Thanks Woody and Evan.
As I've been asked a few times how to go about scratch-building and conversions, I thought I'd take this opportunity to show a little of what's involved, in the hope that it might help others.
At first glance, it seems that not much work will be involved in this conversion, apart from moulding that rather tricky nose filter, tricky mainly due to the compound curves and overall shape. (This will be done later, most likely in more than one section, partly due to the shape, and partly due to possible lack of enough balsa block to carve the mould in one piece - block balsa can now only be had in long lengths, and is very expensive!).
However, after studying scale plans (not particularly accurate overall) and countless photographs, I found that there is a considerable amount of work to do, both minor and major, on the outside of the fuselage alone, before tackling some rather involved interior scratch-building, and the modification of such areas as the main landing gear legs and exhausts.
I can't overemphasise the need for good reference photos, drawings, in fact anything and everything, to help in tackling a project like this, and I'm fortunate to have some, and, with the benefit of the Internet, have been able to gather a wealth of small details, all of which will help considerably in the planning and execution of this build. And at this stage, it's the planning that is of paramount importance. Get the planning and sequence right, and life will be much easier as the build progresses (he said with fingers crossed!).
So, the first thing to do, after hours of looking at the kit parts and thinking through the sequence, possible problem areas, and probable solutions, was to mark those exterior areas which will need to be removed, drilled, cut or whatever, before any other work is undertaken. With this done, attention can then be focused on the interior, again looking at areas which need to be cut, and those areas which will need to be totally fabricated.
At this stage, I'm concentrating purely on the main fuselage - the nose area is assembled separately, and consequently will be treated as a separate sub-assembly, although at some stage, the two will be joined, with further modifications and adjustments carried out then.
The photos below show the initial planning stages, and of course, much test-fitting will be carried out once work gets underway.
PIC 1. The pencil-shaded areas show just some of the areas which need to be either removed, filled or drilled, on the external starboard fuselage half. These include eliminating some vents, lumps and bumps, removing a moulded 'grill' area around the original, twin exhaust location, and drilling a large hole for the new, single, large-diameter exhaust on each side, plus holes for fuel fillers and other vents.
PIC 2. The inside of the port fuselage half has been marked in pencil, showing the locations for the scratch-built cabin roof, the forward cross member at the rear of the cockpit, the location of the cut-down cockpit floor, and the forward cabin bulkhead new location, moved forward from the original position directly below what was the cockpit rear bulkhead.
Whilst carrying out this work, I noticed that the cabin windows on this side are not quite accurate for the HC2, being more in line with the HU5 version, but, without a lot of major work, which would certainly affect the exterior surface finish, there's not a lot I can do about this, so I'll just have to 'live' with it.
PIC 3. A rough sketch showing how and where the various scratch-built components will fit. The extreme rear cabin roof area is 'bare', and the fuselage frames will be fabricated here, along with a half-round section, centralised, to represent the tail rotor shaft ducting.
PIC 4. A scale drawing of the required parts has been made, and the parts will be made from plastic card. (Note: drawing not shown to scale in this pic.)
PIC 5. The kit parts for the cabin floor, and front and rear cabin bulkheads. The bulkheads will have extra detail added, and the floor will be extended at the front. Note the holes for the seats provided in the kit - the kit seats will not be used, as the correct style and size will be scratch-built, replicating the tubular metal frames and nylon web and 'canvas' seats of the original.
PICS 6 and 7. The cockpit floor and bulkhead marked out where material has to be removed. The pilot's and co-pilot's seats were suspended over an open area directly above the forward section of the cabin, and the seat pans could fold upwards, against the bulkhead, allowing access to the cockpit from the cabin below. Note also that the main rotor drive shaft passed through a rectangular-section 'tunnel' in the centre of the floor and bulkhead, at approximately 45 degrees, and this structure will also be scratch-built.
So, that's it so far, and the next step will be to make the new parts in paper card first, to check that the plan is correct! If all goes to plan, then the work will be carried out 'live'.
I hope this will be of some help to some, and I should be commencing work probably over the week end.