CMK Resins 1/72 Westland Welkin NF Mk. 2 By Allan Wanta

History.

Welkin is a word we don’t use much nowadays—dictionaries usually tag it as archaic or literary—except in the set phrase make the welkin ring, meaning to make a very loud sound. What supposedly rings in this situation is the vault of heaven, the bowl of the sky. In older cosmology this was thought to be one of a set of real crystal spheres that enclosed the Earth, to which the planets and stars were attached, so it would have been capable of ringing like a bell if you made enough noise. The word comes from the Old English wolcen, a cloud, related to the Dutch wolk and German Wolke. Whatever the case, or wherever the word originated, I read it to mean up in the clouds, which is exactly where this Night fighter would have been flying. Funny how Westland picked names of birds as the names for their aircraft, obscure names at that.

The kit

A Westland what? Ohhh, looks a bit dodgy to me, sure this isn’t one of those Luft’46 kits? You know you can’t really enter these kinds of kits in a contest unless you put them in the fantasy division. What was that? It was a real aircraft, and British too? Not a chance, thought the Brits only had Hurricanes, Spits and Mossies? Well I’ll be…couldn’t tell by all the Spits at a contest or in the latest hobby magazines. So there really were some creative designers in Britain during the war.

Hmmm,… are you interested in reading a little about this little known aircraft kit from CMK? I thought so, press on then.

Have you ever built one of the latest kits from the Czech firm of CMK? I have, and this one is a welcome sight of a little kitted aircraft, the Westland Welkin. First of two prototypes built to Spec. F.9/43, first flown 23 October 1944. In 1945 the second prototype under construction was cancelled. The Welkin was only kitted in a few limited vacuform kits, Hallam being the only one that comes to mind. This is everything that a resin kit should be, cleanly molded, very nicely detailed for this scale, looks like it should just fall together, and it raise eyebrows at the next meeting!

The interior is well appointed, sidewall detail being molding on, floor and bulkhead as a single unit in a clever casting. The individual seats are without seatbelts, but in 1/72 scale is it really necessary? I see even a radar console is included so the second member of the crew is not bored. Since only one NF version was made, the decals are limited to two examples, the final prototype finish and the early finish used for testing. Two vacuformed canopies are provided along with clear resin wing tips to represent the lights, very nice.

I’m especially pleased and impressed with the quality of the castings, something a few resin companies could pick up on, quality and a constant search for improving their product. I guess the same could be said for all companies if they want to be successful. CMK have been bringing resin upgrades and full kits to us modelers for some years now, and this is a wonderful offering.

Now down to the nitty gritty.

For the most part, the fit of the cockpit parts is very good, upon offering the floor and bulkheads I found the rear radar assembly to be a little wide for the spot it should rest. The instructions vaguely show placement, but in reality it’s a different story. After sanding the width of the radar equipment down, an acceptable fit was attained. Next, both fuselage halves are taped together to check fit , they look great but a few rough edges are located on the underside of the fuselage, it was decided to glue and bondo the voids rather than hope a good sanding on a flat piece of glass with sand paper would eliminate them. My guess was it needed more material added than subtracted as the cockpit parts are slightly wider than the fuselage is wide, in the end the filler did the trick along with a coating of white-out liquid.

To keep this from being a critique and not a review, I’d like to touch on the niggly bits of the assembly and to point out a few pitfalls that you might wish to focus on should the Welkin be the kit of choice for this weeks build.

The wings are wide! If I wasn’t blind, I’d have thought this was a Luft’46 kit, but it says British on the header card, and the undersurfaces are yellow, so it must be a Brit’46 kit. The Welkin is a Whirlwind on steroids, and so special instructions for setting the proper dihedral of the main wings are given in the instructions. The proper placement of the two leading edge air intakes is particularly important, in the end one should attach the wings proper to the fuselage, then sand the intakes to fit the gap created, I did not and found I’d sanded them too much creating some gaps and the need for more filler.

Oh, and if you look closely, a casting glitch on the engines gives one an oval surface to which the spinners are attached, the spinners being round of course. For the most part it won’t be noticeable in this scale. The leading edges of the wings are a bit rough and require some sanding, not so with the trailing edges as they are sharp enough to cut paper.

Speaking of paper, the instructions are very well done, they even have clear photographs of the actual aircraft, and the actual assembly sheet is a multi view exploded type. No one should complain about getting lost with these instructions.

I found the landing gear to be a mixed blessing; first off they are cast in a peculiar black resin that’s much sturdier than the rest of the pieces in the kit. However the fine struts which make up the landing gear resemble the gear on the FW-200 Condor, and much care will be needed cleaning up the bits so they retain their round shape. Again in this scale it is not a distraction.

Final assembly

With most of the big stuff assembled, paint according to your choice, all grey or my favorite of trainer yellow and Sea grey. If this doesn’t resemble a few Luft’46 paint schemes I have done, nothing will. Well I could paint these kits all day and feel comfortable. The decals are a breeze to work with and settled down with a minor application of solva-set, they are opaque and in register. The canopy is by and far the hardest item to do cleanly, at least in my book. If cut properly it fits to the fuselage perfectly, is very clear and you get two of them!

There is nothing difficult about this wonderful resin kit, with reasonable care and planning it goes together in a snap, so why did it take four months to make? Well, that’s another story. I rate the Welkin as an 8 for coolness, 7 for ease of assembly, and a 9 for being the widest British fighter I’ve built. Thank you CMK!