Revell Aerospatiale Alouette II 1/32

[paddy]

As Monty Python used to say…..And now for something completely different

XP966 in 1964 and 1976


This is Revells 1/32 Aerospatiale Alouette II From 1996 . A quick look at Britmodeler for advice, (I got chucked of that site so I can only look) shows about 7 build blogs over 11 years and all of them stop halfway through, in other words, hardly anyone has finished one ( or they carry a curse, and no one survived long enough to finish one ?).

Warnings are plentiful about the glazed cockpit, the impossibility of getting the doors to open and shut and the general fit of parts……we shall see .

On a brighter note, I don’t remember buying this, it’s a very early (very squashed) boxing dated 1996 and inside are a couple of bits of eduard PE…. And some yellowed decals. This version of the model is no longer available now so well done me for buying when I did and forgetting about it for 20+ years. A bit of research shows the British Army did actually buy 16 of these in 1959 as a stop gap because of delays in the British Westland Scout entering service , some of those 16 flew on till they retired in 1988 and were replaced by the Gazelle. One original still fly’s with the Army air corps historic flight over here but there are still dozens flying on the Civilian register in Europe.



The kit option is for German markings but as i say the decals are toast anyway so i am sure i can find something to represent the British army.

 

[moon puppy]

I remember this aircraft being a stand in for a Russian chopper in Bond's For Your Eyes Only (Moore's best Bond movie IMHO).
Good on you Paddy, are the other builds stopping at the same place?

 

[paddy]

First thing was to mock up the canopy as this seems to be the issue won other builds. Maybe i am lucky or maybe my early model is better than the later re issues but while i can see its not going to be easy, i dont see anything insurmountable at thisn stage

There is actually 8 pieces to this and no location tabs on anything so i can see each part needs the previous part to be positioned correctly and you wont know that till you fit the 2nd 3rd 4th part etc. You could get 6 parts fitted and working then find the 7th part needs everything to move back .5mm ..forewarned is forearmed as they say
With such a large canopy and an exposed engine and rotor head i can see this thing will be as good as you make it. The kit itself just supplies the basics, rest is up to the builder.

 

[paddy]

I remember this aircraft being a stand in for a Russian chopper in Bond's For Your Eyes Only (Moore's best Bond movie IMHO).
Good on you Paddy, are the other builds stopping at the same place?

Hi Bob, no other builds on the go mate, the Brough is finished.

Alouette colours are odd. they range from RAF Green to olive drab and even 3 diferent greens. I



in fairness the army/RAF were always changing base colours over the decades so i will go with this which is a picture from 1971 as can be seen by the old Bedford truck behind as this is an in service picture, not a restoration.

just got to work out what colour this actually is ? Olive drab maybe ?

 

[Rhino]

This build is a huge surprise, coming from you! Color me intrigued.

 

[Sharkmouth]

@paddy, your approach, handling the clear parts first, is the way since all fit issues can be handled working on the more flexible opaque plastic. I learned this on my Dragon (DML) OH-6 kits.

As for completed kits...
iModeler
LSP

This one on BritModeller was almost completed (I'm sure you saw it but for the benefit of others):
BritModeller

 

[paddy]

Not sure why the guy went for a brass tail unless he was correcting a fault but by going for 1mm ands 0.9mm i think he created a fault.
The kit is 1.4mm and 1mm which is proportionately nearer the differential in size of the main frame v the bracings'
To scale the original plastic would be 44mm which 1.3/4" which is quite believable ? I have seen 1/48 choppers where the tail boom is way to thick but this seems fine to me in 1/32.........there is a challenge. What were the true dimensions ?.
MRP say they do the correct colour so i ordered a bottle of that.

Rhino This is very much a military site i think and we need to keep the locals happy with some Camo now and then. You can hold up the ship end and i can prop up the car and bike end but we have to fall into line every now and again to please the natives

 

[jknaus]

Urban’s Colour Reference Charts, United Kingdom

by Urban Fredriksson & Martin Waligorski Back to main article Royal Air Force Colours, Word War I to Modern World War II period examples: Munich crisis to initial war period Dark Green / Dark E…

www.ipmsstockholm.se

RAF colours circa 1970 in Tamiya

Dear Hive Mind, What is the general census for the best Tamiya matches for the following: for a Harrier Gr.1 1971. My best guess in (brackets) RAF Dark Green (XF81) Light Aircraft Grey (XF54) Dark Sea grey (XF54 maybe?)

www.britmodeller.com

Hope this helps some.
Looking at the tamiya paint chips I would agree XF-81 would work.
James

 

[paddy]

strange thing is that chart says xtracolor X27 and there doesnt seem to be an X27
X81 in Tamiya is a good green but its an RAF colour and the Army colours are different, its probably not too far off Bobs triplane in colour ?

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Yeah, and I do the SciFi and off the wall stuff once in a while. I thought I was bad about tackling difficult builds. Take it away and make it gorgeous Paddy!

 

[jknaus]

strange thing is that chart says xtracolor X27 and there doesnt seem to be an X27
X81 in Tamiya is a good green but its an RAF colour and the Army colours are different, its probably not too far off Bobs triplane in colour ?

True, but this is listed as an RAF colour by Tamiya.

 

[RichB]

The Army Air Corps used BS381C-298 Olive Drab from the 1970's into the 1990's. They then changed to BS381C-220 Olive Green. The Apaches are finished in FS34031 US Army Helicopter Drab.

Back to Alouette colours, the Olive Drab is available in the Hataka and Sovereign Hobbies paint lines. Failing that, late WW2 SCC15 Olive Drab is close. It maybe a little more green, but middle aged and upward eyes can have difficulty perceiving differences between colours in the brown to olive range so allowing for paint weathering, lighting condition, etc, it should be acceptable. It is available through several paint lines or can be mixed following Mike Starmer's formula:
5 parts XF81 Dark Green 2 (RAF)
1 part XF58 Olive Green
1 part XF71 Cockpit Green
This I believe is his latest mix due to changes to Tamiya paint formulation.

Cheers,
RichB

 

[paddy]

Thanks Rich , i have the ingredients for that recipe, i will see what the MRP paint i ordered looks like but good to have a back up.

 

[paddy]

This belongs to the army air Corp historic flight its based about 60 miles from me but i am too lazy to get in the car and go and have a look ... The engine, rear fairing, fuel tank, cabin and skids as well as the rota head all seem a variation on a theme ..and its Gloss