The Little World

Well, you have to have a win sooner or later, don’t you?

I had been eyeing the Airfix model of the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk V for nearly a year as it progressed through the shelves of my local shop. It was on the ” to buy ” list but not near the top. Apparently the wife’s uncle flew in them briefly before he was made into a Mosquito pilot. As I have no details of his exact aircraft in the Whitley squadron I put it on the back burner.

Then the hobby shop must have realised that everyone has put it on the back of the stove – and that they had far too many in stock. So the price dropped 33% and I happened to see the special at the right time. Thank you very much, don’t mind if I do…

The plane is absolutely new to me, though the concept of the two-engined RAF strategic bomber probably was concentrated on a plan to bomb Paris rather than Berlin. Then they re-thought it and were stuck with something that had too little power for too short a range at too light a payload. Initially the Air Ministry issued specifications to the Largely Aircraft company of Leicestershire but they produced the Largely Inadequate. It was not able to reach Paris, but could plaster the heck out of Southend and Dover.

Back to the AW Whitley. In the absence of a any familial information I shall build the kit as is out of the box. Not sure yet whether the camouflaged version is the one or the all-black version. I shall make the final decision further down the track. As it is, this is a new-mould kit and has all the interior detail I saw in the Airfix Fortress III. And if they have been good enough to mould the insides I’ll be respectful enough to build and paint them accordingly.

The instructions are four-colour as well as greytone. No pilot provided, but I have a candidate painted up and ready to fly it.

The joy of the Airfix decals is that, for once, there are only a few of the irritating little stencils to put on. If I opt for the night bomber of 10 Sqn even these few will be largely invisible.