Trumpeter 1/48 Westland Whirlwind

[Willem]

This little beauty arrived in the post today and I found that I can't resist temptation.



I think the Whirlwind is a beautiful design and really encapsulates that 'classic' RAF aircraft feel. I fondly remember building the Airfix 1/72 kit in the 70s and I've been wanting to build a bigger one for a while. Surprisingly, this is the first 1/48 offering in quite some time. There has been a vacform kit and a Classic Airframes kit released in the last 20 years. The Classic Airframes kit is reportedly very good but they are now rare and I've never had the chance to build one.

The Whirlwind was developed alongside the Spitfire and Hurricane in the late 30s and was the first single crew, twin-engine fighter to see service with the RAF. The aircraft was powered by twin Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines and was armed with four closely grouped Hispano Suiza 20mm cannon. The engine power rating dropped off at altitude and it entered service as a low level fighter in December 1940. Later in the war the Whirlwind was armed with two 500 pound bombs and took part in RAF 'Rhubarb' operations over occupied Europe. The aircraft was very fast at low level, packed a huge punch and was a very stable weapons platform, it was also loved by it's pilots as a very resilient aircraft, being able to absorb punishment due to the cockpit placement and the added insurance of two engines should one become damaged.

Surprisingly then, the Whirlwind was only operational with two squadrons, Nos 263 and 137. It is thought that perceived problems with the Peregrine engines limited further development although the Peregrine suffered from less reliability issues than the Napier Sabre which was to power the Whirlwind's eventual successor; the Typhoon. Having said that, the Whirlwind served from December 1940 to December 1943 with minimal in-service development.

Inside the box:













This thing is quite dinky, the fuselage length being similar to a Typhoon. The plastic is hard with understated but good panel and rivet detail. The canopy is separately packaged (top marks) and clear.

The paperwork:











This looks a fairly uncomplicated build.

Decals and marking options:







OK, so maybe a little unadventurous and no sqn details but they look like two machines from 263 sqn at different periods. I may have a look around as aftermarket decals become available.

Overall, this looks a good kit. The only gripes I have are simple decals and moulded open tail-wheel doors (why?), no bombs are included. The cannon will need opening out at the muzzle or replacing with metal items. I'm off to make a start.

[Joesdad]

I am getting to like a Trumpeter ( ) kit Will, looks like a she build up nicely. As you say, not many around either...

Carry on..

[Willem]

A quick bit of building before dinner.

The cockpit tub (5 pieces so far) builds up swiftly:





There are separate side walls that I've left on the sprue for now for ease of painting and adding belts to the seat. Once this is dry I plan to prime in Tamiya black then add a cockpit green. While this was drying I jumped forward a step and assembled the wings. The wings have a full span lower piece and two upper surfaces and are very (quite scarily) flexible. The sprue attachments are quite clumsy and need careful removal, I hope that you can see what I mean from the pics:







Just be aware that parts C5 and C6 the wing radiators need to be reversed. This could be me but I spent a good 15 minutes testing and fitting until I came to that conclusion.

More soon.

[Lego]

Oh man that is like a man with four nipples

Did not take long for you to start building this

[Willem]

Just a quick update. Been a really nice day here so no massive strides forward but here is where I've got to:




The wheel wells come in three parts and glue into the engine nacelles. Simple assembly and decent detail.



Engine nacelle dry-fitted, looks nice in there and joining the nacelle shouldn't present any problems.



Waiting for primer and assembly. The instructions call for silver in the wells but I'm not so sure. Anyone have any detailed knowledge of Westland Whirlwind undercarriage bay colours? The instructions call for the two piece undercarriage legs to be added at this point and they will need to be fixed whilst the two nacelle halves are joined, going to be a job for three hands.

Meanwhile the fuselage halves were cut from the sprue (those strange sprue gates again):



Cleaned up and dry-fitted:





There are those moulded open undercarriage doors. You will have to do something about these if you wish to pose your Whirlwind in flight.

Hope to get more done this evening. Any comments, critical or otherwise are welcome.

[Lee]

Looking good so far Ludvig. I may start mine soon

[Willem]

Thanks for looking in Lee. Can't wait to see yours started and, erm, it's Will.

Anyway, I've done some research on the two decal options in the kit.



P6969 This aircraft went to 263 Sqn while they were based at Grangemouth. It was shot down off Dodman Point on 8th Feb 41 killing pilot Ken Graham. The aircraft had only 8.25 Ops. hours.



P7116 Bellows Argentina No. 2 went to 263 Sqn 0n 3rd Nov 41 while they were based at Charmy Down, was involved in an accident with a Beaufort in July 42. It finally made it back to Westland in March 43 where it was struck off charge. Total Ops hours 80:50

[martin57]

nice going will , its coming together nicely

[Willem]

Cheers Martin. Thanks for looking. More on the way.

[Willem]

Afternoon folks and a very happy D-Day GB Friday. Lots of excitement about that so I want to get a move on with this.

Hit a couple of snags this week- Stripped and cleaned my H&S and somehow I've ended up with a bent needle tip so my Iwata Eclipse usually used for varnish coats has come to the rescue while I'm waiting for a new needle. Secondly- I lost a few photos between my camera, my laptop and Photobucket ('Hooray' I hear you cry in relief). So here is where it's up to.

I sprayed the cockpit and cockpit walls and detail painted adding bits of colour to various panels just to busy it up and in no way accurate. I made some harnesses out of painted tape as I tend to struggle with the PE variety and end up with etch stuck to my hands and nasty bits of CA everywhere. I did add some scrap etch to the belts using PVA and they are done and I'm relieved and happy.





I primed the wheel bays and then sprayed Vallejo silver. First time I'd sprayed this brand's metallics so I thinned it well and took my time building up layers and I'm pretty happy with the results. Unfortunately these photos were lost, but I used the same method on the gear doors and various undercarriage bits. These and the wells were given a dark clay wash.





The cockpit sidewalls were closed up and the cockpit and tail wheel bay fitted to the starboard fuselage half and then the fuselage was cemented together and clamped.







The join looks nice and easy to tidy up.

One thing that I nearly missed is that Trumpeter make no mention of a gunsight in the instructions and none is supplied in the kit but this shouldn't be too hard to fix and I'll go through the spares or put something together out of scrap.

I've got the week off work next week so I'm hoping to push on with this so I can start my D-Day build.

Thanks for taking a look.

[Tobias]

Lookin good very nice seat belts

[mademodeller]

I have to put this one on my list take off the Airfix one.
one lovely model & builded

[Willem]

Many thanks for taking a look chaps.

[Willem]

Hi folks and a happy Bank Holiday Monday from a drizzly Leicestershire.

A quick update on this build. Lee's excellent review has kind of spurred me into gluing stuff together:



The wing root joins are really nice, no filler needed here:



The spine looks ok too. Fingers crossed:



Not quite the same can be said of the nacelle to wing join but hey, nothing a little bit of putty won't sort out:



This one is not as bad but I've still got to tidy up the nacelle join itself:



The wing to fuselage underside will take a little blending in too, but for my standards, so far this is coming together nicely:



Oh, and a little light sanding needed on the nose:



The main undercarriage legs are in place already as they clip in when joining the nacelle halves and I couldn't work out a way of added them later and still getting a sturdy connection. They are not glued and so can be 'retracted' into the bays for masking:




So waiting for glue to dry, then a bit of filling and sanding and hopefully some paint very soon.

Some extras that arrived for this kit last week. The cannon aren't right so I'll have to think about that. The bombs look very nice though as do the wheels:




Thanks for taking a look and any comments are welcome.

[mavers92]

Ive just seen the thread and wondering how the whirlwind is coming on?

[Willem]

Hi mate.

Thanks for dropping by. Currently have a couple of projects on the go but will get back to it sooner rather than later.