Kit: No. 415
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Classic Airframes, P.O. Box 577580, Chicago, IL 60657-7580, 773-588-5161
Price: $39.95
Comments: Comments: Multimedia, 123 parts (32 injection-molded plastic, 55 cast resin, 30 photoetched brass, 4 cast metal, 2 vacuum-formed canopies), decals.
Pros: Resin cockpit and exterior detail parts, recessed panel lines, vacuum-formed canopies, decals
Cons: Overall fit, lack of part-locating devices, lack of wheel-well detail
Designed to meet a 1935 British Air Ministry specification for a fighter armed with four 20mm cannons, the Westland Whirlwind suffered many teething problems, and was not accepted into service until 1940. Development delays with its Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines were never resolved because of the the heavy demand for the company's successful Merlin powerplant. A switch to the Merlin would have required a complete redesign of the Whirlwind. Despite these problems, the Whirlwind was the first four-cannon fighter to enter British service. With the addition of a bomb rack under each wing, the "Whirlybomber" was used in ground support. Only 114 of these sleek, heavy fighters were built, its intended mission being filled by newer heavily armed Spitfires and Typhoons.
An injection-molded kit of a 1/48 scale Whirlwind has been near the top of many modelers' wish lists for a long time. Classic Airframes has answered the call with this fine multi-media kit. Most airframe components are molded in light-gray styrene, with a pair of crisp and clear vacuum-formed canopies. The highlight of the kit is the resin detail parts - if they look familiar, it's because they were created by Cooper Details and were originally offered in Cooper's vacuum-formed Whirlwind kit.
The main landing gear struts are cast in white metal. Two sets of markings are provided on the excellent decal sheet (printed by Microscale). Resin bomb racks are provided if you wish to build a "Whirlybomber," but no bombs are included in the kit.
Cleanup of the mating surfaces of all parts is necessary, typical of limited-run plastic kits. Dry-fit each assembly before committing glue to the joints. Most on my kit needed refinement with sandpaper and filler. Overall, the fit of the parts is good, even without part-location pins.
The location of the cockpit tub within the fuselage is vague, so I taped the fuselage halves together and test-fit the assembly. Sanding the edges of the instrument panel and rear bulkhead got them to fit properly. Removing some of the small detail parts from the cast-resin wafer resulted in broken parts. Even though the 13-step instructions are well illustrated, the position of some of the cockpit details is vague; good reference photos will help here. I didn't install the seat assembly on the rear bulkhead until the interior was installed into the fuselage. This allowed me to install the cockpit parts from below once the fuselage was glued together.
I painted the interior with Testor Acryl British Interior Green and picked out the details with satin black. I had to trim the tail wheel bulkhead (69) to allow the fuselage halves to fit together.
The engine nacelles fit well, but their wheel wells have little detail. The five-part wing automatically produces the correct dihedral. The position of the photoetched radiators is vague - I placed mine as far forward as they would go. I filled small gaps with epoxy putty and removed the excess with a wet finger to avoid sanding, which would have removed the delicately engraved details. Take your time and check the alignment of the nacelles to the wings.
When I mounted the wings to the fuselage, I found the cockpit floor interfered, so I carefully ground down the underside of the floor with a motor tool.
I masked off the canopy and attached it to the fuselage to protect the interior during painting. I painted my Whirlwind with Testor Acryl British colors, mainly Dark Earth and Dark Green over Sky. The underside of the left wing was Night (flat black), representing the camouflage of the day. After a couple of coats of Future floor polish, the decals snuggled down into the engraved lines with a touch of Micro-Set.
I had trouble with the white-metal main gear struts. They're too wide for the wheels and the wells. I sanded them down to fit. The instructions show the main gear retraction struts (52) as separate pieces, but my sample had them molded in place on the main struts. I had to straighten them so they looked good in the wells. The tail-wheel strut was crudely molded, and the hole in the tire was too big for the small pips molded on the strut. I made an axle from styrene rod and reshaped the tail wheel strut for a better appearance.
The finished model measures almost exactly to the dimensions given in Bruce Robertson's Westland Whirlwind (Kookaburra). I spent about 48 hours building my Whirlwind, more than usual because of the time devoted to refining parts fit.
Classic Airframes' Whirlwind is clearly aimed at advanced modelers. Beginners might want to wait until they have experience dealing with resin and photoetched parts and fixing fit problems.
- John Plzak