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1/48 Trumpeter Westland Whirlwind


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First go round of sanding done. 

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And the old unmodified model:

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The bottom of the old model needed a lot of filler because I had cut the Fowler flap out and after I started the new version, I decided to re-attach the flap to the old model so that it would be more out-of-box as it were.

 

Did a little work on the pitot tube. Got some brass tube from Albion Alloys. (more on the way for the cannon)

Here's the real thing:

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I think that I will redo it, although this might be OK for the old model. I really don't want to re-attach the plastic kit item.

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That's it so far. Another coat of primer tomorrow and then probably more filling and sanding.. 

Thanks for checking in.

Terry

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Thanks Martian and Reconcilor, I think that I can improve on the pitot tube though. I got more tube in the mail and started laying out the possibilities for the additions to the Master canons. But I need one more size to make it work. I am just working on these fun things while the primer dries.

I haven't been happy with the ailerons. Basically I didn't know enough about their shape. I knew where their hinges were but wasn't too happy with what I had done with them. Then I found this drawing:

 

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I remember looking at this before and noting where the hinges were positioned but I didn't look close enough to see that the ailerons actually are inserted into the wing itself. I just don't know enough about aircraft construction! Anyway the ailerons have come off the model once already because of the fragile attachment method that I was using. So I took them off again and cut into the edge of the wing and the aileron to insert a thin strip of steel. (I used a bit of excess measuring tape for my table saw fence)

 

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I champfered the inside of the wing and glued the trimmed strip of steel to the aileron with epoxy, building up the upper surface of the strip at an angle that will eventually mate with the tapered slot that I have cut in the edge of the wing;

Here is one dry fit. The old slots for the previous attachment method will be filled. 

 

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Here are the ailerons waiting for the epoxy to cure.

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What's laughable is that what I will end up with is almost exactly what the molded ailerons looked like on the kit. I think if I was going to do it again I might just re-scribe the plastic to emphasize the separation between wing and aileron. I suppose that I could deflect the ailerons a tad. But I think most parked aircraft show the ailerons in  the neutral position. 

Tomorrow brings more sanding and filling. 

Thanks for your kind support and attention.

Terry

 

 

 

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More crawling all over these two aircraft with my optivisor,  filler in one hand and a sanding stick in the other. The kit shape may be flawed beyond repair and the various details erroneous but after handing it them so much, I have come to love them.  Polishing these sow's ears up into nice, well, sow's ears!

 

Ailerons fit just fine after not too much fiddling: ( I have repaired the little tip of wing that got damaged with a dot of sprue goo since this photo)

 

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and the underside

 

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I haven't glued the airlerons in and may not until the last moment. They really are a lovely shape. the knife edge of steel is softened by the fillet of epoxy. Priming them is going to remove all the character and evidence of my handling!

 

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Besides sanding and filling I also masked the landing lights (again) as well as the navigation light on the tail and the perspex antenna terminal on the tail. 

Sorry it's not more exciting for you all, but I'm happy. Getting the fuselage smooth on the kit that I cut up is chore but it's coming along.

Thanks for watching.

Terry

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Did some work in Photoshop for the decal of the knockout window. Previously I created a line drawing of the knockout window and reduced it. In looking at photos of the real thing I thought that I might be able to improve the look by filling the shape with a very light gray and then switching the black line drawing to white on the gray background. But that didn't really work well on the printer and I ended up with just a gray lozenge. So I toned down the black line drawing a little and went ahead and printed a row of them out on the decal paper:

 

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Don't pay attention to the apparent color. It's really black and white. The backing paper for the decals is a creamy off white.  So next I spray it with a fixative and then wait a bit and I should be ready to go. Tomorrow.  I might try toning the line drawing down even more. Making it grayer. Not looking forward to cutting one of these things out! They are about 7mm tall in the photo.

Cheers,

Terry

 

I printed another group, but grayed the line down more. Forget the background color.

 

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I'll try them both and see which I like the best. or neither!

 

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Sanding and filling and sanding again. I must admit that I am getting a wee bit tired of the routine. But I am getting there. In all of the close inspection of the model I found an area that the kit doesn't represent very well. The upper surface of the opening for the radiators at the wing roots. The kit treats the top the same as the bottom but it's not.

Here is the real thing:

 

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That upper airfoil is actually a flap that can be closed. But you see how it curves down. 

Here is how Trumpeter represented that: (this is the old model)

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So I took a break from the sanding and added a bit of rod to beef up the upper surface and after the glue and spruegoo cures I will shape it.

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You can see "hairs" from the spruegoo where I moved it around a bit .

 

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I'll give it a day or two to cure fully before I start filing on it to shape it. Meanwhile back to sanding. I have finished the old model but the new one has a lot more to do. I took the canopy off of the new model and at some point will try one of the decals for the breakout window. 

It didn't rain today! Yay! It has been a very wet winter, even by Oregon standards. Global climate change no doubt. No wait, Trump and his cronies say that doesn't exist, so it must be something else!. Anyway it's nice to feel the sun! Spring is almost here!

Thanks for stopping by,

Terry

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Magnificent work on this kit! It is looking a whole heap better than what came in the box already. You need to treat yourself to something from Tamiya next time so you can see the other side of the hobby!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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16 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Magnificent work on this kit! It is looking a whole heap better than what came in the box already. You need to treat yourself to something from Tamiya next time so you can see the other side of the hobby!

 

Regards,

Adrian

Whatever Terry choses it will be a piece of cake after this kit.

 

Martian

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Thanks Adrian, Martian, and Baron, your encouraging words came at just the right time. I was letting the sanding get me down a bit. 

 

Worked on the radiator slats today, trying to sculpt them into shape:

 

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Also did a little sanding. Drilled out the hole for the gun camera and filled it with Krystal Klear. Did a little more sanding. Worked on the tail wheel doors. Used some stretched sprue to represent the arms that open and close the doors. 

Here's the real thing:

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Note all the hydraulic lines. Perhaps if I have time I will see about adding some, although should have done it before attaching the wheel. Bit more challenging now.

Here's the kit:

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Did some scribing on the old kit where the panel lines had been erased. Not sure how I feel about the whole panel line issue. Really hard to see any panel lines in the photos, and the drawings I have don't really show the panel lines in some areas. Plus there are all the access doors not represented on the kit. More opportunities for creative modelling! Ha!

Thanks for checking in. 

The river is still up but the birds know it's spring!

Terry

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On 3/12/2017 at 7:52 AM, Martian Hale said:

Just keep repeating to yourself "not all kits are as bad as this".

 

Martian

The problem is Martian, I fear that I am going to want to add detail to even the most well designed kit! But I will be happy if I don't have to do major surgery... I think.

 

On 3/12/2017 at 2:14 PM, It's a disease said:

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this build.

proper modelling!

looking forward to the finish

Thank you so much for the encouragement. I too, am looking forward to the finish!

 

Little update. Well I did a little detailing in the rear wheel well: lead wire, brass tube, stretched spur and luck!

 

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Oh and I did some more sanding...

Had a contractor over to give us an estimate for attaching the house to the foundation. Seismic upgrade. Oregon is on the edge of a subduction zone and a large earthquake is probably in our future.. Got interested in seismographs when I was working at the middle school. Built my own:

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Next up, more sanding and anything else I can find to distract myself from said sanding!

Thanks for checking up on me.

Terry

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Sprueloose said:

The problem is Martian, I fear that I am going to want to add detail to even the most well designed kit! But I will be happy if I don't have to do major surgery... I think.

Adding fine detail is OK, its a choice you make as how far you want to take it. Happily though there are very few kits that need surgery as drastic as this one. Trumpeter should be reading this thread and be feeling thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Bet they don't and won't though!

 

The piping really adds to the tail wheel bay!

 

Martian

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I'm watching this one closely and getting a few ideas for my Whirlwind build.  Thanks for sharing, I might try and emulate your changes to the radiators, it makes a big difference I reckon.  As for the rest... amazing and well out of my league!  

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On 3/14/2017 at 0:56 AM, Martian Hale said:

Adding fine detail is OK, its a choice you make as how far you want to take it. Happily though there are very few kits that need surgery as drastic as this one. Trumpeter should be reading this thread and be feeling thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Bet they don't and won't though!

 

The piping really adds to the tail wheel bay!

 

Martian

Thanks Martian for the continued supportive comments. I'm afraid that I need them more than I can say!

On 3/18/2017 at 6:24 PM, SkippyNZ said:

I'm watching this one closely and getting a few ideas for my Whirlwind build.  Thanks for sharing, I might try and emulate your changes to the radiators, it makes a big difference  reckon,  s for the rest... amazing and well out of my league!  

Skippy, I am flattered that you think that I am out of your league! I am such a total newbie to this contact sport! If I was going to do this kit again I think I might forgo the extensive modification of the fuselage, just to eliminate all the sanding and filling that it has entailed. But that said I might do it anyway.. twasn't hard just required a certain blind ignorance of the the consequences! I have learned that the ideal is to not, repeat, to not actually touch the molded surface at all!. If you have a kit that has a step or misfit... find some way to adjust the fit without the use of filler! I hear boiling water is useful. But seriously, it's been a wonderful learning experience so far. And I am learning patience and perseverance as we speak! Hopefully.

 

So I haven't been posting every day as the progress has been less than photogenic. Mostly me sanding and filling and breaking things off that I should never have put on at this point in the build! Case in point, the rear wheel. I have broken it off twice now. Last time I drilled the shaft out and inserted a metal rod, as I have seen some modellers do. The problem there is that you just move the point of weakness beyond the metal. So I was busy sanding away on the old model and happened to look around for the new one. And couldn't find it!... Found it eventually under my chair ... minus the rear wheel. Yes I had removed the protective foam to do the lovely detailing and not replaced it! Sigh... I have to admit that my first reaction was..Great! I can remake it so that it more closely resembles the real thing!  So off I went... Bent brass rod and soldered it to another brass rod...
 

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 You will note that the kit part (in the background) has the yoke for the wheel meet the shaft at almost a right angle...Wrong! The real thing is like this:

 

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So my version, is marginally better, although structurally not as sound as the kit piece as I had to epoxy the fork or yoke to the modified metal wheel and that joint proved to be not so sturdy... at least ... well I looked up for re-scribing and found the wheel on the mat in front of me sans the fork... So I ended the day re-gluing the wheel to the fork..again! 

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The metal part is not that well finished a casting and I had to do a little filling (oh I am getting so good at that!) and then I painted it with Mr. Surfacer 500 in hopes of hiding some of the rough surface. (should have done this with the landing gear, or at least polished the pot metal!

I have been scribing and riveting...because.. well it's easy. But I don't really have a good drawing to show me what and where! The kit has some made some choices. Why I should rely on Trumpter's knowledge is beyond me. But with the lack of any other input...

So it's Terry just bumbling along here.

Added the insulator where the antenna wire enters the fuselage at the radio... I have not photo's of the actual thing...save for a profile view.

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Scribing and sanding... and filling and re-scribing... 

Filled the rivet detail around the engine nacelle covers as I know these are wrong... should be those captured screw thingies, (can't think of their names) that make it easy to remove the covers to service the engine:

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You can see how rough my re-scribing is, but I am hoping that multiple coats of paint will soften and hide my blundering. Plus I really want to minimize the panel line detail. 

You can see here (on the other model) the state of the nacelles after my filling and sanding..

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So lots more to do... but I am starting to realize that I am working towards a rather nebulous point of "doneness" where I say "Ok ENOUGH!" I could spend months massaging the surface but it's time to move on! Also, I reduce the chance that I will wack things off of it!

Like I said earlier, the idea of not actual touching the model surface is quite appealing at this point!

Thanks for watching my continued journey!

Terry

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Got the rear wheel re-glued.

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What you see here are the Evergreen tubes that I drilled out to provide some detail. They aren't glued in place and consequently slide to the fork.

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Next I will get it set to the right length and detail the sleeve etc, but I was thinking that it might be wise to not install it until the end of the build, except there are two door opening struts that are attached to it! So I will just have to be better about having it's guard in place!

 

Also, more sanding and dent filling.. plus I used a tool to mark the nacelle panels to represent the Dzus fasteners. I remembered their name!   Here's the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzus_fastener  (this close up reminds me of a whale with barnacles!)

 

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I also worked on exhausts, Trying to show that the nacelle panel covers the exhaust pipes but is not part of them.

 

Here is the real thing. Note that the exhausts extend beyond the nacelle panel covering... this is a retrofit as I understand it. Originally the exhaust pipes were the same lengths on both the inboard and outboard sides of the engine. But it was found that the inboard pipes were directing their gases right into the radiator vents and causing the engine to overheat. so they lengthened the inboard pipes to get them down below the radiator intakes. The outboard pipes are completely shrouded by the nacelle cover panel.

Here is the inboard exhaust, the hot pipe exposed, the panel cut away:

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Note how the panel/shroud is cut away from the exhaust. The model does not represent this.

The outboard exhaust pipe ends at the cut away section of shroud. 

This is all constructed so that the nacelle shrouds can be removed easily. I assume that they could have re-designed the nacelle covers to totally cover the extended exhausts on the inboard side but it wasn't cost effective.

I am still working on the scribing around the exhausts... plus unfortunately my photo is out of focus... but you get the focus of my intent.

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The outboard side is simpler to represent although perhaps harder to see.

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You may  have also noticed that Trumpter introduced a decided flare to the exposed exhaust tube that is not there in the actual engine.

 

Till next time boys and girls, this is uncle Terry signing off..

Thanks for watching!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Just played catch up on this one.

You have jumped in at the deep end, haven't you?

You are, however swimming along impressively well.

Looks like a primer coat will be in your near future.

(Time to breath a huge sigh of relief!)

 

Captive fasteners, Camloc or Dzus fasteners.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry that I have not updated lately, but there has not been much to show. Just more filling and sanding and now scribing.

With so many modifications to the model, there is a lot of panel line detail that needs to be re-instated. Some of the kit's panel lines are obviously wrong but I don't have documentation for a lot of the aircraft's surface so some of it I just have to guess. Needless to say my scribing is less than stellar. I have been struggling to find the best methods and tools. The hardest areas are those where I can not use a guide of some kind. Patience and a light touch are needed. Plus a lot of putty and more sanding to remove my shaky mistakes!

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Making progress, but it's slow going at the moment.

Thanks for checking in.

Terry

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I've just found this thread and will read in detail later. I just wanted to say what a brill modeller and blogger you seem to be already. Must be a natural! 

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The scribing looks OK to me. Don't forget that this is your first go at a major build and you are never going to get everything 100% right, nobody ever does, even when they have been doing this sort of thing for years. You have already vastly exceeded what anybody could have reasonably expected of themselves for a first bash. You will also be painfully aware of any small imperfections that nobody else will ever notice. Goes with the territory I'm afraid!

 

Martian

 

Martian

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Just caught up with all this, and you are doing a stellar job on what looks a right dog of a kit.  Hang in there with the sanding - we all know how tedious it is, but it pays off in the end.  

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On 3/30/2017 at 0:27 AM, per ardua ad ostentationem said:

I've just found this thread and will read in detail later. I just wanted to say what a brill modeller and blogger you seem to be already. Must be a natural! 

Thanks for the kind words. Naturally nuts I'm afraid!

13 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

The scribing looks OK to me. Don't forget that this is your first go at a major build and you are never going to get everything 100% right, nobody ever does, even when they have been doing this sort of thing for years. You have already vastly exceeded what anybody could have reasonably expected of themselves for a first bash. You will also be painfully aware of any small imperfections that nobody else will ever notice. Goes with the territory I'm afraid!

 

Martian

 

Martian

Thanks Martian for the sage advice. I am soldiering on!

13 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Just caught up with all this, and you are doing a stellar job on what looks a right dog of a kit.  Hang in there with the sanding - we all know how tedious it is, but it pays off in the end.  

Thanks for the supportive thoughts! The sun has come out so things are looking up!

 

More scribing today. Finished the wings and the fuselage except for the little bits that the kit left out. Like the foot holds and access panels on the tail. After I get them done I can build the pitot tubes and the ladder!

Some of kit's molded panel lines on the wings are wrong and should be perpendicular to the leading edges where the slats are. 

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I have decided that Perfect Putty is the safest thing to use to fill my mistakes and unwanted panel lines. I have been using Bondo which can be thinned with lacquer thinner. It's just too "hot" for the surface details as it can melt the styrene! The problem with PP is that it is quite delicate and wet sanding is right out as it removes too much. PP is great for filling mistakes right next to detail that you want to preserve but you really have to be careful about how you remove the excess as you can leave it shy of the surface with the simple wipe of a damp cotton bud. So light applications of Perfect Putty and then knock it down with a stiffly backed abrasive pad or stick to get it level. Too bad that the Perfect Putty folks opted to use plastic tubes because you really have to be careful to squeeze all the air out of them before recapping the tube or the putty begins to dry out in the tube! 

Filled and rescribed the representations of the reinforcement strips on the fuel tanks. The kit just gave you a single line.

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Also used a needle to put in the fasteners around the gas and oil caps. No idea what these actually look like, just going by the drawings I have.

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I assume that the round panels cover the actual gas caps. I will have to do some more research to find out as I want to show one of them open for the refueling diorama that I have in mind. I got the Airfix Albion 3 point refueler kit, which is quite nice. Already seeing that it will need some modification to make it more accurate!  John did a partial WIP here.

 

Doesn't seem like a lot to show for a full day's work!

Last week I had a birthday and my wife made me a card:  

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Enough for today! The sun has come out! It's not raining for a change and we are going out to dinner with friends! Hope your modelling day has been fruitful and rewarding!

Terry

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Terry,

More great work from over the pond.

And very nice to see it is too.

My guess on the fuel caps, looking at the

drawing is that the outer ring is for reinforcement.

The inner circle/cap may have a flip up catch as used on

racing cars, or a couple of holes for a tool to be inserted

for turning it. I'm sure I've seen both types on old aircraft.

 

Edit, I just googled Spitfire fuel tank and found a type with

flanges around the edges. Whichever type you choose,

(and whichever type Westlands chose) I'm sure someone will say it's wrong!

 

Like the birthday card, BTW!

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