Welkin Mk III

[kitnut617]

Here you go Robert.

It looks quite 'ordinary' with that wing, don't you think, huge though it is?

Marvelous  thanks Kit. And you're right, it looks more "normal". If you don't mind, I'd like to copy that so I have something to work off when I do my Welkin.

[PR19_Kit]

No probs, I have the drawing in 1/72 scale too, so I can email it if you like?

[Tophe]

I can't do a twin boom version Tophe, I've only got one Welkin kit. 

A long time ago, I made this on Corel Photo Paint, but this will not turn to plastic, so:

[kitnut617]

No probs, I have the drawing in 1/72 scale too, so I can email it if you like?

Yes please Kit, and thanks again.

[NARSES2]

Nice work on the pair of them Kit

[kitnut617]

Something that has just jumped out at me.  There's not much aircraft in front of the main wheels is there, mostly just the engines with the rest of the aircraft behind the wheel centers. Seems things don't change because I'm doing an F-35 project and I've notice that there's not very much aircraft behind the main wheels, mostly the engine and the tail group while everything else is in front of them.

[PR19_Kit]

You can't help but think that with aircraft like the Welkin and Hornet that they must have VERY heavy tailplanes and stuff. Perhaps that's why the fuselage is so long? The Welkin certainly is a very large aeroplane, never mind the span!

[PR19_Kit]

Here  we go, the first vacform I've done for a few years.

The Hallam Vac sheet is nicely moulded, and in quite thick styrene too, so there's no tissue thin sides to the parts, which is good. And the white metal parts, done by Aeroclub of course, are of the quality you'd expect. The prop blades were quite seriously bent but I managed to straighten them out with a little gentle finger work.



I marked round all the parts and cut out a representative selection. Those are BIG wings for sure, and I intend to add the 20% chord that Robert mentioned, plus add my usual extra length tips,  as you can see in the drawing in post #7 above. The fuselage will be pretty much stock, but both the engine nacelles and the wings will need major surgery of course.

[Tophe]

Congratulations for your vacform skills!
I am currently building my very first vacform model and it is not easy at all...

[JayBee]

OK guys, I have been thinking about this for a few days, and I believe that a different wing section would be the answer to the problem, mentioned earlier, regarding the stalling situation with the wings.
Possibly the same section as the P-51 Mustang.

[PR19_Kit]

Could be right Jim, but if you think I'm going to change the section of a vacform wing.................. 

[JayBee]

Come on Kit all you have to do is tell the right story, and if you are not the master of that who is? 

[PR19_Kit]

Come on Kit all you have to do is tell the right story, and if you are not the master of that who is? 

My watch phrase in this business has always been 'You can always adjust the backstory to suit the model'............... 

'......the performance problems incurred by Westland with the Welkin Is and IIs were eventually overcome by markedly increasing the wing's chord to reduce the critical Mach no., increasing the already generous span to give extra lift at the higher altitudes required but primarily by using a new laminar flow type airfoil developed by the North American Co, for their P-51 Mustang fighter.....'

How's that? 

[PR19_Kit]

As I started on the dreaded sanding down of the Welkin's bits I thought it might be an idea to photograph the procedure as a sort of min-teach-in on vacform building.

Here's the three sizes of Tee-Al that I mentioned in Steel Penguin's blog thread here :-

http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,37255.msg796591.html#msg796591



The smallest piece has a chunk of the double sided stuck to it, ready to be used for sanding the Welkin's engine nacelle, and the largest one has a chunk of 320 grit wet-and-dry stuck to it with the double sided so it can be used in its secondary method, see later on.

Here's the smallest Tee-Al stuck onto the Welkin's nacelle. You'll notice the black lines I drew around the nacelle moulding before cutting it out to act as a marker so I know when to stop sanding.



Here's my sanding mirror with the sheets of 320 grit Evo-stuck to its surface. I told you it was big, didn't I? 



And finally here's 'The Hand of Spackman' sanding the nacelle after putting a small amount of water onto the 320 grit.



It's a case of rubbing it back and forth, and occasionally sideways until the edge of the styrene is sanded away down to the bottom of the drawn lines. That's so all of the line is still visible, but only just.

The thin end of the nacelle bent up a bit during the sanding so that's when the large Tee-Al and it's stuck-on 320 comes into play. I just held the nacelle and sanded away that end to ensure it was all sanded  down to the same level. All in all it took about 5 mins to do sand that part down, but you can bet the wings and fuselage will take longer. 

[NARSES2]

Good to see this in "pictures"