Andrew's Olde Airfyx Whirlwind **Ye Ende**

[AndrewR]

Well, here we go with a very old kit of very few parts.



A rivet-fest, naturally.



Decals look surprisingly good for an old Airfix kit, but I'm not expecting them to work.
There's one sprue:



The biggest challenge will be the windows, as the transparencies are very thick and not very well fitting!



So, a blank canvas with rivets and dodgy windows :

Excellent

[splash]

As I have two of these in my stash I will watch this build with interest.

This is one kit I would really wish Airfix would upgrade, even the better Italeri kit is getting hard to find.

What colours are you going for the RN Admirals Barge in Green or the US a/c in silver?

Regards Splash

[Stuart]

This'll be good Andrew, can't wait to see what you do with it!

[SJPONeill]

An old friend...

[AndrewR]

As I have two of these in my stash I will watch this build with interest.

This is one kit I would really wish Airfix would upgrade, even the better Italeri kit is getting hard to find.

What colours are you going for the RN Admirals Barge in Green or the US a/c in silver?

Regards Splash

I was thinking of finishing it as a HAS.3 from HMS Warrior, used in Operation Grapple (H-bomb tests) in 1957.

Was the standard scheme EDSG on top and medium sea grey underneath, or was it Sky underneath?

The Grapple helos had most of the EDSG overpainted with white to reflect the sun, so you end up with an EDSG cheat line.

Other than that, it will probably be OOB apart from repositioning the front wheels.

Cheers

Andrew

[AndrewR]

There isn't much to the instructions on this kit



The wheels are pretty awful really, and I will have a rummage around to find something a bit better




The pilots are diminutive and a bit flashy, but will hide the sparse cockpit



Part 49 is the winch, which is actually quite well done under all the flash. The rotors show mould misalignment lines and will need quite an extensive clean up.




Cheers

Andrew

[splash]

As I have two of these in my stash I will watch this build with interest.

This is one kit I would really wish Airfix would upgrade, even the better Italeri kit is getting hard to find.

What colours are you going for the RN Admirals Barge in Green or the US a/c in silver?

Regards Splash

I was thinking of finishing it as a HAS.3 from HMS Warrior, used in Operation Grapple (H-bomb tests) in 1957.

Was the standard scheme EDSG on top and medium sea grey underneath, or was it Sky underneath?

The Grapple helos had most of the EDSG overpainted with white to reflect the sun, so you end up with an EDSG cheat line.

Other than that, it will probably be OOB apart from repositioning the front wheels.

Cheers

Andrew

Nice they look good with the white top.

Try this link it does show an a/c in those colours http://saafmuseum.org.za/sikorsky-s55-whirlwind-has-22/

Regards Splash

[AndrewR]

Thanks for the link Alan


I still can't work out if sky or light grey is correct!

[AndrewR]

I decided it was sky.

Right, after a neighbourhood Canada Day breakfast, Katie took the Hordes swimming. I stayed at home to bake cupcakes for afternoon tea



So while those were in the oven (16 minutes), some primer on the inside of the Whirlwind.



Once the cupcakes were out, the Cajun chicken went in and I cleaned up the rotor blades.





When the chicken came out, I went and sprayed the insides of the helo with some pale green




And there we have some progress





Cheers

Andrew

[Stuart]

Wow, choppers and food - good combo. It's lucky you didn't spray the cupcakes green in error!

[AndrewR]

Wow, choppers and food - good combo. It's lucky you didn't spray the cupcakes green in error!

My first draft said "Took the chicken out of the oven and sprayed the insides green"...

The cupcakes were decorated for Canada Day



and have now been devoured.

We are expecting a severe thunderstorm very soon It has been very hot and humid today. The basement lab is one of the coolest places in the house, which strikes me as a good excuse to hide down there. Other members of the household seem to disagree.

[AndrewR]

Oops! I just noticed that I painted the underside of the cockpit floor and not the top.

Never mind, worse things happen at sea.

[PaulBradley]

It should be Sky, as that was the standard colour at that time.

Nice cupcakes, btw....

[Dirkpitt289]

I always enjoy when you guys include cooking and baking with your model builds/ haha

[AndrewR]

I always enjoy when you guys include cooking and baking with your model builds/ haha

I'm always cooking up some half-baked modelling...