1/32 Westland Whirlwind F Mk I, Special Hobby

[stona]

Basic camouflage unmasked. Not much to touch up, which is nice.

The sharp eyed will notice the tailband is in Sky Blue, not Sky, which is another best guess.

[adt70hk]

Basic camouflage unmasked. Not much to touch up, which is nice.

The sharp eyed will notice the tailband is in Sky Blue, not Sky, which is another best guess.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1152936[/ATTACH]

Coming on very nicely Steve. I always find getting the camo on very satisfying.

ATB.

Andrew

[yak face]

Looking beautiful steve , this is making me want to get a whirlwind again !

[Tim Marlow]

Loving this.....great looking bird.

[stona]

A quick snapshot following the first coat of varnish following a polish with some very fine (2500 grit) paper and before a second coat and the decals.
I think it just about captures the way the varnish tones down the paint, particularly the post shading, which can initially look a little stark. It can be a tricky thing to judge, but using the same paints and same varnish for years certainly helps :smiling3:
It's an effect much more obvious to the naked eye than a camera, at least one in my incompetent hands!

[Bugatti Fan]

Saw my old friend Alan Clark today, and his Whirlwind competing at the IPMS Nationals back in the old Stoneleigh days is 1/24th scale.

[stona]

In keeping with the OOB nature of this build I have used the kit decals. They are typical of Cartograph decals, nicely printed on a fine carrier film. They go down very nicely but are quite fragile, so you don't want to be poking them about too much.

If I built the kit again, I would mask and spray the markings. I expect someone will make the markings for the DFS (grey/green) versions of this model.

[stona]

Just when you think that you're winning, it turns out that there are a lot more 'dangly bits' than you thought.

The undercarriage in particular is a bit over-engineered. Some of those bits are sub-assemblies already!



I found the pilot figure on a sprue in the spares box. I think he's one of those from the ICM offering, holding his flying helmet in his left hand/arm? I decided to make him just for scale in the eventual walkaround. The Whirlwind was quite a bit bigger than the single seat fighters with which most of us are more familiar (but nowhere near as big as a Beaufighter).

[adt70hk]

Coming on very nicely indeed Steve.

ATB.

Andrew

[stona]

I only meant to spend an hour or so on this today. I spent a lot more!

The engineering of the undercarriage, particularly the main gear, and doors is interesting to say the least. It's really quite a fiddly and difficult job to get it altogether and in roughly the right place. After a bit of huffing and puffing I got it done. Some of it seems a bit imaginative to me. I've never seen another British designed system or Westland system work like this but, as I've said before, I could be wrong. It also include the daftest way of attacking the mainwheels that I have ever seen on an aircraft kit!

For a bit of light relief I fitted the IFF antennae.



Just the sticky out bits and more antenna wires on top to do, hopefully tomorrow.

[stona]

I've managed to finish this one this morning.

The 'completed' thread is here for those interested. I've included a brief history of this aeroplane and one of its pilots, but you can skip that to get to the pictures

Completed Special Hobby 1/32 Westland Whirlwind. | Scale Models Forums (scale-models.co.uk)