Happy New Year

 Here some "cards" from previous years (we in the US need all the joy we can muster to deal with the upcoming Dark Ages and the resulting moronocracy -S.C. dixit):

And of course the motto of the Argentinian expats:

Part two of "Fairey Rotodyne, a Tale of Two Kits" - Airfix 172nd scale

This is part two of a double build of the Airfix and Revell Fairey Rotodyne kits. Part One is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/12/fairey-rotodyne-tell-of-two-kits-airfix.html

As stated in part one, Airfix's kit is a less detailed offering (the Revell kit has a full interior), very rough regarding molding, with abundant  flash, mold lines, excrescences, with parts attached to their sprues with not enough space to use a Xuron to detach then, a few ill-located gates, some ejector pin marks that are difficult to deal with, and very crude small parts. Still, it is in 1/72nd scale (unlike the Revell kit, which is in the incomprehensible scale of 1/78th) and it's relatively affordable. Airfix has re-released this kit a few times, and this is actually the latest, from 2023 (I have an old edition somewhere in the house, but after days of looking for it I couldn't find it, as I stash the kits in places I sometimes forget about). I don't believe that Airfix thought this is a great kit that deserved re-release because of its quality or detail, both quite dubious, but I think this is marketed as a nostalgia kit, for those of us who have forgotten how frustrating this kit was to build into a decent model the first time. I am one of many who has built it before...

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/07/172-airfix-fairey-rotodyne.html

...decades ago when I had no references. This is the old build:

 

Some preliminary comparisons are already stated in the part one post, I will refer those interested to it (link at the beginning of this post)
Whilst Revell correctly depicts the plane at rest, with the upper vertical fins inclined outwards, Airfix designed the model with the tail as if it where flying (which contradicts the static rotor, LG deployed, clamshell doors and pax doors opened, etc.). At rest, or powering up or down, as mentioned, the two upper vertical fins (and a central third fin when present) would lean to the sides, to avoid colliding with the rotor, which when not at speed had the blades prominently sagging.

The usual rattling packing:

Contents (with which many of us are familiar):

Clear parts:

Mold imperfections:

On these the cleaning has started:

Some flaws are minute, like this one, others are more noticeable:

Very crude, thick small parts that beg to be replaced by scratched items:

And after a day of preliminary cleaning here are the parts. Still some further refining and replacement to be done before starting assembly (stab struts, LG doors, etc will be scratched).

Since the movable clamshell doors arrangement is as toy-like as in the Revell kit, I will keep them shut, but the general idea is to open the cabin door and scratch some resemblance of the test flight engineering instrumentation that was present at the front of the cabin. The rotor blades will be slightly bent downwards to replicate the sagging at rest, and the two upper vertical fins modified to be inclined outwards to represent the real position of the craft at rest on land. Perhaps add a few details to the rotor head and blade axis that are too simplified in this kit. We'll see.

Masks arrived:

As with the Revell kit, the tip jets in this Airfix kit are inaccurate and based on earlier shapes, before noise-abatement measures were included in the developing program. Later versions -as described in both kits- had devices at the end of the jet of a conical shape, broad end aft. So here too they have to be modified.  

A few parts are assembled. In some cases the "locating" pins had to be obliterated to obtain a good match of the halves. The trailing edges of all flying surfaces have the thickness of a brick:

The props have heavy mold lines and a bit of mismatch. They needed careful sanding and polishing to eliminate their crudeness:

The location of the LG legs inside the nacelles deserves some comments. You can see that there are two locating holes partially superimposed. If you use the lower one (without glue) the leg can "retract" (puerile gimmick), if you use the upper hole -with glue- the part will lock in place via two small posts. Whichever you use, the leg is missing the aft strut with is own dampener, that you will have to add if you care for some accuracy (not that the kit cares a lot for it):

The kit is plagues with sink marks and ejector pin marks. This and the not no so great fit means lots of puttying and sanding, thus obliterating the surface detail.

The location of a light seen in photos is carved:

The many ejector pin marks are removed, as I still don't know if I would add an interior or not:

You have to drill your own exhaust holes:

The ladder doesn't fit properly on its half-door, the little bar on its back has to be deleted:

One more hint that this is a bad kit (as if you needed more...): when features that are there to help hinder instead. The front of the nacelles is a very bad fit to it, so the locating pins need removal and the uneven surface trued, but if you do that, the guide for right inclined angle needed for the front part is lost, so you do a dry fit, glue the rest of the part that goes onto the nacelle, and then remove the locating pins once the glue has set before gluing the front matching with the fairing:

Airfix's inability to provide an assembly sequence that would allow to add the legs at a later stage, as we know will hinder what comes next, namely dealing with the seams (puttying and sanding), priming and painting, etc. You would be lucky if you don't knock them off in the process. And remember that a third strut needs addition behind the main legs.

The support for the ladder and lower cabin door half needed some depressions filled that otherwise would have shown up:

The four exhaust ends (which are flat, and not opened) are carefully carved with a rotary tool to form a slight depression into which mat black paint could be dropped later:

The front ends of the nacelles are glued, so the work of dealing with the seams can begin. Nacelles and wings will be worked on separately and primed before being glued together to facilitate access and handling. They are sided:

You improve what you can or are willing to, but with these old kits there is a limit to what can be reasonably done, before having to re-invent the wheel (or the kit, in this case).

One of the upsides of the otherwise disgraceful Revell Rotodyne is that the detail is engraved, unlike this Airfix kit that has those myriads of rivets popping out, detail that can't be restored once you per force have to sand some areas due to the prominent seems, dubious fit, and surface various blemishes. I mask around  the offending areas so later after puttying and sanding they may appear as panels.

As associated with the decoration of the kit's decal sheet (which is about mid-life one) there were no seats installed yet, it's irrelevant to pose the clamshell doors open, thus all its gimmicky ancillaries are discarded. Some grossly molded parts are replaced:

Airfix forgot to mold the holes for the joysticks, so you will have to drill them yourself. The cockpit in the Revell kit, although no miracle of detail and accuracy itself, is far better than this pitiful, inaccurate representation by Airfix:

For some unfathomable reason Airfix decided to mold the halves of the inaccurately-shaped tip jet* in two different ways: a correct one (where the upper part of the jet is molded with the blade, being "from above" the most visible part of the rotor (so in this case seamless), and an incorrect one, having to fill a seam on the more visible top side. Why? Yet another mystery of kit-manufacturing:

*Both Revell and Airfix, seemingly incapable of looking at existing photographic references at the time of their manufacturing of this kit, got the shape of the tip jet wrong in general and in detail, trying (unsuccessfully even for that) to represent it as it was in its inception. At the times both manufacturers represent their kits (their decals give up the time in the life of the aircraft), the noise-abating devices were already in place (being an aft cone with its wider base aiming aft). So, as I did with the miserable Revell kit, I will have to correct it here too. While some old kits can still hold their own and only need a little of TLC (some Williams Bros kits, some Heller kits -which I have built in numbers) others are more of curse.

Preparing and airbrush session:

I started to fabricate a forward fuselage floor section, in case I decide to leave the cabin door open. The sticks are the missing rear LG struts/actuators that Airfix didn't include:

At the point in time the model is depicted (decals are a tell-tale) the Rotodyne had only flight data equipment in the cabin. The photos I have do not clearly depict what was in there, and also show some changes in equipment through time, so I decided to add just a resemblance of it to be partially seen from the open door.

The tip jets as mentioned are the wrong shape and the wrong type (in both kits). They will be separated, re-shaped, and their conical exhaust added:

As explained in the first part post of the Rotodyne builds, battens were added to the wings at the time Revell represents its kit, later in life (Revell missed it, as well as the ailerons the Rotodyne got but that time). So the Airfix kit -which represents the Rotodyne earlier in life than Revell- in those regards is ok, as the wings have no battens and only the trim tab on the left wing.

Still, the Airfix kit is a let-down regarding detail and finesse, which are far better in the Revell kit, only to be countered by Revell's despicable fit and accuracy issues of its own.

While puttying, sanding and painting, fabrication of a few details is done, as the kit is so sorely bare:

More airbrushing:

Test of the partial interior:

The dry fit of the nose transparency revealed that it left some gaps, due to a defective molding of that clear part (I guess Airfix didn't bother much to fix the molds before re-releasing this kit). So some styrene was glued in place to be adjusted until a close fit is obtained:

The late Jim Schubert used to say "Modeling is all about problem-solving", and some times it certainly is, but in the case of mediocre kits you can be sure it will be.

Now it's time to make a note about adding weight to the front of the model, otherwise you get a sad tail-sitter, something that Airfix doesn't tell you, even in these newer boxings. Old dogs...no tricks.

The reshaped and modified tip jets are glued to the blades:

As mentioned on Part 1, Every time the Rotodyne was at rest, initiating rotor movement, or decelerating it, the upper vertical fins were inclined outwards to avoid colliding with the sagging blades. Airfix missed the hint, but Revell got it right. So if your rotor isn't motorized, and/or your cabin or clamshell doors are open, and the model is "at rest", you have to modify the kit tail parts (and provide sagging to your rotor blades, to reflect reality):

As explained before, after much work to remedy the bad fit, the nacelles are glued to the wings:

 

To be continued...