Gary's Westland P.12 Delanne (Wendover) 1/72

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Hi friends. It's been a while since I found myself at the building side of the papermodelers' spectrum. I was too busy making ends meet. I am a little on the verge of hard times. But that is something I can deal with. Fact is, I haven't had much time to show you stuff I make. Here's what I did in the past week and what was a greatly anticipated subject: the Westland P-12 Delanne (or unofficially called Wendover), the tandem-winged variant of the famous Westland Lysander. Gary designed it a couple of weeks ago and I almost immediately took it to my work bench to build. I love these odd planes. Since I build (almost) all my planes in 1/72, this one too was reduced to that scale.

The fuselage came together easily. I carved the lines in the fabric-covered section of the fuselage to make the appearance a little more angular. I also didn't use the wing ribs because the paper in 1/72 would be strong enough (I used 160 g/m2) I did use a skewer for some longitudinal strength. It all had a nice fit, but that is what we all are used to with most of Gary's designs.
The propeller/engine section was made to spin with a sewing pin and some tiny beads. I made the spinner from a rolled-up piece of card which I sanded by using my power tool as a kind of hand-held lathe. I also accentuated the engine front with a silver coloured pencil.
The trickiest looking parts were the landing gear legs. They were quite an odd shape one not directly see when looking at the flattened object. But the assemblage turned out to be very logically and easy. Most of the wheels were scratched from super dense thick card board and some black paper.
The rear wheel was given a more 3D rework and was also scratched.

Well. That's it. 15 pics to look at and a nice little plane to join the growing gollection of little planes on my shelves. Up next is the redesigned Westland Whirlwind (new nose, new engine cowlings, better fitting cockpit) designed by Gerard Methorst and reworked by me in the last couple of months. I must say, it is a lovely looking plane and it looks very good. More on that at a later date.
See ya!

[Texman]

Nice job PK. Your pics will be a great asset when I tackle this in 1/144.

[Kevin WS]

Very nice build!

[Don Boose]

Great model and a super write up.

Don

[rifleman]

thank you for the photos they will be of great help nice build by the way

[jagolden01]

Very nice build of an odd and interesting design.
Was this ever used in service or did it only make it to the flight test stage?
Sometimes I can’t believe the designs that were put forth and even more amazed at some of them that went into service.

JoeG

[rifleman]

think it made test flight but the concept did not work out ie having a tail turret

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Originally Posted by rifleman

think it made test flight but the concept did not work out ie having a tail turret

It was quite successful in its own right, being easy to fly and all, it was just that the government thought it a bit unnecessary with more advanced attack aircraft at hand and the Delanne being a bit outdated, so it was cancelled. Here's more on the Delanne. And here. And even here. (-:

[GaryPilsworth]

That was quick
Lookin' goooood

[Paper Kosmonaut]

You knew I was waiting for it, Gary. So there it is. Two afternoons, it took. And I really enjoyed it. Gave me some time to reset my brain, clear my mind. And when I finally was completely vacant, I saw this weird looking brown and yellow plane in front of me. (-;