Westland Wyvern S.4
Thanks for looking in all. Pressing on, I have something that looks like a Wyvern now. One thing I had forgotten to do was modify the propeller tips. The blades as provided in the kit are the paddle style found on the prototype Wyverns. The production blades had a tapered tip, not much in 1/72 scale, but it is there.
Most of the work this time was put into the wings. I am configuring mine as a Op Musketeer Phase 1 aircraft, so I filled the mounting holes for the RP rails and installed the centreline bomb rack. The centre wing section also has mounting options for a torpedo (never used operationally) and RATO packs. There is the option for outboard bomb racks (square holes) or external tanks (round holes). With the tanks on, the mounting holes for the bomb racks are covered. The wing cannons have frangible covers over the muzzles so there are no barrels to be drilled out. When the Wyvern was used in the bombing role, the LH outboard cannon was removed (the RH cannon was also removed for weight & balance) and replaced with the AS68/APG-5 Radar. The antenna protruded thru the LE cannon opening.
The kit only gives instructions on building the wings with flaps and air brakes deployed. Being a good FAA pilots, these were seldom left open when the aircraft was parked. Fortunately, it is not difficult to show them closed. The flaps were Fowler type and required only the extending arms to be removed and a little sanding to get them to fit. Instead of building the airbrake as a separate assembly as shown in the instructions, the individual parts were attached to the upper and lower wings and sanded to get a good fit.
The kit also has the option of spread or folded wings. From what I have read, the outer wings could only be folded when clean or with RP's, so spread it is with tanks installed. There are a couple of small fittings to help align the wings when spread (the hinge goes in the same holes when folding the wing), I left them out and added some styrene strip along the joint to add extra support to the outer wing. If building the wings folded, the instructions show the tips folding down as well. This feature was only on aircraft up to VZ911, after that the wingtips were fixed. All the aircraft portrayed using kit markings should have fixed tips.
The tail wheel was also cut, drilled out and a pin installed so it could be shown canted.
Cheers,
Rich