Airfix A02056V 1/72 Westland (Sikorsky) Whirlwind HAS.22 Build

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Now this is an old kit, the information on the box tells me it was designed and tooled in 1956, and it does show on the plastic parts! The reason I got this kit was two fold, firstly I didn't have a whirlwind in my British Cold War aircraft collection, so it fills a gap, and secondly for nostalgia, as I first built this kit in the 80's as a kid, and still have some parts in the spares box.

To be pedantic, it is not a Westland Whirlwind, as the box states, as the HAS.22 was actually built by Sikorsky in the USA, and then shipped to Britain for test and evaluation, so in truth it should be a 'Sikorsky Whirlwind HAS.22'.

I do like the box illustration, with the 'Admirals Barge' flying away from, probably, HMS Victorious and the guard of honour standing to attention and saluting on the deck. They don't do them like that anymore. Pity Airfix didn't include the silver USAF SAR colour scheme anymore though.

The plastic parts have some flash and quite heavy mould seams on them, and some of the parts are chunky and toylike, such as the rotor head and front wheels, which look like lollipops to me. However I want to build mostly out of the box, with only some minor modifications. I will have to do something with those front wheels though, they're not even in the right place!

Main parts, not that much to it, but it does have some cockpit detail which is unusual for a 1950's kit.

The Lollipops I was talking about!

The main wheel legs. Can't work out why the mounting ring on one is so much bigger than the other? Do like the soundproofing for behind the flightdeck.

Colour callouts and decals by Cartograf. Much better than I remember.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Construction started with the cockpit, which by 1956 standards isn't too bad, with a floor, seats that look half decent, collective sticks, soundproofing around the rotor gearbox, and an instrument panel shroud which is only high enough for the pilots knees.

All areas were painted 'Sea Grey', which I think is the closest match that Humbrol has for 'Admiralty Grey'. Pilots were also painted up in what I think is close to the correct colours.

The cabin glazing went in okay, but the cockpit side clear panels were a difficult fit. It may have been better to seperate them before fitting. Some lead strip was glued into the nose with wood glue to prevent tail sitting, and the rotor was cleaned up and glued together while the paint was drying. The pin that holds the rotor on had its top disk drilled out.

[AirportsEd]

Another kit that escaped me in my youth!

I've never actually seen one of these built, so I will watch with interest.

[Ratch]

Here you go Ed

[Matthias Muth]

Nice ones, my was the silver Rescue helicopter:

Matthias aka modelldoc

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Now it was time to join the two fuselage halves. Using Tamiya extra thin, I started at the rear and worked forward section by section. The boom area was a very good fit indeed, needing only a swipe with some wet and dry paper to eliminate the join when dry, but when I got to the cabin area the fit was not so good, and some heavy duty sanding had to take place around the nose and on the underside, as well as some filler used on the top join. All came out well in the end though.

As can be seen the exhaust was also fitted at this point. It was improved by scraping off the mould seam line, drilling out the end with a pin vice and then the end of my hobby knife, and by filling in the large ejector pin hole on the top.

If this post has been repeated, I apologise as I have been having some issues with the site today!

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

All the fuselage seams have now been dealt with. The next step was to add the undercarriage.

The two parts of each main leg were cleaned up of mould lines and cemented in place. It took some doing to get the orientation of both to match! With the smaller front wheels, I had to do something with these, as Airfix mounted these in the wrong place due to moulding limitations of the time. They have mounted them on the side of the fuselage, where they are actually mounted on the firewall of the engine bay, protruding out of the bottom of the helicopter (On piston Whirlwinds the bottom of the engine bay was open and the bottom of the engine also stuck out a little, I will paint this area black).

The hole in the side was filled, and a new hole drilled underneath in the correct location, then the incorrect mounting lug removed from the leg, and it was cemented in underneath. I hope the pictures explain things better than me!

[Dominic Thomas]

This is one of those classic posts that is informative in terms of wording and pictures.

Thank you very much. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.

My only disappointment is that Airfix didn’t create the earlier Whirlwind with the ‘bent’ boom.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Yes, it is going to be in the kit scheme, I did toy with an RAF SAR yellow one but decided against it.

After the first run of Whirlwinds the tailboom was angled down by 3 degrees to give more clearance for the rotors, especially in a heavy landing where they could flex downwards. This gave it a bent look.

[Ratch]

I did toy with an RAF SAR yellow one

 

 

Me too. About 1964 one crashed off the coast at Great Yarmouth. i remember seeing the recovered airframe on the quayside in the docks. Maybe one day I'll pluck up the courage to try to make a tribute to it.

[Dominic Thomas]

There you are Rod. PMM has the answer.

I plan to purchase the new Xtradecal sheet for the Whirlwind, and this contains a range of makings , some of which cover early aircraft which have the bent boom/tail. Check out the sheet on the Hannants site.

[Dominic Thomas]

On that sheet, it’s just the Mark 7 & Mark 9 that have the bent boom. And of course the Mark 9 has the different engine as well compared to the kit.

I would prefer to have models of the earlier version when there was a greater variety of markings/squadrons.

But that’s just my preference.

[Dominic Thomas]

Rod, hit me with the easy questions 😀

I like to build Airfix kits. In this case, the model is of a later mark (22).

I also would prefer an earlier mark of Whirlwind for the reasons above.

I do have the RAFDecal sheet and there are options there.

It’s just me being awkward I’m afraid.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Painting is completed. It was brush painted, the white went on the upper surfaces first, then masking and the bright green down below. Did have a bit of trouble getting the green to cover, took up to 5 or 6 coats in places. After that some detail paining around the vents etc. The underside of the nose is painted black as on the real aircraft this area was open, and you could see the engine. Decals next.

[Dominic Thomas]

Looks really good. Well done. Which brand of white did you use (& green come to that)?

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Basic decalling is completed, though still have about 20 stencils to apply. Generally they went over the raised rivets pretty well, but it was a bit of a nightmare to make the multipart white cheatlines look straight, and line them up on each side. Also the green 'ROYAL NAVY' titles are printed straight, but they need to go ver the compound curvature of where the cabin area blends into the tailboom, and this made the decal bend downwards. I overcame this by cutting the title into two words and applying each separately, making it look more level.

The main and tail rotors are just push fitted at the moment. I added some yellow lifting strop markings to the main rotor from sliced up painted clear decal film, to make it look more interesting. Don't know if it is historically correct or not. I also went away from the kit instructions for painting the tail rotor warning stripes.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Hi Dominic,

The white was Vallejo Model Air insignia white, the green Revell aqua emerald green.

[Dominic Thomas]

Thank you.

[Ratch]

Turned out nice, well done.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Thanks Ratch,

Though not quite finished yet.

[Ratch]

Weathering?

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Weathering?

 

 

No, not to much weathering, being an admiral's Barge and all that, I should think it was kept pretty spotless! I only need to finish the decalling, add the last few bits, tail bumper and aerial, give it a coat of varnish, probably gloss, with a bit of satin added to knock the shine off a little, then install the windshield and fix the main and tail rotor. The only problem is finding the time to do it!

[Ratch]

Ok, it was difficult to see how far it had progressed.

[John Symmons]

I'm always amazed at how well some of these old modes come out, well done on a stellar build of one of the oldest Airfix kits. My main memory of this kit from the 50's was that the main rotor blades kept breaking off and were almost impossible to repair, something the Rotordyne also suffered from neither of which made good play subjects..

Well done and looking forward to seeing more.

Remember we do this for fun. John the Pom

[SD45elect2000]

Nice neat build, well done.

Randall