Westland Wasp

HMS Endurance was not a typical Royal Navy vessel. As an Ice Patrol Ship was only lightly armed with two 20 mm Oerliken cannons and had a bright red hull to enable her to be easily seen among the ice floes where she was designed to operate. Her two Wasp helicopters also had bright red noses and a large white 'ROYAL NAVY' ident covered a significant portion of their blue grey tailbooms. The Argentine invasion prompted a concerted effort to tone down the Wasps' appearance. Exactly what they looked like at the time of their attack on the Santa Fe is not that easy to find out.

This may be the best indication of how he Wasps looked at the time of the attack. It is a still from a YouTube video about the role of HMS Endurance. It shows the Nord AS.12 missiles loaded and the doors in place. The distinctive flotation devices above the cabin are also in place - these were often removed from Wasps during the conflict to save weight and increase flying time. The nose and crew cabin appear to be totally black in this picture, as does the area of the tailboom where the 'ROYAL NAVY' script would be. The roundels were also modified; removing the white ring.

Another still from the same film. This is described as a recon flight in the film. The configuration with no doors and no missiles also fits footage of the recovery of Cindy Buxton and Annie Price, two documentary filmmakers who had been filming penguins on the far side of South Georgia when the Argentines invaded Grytviken. This view definitely shows bluegrey camouflage on the nose.

A return flight to recover more of the filmmakers equipment clearly shows a camouflage pattern on the nose. The flotation devices were removed for this trip.

A Wasp filmed later in June. It is a shame that all the photos I could find are from exactly the same angle! There is footage of the starboard side shot by the filmmakers as the Wasp came in to land at their camp, but it is in silhouette and no amount of image manipulation showed how the camouflage looked on this side. It seems clear to me that Endurance's Wasps were camouflaged by adding black areas to the standard bluegrey (and not a lighter grey as is often depicted). It is possible that the cabins were black all over during the Santa Fe attack and bluegrey patches were added later, but this is by no means certain. I'll plump for black/bluegrey camoflage, dark green AS.12 missiles on bluegrey launchers and bouancy aids in place.

All parts washed and drying. The kit includes extra parts such as skids and the bulkier tail section for the Scout. It also includes mounting spars and rails for the 4 x AS.12 missile fit used by the Scout. The Wasp only carries 2 x AS.12 missiles, probably due to the need to clear the bulkier undercarriage. The AS.12 kit from Air-Graphic includes the correct mounting spars.

This is probably a low volume kit. There are no location pins at all on the fuselage or tail halves so care is needed to align them correctly. The cockpit floor and the mounting plate for the engine needed trimming to fit.

While surface detail is good, there are seam lines on many parts. I may have been heavy-handed cleaning up the joint between cockpit and tail, leaving myself with gaps at the top of the joint.
The instructions show locating depressions for the undercarriage legs, but they are not present on the supplied parts.

I used a small drill to add my own locations, using the instructions as a guide and the kit parts to confirm the dimensions. I decided to fit the undercarriage before any priming, as I could see that this would be tricky and I wanted the best adhesion I could get. Access to the cockpit for painting later will not be a problem.

There are mounting locations provided for the lower wishbones of the rear suspension, so I built the rear units first and matched the angle of the front top wishbones to the back. After these had set up, I added the rear wheels and then the rest of the front suspension. The bottom arms of the front suspension ended up much closer to the centreline than illustrated, but the stance looks OK and this is most important in my opinion. I also sprayed the inside of the roof panel with a transparent blue. This took several coats to get the heavy tint of a Wasp's roof panel.

The suspension was a pain to complete and is best viewed from a distance. I decided that the overall 'look' was the most important. If all the parts intersected as intended the vertical tubes to which the 'castors' mounted were at weird angles and looked terrible. I also had a problem when I removed the masking from my nice blue roof - some of the paint adhered better to the masking tape than the panel and left a gap at the back. If only I had run a sharp blade along the edge! I've touched it in by hand and hope it won't be too obvious.

Interior painted. I did the doors and back panel the light grey interior colour to waist level and the standard blue grey above. The masking kit includes internal masks for the doors. The crew are also prepared: their arms will be added once they are firmly seated.

A test fit of the glasshouse. Internal masks are removed and a little fettling is still required.

Hole drilled in the co-pilot's roof panel for the periscope missile sight. I'll fit this later so the hole has to allow the handles to squeeze through. It looks a bit messy.

Should be OK.

The masks fit well. The ones on the roof were just a little wide. I decided to take advantage of the outer curved corners, but this meant that they met at the centreline. A sharp blade solved the problem.

I think the windscreen is designed to tuck in just behind the front cowling. This makes a very neat fit with the front doors, but just made contact with the top of the instrument panel. This meant that the rear edge naturally sat a little under a mm above the rear bulkhead. A couple of strips of masking tape held it down, and I let the Revell transparency cement set up overnight. The glasshouse is actually an excellent fit. There are tiny circular masks provided for the two transparencies under the cabin, so I fitted these at this stage as well.

Blue grey applied overall. This included the flotation units which I mounted on the front ring first.

Masking putty was used to mask the lighter patches from the photos of the actual aircraft as near as I could. The starboard side needed a bit of imagination. I kept the flat area below the engine blue grey using tape. Then the fuselage and tailboom were sprayed black.

After a gloss coat the decals were applied; all 10 of them.

A coat of matt varnish was applied and then the canopy masks were removed. The flotation units were mounted, using Revell canopy glue on the mounting ring to avoid any fogging of the transparencies. Once this was fully cured the various rear struts were added using Tamiya extra thin. It was a bit fiddly, but I was pleased to have the front anchored first. The engine was also mounted. I used a length of poly rod to replace the drive shaft to the tail rotor. The kit part had seam lines and ust didn't look consistent enough to be a drive shaft.

I masked and painted the rotor blades individually - medium grey on top, black underneath with a thin silver leading edge. The kit instructions called for yellow tips on the main rotor, so I took the chance to add a little colour. I used the lines on my paint booth turntable to ensure proper blade alignment. The tail rotor was masked and sprayed with the standard black and white stripes, as per the contemporary photos.