INTERMEDIATE BUILD
Special Hobby’s newly tooled 1/32 Whirlwind Mk.I has plenty for modellers to savour, as Mike Williams discovers.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Special Hobby announced a 1/32 Westland Whirlwind in late 2020, which took the modelling world by surprise. This large-scale offering seemed a long time coming, so was it worth the wait? The best part of 300 components, spread over ten styrene runners greets you in the box, including a set of clear parts and impressive-looking major pieces for the fuselage and wings; this was a fairly sizeable aircraft, which is borne out by the dimensions, even in the box.
Above: Fuselage sidewalls were superbly detailed, including separate throttle quadrant and flap levers. A wash brings out these refinements, with dry-brushing ‘lifting’ the detail out of smaller parts.
Above: Lacking just seatbelts, the cockpit was well appointed – the instrument panel being noteworthy for the superb decals that enlivened its appearance. The seat and control column can be installed with the rest of the innards.
MODEL SPEC
Impressive innards
The cockpit was certainly not short on detail, being made up from more than 80 parts. There was, of course, some room for embellishment, should …
