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The other Walrus – Esoteric 1/72 vacform - restored links


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I think quite many of you know the Supermarine amphibian of the WWII SAR fame. But I guess there are not that many that know it was not the first of the name in the RAF/FAA inventory. The Westland contraption – in its own right direct descendant from the D.H.9A bomber (via A.W. Tadpole) - preceded the Supermarine biplane both in time and in ugliness.

Long time on the “wish to be built” list, finally made it on my workbench. My third vacform so far, for sure the most complex. Please do not expect rocket progress, I want this one to be right to the (next to :-) last detail, and there will be many details to scratch-build.

 

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I was able to gather surprisingly many references for such a rare beast. The drawings in the Westland book (from 1944) seem to be rather out of proportions, however they contain quite a few useful details. There are more useful drawings in the kit instructions, which were (evidently) later redrawn and published in SAM.

 

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Edited by Patrik
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Make it truly ugly, put it on floats. Then it would be an aquatic creature, like its namesake.

That said, there are few aircraft that are truly ugly, and this isn't so bad compared to some of the French monstrosities that have been discussed in other threads (or my Polish Zubr, which is hideous.)

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I`ll look forward to following this one,......it might have been ugly but it was one of the first aircraft designed specifically for carrier operations and from what I have read it was quite effective!

Good luck,

Tony

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Interesting choice of subject - not the prettiest, but effective (and in an era when many aircraft were not exactly sleek, stylish, streamlined dream machines). I had no idea it was a descendent of the Ninak, but now that you point it out, the ancestors are clear.

Have fun building it, because we certainly will watching you.

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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That is so ugly it could be French interwar

Ungainly looking contraption, but I have no doubt it flew; powered primarily by the ground's wish to not be associated with it. :fool:

Seriously interesting looking plane and project.

I'll be following along for some refresher points on vac forms. I just bought my first vac form kit in years, so i have to brush up on methods before cutting plastic.

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Hi Patrik. I have a couple of these kits put away until my skills improve enough to take them on. This may well take a very, very long time!

I'm going to watch your build with great interest.

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I got stuck a bit when searching for references for the cockpit interior. In the end I had to admit I have more or less nothing for the Walrus. So taking into account the D.H.9A ancestry, I decided to use what has been provided with the kit and copy the rest of the interior details from the Ninak, where I have plenty of references and also the excellent CMR resin kit – more on this theme later.

So with the cockpit enigma solved (at least for me), it was time to cut the plastic and start the time consuming, messy and unrewarding sanding job. Time consuming and messy I believe I do not have to explain. Unrewarding – well, because you end up – after a lot of work – with pretty much the same you had before minus the white sheet around.

 

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Edited by Patrik
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  • 2 weeks later...

With a lot of the sanding job behind me, the first real snag was found today. The transparent ventral pannier is by far too wide compared to the fuselage. OK, I did not like the provided solution anyway and this gives me excellent excuse for applying more radical surgery than expected by the kit instructions.

 

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Edited by Patrik
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Not all that much has been left from the two fuselage halves.

 

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Edited by Patrik
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  • 1 month later...

At last some progress to show. I wanted to represent the internal wooden structure, but I was not sure about the design until I found the rigging diagram below (most obviously) in the Putnam Westland book. Fortunately it contains the internal rigging instructions too, so properly enlarged it was an excellent reference for enriching the vacform fuselage from the inside.

 

rigging_diagram.jpg

 

First I planned representing the wooden structure by plastic strips cut from plastic sheet of suitable thickness. But no matter what I did, I always ended with rather uneven strips (trying to be polite) when using knife and metal ruler, or nice plastic springs – when using scissors. I started being quite desperate and went to the local MPM hobby shop for counsel. The guy was very friendly, but could not help me, however he sent me to the next door small shop of our railway colleagues, where a very nice elderly lady [sic] introduced me to the miraculous world of Evergreen Scale Models styrene strips. I went home happy and armed with four packets of different profiles.

I did not use the instrument panel as supplied with the kit and scratchbuilt my own using the D.H.9A instrument panel as a reference. And finally – contrary to the kit instructions – the observer and the wireless operator must be content with folding seats (seems more logical to me) instead of wicker chair in my Walrus. Such a luxury is reserved just for the pilot.

 

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Edited by Patrik
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  • 2 weeks later...

I had troubles opening the rectangular portholes on both sides of the observer’s cockpit. The plastic was far too thin so close to the cockpit edge, so in the end I opted for the solution seen below. Next time I build the Walrus :-), I will rather file out the portholes before opening the cockpit, because the single porthole on the starboard side in front of the cockpit (with sufficient plastic around) went quite fine.

 

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The inner framing is represented by plastic stripes from the inside and will be later masked from the outside.

 

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Edited by Patrik
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This is looking very promising and I'll be following this thread for sure. Nice to see the Esoteric kits get an outing now and again.

I have the 1/200 metal kits of the Westland Walrus, Avro Bison and Blackburn Blackburn from Shed Models.

Joseph

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Avro Bison (Joystick 1/72 vacform) is naturally on my "must build" list too. The kit looks quite fine - meaning buildable. I would love to build Blackburn Blackburn, unfortunately I am not sure I am going to gather sufficient courage to cut into the Contrail nightmare.

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Coming on nicely. I think your solution for the rear side windows is the best option.

Evergreen is essential stuff for any detailing in this scale....

Ian

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  • 2 weeks later...

Two views into the furnished interior before joining the fuselage halves. Parts are partly coming from the kit, partly scratchbuild.

 

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Edited by Patrik
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