to clear the cockpit floor locations. A repeat of the pencil trick showed that this weight was more than enough but I was wrong! The weight was bonded to the cabin deck (12) with industrial glue.

At final assembly where the main rotors were being attached in their folded position, the model sat on its skid. It was a skid squatter! I replaced the plastic nose wheel with one turned from metal – a couple of grams increase in weight at most, but enough to balance the model.

Instrument panel

The cockpit is configured for right seat piloting only, which means that the majority of instruments are clustered on that side. The decal representing the instrument panel is not correct in this respect. I chose not to use the kit supplied instrument panel (11) and made my own from scratch. From 0.040 sheet I cut a piece of plastic a little larger than item 11 and painted one side semi-gloss black. While this was drying I cut out a fret (from 0.010 sheet), of the instrument locations using a Waldron punch and die set, there are three different diameters of gauges used and each hole was deliberately cut oversize in relation to scale. In my opinion scale size gauges simply do not show up, slightly larger ones give the opportunity for greater detailing without appearing to be over-scale. I painted the fret ‘aircraft interior black’ (matt black!). I attached the fret to the painted side of the 0.040 piece using super glue. When this was hardened I scribed the gauge needles into the semi-black paint and for the numbers I used a couple of turns from a fine drill. I simulated the glass by dropping in a spot of Future into each gauge. Finally the assembled panel was cut to the kidney-like shape of part 11. A box (0.040 thick) on the back of the panel is needed to act as an instrument cover and a pin of 0.015 dia needs to be attached. A short length of yellow telephone wire insulation will go from here to a similar pin in the floor panel at final assembly, this to represent the wiring loom connecting the panel to the aircraft hull.

Deck and center console

I painted the deck (12) with Westpoint Gray from a bottle of acrylic that I purchased from the local craft store. This acrylic paint has no durability when it comes to aircraft modelling, but for interiors that will never be handled it works well enough. Couple this with the huge range of shades available and the incredible low price – well I use it a lot! The draw back is that it is very thick and can form large ridges in surfaces that you may want to be perfectly flat. Wear marks in the floor were dry brushed with silver enamel. The center consol was then painted semi-gloss black and detailed with the collective pitch lever and some more instrumentation and then dry brushed with silver enamel to show wear at the consol corners.

Seats etc.

I mixed yellow and raw umber gently to retain some color differential between the two (stripes) and applied it to the seats. The result was a multi-shaded look that I hope looks like worn leather. The seam lines were drawn on using a black fine marker pen. Seat belts to the 1940 style were made from masking tape painted light blue.

Emergency door opening handles were made from scratch and painted striped yellow/black.

Left-hand seat footrests were made from 0.010 plastic and 0.015 wire and the tread marks on the pilots ‘rudder’ pedals were made by squeezing 0.040 plastic with a pair of pliers and then trimming to shape. These were painted black with wear marks dry brushed with silver.

Interior painting

The ceiling was painted gloss white and the walls (including the inside surface of the doors), painted Amish Gray. Photographs show the interior to be mainly black, but I wanted some lighter color in there so that detail would show up. The control stick was painted semi-gloss black with the hand grip painted flat black.

The rear door outlines were drawn with black liner pen and conform to the outside shape and position.

Windows

The nose dome, windscreen and roof are admirable, but the side windows are not usable. Firstly they have bottle bottom finish and secondly they have huge mounting flanges that look ridiculous if you view the interior through the open doors. I cut new ones from 0.035 " clear plastic, making them a very tight fit into their frames. The front left-hand window is modelled open (they slide within the doors rather like a car). The roof light is tinted yellow on the helicopter and I simulated this with a clear wood varnish applied to the inside surface but quite honestly the result just looks like dirty plastic.

At this point I applied the masking (frisket film) to the roof light and the rear door windows and the windscreen. The front clear dome and the open door windows would be fitted after final painting so do not need masking.

With the tight fit of the windows all that is needed to secure them is a dribble of Future. The roof light just rests on the fuselage but it is a good fit and the Future dribble will hold it there and the final painting will reinforce the joint.

A note about masking – Because my windows are tight fitted into the frames I mask them before final assembly. I apply the frisket film to the part using a piece of film much larger than the part (and making sure that it is applied to the correct side of the identical windows), and trim the film to size using the window as a guide for the blade. I hold the blade at about 45 deg to the window surface so the frisket is definitely slightly smaller than the window. This minute chamfer encourages the Future to creep into the window/frame joint.

Use 0.040 plastic to fill the slot designed for the stand and dress smooth.

Joining the fuselage sides

One last check to make sure all is done! Oops – no it is not.

The preserved Sycamore has car-like door handles although the box does not show this. I wanted door handles so I flattened the heads of two straight pins and from the blobs filed door handles. I drilled holes in the doors to accept these handles later, after all the painting is done.

Secure the assembled instrument panel and cabin floor into one fuselage half and then trial fit the other half. If OK, leave together with elastic bands until the glue dries and then take the two halves apart. Now you can reattach the second half permanently with glue at the consol and deck areas confident that all will line up correctly. Let this dry. Did you remember to fit the rotor shaft before you joined the fuselage halves?

My kit had some warping of the tail so I used super glue to hold the two fuselage halves in place as I worked my way around a little bit at a time. Once joined the step between the two halves was negligible and very little dressing back was needed, in fact I was able to keep most of the rivet detail intact. I did not need to use filler at all.

Now the roof light and the windscreen can be fitted. Both parts need masking before fitting and both require the center section bare i.e. paintable because both parts have center supports.

As my model is to have the front right door open and the left door window open and the nose clear dome is not yet to be fitted, a lot of the interior needs to be protected from paint overspray. I used cut pieces of bath sponge to fill the interior and the window frames, taking care to ensure that the sponge was well inside the cabin and yet doing the job of acting as a mask.

My photographs show the access step being on the pilots side only but the box art shows a step on the left side of the fuselage. As no step is supplied with the kit a scratch built one must be made. I used 0.010 plastic for the step and stretched sprue for the supports. The hooped support was made by draping the cooling stretched sprue over the shank of a 0.062 drill.

The undercarriage (not wheels) and tail skid can be installed now.

Final painting

I could not find a supply of FS 15056 blue and the nearest was ‘Blue Angel Blue’ FS 15050 from Model Master. I compared the box art of the Sycamore with the box art of a kit of one of the Blue Angels and it looked very similar. It is not! In actuality the blue is too dark for the RAN helicopter. Later on I found a reference to FS 15056 that described the color as "6 parts dark blue with 1 part Tennessee Red and 0.5 parts white." Great information but – umm – which dark blue is that exactly?

After a thorough wash with soft soap and water I sprayed the upper surface of the fuselage with two coats of flat white followed by a coat of Future.

I made up a scribing stand that holds a soft lead pencil and with the fuselage set on a flat table I marked off the line where the blue paint would start. I masked the white paint down to this line.

I sprayed two coats of Blue Angel gloss over the model and then let it dry for a few days. The blue still looks too dark to my eyes.

While the fuselage was drying I turned to the tail rotor and painted that semi-gloss black with red at the hub and red-white-red at the tips. The main rotor blades were painted with four coats of flat white and when thoroughly dry I dry brushed some pencil dust across the blades to simulate dirt picked up through use.

Final tidy up

The pilot’s door was added using a wire to reinforce the very small contact points where glue was used. The nose clear dome was added, secured with Model Master clear parts glue.

A scratch built red ‘W’ frame was added at the mid point of the tail boom to represent the rotor blade support used in shipping and storage. The main rotor head and loose blades were attached.

The tail rotor retaining dome was thrown away – it was very crude – and a new part turned from sprue was used to hold the tail rotor in place. A whip aerial from 0.007 wire was added to the underside of the tail boom and the red warning light added. (The warning light was turned from clear sprue with an air bubble inside, soaked in Future for a few hours and when dry, red paint added to the bubble inside. This makes an excellent warning light).

The door handles were added as were the main wheels and the metal nose wheel.

Using the box art as a guide the ‘small print’ was added using a # 0 round brush.

I painted the ‘boots’ of the undercarriage legs semi-gloss black, the box art shows a straight tube shock absorber but the molding depicts a corrugated rubber boot.

Options:

Front access doors open or closed is the only choice to make.

Versions:

Only the Sycamore Mk 51 is modelled but the instructions describe six color schemes.

Decals:

The decals do not agree with the instruction sheet that says that the kit contains markings for six British aircraft and one Royal Australian Navy Sycamore. The decals however have British (one set), Belgian, German and two Australian markings. The color register of the decals is extremely poor with the red severely out of position. The white border of all the decals is also out of position, so much so that the German Iron Cross is simply not worth using. Decal number 22 has the writing that is alongside the aircraft number 850 overlapping the numerals, and decal number 33 is printed in black and it should be white. There are no decals for the odd small writings that occur on most modern aircraft.

I wanted to model the Australian Navy helicopter and I chose the decals for aircraft 852 of the RAN simply because they were the best decals on the sheet. The decals went on very well and with an application of Micro Sol settled down over the rivets.

The instructions say that these are New Invis-Clear Decals – and the decal sheet says ‘Award Winning Art.’ Who the heck gives out these awards?

Accuracy:

These discrepancies do not detract from the overall appearance of the model.

Conclusions:

Notwithstanding any of the adverse comments above about decals and molding, Glencoe should be congratulated in producing this kit and let’s face it, – the Sycamore was a pioneer in a lot of ways you look at the UK helicopter industry in the 1940’s. The finished model depicts the original extremely well.

It is a kit that can be assembled ‘from the box,’ but there is a lot to be added to make a decent model as opposed to a toy – but nothing that a good ‘medeller’cannot tackle and overcome.

Price of the kit - $Can 15.99 July 2002.

Paints Used:

Model Master Acryl – White primer; Flat white 4769; Aircraft interior black 4767; Semi-gloss black 4700; Aluminium 4677; Blue Angel blue FS15050.

Testors enamel – Arctic white mat 1168; Silver 1146.

Humbrol enamel – Mediterranean Blue 109.

Craft store acrylic paint – Westport Gray; Amish Gray; Black; True Red; Golden Straw.

References:


© Pete Noyle 2002

 

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