Jambo's 1/72 Airfix Westland Whirlwind 1 build

[Jambo]

So, rolling my sleeves up to get stuck into the starter kit build with an Ebay special, the Westland Whirlwind.



Scalemates suggests this is a tooling from the late 70's, but the box is likely to be from the last 10 years so the paint has a hope of being as good as it ever was.

Unboxing shows a pretty simple kit, hopefully it'll go together nicely even if it's not going to have the detail of some of the newer tooled sets



Curve balls include a decal sheet which for reasons that I can only assume stem from a lack of confidence in the reds, requires me to put on the roundals and then the red dot in the centre



Anyway, it's a basic kit with basic tools, so may as well make a start, I'm going to have to paint the pilot up as "the office" is a step for a chair and a floor. Will see what I can do with the colours to hand, at least the kit has a choice of cheap brushes!


I do these things pretty infrequently and don't own an air brush so at least I won't miss that, but the choice of colours and lack of varnish and primer should keep things interesting

Jambo

[Jim R]

Hi Jambo
These starter kits seem to vary greatly. From old kits like yours to new, quality kits like my Vampire. You're right in missing primer and varnish. I'll enjoy following this. I found the painting secret is lots of well thinned coats put on quickly before paint can dry and drag.
Jim

[peterairfix]

Nice to see another different one.

[Jambo]

OK, a little progress over the weekend:

Ladies and gentlemen I present you with, "the office" in all its glory and intricate detail:



I decided to paint the instrument panel black to show willing, I may put some small grey spots on there later to try and add a little detail. It's a touch basic, but it all fits.

Rest of the fuselage & wings went together reasonably well. The fit on the left tail-plane wasn't great and the roots of the wings needed a little sanding to get the fit as close as possible:



Even with a fairly solid amount of tape holding the wings together while the glue set, the joins on the nacelles are not brilliant, I'll try to file them smooth and maybe use some excess paint to fill the gaps if possible when getting ready for top coat. Overall, nice to see the shape of the plane come together, and given the age of the kit I've not hit any serious issues so far.



Next up the remainder of the major components. In order to have the wheels down, you use a sharp knife to cut the closed wheel covers in half.

I'll leave propellers guns and wheels until later as they look a little fragile and I don't want to risk damaging them while doing multiple brush coats of the main skin.

Jambo