Another 1/32 Westland Whirlwind

[stona]

My next effort will be another Whirlwind fighter from the Special Hobby kit.

It will be in the Day Fighter Scheme (grey/green), meaning I will have to source some decals or masks other than those in the kit, most of which are not correct for a Whirlwind as late as 1943.

It will be posed in flight.

My victim is probably going to be P7062 of No.263 Squadron, coded HE-L.

It was an aircraft lost on an exercise in an accident which killed the pilot, Flt. Sgt Francis 'Frank' Hicks, a man from Tasmania who had travelled to the other side of the world to fight Nazism. The model is a tribute to men like him and also all the thousands that were KIFA (killed in a flying accident). Their sacrifice is none the lesser.

I will make occasional updates, but not a full build thread as that has already been done.

[papa 695]

A nice tribute Steve, I hope it goes well, and looking forward to seeing the updates.

[yak face]

Nice one steve , looking forward to this

[rtfoe]

A very nice tribute Steve, looking forward to the updates.

Cheers,
Richard

[Guest]

I'll enjoy watching progress, Steve.

[Tim Marlow]

Another great build of one of my favourite aircraft, what’s not to like…..

[slupanter]

Looking forward to seeing this Westland Whirlwind, such a cool aircraft.

[scottie3158]

Nice idea mate.

[stona]

Well, it's been a LONG time since I posted this but I've finally got underway.

This may well be a protracted build because, once again, minor inconveniences like earning a living are definitely going to interfere!

I'm also changing the subject. I don't want yet another British aircraft in a standard scheme, so I've cast about for something a little more exotic. The kit contains the wing hard points for a 'Whirlibomber' as well as universal bomb carriers and 250lb and 500lb bombs. The 500lbers have the wrong tail for the Whirlwind, so would need some 'adjustment'. Oddly there are no steps in the instructions for fitting any of this but it's not rocket science.

Given the above I've settled on an aircraft that was marked for and flew Operation Starkey, probably this one, flown by Flt/Lt Dave Ross (Flight Commander) during the Starkey Operations.



That's a 500lb short tail bomb in the foreground.

I've already got a Whirlwind posed on the ground so this one will be in flight.

[adt70hk]

Very cool! Love a Whirlwind!

[rtfoe]

Will stick around for this, have always loved the Whirlwind. I don't think my experiment in de-yellowing my canopy is working so will just have to enjoy seeing you build yours.

Cheers,
Wabble

[stona]

I was trying to work out why a random bomb was lying on the field and found this. It was obviously part of a wider photo shoot.



I guess they know what they are doing

[rtfoe]

That is huge and heavy looking...practise bomb perhaps or a dud?

Cheers,
Wabble

[stona]

That is huge and heavy looking...practise bomb perhaps or a dud?

Cheers,
Wabble

It's not coloured for a practice bomb. Oddly, from the shape, it looks like a 500lb GP bomb, the more common MC version had parallel sides, which this doesn't look to have. It's a British built bomb with one suspension lug which I think is screwed rather than welded to the bomb body (more evidence for a GP bomb).

I can't read the filling and obviously the coloured bands are...errrr...in black and white but I think I can just make out a line 1" from the nose, which would be red, and the other band 8" from the nose is clearly visible and could be light green indicating Amatol, blue RDX, light blue Torpex. TNT had two bands, light green and black.

The man on the right (and standing by the aircraft in the first picture) is Joe Hanmore, who was an Armourer.

[Tim Marlow]

Good to see this back on the stocks. Love a whirlwind as well. Got a part finished 1/48 somewhere……