1/32 Westland Whirlwind F Mk I, Special Hobby

[stona]

I'm sure that once you have worked your usual magic - this will be a true swan and not an ugly gosling!! :smiling:. :thumb2:

Paul.
:smiling:

Thanks Paul, I appreciate your confidence....and I hope that you're right

[stona]

While I have the fuselage taped together seemed like a good time to attempt to show the busy detail in the cockpit. There's plenty in there, much more than I was expecting to be honest. There are a lot of little levers to fit, which will give your magnifier and fine tweezers a good workout.

This is the best I could do with the photos.





Everything is OOB. The instrument panel decals are not my favourite way of doing things, but by applying them on a pool of Klear and in several more pieces than the instructions would have you do it, they have made a decent job of it. As the varnish dries it really sucks the decals into the detail.
There are two instrument panel options, so I hacked up the unused one to do various other dials for which they were not really intended.

The instructions would have you fit the seat right at the end, after the fuselage if glued together (after the wings are on too). That seems a hard way of doing it. The seat attaches to the bulkhead visible in the pictures, not the cockpit floor (which is part of the wing assembly). I think I'll be fitting it before I zip up the fuselage.

Overall, I remain fairly impressed. Special Hobby have upped their game in recent years, and it shows in this kit... so far at least

[Tim Marlow]

Looking good Steve.

[adt70hk]

Coming on very nicely Steve.

Well done so far.

Andrew

[stona]

I woke up this morning, and thought I'd get the seat in.

The seat is supposed to be dropped into the assembled fuselage much later. Having fitted it now I can tell you that would be a very, very fiddly task. I don't see why it will interfere with anything later; if it does I'll deal with it then.

The harness is a horrible paper and PE effort from HGW (?) that I found in the spare decals box, for reasons unknown. I think it's one that I've avoided using until now. I've seen worse.

[prichrd1]

Looking good so far, harness looks ok though [In the piccie] , seems a bit strange - looking at the office with no flooring
and the "hand brake" [technical term for that lever] just attached almost hovering!! :smiling::flushed: :tongue-out3:.

Paul.
:smiling:

[stona]

It's an unusual way to engineer the kit, but I don't see any issue with it. The cockpit floor, rudder controls etc. are built into the wing.



Notice that at this stage the seat is still not fitted...good luck with that

[adt70hk]

Coming on very nicely Steve.

ATB.

Andrew

[prichrd1]

The cockpit floor, rudder controls etc. are built into the wing

I can see now why you're putting the seat in now - it could be very awkward later on.
Most aircraft I have built - admittedly 72nd or 48th - you build the office up then squeeze
it into the little hole between fuselage halves [another tekki term I've picked up] where the
instructions say it should fit!! I should of downloaded & studied the instructions :flushed: .
Still looks the business tho'. :thumb2:

Paul.
:smiling:

[stona]

Indeed! There are many ways of skinning a cat.

Most of this cockpit is built into one side of the fuselage, with the accompanying seemingly endless dry fitting of the other fuselage half to keep everything square. That's pretty traditional I would say.

I don't remember building one with the cockpit floor in the wing before, but I'm sure it's previously been done by some manufacturer or another.

The real Whirlwind cockpit was a tight fit, just 32" wide, presumably measured at the canopy rails.

[Bugatti Fan]

There are rumours that a Crikey is buried somewhere on Westlands site in Yeovil.

[stona]

That was P7048, which was sent to Westland for repair in May 1943, having sustained flak damage, but was retained by the company. Westland bought it back after the war and used it a a company hack, registered G-AGOI. Eventually the engines were removed and used to drive helicopter rotor test rigs!
It is true that the airframe was dismantled and buried at Yeovil in 1951, but sadly it was later exhumed and disposed of properly after concerns were raised about it (and other buried wreckage) polluting ground water.

[Tim Marlow]

Nice progress. Belts look fine. Great side info as well.

[stona]

The inspiration for 'Crikey!"



The nick name seems to have origins at the A&AEE Martlesham Heath where the Whirlwind was tested. ‘Crikey’ came from the Shell advertisement above.

The Whirlwind was faster than the Spitfire I below 10,000 feet, and equal to it between 10,000 feet and 20,000 feet,

[stona]

Slow progress as I seem to have acquired a number of bank holiday jobs this weekend!

I have built the internal structure of the wing, mainly some bits to represent that structure and some radiator cores, and taped the wing up in preparation for assembly. It's quite big.



While I was at it I dry fitted the taped together fuselage, just to see. There is no cockpit floor here, but I can confirm that you can fit the seat in the fuselage and control column to the floor before finally making this step. This will avoid having to fit them later with what would be some extremely fiddly key hole surgery.



This looks very encouraging. All those of us who build kits with wings will be aware of the potential issues around the all important wing-fuselage join(s) but this one looks like it will be fine.