1/32 Westland Whirlwind F Mk I, Special Hobby

[stona]

I have fitted the cockpit 'floor' and engine nacelles to the wing. Nacelles are another thing that often have a dodgy fit, but these are not too bad. The only gap was at the back of the left hand nacelle, dealt with by a bit of CA glue and talc. This is all awaiting a bit of a tidy up.

There are bulkheads in the nacelles which carry the undercarriage and, at the front, what appears to be the air intake for the downdraught carburettors of the Peregrines (a fundamental reason why the updraught Merlin was a non-starter in the Whirlwind without a complete redesign of the nacelles and undercarriage BTW). The later will be visible from the bottom of the model and is a nice touch. However, the instructions in this area have gone from vague to difficult to interpret, so plenty of messing about and dry fitting.

The control column does fit this way, but is very close to the seat, so you need to be careful!





With a bit of luck I'll get the wings and fuselage together tomorrow.

[Tim Marlow]

Looking good.....
I suppose the Crikey with Merlins idea evolved into the Welkin?

[stona]

Looking good.....
I suppose the Crikey with Merlins idea evolved into the Welkin?

Well, kinda, sorta.

In January 1941 Mensforth and Petter went directly to Fighter Command with his proposal for a Merlin powered Whirlwind, which would still have been a Whirlwind. We can only guess how his attempt to short circuit the established British aircraft procurement system went down at the Air Ministry and Ministry of Aircraft Production. I doubt that it was met with a positive reaction. We know that in February Sir Henry Tizard did examine the possibility but his report noted that the Whirlwind used two engines and twice as much alloy (the actual figure is three times as much) as the Spitfire to do fewer jobs less well. Tizard allowed the original cancellation of the type to stand.

A more realistic scenario was an earlier proposal for a Whirlwind II powered by developed Peregrine engines. The ever optimistic Petter thought, in conjunction with new propellers, would give such an aircraft an extra 40 mph in speed and a service ceiling of 36,000 feet! Despite Petter's ludicrous figures this would have been a good aeroplane, but fell victim to Rolls-Royce's rationalisation of production and development.

The Welkin was built to a different specification, F.4/40, for a high altitude fighter to deal with the Luftwaffe's high altitude reconnaissance aircraft. The Ju 86 P had proven itself immune to interception in 1940/41. Westland and Petter were very clear that the Welkin would use many structural elements of the now discontinued Whirlwind. It was an attempt to salvage something from the Whirlwind programme and to reassure the Air Ministry that the Welkin could be built more economically by utilising parts, tools and jigs already purchased for the Whirlwind.
Edit: Westland wrote that, "We shall probably be able to use the Whirlwind outer wings, slots, ailerons, rear fuselage and tail unit with a number of the detail parts particularly those in the wing spar boom." Given the rather poor relationship the company enjoyed with the Air Ministry and had done with Fighter Command under Dowding (who thought the company was hopeless) the conditional might not have inspired confidence!

The Welkin gets a lot of stick, but it met the specification. It flew higher than any previous British production aircraft and helped to reveal some of the secrets of compressibility. It was important to the development of pressure cabins which would become vital a few years later at the dawning of the jet age. What it never did was fire its guns at an enemy reconnaissance aircraft. Just as the Whirlwind was outdone by aircraft that could perform several roles better than it could (notably the Spitfire and larger Beaufighter) the Welkin ran up against one of the best aircraft of the era in the Mosquito.

The Welkin was a beautiful aircraft.



I'd build a model of one, though I have no idea where I could put it!

[adt70hk]

Well, kinda, sorta.

In January 1941 Mensforth and Petter went directly to Fighter Command with his proposal for a Merlin powered Whirlwind, which would still have been a Whirlwind. We can only guess how his attempt to short circuit the established British aircraft procurement system went down at the Air Ministry and Ministry of Aircraft Production. I doubt that it was met with a positive reaction. We know that in February Sir Henry Tizard did examine the possibility but his report noted that the Whirlwind used two engines and twice as much alloy (the actual figure is three times as much) as the Spitfire to do fewer jobs less well. Tizard allowed the original cancellation of the type to stand.

A more realistic scenario was an earlier proposal for a Whirlwind II powered by developed Peregrine engines. The ever optimistic Petter thought, in conjunction with new propellers, would give such an aircraft an extra 40 mph in speed and a service ceiling of 36,000 feet! Despite Petter's ludicrous figures this would have been a good aeroplane, but fell victim to Rolls-Royce's rationalisation of production and development.

The Welkin was built to a different specification, F.4/40, for a high altitude fighter to deal with the Luftwaffe's high altitude reconnaissance aircraft. The Ju 86 P had proven itself immune to interception in 1940/41. Westland and Petter were very clear that the Welkin would use many structural elements of the now discontinued Whirlwind. It was an attempt to salvage something from the Whirlwind programme and to reassure the Air Ministry that the Welkin could be built more economically by utilising parts, tools and jigs already purchased for the Whirlwind.

The Welkin gets a lot of stick, but it met the specification. It flew higher than any previous British production aircraft and helped to reveal some of the secrets of compressibility. It was important to the development of pressure cabins which would become vital a few years later at the dawning of the jet age. What it never did was fire its guns at an enemy reconnaissance aircraft. Just as the Whirlwind was outdone by aircraft that could perform several roles better than it could (notably the Spitfire and larger Beaufighter) the Welkin ran up against one of the best aircraft of the era in the Mosquito.

The Welkin was a beautiful aircraft.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1152594[/ATTACH]

I'd build a model of one, though I have no idea where I could put it!

Thanks for the info. Had heard a little bit about the Welkin but not sure I'd seen a photo. As you say it was a beautiful aircraft.

ATB.

Andrew

[Tim Marlow]

Interesting that you mention the Beaufighter as a rival Steve. In one pilots memoirs I read he seriously disliked the earlier marques of the type, claiming the Mark 6 (I think) killed more of its pilots than the Luftwaffe. His attitude was that it should not have got to squadron deployment until the issues have been sorted out.

I like the Welkin, by the way, but think it’s a bit “leggy” in appearance.

[spanner570]

Nice work Steve.
There is a 1/48 Welkin on ebay......£80 odd pounds!

[stona]

Interesting that you mention the Beaufighter as a rival Steve. In one pilots memoirs I read he seriously disliked the earlier marques of the type, claiming the Mark 6 (I think) killed more of its pilots than the Luftwaffe. His attitude was that it should not have got to squadron deployment until the issues have been sorted out.

I like the Welkin, by the way, but think it’s a bit “leggy” in appearance.

The Air Ministry and MAP preferred the Beaufighter to the Whirlwind but not as a day fighter, where there was clearly no contest.
The Beaufighter fulfilled roles that the Whirlwind could not. It offered greater range and its much larger fuselage could accommodate airborne radar for night fighting or ASV radar for anti shipping operations (the Beaufighter became the mainstay of Coastal Command strike wings with, eventually, the Mosquito). It also had room for the wireless telegraphic equipment needed for long range operations and the second crewman required to operate it.
It was no accident that almost 6,000 were built. It is one of the most overlooked British aircraft of WW2.

[stona]

Nice work Steve.
There is a 1/48 Welkin on ebay......£80 odd pounds!

I assume that is the Planet Models resin kit?

I did have a look at one of these last year, whilst suffering from lockdown fever. Eventually discretion got the better part of valour

80 quid is about right, but I do think you would really need to want a Welkin to stump up that much. I've seen at least one person bash it into a very nice looking model.

[papa 695]

Looking very good so far Steve.

[stona]

It's been too nice to spend much time on this today, and anyway the Fuhrerin had assigned me other allegedly more important tasks.

I did get the wing on early this morning and have just added a few other bits that now make this look like a Whirlwind. I'll leave the fine analysis and micrometre wielding to those who actually care about such things. To me this looks a lot like a Westland Whirlwind.

[Tim Marlow]

Looks mighty like a whirlwind to me ‘an all!

[stona]

I've not had much time for this, but I managed to mask and spray the canopy and stick it on, along with the gunsight and nose cone. You can fit the cannons after the nose cone. Any instructions are just someone's opinion on how to build the model, and fitting the cannon now would be silly, given that by separating them (they come in conjoined pairs) you can put them in later.

After that I've primed the model. Here's the underside, just for a change.



Next the wheel wells. The instructions have them Interior Green, which is not unreasonable. I, however, will be doing mine silver because most other fighters of the period did not include wheel wells as being 'interior'. I might be wrong, but there you go :smiling3:

[Bugatti Fan]

A friend of mine, Alan Clark scratch built a Whirlwind in I think 1/36 th scale and entered it in the old IPMS Nationals when they were held way back when at Stoneleigh. It was disqualified because he had skinned the plastic model with aluminium litho plate. I could never work out why because at the time bare metal foil was allowed on 1/72nd scale aircraft and therefore the aluminium litho p!ate on the Whirlwind would have been by ratio the same thickness as BMF on the 1/72nd scale models.

Regarding the Welkin. I had a 1/72nd scale vac form that I never got around to making and sold on, but cannot remember the manufacturer.

[stona]

I have now decided on a scheme and painted the underside.



But you haven't done the underside of the starboard tailplane black too, I hear you say. No I haven't! The instructions would have you do so because they have seen this photograph of the aircraft in question (without my arrows).



The red arrow is pointing to the shadow of the engine nacelle on the wing. The orange arrow is pointing to the shadow of the fuselage and lower fin on the tailplane.
This is not the black/white scheme of the early war. It was a short lived scheme of late 1940 and early 1941. On 28 November 1940 an order was issued that the port wing only be painted black, but implementation was delayed until 12 December. At the same time underside roundels returned, with yellow around the port roundel. On 8 April 1941 the order was given to revert to an all Sky underside, but implementation was again delayed until 22 April.

[adt70hk]

Coming soon VERY nicely Steve.

On the Beaufighter front, whilst I don't claim to be an expert, I've always loved the look of it and read the Chaz Bowyer book about it more than once, most recently last year.

Keep up the great work.

Andrew