1/32 Westland Wendover (The Matchbox Mutilation...)

[Rob1970]

Hi folks.

I've been lurking on the forum for a while now, tapping the enormous amounts of reference material, and I think it's about time I give something back.

For a "Flying Abominations"-GB on another forum I proudly present;

The Westland P.12 Lysander Delanne (Wendover)!

The whowhatsit!? Well, this...

Short (Really short) History

Almost everybody knows the Westland Lysander . Famous mainly for the risky missions that the Allies undertook during WW2. Because of his special flight characteristics of the Lysander was very suitable for landings on short improvised airfields to pick up and drop off agents and Resistance fighters in the middle of the night.

With the expected invasion of England in mind the Ministry of Defence was looking for a way to defend the beaches. Thus was born the idea of Westlands's chief designer, Arthur Davenport, for a "beach Strafer " . The Lysander as a basis (which was able to maintain a speed of just over 100 km/h in the air), but better armed to wipe clean the beach. Therefore it was decided to install the 4-gun Nash & Thomson rear turret of a Wellington.

The design was made even stranger by adding an extra pair of wings. The Westland P.12 Delanne was equipped with the tandem wing akin to the design of airplane designer Maurice Henri Delanne . And contrary to what you might expect at first sight, the flying characteristics of this monstrosity were remarkably good . So much so that the pilot flying the first test-flight in July 1941 ended it with a looping !

The Victim

For this build the Matchbox 1/32 Lysander serves as a (willing) donor. Recently picked up on a forum for a pittance, without decals and box. Along with the Revell reboxing from the stash I'm going to see if I can do something with it.

Matchbox kit. Trust me, everything is there...

Revell kit

Sprue shot!

I'm not entirely sure if I even need parts of the Revell kit, but the decals are in any case already moved to the box of the original Matchbox kit that still lies waiting in the stash...

Reference Material

So pitifully little... On the Lysander itself there is material enough to find, but on the Wendover (as the British called him eventually ) there is not much. Some black-and-white pictures and a few three-way views of questionable quality, one more useful than the other. But do not worry; with a little common sense, a bit of calculation and tricks with a drawing program , we can work it out ( I think ...). Anything I can't figure out I will guestimate...

Righto... research, research and then some more research...

As I mentioned; there isn't all that much on the P.12 out there to find. But all the more on the Lysander itself. So that's a good start.

I found a load of pictures showing looooooaaads of details. And details are good. And inspiring...

Like inspiring you to build at least one side of the landing gear with the covers off, showing the .303 gun...

...and maybe with the ammo chute uncovered as well...

Open cockpit?

Open EVERYTHING!?

Open ALL! THE! PANELS!

No! Bad Rob! BAD! Go sit in a corner!

Although I might just have ordered some resin .303s and a new engine...

More soooon!

Rob

 

[fubar57]

This should be very interesting.


Geo

 

[Rob1970]

This should be very interesting.

Funny... that's what they always say, just before the screaming starts...

Mwuhahahaha!

Rob

 

[Rob1970]

Just playing some catch-up here to get you guys up to speed. So some of the posts might seem a bit odd time-line wise...

Well, another episode of very little building and a lot of research...
For those who were wondering; I did look into getting a Persues, but it seems there are none in 1/32 scale. And I was planning of going slightly down the whif-road (you know the one... the gates have a sign above it saying "Abandon thy rivet-counting, ye who enter here."), by using an FN-20 turret from a Wellington or Lancaster, and using the Mercury engine used in the Mk.! and Mk.III.

As we speak a 3D printed FN turret (from the HKM Lancaster concept show model no less!!) is on it's way to me to be used as a master for some vac-forming and scratchbuilding goodness. Combined with some nice brass barrels that should look ace.
The interior of the rear halve of the fuselage is going to be educated guesswork anyway, since the testbed was build by a coachbuilder and will probably have lacked much in the way of working internals a production aircraft would have had. The pictures of the testbed show no way to get into the rear bit (altho the gunner could have gotten in and out of the turret by turning it fully sideways) so a hatch might be in order.

The Lysander had a bunch of removable panels on one side of the fuselage for easy access and maintenance, and I might do the same on the Wendover, because it seems like a logical step.

But still mostly in the research-phase of the whole build, scouring the web for reference material. Speaking of which... anyone have any pictures (of know of any) that show the way the ammo moved into the turret? I got a few shots, but mostly curious about the way it went from the ammunition runways to the bit that feeds the .303s themselves. Some sort of movable track/linkage?

Anyway. time to start torturing some Styrene. It's Putty Time!

Styrene-dissolved-in-TET putty. Works great at obliterating the dreaded Matchbox panel-...

...lines?

...ditches?

...canals?

...canyons?

Anyway, they are pretty bad, and in some places I need to redo them. Starting with the spats. With the dissolved styrene I get a nice base to scribe new panel lines, or drill holes.

A little masking to avoid too much clean-up...

Filled...

And now we wait... this stuff needs a long time to harden completely (you can speed it up a bit with a hairdryer...) but the wait is worth it.

I waited until the next day before I started clean-up and sanding, but as you see it works quite well. And with the filled-in areas the same hardness as the rest, it is very easy to work with when re-scribing and drilling. The footholds will be drilled out with a scratchbuild hinge and a flap to look more like the real thing.

Next, we start with figuring out where to cut the fuselage...

Righto... Those pesky steps are filled and sanded smooooooth. Still not sure how many steps I'm going to do. All choices are open, with pictures of Lysanders showing one, two or no steps. I'll have to see. My whiffery, my brain to decide...

Still waiting for my resin .303s to come in from Hannants, and until the arrive I will leave the spats for now. Next is figuring out the dimensions of that new tail...

Tinkering with the scale on my printer and some profiles I found I came across a pretty good one...

Pretty spot on, actually...

I used that one to scale up the P.12 profiles I had to the right size...

These should be a good start to help me figure out where to cut the fuselage and how long I need to build my new internal framing. Especially when my rear turret arrives...

Now, I know this looks like a mess...

Well, it kinda is. But it's a functional mess, trust me. (That's what I tell my wife all the time, and she doesn't buy it either...)

But at least I know where to cut now. Approximately... I think...

Tape as a guide to very gently scratch a line with my razor saw...

Tape removed...

Deep breath... razor saw... slowly... sssssllllowly... I don't care what anyone says... sawing clear parts is nerve-wracking...

I made a jig from some scrap styrene and taped the front windscreen to the sides. Now... do I glue the top on permanently so I have a nice sturdy piece to work with to get my fuselage cross-section dead right, or do I do a makeshift job so I can use these pieces later? I need to ponder that.

To be continued...

Rob

 

[Rob1970]

Here goes nothing!

Decided to glue the parts using CA, and damn the consequences! If needs be I can use the transparancies from the Revell kit, or vacu-form new ones. Decided to do the cockpit open anyway, so if they are thinner, all the better.

So, glued with CA...

...aaaand promptly broken while handeling them... DOH!

Oh well, at least they will serve me well to figure out the cutting of the fuselage. With some tape and ye good olde Eyeball Mk.I we figure out a line...

Scribed, and ready for some cutting. I won't be cutting right on the line, but leave a bit so I can sand the whole bit flush in one go.

I remembered just in time to add some tabs for the inside frame to sit against, as the one that is supposed to give me the right positions is at the back of the fuselage in the bit that will be cut off...

And I did another replacement tab for the one in the middle. Same problem... it will be gone soon! (Note the expertly done "I will be cutting approximately here"-scribble...)

In other news; some goodies arrived today! The Haynes book was a steal from bookdepository.com, and the Aeroplane Icons came from flashaviation.nl.
Especially bookdepository is a nice place to shop for bargains.

The engine and seatbelts came from Victory Models in the United States. Still no sign of my gunnery bits from Hannants. Kinda annoyed that an order from the U.S. (done 2 days later...) arrives before an order from the U.K....

"I felt a great disturbance in The Stash, as if thousands of Classic Kit Collectors suddenly cried out in horror, and were suddenly silenced as they were buried by their own collapsing mountain of never-to-be-build kits. I fear something necessary has happened." -OhBuildOne MeRobbie

Rob

 

[Rob1970]

Onwards! Even if it is ever so slowly...

The front of the fuselage is glued and ready for more torture.

I started out with Tamiya ET, added a little bit of quarter-round Evergreen strip to add some strength to some of the seams... and then decided "Screw this..." and flowed in CA-glue and hit it with some kicker. That seam is NEVER getting loose!

Time to figure out just how much I need to lengthen that frame... Eyeball Mk.I and a scale profile again.

Something like that, I guess. 80mm looks like.

Time to get the pencils and rulers out and draw something up I can work with...

Not sure about the whole "stick a bit on"-idea. I might just cut a whole new frame out of a sheet of 2mm styrene. I want the whole frame to be as sturdy as I can get it.

Also had a brainwave about the skin, and did some experimenting with a scrap piece of 0.25mm styrene...

Looks pretty good, doesn't it? And very high tech too! If you think a pizza-cutter, a metal ruler and a scrap of leather is high-tech, that is...

Put the leather under the styrene, roll the pizza-cutter along the ruler with a fair bit of pressure and you get skin.

Speaking of skin; gave the forward bit of the fuselage a good sanding to get rid of the ribbed skin and start on toning down those panel canyons. In my whiffery this bit of the fuselage has normal plating.

Time to get rid of some panel lines. I decided that glueing in some styrene strips was the way to go for some of them. They melt in quite nicely with Tamiya ET, since the stuff just loooooooves the 70s Matchbox plastic...

And remember kids; don't be like Rob. Check your references -before- you cut a hole in your parts. Just because the folks at Matchbox decide the exhaust vent for the oil cooler is in a certain place, that doesn't make it true...

Sooo... I scribed the new vents in the correct(ish) place (gotta keep the rivet-counters happy before they pop a bloodvessel...), ready for some cutting.

Drilled a few holes, and whittle out the rest with a nice fresh blade.

Once the new vents were done, I cut some pointy bits of 2mm styrene and forced them into the errand holes to plug them. A nice snug fit and some Extra Thin welded them in place.

Once dry I trimmed down the inside bit with my dremel tool and hit it with a bit of CA glue.

The outside was cut down, the worked closer to the fuselage with the dremel tool, and finally sanded smooth. Also made a start on filling the rest of the panel lines.

Now we wait. For putty to dry and for bits to come in. Need my turret to finish planning the interior frame, and I need my gunnery and other bits from Hannants to continue work on the wheel spats. Already shot Hannants an email if they know what's keeping my stuff...

More sooon!

Rob

 

[Wurger]

 

[herman1rg]

 

[Capt. Vick]

Sweet! More!

 

[fubar57]

Some great work going on here.


Geo

 

[Airframes]

Excellent !
Looking forward to the next installment !

 

[Wildcat]

This is a great build thread!

 

[Rob1970]

Yay! My FN.20 turret arrived, so I had a better idea about the scale and size for my new tail. Soooo time to start... with a mock-up.

First I made a good template for the fuselage cross-section, using the forward hlaf of the fuselage...

I marked the centerline and a couple of horizontal reference lines as well. One of the horizontal ones is the same height as the bottom of the turret. Transferred the template to a sheet of 1mm styrene with a needle in a pinvise, and rubbed some paint into the scratches.

Cut it out...

Cut it a little closer...

Cleaned it all up with a file and a sanding stick. Half done with this one. You know you have hit the mark when you no longer see any of the paint that you rubbed into the scratch.

Two done, two to go...

I found a cool 40s radio station online that is keeping me entertained in style while I do all this grind work. They even have wartime news flashes between some of the songs. Perfect to keep me in the mood to work on this invasion stopper...

With 4 ribs done, I added some studs to the first one so I can fit it to the front half of the fuselage.

It took a bit of figuring out, but in the end I had the right shape and size for the stringer that runs front to back at the height of the underside of the turret. That's going to be the spine for this mock-up.

A few bit of right-angle Evergreen strip...

...then added my spine. I have some piece of keystock which is great to keep stuff in place and square while you wait for the glue to dry.

The other three ribs needed a strip of 2mm removed, the thickness of the spine.

Then it was time to add the other bits of rib to the spine, again using right-angle Evergreen and a lot of patience...

...until I ended up with this. Added some bit of styrene tube to give the whole thing some rigidity.

Added some more spine for shape of the tail end.

Mhm... that looks about right...

Next; mocking up the wing...

And yes. I know... I put waaaay to much work into something that's just a mock-up. That's just how my mind works sometimes...

Then got around to getting my hand on some actual styrene again, after brainstorming for a few days.

I learned a few things from my mock-up, which was the whole point of making it. One thing was that I needed another rib about 1mm back from the last one and slightly steeper angle on the final tail bit (The red pencil marks on my drawing.)

I made a new template for slightly smaller ribs. 1.25mm smaller to be precise. Made it by making a new template using the old one, and then first glueing in a strip of 1x1mm styrene, then a strip of 1x0.25mm styrene. Because that's the amount I need to move inwards for the whole tail to fit with the 1mm slats and 0.25mm skin attached.

Glued with CA glue and sanded flush...

To be continued...

 

[Rob1970]

The mock-up also helped me to figure out the size of the new internal frame. First I did a rough-ish sketch with the old frame as a guide...

I scribed three parallel lines in a sheet of 2mm styreen at 29m and 21mm apart, and one vertical centerline in the middle, then took the measurements from my plans and transfered them to the styrenen by making points with my scribing needle and connecting the dots. After all the lines were scribed I rubbed in some paint.

Then I repeated the whole thing, but mirrored...

There will be a lot of drilling of holes and sawing... Joy...

Oh well... Onwards!

Drilled all the holes with a Dremel in a drill stand, which made quick work of this job...

A rare action shot, courtesy of SWMBO (aka The Shaker of Heads When The Postman Cometh...). Sawing out each space between the frame means threading the saw blade through one of the holes and fastening it again. Is there anything like a quick-release jigsaw? Because I will buy two!

Yeah, it looks pretty rough...

That's where the files come in...

Before and after, from left to right...

And when it's all square, these guys come in. Inherited from my mate Jack when he passed away...

...and we start turning it all round again!

All the bits of the frame are now tubular, as they should be. I left the top runner of the lower half square on top, and I will trim the outsides when I am done making the fittings at each intersection of tube.

One done, one to go...

To be continued...

 

[Rob1970]

A couple of days of sawing, filing and sanding and I have two complete side frames. With all the tubes rounded I used my fretsaw to saw them out and then filed the outsides straight.

And now the mancave looks like Tony Montana used it as his office...

Next I made a jig so I could get the angle of the top half of the new frame right, using the old frame as a guide.

I used a razor saw to cut a wedge out of the uprights of my lovely new frames, then widened the slot with a thin file.

My CA-glue setup; Brown for cheap poundstore CA, white for zip-kicker, Microbrushes for applicatiion. Just don't mix up your brushes...

I put some tape in the jig to stop the CA-glue from sticking my frames to my jig, then put in my frame. A dab of CA, then a dab of zip-kicker on each joint fixed them in place at the right angle.

The styrene cracked on the outside of the bends, but I hit those with some CA and kicker too.

Old and new frame. Just need to sand the glued joints free of excess CA-glue, then start working on the cross-braces.

Time for some crossmembers... I started with the bottom of the frame, and my first plan was cutting pieces of 2x2mm styrene strip and just glueng them in between the two side frames.

Yeah... after getting 3 pieces glued on, all of them crooked, I went back to what I know...

More jigsawing!!

I marked out the width of the crossmembers on a sheet of 2mm styrene, then drew my frame and got to sawing again.

Sanded all the tubes round, then cut out the piece from the sheet. A lot sturdier and a lot less fiddly than separate pieces. Why did I even try that...

Cross piece fixed to the side piece. My template is still useful, as you can see.

I cut some discs with my poor-man's punch...

...and welded them onto the frame over the glue connection to make it a little more sturdy. They are on the bottom, and after some sanding they will look like they are factory standard...

Then did the other side, with more discs for strength. And with that part in place, I had more rigidity to add a few single spacers.

I'm being framed, I tell ya!!

More sooooon!

Rob

 

[Rob1970]

Another day, more tinkering...

I made a few cross-braces between the center of the frame using 2.4mm Evergreen tube and 1.2mm rod...

...and fixed them between the upright frames by drilling 1.2mm holes. Using the rod as a dowel made for a much sturdier connection, better than solely flat surface contact would have made. Once the glue dried I just cut and sanded the dowel flush with the frame.

Next I got two (Yes, two!) actual kit part out. The fuel tank looked a bit thin, so I sandwiched three pieces of 1mm sheet styrene between the halves and sanded them flush.

The tank looked a bit... bare, so I decided to make a couple of riveted bands to go around it. I started with a strip of 0.5mm styrenen 2mm wide and drilled 0.8mm holes in it spaced 5mm apart...

Then cut a bunch of tiny 0.8mm styrene rods... Don't sneeze when you do that, by the way. You have to start all over again...

I then glued the bits of rod into the holes...

When the glued had dried I used a sanding sponge to sand down one side until the rods were sticking out a tiiiiny bit, and I sanded them flush on the other side. Did that twice and glued my strips to my tank. Sorted.

Todays other work; made a plate for the turret to sit in. And noticed I need to bend in the two ends of the upright frames... Oh well... Also sorted the interior pieces to see what I can use, and what needs to be scratchbuilt. I'll have to check my references for that...

I do know the seat could do with some improving (wartime Lysanders had a basket for the parachute that acted as the seat bottom) and the instrument panel could be better. I ordered some instrument decals for the dials, and will probably scratchbuild a new one.

Also on the to-do list; Ammunition boxes for the rear turret. I have some ammo belts from Eduard, but I am not sure which one to use.

Ofcourse I couldn't find any .303 belts in 1/32 scale, but I think the 1/35 scale .30 belts should be close enough. I might use the .50 belts tho, to give it some more "meat"...

More soooon!!

Rob

 

[Wurger]

 

[Wildcat]

Awesome!

 

[fubar57]

Fantastic.


Geo

 

[Rob1970]

Also I got a package yesterday!

One phonecall to Hannants was enough to get them to sent my order again. Original shipment disappeared in postal limbo... First time ever I bought resin and brass gun replacements. And I can see why some people do it all the time, because it's lovely stuff! And the instrument decals look great too, and inspired me to order some brass bezels and cockpit detail as well.

In for a penny, in for several pounds, eh?

Spent a good few hours today working on ammo boxes. And I must say I am happy with the results...

Three with a closed lid, and one with an open lid to show off the ammo. I added some grab-handles from lead foil and lead wire because... reasons.
I will paint, weather and seal them, and then they will be ready to go into the frame when the time comes.

I look forward to working with the brass bezels and the other stuff to make a new instrument panel. I hope they come in on Monday or Teusday. Until then I keep myself busy with the twothousand other jobs still to go in this build.

But we've got paint!

Interior Green with some Aluminum drybrushing and a Dark Umber wash... Why yes, I --can- weather stuff if I feel like it...

Fueltank all done, Ships Hull Red with a misting of Rust Orange, and the straps in more Interior Green with an Alu drybrush. And everything covered with a matt coat...

Tonight I'm gonna see about that seat...

More soooon!

Rob