Crikey! Special Hobby Westland Whirlwind Fighter

[Wingco57]

I mentioned earlier that when this kit becomes available I would drop everything I am working on. Yesterday was that day.
 

Having started with sticking the major parts together with tape, I must say this is a typical SH kit. It looks short run in places but detail is very good. Cleaning up some of the parts is needed but nothing major so far. I let the pics do the talking.

[JeroenPeters]

A strange melange of detail. Almost if more than one company put this together..

Looking forward to this!

[BlrwestSiR]

29 minutes ago, JeroenPeters said:

Looking forward to this!

Same here. Thanks for sharing Cees.

Carl

[Spitfire]

Thanks for that, this kit is one I have wanted for years, I even built a 1/48 scale kit of one (Classic Airframes) but was not impressed, it just has to be 1/32.

Next up for me would be a Defiant (please).

Cheers

Dennis

[seiran01]

Thanks for posting the close-ups, Cees. I'm very excited for the kit despite knowing next to nothing about the airplane. Looking at the surface details on the wings, to my untrained eye they look ...off. Were the fuel tanks (?) outboard of the nacelles really raised up above the main wing surface like that and with such pronounced external ribbing? 

[harv]

I have one pre ordered so looking forward to your build ! ....harv

[HubertB]

4 hours ago, seiran01 said:

Thanks for posting the close-ups, Cees. I'm very excited for the kit despite knowing next to nothing about the airplane. Looking at the surface details on the wings, to my untrained eye they look ...off. Were the fuel tanks (?) outboard of the nacelles really raised up above the main wing surface like that and with such pronounced external ribbing? 

Hi Mike,

This feature is difficult to see on period pictures, especially as there are not so many from the rear where you can see the upper wing surface.

To cut a long story short, the tanks' skins were standing proud of the wing surface, as were the reinforcing ribs, as this was a distinctive feature of the Whirlwind, BUT they certainly weren't standing as proud of the surface as the kit has them represented. They must be sanded down to a proper thickness, which means restoring the surface details and riveting later, and the ribs which will have to go in the process and be redone later

The kit provides instrument panels for the early and late production aircrafts, as well as bombs for a "Whirlibomber" which not doubt will be released later in a separate boxing.

Another comment : if I read the documentation I have accurately, the oblique cylinders behind the seat were oxygen tanks (step 6 of the assembly), that were replaced by more conventional horizontal bottles in the later versions and from 1943. I may be wrong, and am happy to be corrected on this one, by more experts than me ,

Hubert

PS: to mitigate my comments above about the thickness of the tanks’ skins, one picture of the Whirlwind « Comrades in arms » which can be seen following this link : https://www.destinationsjourney.com/historical-military-photographs/westland-whirlwind/

has them standing clearly proud of the wing surface. I guess paint and weathering can do a lot to enhance or tone down the relief effect, as in the real pics.

PS2 : I deserve a  for my comment on the « oxygen tanks ». These are in fact port and starboard flares tubes  ! On the other hand, on early aircrafts, the oxygen tank, which was a « standard » oxygen bottle shape, was placed inclined vertically behind the seat, and was moved further aft, to an horizontal position on the port side, on later versions.

[BlrwestSiR]

Hubert, thanks for the info on the wing tanks. I wonder what they'll look like under a coat of paint. 

Carl

[seiran01]

Thanks for the info and link to those photos, Hubert

[Wingco57]

Thanks Hubert.

So far I like this kit and will build it out of the box. When I build another the flaps and  slats will be lowered which means some scratchbuilding. But not this time.

The lower insides of the radiator intakes have some rivet detail. I like the way SH rendered the complex wingspar/rib detail between which the radiators will be inserted. Take care though as the instructions are sometimes not very clear.

 

[belugawhaleman]

Looks like an interesting kit of a really good-looking aircraft. Thanks for the great

pictures. Incidentally, I just looked at my YouTube subscriptions, and I see that the

HyperScale channel has an unboxing video of this kit that came out about 13 hours ago

It's HyperScale video workshop no.207 I'll see if I can provide a link, although your post

Covers the kit very well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgpyoe5LZxk

 

[Peterpools]

Cees

Looking forward to following your build - the SH Whirlwind is on my to buy list for sure.

Ke ‘em comin

Peter

[Spitfire]

Here's another view of the wing tanks.

 

[harv]

Forgive my ignorance,  but what are you referring to about wing tanks ?.....harv

[HubertB]

7 minutes ago, harv said:

Forgive my ignorance,  but what are you referring to about wing tanks ?.....harv

The fuel tanks on the Whirlwind were in the wings, between the two spars, outboard of the nacelles. They were delineated by the extra thickness we are discussing. You can see them on the pic above, left of the nacelle.

The oil tanks were located forward of the front spar in the same area, btw.

Hubert

[Bomber_County]

Thanks Cees for the pics, I’ll hold on this one, not a huge SH but as this is the only party in town, perhaps……looking forward to the build…….but thank you SH for giving us mere modelling folk a classic British twin…..

[GazzaS]

Looks interesting.

[Wingco57]

Some more work on the radiator area.

[Spitfire]

Looks good, nice to have a "pathfinder" showing the way for us.

Cheers

Dennis

 

[Peterpools]

Cees

Nice work and always progress.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[BlrwestSiR]

Looks great so far Cees. The fit looks pretty good too.

Carl

[Wingco57]

It is good so far but the instructions are rather vague as how certain parts need to be fitted with respect to each other. But hey, that’s modelling isn’t it?

Some work being done in the cockpit. Detail is quite nice.

 

[Peterpools]

Cees

Nice progress and looking forward to following as your Whirlwind rolls out of the hanger.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[IainMackayDall]

Would this model work as a base for a high altitude Westland Welkin? re ( apologies to Brent Green ) for the comparison shot borrowed from a 2003 page at http://hsfeatures.com/welkintc_1.htm

[seiran01]

I don’t think it would sadly… Think you’d be doing a total or near-total scratchbuild