Classic Airframes 1/48 Whirlwind - by Calum Gibson - New South Wales, Australia

I've always thought the Whirlwind was such a mean looking aircraft so when Classic Airframes re-released their Whirlwind kit I had to have one. The box art, always attractive on Classic Airframes Kits also drew me towards this kit.

As usual construction started with the cockpit which is really a kit in itself. The cockpit was mastered by Roy Sutherland of Cooper Details and Barracuda Studios fame and is one of the best out of the box cockpits I've ever seen. There are plenty of tiny photo etch pieces for the various knobs and levers, amazingly for me I managed not to lose any of them. The cockpit was mainly painted with Humbrol enamels. Following a bit of dry brushing an acrylic gloss coat and then an oil wash was applied. The detail on the instrument panel and compass was hand painted and glass simulated with a drop of Pledge One Go floor polish. The bombs also proved to be mini kits with PE and resin parts but they look nice when assembled. Getting the tails symmetrical proved difficult and I don't think I really got them perfect.

Onto the painting: usually my favorite part of the build. As usual I primed the kit with Mr. Surfacer 1200 thinned with Lacquer thinner and sprayed through the airbrush. Once all the little imperfections were rectified and the aircraft pre-shaded I sprayed the white for the nose and stripes on the upper and lower wings. White can be a pain to spray, in this instance I actually used Mr. Surfacer White primer decanted from a aerosol can. A light coat of Tamiya white thinned with Mr. Color Leveling thinner.

Next the stripes were masked out with Tamiya tape and the black sprayed. For the black I use a 50/50 mixture of Tamiya Red Brown and Black. This is a "scale black" mixture I've copied from Brett Green of Hyperscale fame. I find straight black just looks too black especially on large areas on 1/48 scale kits. After masking out the white and black on the upper surfaces I painted the sky stripe. For this I used Tamiya Sky.

The gray on the upper surfaces were roughly sprayed in the camouflage pattern. The green was then "masked out" using Blu-Tack and the green sprayed. I used the appropriate RAF colors dark green and ocean grey from the model master enamels range. I find thinning these quite heavily with lacquer thinners really improves the finish of enamel paints.

The gloss coat was Tamiya clear thinned Mr. Leveling Thinner. Using this combination I get a thin very high gloss finish, which is perfect for decaling.

It was about now that things went pear shaped. I posted some in progress shots on Hyperscale. Roy Sutherland pointed out a couple of things. One was that the serial number that Classic Airframes gives you for this aircraft (P6874) is for actually for an Airspeed Oxford. He also pointed out that this paint scheme was for Operation Starkey in September 1943, not Dieppe. And that he believed that the black should also be on the upper surfaces in a reverse pattern to normal D Day striped (i.e. black, white, black, white, black), and that the official drawings had been sighted by a friend who was researching Operation Starkey. Since then he has released a decal sheet for some Op Starkey subjects (BC48004 Spitfire Mk. IX Series - Part 1).

This triggered a memory; I'd seen some similar drawings in my copies of the 2nd Tactical Air Force Series of books. Sure enough the official drawings (IWM reference no's 18410 and 1808) were in Volume 1. They quite clearly specify the black on the upper surfaces, give details for single and twin-engine aircraft and detail the actual sizes of the bands but give no confirmation of the roundels.

I ended up repainting the stripes to match the drawings. I also fixed the serial number with some careful masking. I applied a wash of Flory Models Wash added all the small details and then flat coated with Gunze Acrylic flat. Some minor weathering with pastel chalks were used followed by a final coat of Gunze Acrylic flat and she was done.