Airfix Westland Whirlwind Mk.I - FINISHED

[klr]

I first built this kit back in 1983, qualifying it for this Group Build. I built it again in 2005:

 

 

There are of course some things that could have been improved upon, such as removing that ugly "step" at the lower port fuselage/wing join. And moving that small starboard-side fairing inboard, where it ought to be. Those are amongst the things I hope to get right this time.

 

The kit I'm building this time is the starter kit boxing, which I bought in 2012:

 

 

 

I have toyed with the idea of adding underwing bombs, and/or completing it in the "Dieppe" scheme, with a white forward fuselage, and black underwing surfaces. But as I also have the Pavla kit - which has both of these options included - I may just build this out of the box.

 

Since I actually started to build this kit a few days ago, the first progress post is going to follow ... very quickly.

Edited July 22, 2020 by klr
spelling in title

[klr]

I told you progress would be quick on this!

 

The interior is quite basic, but presents no real issues:

 

I have some spare pilots partly pre-painted in standard RAF colours, so I took one of those and touched it up. The figure included in the kit is slightly smaller than this. At some point in the 1970s, it seems Airfix reduced the size of this type of pilot figure.

 

Painting those radiator intakes (?) required a bit of patience:

 

The assembled spinners will need some cleaning up:

 

As will the nacelles, Actually, much of that cleaning up has been done since I took this:

 

... so I went ahead with the main construction steps. Note that I opened up the stand slot. The kit takes the smallest of the old stand sizes (series 1/2). I have a plentiful supply of old stands, having bought a couple of bags of them over the past few years. I also have some from second-hand kits issued in the 1970s.

 

The two glaring issues I noted with the 2005 build (see previous post) have been addressed. There is still clean-up work to be done around the spinners and undercarriage doors, but that is routine.

[Dansk]

A wonderfulaircraft, thats some rate of knots you’re producing there! 👍

[klr]

2 minutes ago, Dansk said:

A wonderfulaircraft, thats some rate of knots you’re producing there! 👍

I really, really, really like the Whirlwind, and I had this on my short list for the GB. I never built the original 1958 Airfix kit, so I don't know how much this 1978 tooling is based on that. But it's a typical Airfix 1970s kit: No unwanted rivets, lightly raised surface detail, major parts fit is generally good, but some rough edges to clean up. The remainder of the cleaning up will take me well into tomorrow, especially as I have two other kits on the go. But I don't see any major obstacles in completing the kit. The decals look to be good quality as well, very likely produced by Cartograf.

[modelling minion]

34 minutes ago, klr said:

I really, really, really like the Whirlwind

It shows!

That is a very nice job you're making of this Airfix classic.

I built a fair few of these and always liked the racing looks of them and wondered how much more successful a design they would have been with a pair of Merlins in them.

[klr]

16 hours ago, modelling minion said:

It shows!

That is a very nice job you're making of this Airfix classic.

I built a fair few of these and always liked the racing looks of them and wondered how much more successful a design they would have been with a pair of Merlins in them.

The racing looks? Very true. Maybe I should do a "what if" scheme a la the DH.88 Comet? Then again, maybe not, not unless I had a dozen in the stash (... and why don't I?)

 

As for the Merlins: I always think of the DH Hornet as the aircraft the Whirlwind could have been. It's a mystery why Airfix has never kitted it.

 

Anyway, back to the kit at hand. I've done a fair bit of work this morning cleaning up the remaining rough edges. I'll do another pass later this morning, and then prime those areas to see if anything more needs to be done. You can't rush this part of building a kit. That's one of the reasons why I like to have several on the go at once: There's always something to be done on at least one of them.

[modelling minion]

2 hours ago, klr said:

Maybe I should do a "what if" scheme a la the DH.88 Comet?

Exactly what I was thinking of, would look very nice in that red scheme, or the dark green.

[John]

On 7/3/2020 at 4:53 PM, klr said:

I really, really, really like the Whirlwind, and I had this on my short list for the GB. I never built the original 1958 Airfix kit, so I don't know how much this 1978 tooling is based on that. But it's a typical Airfix 1970s kit: No unwanted rivets, lightly raised surface detail, major parts fit is generally good, but some rough edges to clean up. The remainder of the cleaning up will take me well into tomorrow, especially as I have two other kits on the go. But I don't see any major obstacles in completing the kit. The decals look to be good quality as well, very likely produced by Cartograf.

There's nothing in common between the old and new moulds  The new one is vastly better.

I've mentioned before that I spend my working day on the old Grangemouth airfield, which is where 263 Squadron converted from Hurricanes on to Whirlwinds in the Summer of 1940. My dad, 13 years old and a mad keen plane spotter at the time, was watching when P6966 had to be abandoned by its pilot and dived into a bog at Dunmore, just north of Falkirk. I believe the parts recovered from the crash site some years back are the only surviving original Whirlwind components. I think they found both the Peregrines.

My dad and his friends were quickly on the scene and his opinion was that the airframe disintegrated on impact but the guns and engines weren't unduly bothered by the soft ground and kept on going to a fair depth. 

John 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Good to know this kit exists, I will be adding one to my wants list. 

[klr]

Now, where was I ... or am I? The canopy seemed a good fit, but not quite good enough. The fuselage seemed a bit too wide, possibly an assembly error on my part:

 

 

 

It's now much better. I'll hopefully apply the camouflage top coat tomorrow. I'll also probably replace the aerial mast ahead of the cockpit with something slimmer and more realistic.

 

The  cannon barrels - which will be used, after some cleaning up - won't be attached until I've finished with the nose section. There is still some more work to done cleaning and painting the propeller units.

 

The underside of the wings and tailplanes has had two coats so far of Humbrol 165, from a tin that is not in good condition*, hence the patchy application. I also managed to spill over half of it onto my laptop, miraculously causing no lasting damage, but triggering quite a few expletives. There's enough paint left to finish the wings and do the fuselage, after which I will switch to a newer tin.

 

*The paint that is, no the tin. The Humbrol tins from the era with white covers and coloured paint stickers - rather than a coloured cover - seem to have been of poor quality, especially in terms of longevity.

 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by klr

[modelling minion]

That canopy looks to be a good fit to me.

Glad to hear that your laptop survived being painted, could have been nasty.

[klr]

I got started on the forward half of the upper paint job today. There are slanting panel lines just behind the canopy, that marked a good place to stop for now. The instructions for all three boxings of the Airfix kit that I've bought over the years show this subject (P7102/P+SF "Comrades In Arms" of 137 Sqn.) with yellow leading edges outboard of the engines. The Pavla kit doesn't, not for any of its 5 subjects, including P7102. But I'll be applying them. I am using the standard Humbrol colours for this scheme, as in 30 dark green and 106 ocean grey. The starter kit paint guide shows 30 as grey and 106 as green, so I had to check the other Airfix instructions, and those of the Pavla kit, to confirm that it was the colours that were wrong.

 

The undersides of the wings, forward fuselage and tailplanes are now in better condition, ready for the decals and some more touching up. Humbrol 165 is a satin finish, but I can't recall any Airfix instructions saying it should get a matt varnish when used as Medium Sea Grey on an RAF WWII aircraft. I might also do a bit more work at the front junction of the starboard nacelle/undercarriage door. Actually, it's in better shape than it looks. What seems like a sizeable gap is actually some white filler that needs at least one more coat of paint.

 

[modelling minion]

The painting is coming along nicely, this is shaping up to be another cracking model.

[klr]

Wing decals now added, along with remaining parts. I decided to use the aerial mast, but thinned down and tapered somewhat. All Airfix boxings of P7102 come with "Comrades in Arms" decals for both sides, but the Pavla kit only has one decal for the port side. Actually, I messed up one of the Airfix decals, as I didn't see it when I was cutting off another. But I still had spare markings for this aircraft from the last time I built this kit in 2005. It pays to have your spare decals organised ...

 

The W/T decals on the underside of the starboard wing can barely be seen in this photo, while those on the port side are clearly visible. This is another trick of the camera (lighting, angles) as both sets are clear to the naked eye.

 

So now to clean up all the front half of the aircraft, before moving onto the back half. That could easily take me until tomorrow evening - or even longer - depending on other demands on my time, and just how fastidious I feel. I'll probably concentrate on this kit until it's done, and then return to the Skyray and Lysander.

 

[modelling minion]

Very nice, looks unusual in the half finished look.

[klr]

Getting there ...

 

I should get it finished this weekend, but I've said that sort of thing before ...

[modelling minion]

Very close indeed, should be do-able over the weekend.

[klr]

3 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Very close indeed, should be do-able over the weekend.

If I had used a new tin of Humbrol 165 from the start, I'd be finished by now. But of course no, I decide to persist with the old tin, even though it's clearly jinxed, and just on the wrong side of usable. I finally gave in and cracked open a new tin for the underside of the rear fuselage, and that has speeded things up. By a remarkable coincidence (not!), I also need Humbrol 165 for my upcoming Westland Sea King, both inside and out.

[JOCKNEY]

Wonderful job, definitely on my to build list

 

I can't help but wonder how good this aircraft would have been if it had only been given Merlin engines.

 

Cheers Pat

[klr]

The kit is almost finished. Almost. I will do some more touching up tonight, and again tomorrow morning, and that should be that. A very welcome and long-overdue outbreak of good weather this weekend meant I didn't spend as much time on it as planned.

[JOCKNEY]

17 minutes ago, klr said:

The kit is almost finished. Almost. I will do some more touching up tonight, and again tomorrow morning, and that should be that. A very welcome and long-overdue outbreak of good weather this weekend meant I didn't spend as much time on it as planned.

Good weather in Eire, come on who are you trying to kid.

I thought you share the same weather as us in the Scottish West Highlands 

 

[klr]

4 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Good weather in Eire, come on who are you trying to kid.

I thought you share the same weather as us in the Scottish West Highlands 

 

We've had less rainfall than normal in the last few weeks, but also less sunshine - much less. Then it rained all day Friday, and I mean all day. The Weather Gods were paying us back for all the sun during April and May. One of the reasons I live a minute's walk from the sea (and not much more to the nearest beach) is that whenever there is good weather, I don't have to waste any time taking advantage of it.

 

The great outdoors and this hobby don't really mix, so naturally I tend to build more during the winter, bad weather, etc.

[JOCKNEY]

Can I ask whereabouts you are in Ireland, my father was from County Clare.

[klr]

3 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Can I ask whereabouts you are in Ireland, my father was from County Clare.

I'm in Galway. I can see Clare across Galway Bay, right outside my apartment. The northern coast of the Burren to be exact. Those hills made a great backdrop for the Galway Air Shows, which unfortunately are no more.

[JOCKNEY]

Fantastic, my dad was born near the Cliffs of Moher, in a tiny place in the middle of a peat bog called Ballycotton.

 

We have been planning to come back over for a while now, hopefully when life returns to normal we can come back, for a nice long time to do the place justice.

 

Cheers Pat