Airfix 1/72 Whitley MkV Coastal Command

[Bordfunker]

With my builds for the KUTA GB complete, if not photographed, and with my Dornier 17z build, an hang over from the BoB GB, also almost complete, thoughts turn to starting on a virgin kit for this GB.

I had originally intended on going with Airfix's 1/72 Lightning F6, however as there are already a couple of Lightnings being built, I thought I would follow a slightly less well trodden path and do the Whitley sitting in my stash.

Having just built a couple of Blenheims in dark earth and dark green, I fancied something a little different for the Whitley, and always having a soft spot for Coastal Command camo schemes have decided to do this build as a MkV from 51 Squadron in 1942.

So here is the obligatory set of pics of the box and contents....

....all the clear parts look exactly that!

And here's the kit decals alongside the pack I'm going to be using, as well as the very necessary Eduard masking set.

I also picked up the Warpaint monograph on the Whitley, as it's a type I little about.

All the parts have all been washed ready for construction to commence once the Dornier is complete.

Karl

[Scott_]

Got mine when Airfix released it last year - so I'm looking forward to seeing how this kit turns out. Good luck!

Edited January 31, 2016 by Scott_

[CliffB]

Nice choices Karl

[Mancunian airman]

Curious to know what size bombs this aircraft could carry.

Did it have an open bomb bay or was it limited like the Wellington ??

[Col.]

Not watched one of these being built yet and always happy to see another Coastal Command subject getting some attention

[Tempestwulf]

Hi Karl

Airfix have released their 2016 new kits list and it includes a Coastal Command Mk.VIII with the aerials included if you're wanting to hold off or build another. I'm hanging out for their 1/72 Spitfire Mk.Va which has Baders D-B and EB-Z "Observer Corps "

[Bordfunker]

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

From what I understand the Whitley couldn't carry anything larger than a 2000lb bomb, due to the bays being segmented.

I figured there was a Mk VII due based on the flashed over holes in the fuselage for the radar arrays, but I prefer the Mk V.

As with practically all builds this one has started with the cockpit, which I must say is very nice straight out of the box, however I thought I could improve it having seen Andy's build in AMW.

I added a cushion from plasticard, and belts made from wine bottle foil, to the pilot's throne. As per my usual approach, I'm trying to assemble as much as possible before commencing the paintwork.

The detail on the cockpit is generally very good, but Airfix would have you use a decal for the instrument panel, which I just didn't fancy. Therefore I decided to detail up the existing IP with more plasticard.

Looking at pics of the real IP showed the dials to have raised bezels, so hopefully my efforts will look OK under a coat of paint.

I also treated the Navigator's seat to a cushion and harness.

The interior of the fuselage halves is also nicely detailed, however there are a number of ejector pin marks which I decided to fill with more punched discs of plasticard. Realistically, you don't need to do this as most of the marks are completely invisible with everything buttoned up.

As you can see I've also added the glazing inserts, something I would normally do after painting the interior, however having had problems with the fit of Airfix glazing after interior painting on both Blenheims, I figured I'd try installing before painting.

I did the same with the rear fuselage halves. The clamps are holding the glazing while the Tamiya Extra Thin hardens up.

As you can see I've already added the rear door, as I want this build fully closed up.

I've also been busy building the wing central section which includes full wing spars, and is impressively strong once complete. Here it is with the outer wing panels attached.

Again there are ejector pin marks in the wing and spar, which again I filled, though you probably don't need to.

Talking of ejector pin marks, the front bulkhead, behind the turret has one slap bang between two molded lines, therefore I decided to simply fill it, and sand everything flat, before reinstating the lost detail with plastic strip.

To be fair this probably won't be seen either, but I know it's been sorted.

I've also made a start on the engine nacelles. Airfix would have you glue the two halves together and then add the chin radiator inserts afterwards, however this sounds like a recipe for disaster, so instead I first attached the collar which the prop shaft passes through to the radiator section, then attached that to one nacelle half. This provides better location to ensure everything is straight.

The fronts of each nacelle were then glued, leaving the rears loose to be glued later. I left the oil cooler flap moveable as I wanted to be able to square up the rear of the bay after gluing.

Since the photos were taken I have masked up the interior glazing ahead of applying a coat of primer tomorrow.

As you can see I'm following the Airfix instructions closely! Not!

Karl

Edited February 6, 2016 by Bordfunker

[sean]

Nicely done Karl, I have this on the buy list, so I'll be

interested to see how you get on,

Sean

[Sgeek]

Looking good so far and like the additions you have been making.

Thank you for the heads up on the transparency fit issues you had on your Blenheim. About to consider slamming my MkIV cockpit together so will take some special notice of the fit of the interiors.

[Bordfunker]

Watch the fit of the glazing on the Blenheim, as it needs your full focus for a decent fit, but get it right and its perfect.

Since my last post, I've managed to get some cockpit green on the interior, over a matt black primer coat.

Rather than use my usual washes, I've decided to go with a thin top coat that let's the black base show through in the recesses, followed up by gentle dry brushing to show the high lights.

This should speed up the build, as I always spend ages onnthe interior applying washes, which are all but invisible one the lid goes on!

Spent tonight detail painting the cockpit, but no pics yet I'm afraid.

Karl

[CliffB]

Looking really nice Karl. Your 'thin top coat' approach seems to work just fine!

Cliff

[Bordfunker]

Thanks Cliff!

The last few evenings have seen the detail painting completed on the interior, and I'm quite pleased with the pre-shade and dry brushing.

Here are the cockpit halves almost ready for assembly.

Excuse the manky cutting matt!

Here's a couple of pics of the flight deck and radio compartment.

The belts have come out reasonably well, but could do with buckles, so may have to check the spares box.

The interior of the wing is now fully painted and just needs a coat of matt varnish to finish.

I couldn't resist mocking up the rear of the fuselage having glued the halves of the vertical and horizontal stabilisers together at the weekend.

The initial fit of the horizontal stabilisers was very loose, with a definite anhedral, as the locating tabs were under sized compared to their slots. Therefore I fitted shims to each, having first checked the overall fit.

As you can see they weren't consistent, with me having to shim the top of one tab, and the underside of the other! Go figure!

Hopefully the next few nights should see the wings completed, and the forward fuselage together, after which I can assemble the rest of the airframe.

Karl

[nimrod54]

That's really nice detail painting Karl, and a nice work around on the engine nacelles.

[Mancunian airman]

This is a great guide for those of us yet to build this early work horse of Bomber Command before moving onto Coastal duties.

many thanks for showing us the way . . .

[Davek72]

She is looking really very nice so far Karl. Good work..

[Bordfunker]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement guys!

Over the last couple of days I've managed to get the tops of the wings attached, and the rear fuselage attached to the wing section.

The rear stabilisers are now on as well, so that just leaves the forward fuselage section and engine nacelles to go on.

No pics this morning, but I'll try and post some later, as this is now turning into a sizeable beast!

Karl

[Bordfunker]

Not much progress today, as been busy doing Valentines type activities with my wife, lunch and a trip to the cinema to see Dead Pool, how romantic!

However I did get a chance to take some pics of progress to date.

Here's the forward fuselage section all joined up.

Just need to re-scribe a couple of panels lines on the underside.

Here's the rear fuselage & wings assembled, the roof will stay off until the forward fuselage is attached.

The fit of these two major components is very good, particularly at the wing root.

The fit on the underside is pretty, it just needs a dab of MrSurfacer, and it should be good to go.

I couldn't resist a quick test fit of the roof and fuselage.....

..this is turning into quite a big beast....

...again the fit of the sub-assemblies is very good, and this is turning into a smooth, swift build.

Probably famous last words!

Karl

[sean]

You've seen Deadpool, she's seen Ryan Reynolds in a leather suit....win/win.

The Whitley is looking good, if rather large, nice going,

Sean

[Bordfunker]

Thanks Sean!

Dead Pool was very good, deeply sick and very funny.

One of the issues with this kit that Andy highlighted in his AMW build of this kit was the poor fit at the wing to upper engine nacelle joint, and my kit was no different in this respect, as per the pictures below.

You can see the step on top of the engine cowling in both pictures.

This is the offending area that appears to be preventing the two components sitting properly, a section of internal framing that is completely hidden with the nacelle installed.

I therefore decided to remove the framing with a motor tool until I had this.

Not particularly neat, but it doesn't matter as it'll be completely hidden once assembled, and the improvement in fit is dramatic as per the rather poor picture below.

Sorry for the rubbish pic, trying to hold Whitley and tablet while taking a pic doesn't work too well!

Another area where I found the fit less than perfect were the carburetor intakes on either side of the engines. These sit in a square recess, however this is wider than the intake itself, leaving a gap. Therefore it was out with the MrSurfacer 500, which is more like 250 these days, followed by sanding and a coat of MrSurfacer 1000.

I'll let that harden overnight, before sanding it all back tomorrow.

After that, I just need to re-scribe the lost panel lines on the front of the wing, and then the nacelles can go on.

Karl

[Bordfunker]

Progress has slowed this week, due to work taking priority, however I have made some progress getting the engine nacelles glued on, and then the seams cleaned up and the panel lines re-scribe.

I've held off attaching the front of the fuselage until all the joints are sorted, and the panel lines re-scribed, as doing that with the front attached would be a mare.

The seams were filled with thick CA and hit with kicker before being sanded back. CA allows re-scribing without the risk of taking chunks out of the underlying filler which has happened to me in the past.

This is the Airfix rear fuselage deck compared with the drawings in the Warpaint book. Spot the difference?

Always being a bit sceptical about drawings, I checked a number of sources online to ascertain that the hatch really was there as some early Whitleys appear to have windows in this position, but it was definitely there.

First problem, there's a panel line on the kit which isn't on the drawings, and it runs right through the hatch. Time for more CA and rapid sanding.

Now time to create a scribing template to create the hatch using an off cut of plasticard.

10 minutes later and a bit of work with the punch and die set and this what we are left with.

Here's the template attached to the fuselage decking with Tamiya tape to stop it moving when re-scribing.

And here is the finished article following a quick clean up with a sanding sponge and a coat of Tamiya Extra Thin.

With that little job out of the way it was time to fit the front fuselage section, starting with gluing the lower section first.

There's a gap where top of the two sections of fuselage meet over the wing which is going to need clamping, hence gluing the lower section first and now leaving it to harden off overnight.

Here are some pics of the smaller components that I have managed to get cleaned up and built this week.

The two turrets are lovely models in their own right.

This is the rear turret.

And here is the front,looking a bit piddly with a single gun!

Both turrets will get a bit of detail added, mainly cabling before they get some paint.

And some of the larger components ready for paint.

That's all for tonight.

Karl

Edited February 19, 2016 by Bordfunker

[Bordfunker]

With the front section of the fuselage allowed to dry overnight it was time to try and close the gap between the two upper sections of the fuselage.

Long story short, no amount of clamping was going to close that gap completely, not without ending up with a slightly banana shaped Whitley.

End result a gap either side which needed filling.

As per my usual practise I inserted a couple of pieces of plasticard into the gaps followed by a coat of MrSurfacer, which went someway towards fixing that issue, however that did leave a bigger issue, as this gap impacted the fit of the fuselage roof, particularly where the top of the fuselage met the canopy.

Now the smart money would have cut the fuselage roof at the panel line above the gap, but I never claimed to be smart!

So out with the plasticard and CA again, and 10 minutes later no step. One slight problem is that everything forward of the gap has moved back 1.5mm in comparison with the rear end of the canopy, another good reason for cutting the roof section. Oh well!

On the up side, the canopy fits a treat.

And here's a shot of the Whitley as she now is, looking much more like the barn door that we know and love.

As well as fixing my own mistakes, I thought I'd also try and fix one of Airfix's, in this case the landing lights on the port wing.

Airfix have molded the landing light lenses into the landing light cover itself, which means the area behind is empty, therefore I decided to box the area in.

Now I just need to work out what colour to paint the area behind the landing lights.

Next up will be re-scribing the fuselage, including the panels lines that need to move forward 1.5mm on the fuselage roof. Then I'll be able to sand and polish the airframe ahead of attaching the remaining clear components.

Karl

[bull-nut]

Lovely looking Whitley you have there.

I hope you don't mind, I've bookmarked this thread for reference, as I have one in the stash to backdate to a MkIV to honour the wife's great uncle. He was killed in one in 1940 (and oddly, given the colour scheme you are going for, was serving with 51sqn at the time, though they were under BC rather than CC).

[Bordfunker]

Thanks Bull-nut!

I'd be inclined to treat this build as a 'how not to do it'!

Again work has been heavy this week, so not a lot of time at the bench.

I finished off the work on the landing lights for now, adding a couple of discs of punched plasticard to represent the main light units.

These will get a coat of NATO black, as the interior of the landing light bays seem to have been painted black, even on predominantly white Coastal Command aircraft.

This has meant sanding the molded lights off the inside of the Airfix landing light cover, and then spending ages polishing it back to clarity.

I did try dipping it in Humbrol Clear, but this stuff just doesn't seem to work for me, certainly not in the same way that Klear used to.

The lamp reflectors themselves will replicated with punched foil, but that's a job for another day.

For some reason Airfix appear to have forgotten the navigation lights on either wing tip, either that or I sanded them off in error, always a possibility. Either way I decided to add them from Albion brass tubing let into the wing.

Next up was replacing the lights on the rear of the fuselage which I had sanded off as part of the seam clean up.

These are a bit big at the moment, but a bit of clean up will improve that.

Next up was again something that Airfix appear to have left out, a number of panels on the underside of the tail, as per the pic below.

These were quickly rescribed with the aid of Dymo, a scribing template, and a compass point chucked in a pin vice.

This was followed by a coat of Tamiya Extra Thin to smooth out the freshly rescribed lines, hence the shiny bits in the pic.

Before I start thinking about paint, I thought it was a good idea to break out the clear bits and test fit them to the model.

Everything appears to fit OK with the exception of the glazing section that sits directly behind the front turret. Airfix helpfully point out that this may need a bit of sanding to allow a better fit between it and the turret itself, which I duly did.

What was also apparent was that I had probably been a bit over enthusiastic with my sanding of the area in front of the cockpit, leaving me with a step between it and the clear piece mentioned above.

Given the tight clearance sanding down the base of the clear peice wasn't an option, so I added a skim of MrSurfacer instead.

This is pre-sanding, but the depth of this is no more than 0.5mm, so it's a very minor correction.

Once that is done this build is almost ready for primer.

Karl

[Bordfunker]

After another week in which work seems to have taken precedence, progress has been slow, with focus being on the clear parts which need sorting out ahead of starting the main painting.

For some reason Eduard have seen fit to provide masking for all the fuselage windows apart from those at the very rear, behind the gun turret!

Time to break out the Tamiya tape and the punch and die set, as these windows are oval.

Not a lot of work, but I can't understand why Eduard omitted these from the set. They also missed the circular window on the starboard side behind the cockpit, again another candidate for the Tamiya tape and punch set.

The portholes on the rear turret have also been overlooked, so while the kit was out...

It does rather feel that Eduard dropped the ball on this set, however the next issue with the clear stuff is down to to Airfix. Take a look at the photo below.

Note how the central glazing panel goes all the way down to the base of the turret, so that the ammo boxes are visible?

Now for the kit part.

It's not just Eduard's masking which stops short, its only aligning with the glazing bar that Airfix have molded, that will need to go!

I haven't started correcting this, that will be a job for tomorrow.

However I did spot another oversight with the masking set, as they have forgotten the masks for the little windows above the instrument panel, so out with the punch set and Tamiya tape again.

Here it is with just the ends masked ahead of the centres being filled in.

I also did some more work on the landing lights, adding the reflectors from punched foil, with a tiny disc of plasticard to represent the bulb holder. This will get a touch of silver then it's time to add the clear cover.

That's it for tonight.

Karl

[Skyhunter66]

This is an excellent wip Karl! Looking forward to the end result

Chris