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1/48 Trumpeter Westland Whirlwind


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Thanks you guys for all the help! Oops! I used the word "guys"!

When I was 12 my family spent a year in Birmingham and my parents tried to instill in us boys that we should never call someone a guy in Britain because of Guy Fawkes! Silly yanks!

 

So today being the impatient person that I am, I decided to try some of the varnish in my paint locker. Polyurethane, but an old can, and I didn't stir it up too much, fearing that the solids might be a problem. So I decanted some and brushed on a thin patch after sanding down my Mr. Surfacer repair.

 

Anyway I 33560289863_82c65482bc_c.jpg

 

I waited 10-15 minutes, it appeared to be drying so I went for it. (Thanks for the detailed instructions 71chally). Smoothed out a bit of foil and plopped it on the puddle. Did a light smoothing with thumbnail, and noticed the speck of dust under the foil! Oh well, 71chally, you tried! 

 

33560290153_83e4e6f83e_c.jpg

 

Waited 45 - 60 minutes and cut away the excess foil:

 

34240092141_d790eeb9b4_c.jpg

 

Foil photographs terribly. Wonder if using a polarizing filter would help.. Anyway I liked the way that worked. The excess varnish scraped off easily but I think that I would try to stay closer to the lines next time and make the layer thin and even as I could. This time I put on too much varnish and had to wick it away with a dry brush to get it down.  Thanks again 71chally for the instructions. My execution was not perfect but I see my way to improving.

I did look into goldleaf sizing but the info that I saw wanted you to leave the stuff on to dry overnight!.. Not a good idea in my shop.. so dusty. Plus there's the impatience thing...

 

Enough for now.

(I do still have the box Pete... but you know I haven't added much to this kit. Just removed a lot!)

Cheers

Terry

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yay it works!

Really is a very thin layer of varnish, also I only paint it up to the edges of the panel to be covered.

In the case of the Lightning wings shown earlier, the green painted leading edges were done first, then the varnish was applied right up to the demarkation edge (luckily a substantial engraved spar line), the foil applied, and then carefully cut off at that line.

 

Dust etc is a mare with foiling, I can't avoid it in my modelling conditions, just have to stand back!

 

Coming on there very nicely Terry.

Edited by 71chally
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Not much progress today. Worked on reshaping the gun camera:

 

34237545902_974b100698_c.jpg

 

And added the terminal point for the antenna just above the radio:

 

Here's the real thing:

 

34237545752_6bbd67ec1f_c.jpg

 

And my little bit of brass and Evergreen:

 

34012017980_90cfcdb0ed_c.jpg

 

33586705083_9927a6df6d_c.jpg

 

Thanks for watching.

Terry

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Nice work Terry; this gradual buildup of detail over time here really helps give a feeling for the various shapes and structures of the aircraft. Very nice indeed. I'm liking that aircraft stand more and more in your shots....

Tony

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1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

I'm liking that aircraft stand more and more in your shots....

 

I have one, and it's brilliant.  

 

Lovely Whirlwind, too - though I confess each time I see the title I have a brief moment where I am hoping to see the wobblecopter of the same name.  We are long overdue a decent one of those in 1/48!

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19 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Nice work Terry; this gradual buildup of detail over time here really helps give a feeling for the various shapes and structures of the aircraft. Very nice indeed. I'm liking that aircraft stand more and more in your shots....

Tony

Thanks Tony. You will notice in one of the following pictures that I have added the washers to the adjustment screws on the model stand. A nice improvement, as every time I flipped the model over I need to readjust the height of the wing supports. It's all about the laziness here! BTW did you see the stand in Louis's build.. looks high tech. 

 

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234984323-figurine-finished-148-voisin-10ca2-modified-hi-tech-kit/&page=3   IMG_0934_zps5hvrhgrf.jpg

 

17 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 

I have one, and it's brilliant.  

 

Lovely Whirlwind, too - though I confess each time I see the title I have a brief moment where I am hoping to see the wobblecopter of the same name.  We are long overdue a decent one of those in 1/48!

 

Thanks for the kind words. Sorry to disappoint you that all the wings here are fixed. Well sort of. I have seen the builds of these wobblecopter things and am quite intrigued by the scratch building possibilities.. The way this build is going I may just add few rotating wings for the fun of it!

 

Another miniscule update.

Life seems to get in the way even one is retired! I did some scraping and sanding, and filling around the nose of the aircraft. I decided to leave the rippled bare-metal foil in place in front of the canopy. I put a couple of coats of Mr. S on it and sanded it back and then when around the edges to define the, in this case, removeable panel. All of the foil experiments will eventually be painted over. The foil was just being used to give a bit of offset in height off the skin. I can't for the life of me remember what is under that panel, coolant filler cap? Anyway it gets removed often hence the Druz fasteners. 

 

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The area around the base of the canopy forward is quite interesting as there are many little bits of metal apparently stuck on in that area, I might take off the masking on that stationary bit of the canopy and do a little more detailing with foil there..

 

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Next I tore off the bit of bare-metal that covered the radio door on the starboard side of the fuselage aft of the cockpit. And... well I decided to show it open. (is Terry having fun or just afraid of painting?) Having fun! Managed to open it up after breaking my favorite scriber!

Remember this fuselage has been reinforced with strips of Evergreen to beef it up after I sanded it to paper thinness.  Looking forward to constructing the shelf and any interior members that might be visible after the radio is in place... Rather like building a ship in a bottle... Can you tell this is my first build? 

Bit of PPP around the opening to cover my mistakes inspite of the protective tape I applied.

 

34034637040_32056ee917_c.jpg

 

Hope your modeling is going well... Sunny tomorrow and 80 degrees! (26.67 degrees Celsius). I think we are allotted two sunny days this spring by the Trump administration.  

Cheers

Terry

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I worked on the radio bay today. Here is a CAD drawing from the Whirlwind Fighter Project, showing some of the internal structure for supporting the radio: (it's the bigger black box on the left  right.

 

33597771404_cf28fdc68f_c.jpg

 

The radio was on a shelf that rolled out of the fuselage for servicing. I started by gluing a section of the former in place on both sides of the opening. There really was only the one aft former visible from the bay but I wanted something to shield the eye from the interior mess in the model looking forward:

Luckily I had a bit of plastic that had been shaped for the interior of the fuselage around that area, so I was able to create a couple  of likely looking bits quite easily. Bent and glued a piece of styrene rod to the former to hold it while the glue set up:

 

34398319016_8548bb57e1_c.jpg

 

Put it in place and hit it with a little Tamiya Extra Thin. Held it for a minute or so. then put some more TET on the holding rod to soften it up and gently cut it off with my scalpel.

 

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I then started thinking about the shelf for the radio. It's not a solid shelf at all. Just a framework on wheels, to save weight. And that led me to trying to figure out which model of radio this aircraft had. 

This aircraft went down on the 8th of February 1941. The parts manual for the Mk 1 dated 1942 lists two possible radios. The TR 1133A and the TR 1143 which superseded it. The model before the TR 1133 was the TR 9 which had been around for quite a while and surely would have been phased out by then. I sort of wish that this aircraft carried the TR 9 as it had lots of dials and was very "sexy":

 

Here's one with the cover off of the tuner section:

 

33597771514_a61ee03985_c.jpg

 

I think the Gloster Gladiator had this model! So it had been around awhile. Pilots complained of the poor sound quality and it had a limited range.

 

So the TR 1133A is my best guess. Here is a picture of one being installed or serviced in a Hurricane at about the right time:

 

33597771024_9fbf1f08e0_c.jpg

 

If you look back at the CAD drawing you can see that the draftsman has installed what looks like a TR 1143 in the bay. Pretty boxy from the rear with two panels on the top. Here is the real thing, or close to it:

 

33597771104_e21c468cf2_c.jpg

 

So I'm guessing that the bulk of the TR 1133A looked something like that.. This was a VHF transmitter/receiver by the way and the range was much greater and the sound quality better. I have read in a couple of places that with the advent of the TR 1133, they no longer needed the antenna wire from the tail to the masthead. But I notice in the preceding Hurricane picture it remains..

 

So that's how I spent my afternoon... mostly on the interwebs and reading the literature that I have.

 

Cheers,

Terry

  

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I feel that I should share a little of what I have learned about the aircraft that I am working on. Better late than never.  Here is the best picture of P6969, the third production Whirlwind manufactured by Westland. 

 

34399078686_e5ccf14a8b_b.jpg

 

The few facts about the aircraft's end:

 

 P6969
30/06/1940: 263 Sqn. 08/02/1941: Believed shot down off Dodman Point, Cornwall, by Arado Ar 196 of Bordfliegerstaffel 5/196. PO Kenneth Graham missing.

===========================

Page 62 from Whirlwind: Westland's Enigmatic Fighter by Niall Corduroy:

 

...At around the same time, Crooks, (flying {6968) and Graham (P6969) of the detachment at St Eval took off, also for a practice flight. They too were ordered to intercept a raid and flew to Dodman Point. After patrolling uneventfully for a few minutes, with Crooks above the cloud and Graham below, Crooks descended though the cloud and saw Graham flying in the opposite direction. Crooks turned around intending to call Graham on the radio and instruct to fly in formation with him, but there was no sign of Graham’s aircraft. While searching for him Crooks suddenly saw an enemy aircraft, which he later tentatively identified as a Heinkel He 115, descend through the cloud and hit the sea about four miles south of Dodman Point at 09: 55. Crooks thought he saw one of the crew in the water clinging to one of the floats of the overturned aircraft. There was no sign of Graham. Crooks returned to St Eval assuming that Graham had already done so. When it was realised that Graham was missing, boats and an ASR Lysander were sent out to search for him, but found only wreckage and a patch of oil in the area where he and the enemy floatplane had last been seen. The coastguard subsequently reported that two aircraft had crashed into the sea three miles offshore. Initially, Hughes was credited with the destruction of the enemy floatplane, but the victory was assigned to Graham even though it was not known whether he had attacked it or not. Whether the aircraft seen to crash by Crooks was the one attacked by Hughes and Rudland thirty-five minutes earlier and fifty miles away will probably never be known, but Cherbourg-based 5/ Bordfliegergruppe 196 lost Ar 196A-4 WNr. 0129. The body of the observer, Lt.z.S Hans-Erich Hirtz, was later washed ashore, but Hptm Adolf Berger (the unit’s Staffelkapitän) remains missing.

=============================

 

I should mention that there is some speculation that there was a mid-air collision between Graham and the Ar 196A-4.

 

 

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On 03/05/2017 at 5:26 AM, Sprueloose said:

Can you tell this is my first build? 

 

 

Nope, not in a million years! I must have built a good couple of hundred more than that over the past 50 years, but feel like a complete novice when I see the quality of your detailing work here Terry, absolutely top drawer modelling!

 

Really enjoying watching the progress!

 

Keith

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5 hours ago, keefr22 said:

 

Nope, not in a million years! I must have built a good couple of hundred more than that over the past 50 years, but feel like a complete novice when I see the quality of your detailing work here Terry, absolutely top drawer modelling!

 

Really enjoying watching the progress!

 

Keith

You are too kind Keith. Thank you for looking in, keeps me motivated!

 

I worked on the radio bay today. Made some structural members to hold the radio and put a "shelf"  on them that will function as the bottom of the radio. You can just barely see the bit of holey styrene beneath my shelf. At this magnification it looks like I took and axe to the side of the aircraft! Of course the two members with the all holes I drilled with not be visible to anyone... and I forgot to take a picture... ah, well I know they are there. copies of the beams that the radio rolls out on, in the CAD drawing.

 

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Made the little VHF radio and what I assume is a crystal calibrator attached to it's front.

 

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Trying the radio in the bay:

 

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Got excited and painted the radio and the interior of the bay before I realized that I will have to glue on some wiring and knobs, plus the radio needs to be glued to it's bottom/shelf!.. Ah a little scraping in my future!

 

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Detailing the radio and some dry brushing tomorrow. 

 

Cheers

Terry

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Keyhole surgery on Britmodeller? Love it! Nice retro-fitting Terry. :D

 

Enjoyed the historical footnote as well - such details always help to season a build for me.

 

Tony

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An excellent plan to put the radio in Terry. One small point, may I suggest that you tidy up the edge of the shelf a bit? It will improve the look of the radio bay still further.

 

Martian

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1 hour ago, Martian Hale said:

An excellent plan to put the radio in Terry. One small point, may I suggest that you tidy up the edge of the shelf a bit? It will improve the look of the radio bay still further.

 

Martian

Thanks Martian. I totally agree with your suggestion. The edge of the shelf should be hidden somewhat by the radio itself as I had planned to make it less obviously a shelf. I am more concerned about the two little strips that project from the shelf out to the surface of the fuselage. I am contemplating replacing them with brass to sharpen the definition. 

Thanks for checking in, hope things are going well on your red planet!

 

4 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Keyhole surgery on Britmodeller? Love it! Nice retro-fitting Terry. :D

 

Enjoyed the historical footnote as well - such details always help to season a build for me.

 

Tony

 

Thanks Tony.  It really does add something to a build if you can tie it to something real. I just should have got that background information in at the start! 

 Terry

 

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1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Great detail work going on here.

 

Your picture of P6969 from yesterday,

the state of the paintwork!

Yeah, I hate to admit being attracted to this particular aircraft because of it's heavily weathered look but there it is. I suppose that I will grow out of it!

I think that I mentioned before that some of these aircraft lacked primer. Plus the skin aft of the cockpit was a magnesium alloy, not aluminum, which may have had something to do with it. 

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Cut the radio shelf back and put in some brass strips instead of the chunky plastic bits :

 

33633540414_a57c69e26a_c.jpg

 

Got the radio installed but not too happy about the lead wire used to represent the handle used to lift it out of the bay (I assume).

 

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Tomorrow I will probably redo it with wire. Sigh.. It would just bother me if I didn't. I plan to build the door to the bay out of brass sheet, since the thickness will be noticeable. 

All for now.  Thanks for stopping by.

Terry

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Yu are quite right to re-do bit you don't like, you would never be happy with the finished model otherwise, which given the amount of effort you have put into this build, would be criminal.

 

Martian

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On 5/5/2017 at 7:11 PM, Martian Hale said:

Yu are quite right to re-do bit you don't like, you would never be happy with the finished model otherwise, which given the amount of effort you have put into this build, would be criminal.

 

Martian

Good advice as usual Martian.

 

So I spent the day trying to redo the wire handle for the radio. At least that is what I think it is. The real thing has some right angle bends in it and first I tried to recreate it by gluing bits of stretched sprue in place. Wasn't too happy with how that turned out so I began fashioning one out of wire. I must have done two or three before I managed to get one that was about the right size and shape. Glued it in with epoxy and called it good enough. Went in for dinner and couldn't get the image of it out of my head.. not good enough! 

Here it is upside down ... looks like a #### paperclip!  Wrong size, wrong bends, just like the lead wire before it...

 

34338865012_ae585b243a_c.jpg

 

So I went back out and ripped it out, exposing my stretched sprue version... slightly mangled but..

 

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... perhaps tomorrow I can improve it..

Lesson to learn here? Let the sub-assemblies that you scratch build sit for a bit before slapping them into the model! Give yourself time to really look at them and the next day if they still seem to look right, then move forward! If I hadn't been in such a rush to get the radio in place it would have been a lot easier to do this fiddly  little work on it! Also if I had been more stringent with keeping things to scale I would have seen that the wire i used wasn't going to work. Sigh

Every day getting better and better... Every day getting better and better... (how many times do I have to repeat that before I believe it?)

I must say that it has been a great help to my spirits to re-read this build.. just to see how far I have come... (and how many false turnings I have recovered from! )

 

Thanks for your support!

 

Terry

 

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Thanks Pete, Keith and Martian you are all very kind.

 

Today I touched up the radio a bit and may do some more later..

 

34389778871_3633002a73_c.jpg

 

And then I stared on the radio bay door. Cut and fit. Added a curve by just bending the plastic..

 

33709513043_68f6b6b0a9_c.jpg

 

Patient sanding to get it to fit.. (I might add here that yesterday I made a door in brass but lost it to the carpet monster... I think he knew it was too thick for this scale!).

 

33709513103_fd2f2dafe3_c.jpg

 

Then I added some formers to the back of the door. Scribed a bit of plastic to the fuselage curve and then glued it to the door and sanded it down..

 

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So next I have to deal with the hinges. There are three across the top. I will treat them like the landing gear bay doors. Little bit of lead wire to represent the hinge on the outside of the fuselage and tabs on the inside. I have to have the door shut for painting:

 

33941842706_efa6c10b82_c.jpg

 

Thanks for watching!

 

Terry

 

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Back to our regularly scheduled program.... Life does seem to get in the way sometimes...

I just set the radio access door in place (sort of) and gave it all a shot of primer.

34592280820_b3d21d78ea_c.jpg

 

I have been working on the gun camera trying to get the shape right...

Also I used strips of Tamiya tape to represent the reinforcing on the fuel tanks..

 

34847359841_92c407f25c_c.jpg

 

I gave the strips of tape a brushing of Mr Surfacer to try to soften their edges..

 

34592245290_0acde0622d_c.jpg

 

Good to be back at the workbench... hope to make some progress toward completion..

 

Cheers 

Terry

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Great to see this one underway again. It looks great with just the coat of primer in place. Had you not told us so, I would never have guessed that this was you first attempt at super detailing and correcting a model.

 

Martian

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