1/72  Czechmaster Resin

Westland Wyvern 

by Graham Tarran

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Look up “Wyvern” on the web or an encyclopaedia & you’ll see that it is a mythical beast, similar to a dragon variously stated as being capable or incapable of breathing fire but with two legs & a barbed, poisonous tail.  In heraldry, it is used to denote war, conquest & pestilence.  If you find yourself in standing next to one in the pub, don’t spill his pint! 

If you thing that describes a funny looking creature then Westland’s Wyvern is an apt appellation.  Development began in 1944 of a new carrier borne torpedo strike fighter for the Fleet Air Arm, using a Rolls Royce Eagle piston engine.  Initial interest in the design was also shown by the RAF for use as a long-range escort fighter but this didn’t develop.  The first production batch of 20 Wyvern TF1’s was soon reduced to 10 as RR were directed to stop development of piston engines in favour of jet turbines.  Of this 10, only seven were completed.  

Concurrent with the TF1 was the TF2, intended from the start to have a turbo-prop powerplant & prototypes were ordered with the RR Clyde & Armstrong Siddeley Python.  The duplication of effort in designing & testing versions with different power plants resulted in too many delays & when in 1947, RR ceased development of the Clyde, the Python became, by default, the power plant of choice.  The Python was bigger than the Clyde & it was this that resulted in the Wyvern’s “humped back” appearance (the engine was below the cockpit).  The Python drove a pair of contra-rotating four bladed props & jet exhausts were situated amidships above the wing roots. 

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The definitive service version was the Wyvern S4 with the “S” for “strike”.  Although always capable of carrying a torpedo, experience during WW2 had led to the belief that no aircraft could hope to get within torpedo dropping range of any major modern enemy warship.  Accordingly, the “torpedo fighter” became extinct in the FAA after the Blackburn Firebrand.  Reckoned to be a handful on or near the carrier deck, the Wyvern was however thought to be an excellent aircraft to fly & capable of packing a tremendous punch with 4 x 20mm cannon, bombs, rockets & mines.  Only four FAA units received Wyverns starting in May 1953 with 813NAS, then 827NAS.  In 1955, both units were disbanded & two more (830 & 831 NAS) were commissioned in their places.  It was 830 NAS that took the Wyvern to war in the Suez where it performed well although a couple were lost to flak with their pilots ejecting safely.  Curiously, 813 NAS was reformed in 1956 & operated the Wyvern until it was phased out in 1958. 

Enough of history; what do you get in the box (actually bags).  The answer is a lot!  Although this is my first resin aircraft model, I have quite a lot of resin kit experience from building AFV kits from the likes of Accurate Armour.  The parts are cream resin with the exception of a pair of vac form canopies & undercarriage legs that were cast in black & what seemed to be a different type of resin.  I was worried about their ability to support the weight of the finished model but this proved groundless.  Surface detail is beautifully done with recessed lines & much detail is molded in place so you need care to avoid damaging it.  After cleaning up the major components & separating various other pieces from their casting blocks, I got going. 

Cockpit & fuselage:

Four part cockpit including rudder pedals, control stick and reasonable representation of the seat to which I added only a pair of firing handles from fuse wire.  The “tub” includes the decking behind the seat.  The whole installs into the fuselage halves along with the tail wheel well & engine cowling after which the fuselage halves can be joined. 

Main wing:

One piece, cast complete with the oil cooler intakes, flap guides, wheel wells etc to which only a part described as the “jet pipe stop” (it didn’t, see below!) has to be added.  The wing attaches beneath the fuselage & this was the only area of trouble for me.  I had to fit a plastic “spacer” inside the fuselage to widen it & achieve a good fit.  This is a very “busy” area of both the real thing & the kit so filling & sanding isn’t really an option.  I got the best possible fit & ran liquid CA glue along the joint.  I attached the 90 gallon drop tanks, centre stores rack & the dive brakes at this stage.  The latter could be installed deployed if desired. 

Tail:

The tailplanes were attached but I omitted the four finlets at this stage to avoid breaking them off later! 

Canopy:

Nicely formed but quite a bit of trial fitting needed to get a reasonable fit.  When I was satisfied, it received two dips in Kleer, followed by masking & attaching with CA glue with white glue run around the join & smoothed with a wet finger & paper tissue.  Several applications needed before I was satisfied. 

Click on images below to see larger images

Painting:

I had a problem with three tins of Xtracolour Extra Dark Sea Grey (EDSG).  None of them did anything but put a dirty grey “glaze” on the resin.  Eventually, I used Dark Sea Grey (DSG), which covered well, followed by a “mist” of EDSG over the top to darken it slightly.  Then masking (complicated around the wing roots) & Xtracolour sky.  Inevitably, some touching-up was required after removing the masking & this proved troublesome as EDSG proved too dark, with DSG being too light!   

The spinners are red/white. 

Decaling:

Three options provided from a mixture of the above mentioned units, including of course a Suez striped 830 NAS machine.  I opted for the 813 NAS machine with a bomb riding “Dennis the Menace” painted below the cockpit to starboard.  Fantastic quality, thin & perfect in register & colour.  Beware though as they aren’t that “sticky” & I was lucky not to loose some whilst rinsing off the residue, having allowed what I thought was plenty of drying time!  Clumsiness cost me one of the nose codes but after a bit of a panic, I located an old Modeldecal sheet of RAF/RN letters & numbers in my loft; the “0” was a different font so I removed the “good” code from the model to make them both match.  I added the prominent white seal around the canopy from white decal sheet. 

Final Details:

Still to be added now were:

  1. Dive brakes, deployed (the actuating jacks needed to be shortened)
  2. Fowler flaps, deployed
  3. RATOG equipment.
  4. Undercarriage
  5. Tail hook deployed.
  6. Rockets:  a full complement of 16 are included but if you can get them all off their casting blocks in one piece you’re doing very well!  In addition, they were the only parts of the kit that showed any evidence or warping & this too reduced the number available for use. When the drop tanks were carried, so could only three rockets per wing (a single & a double mount) & I managed to “salvage” enough to use but, having painted them, I eventually decided against adding them.
  7. Bomb

Conclusion:

A truly stunning model straight out of the box; the amount of detail provided by Czechmaster in this 1/72 scale kit exceeds that provided by many manufacturers in larger scales.  The unusual subject has been well researched & a sensible break-down of components provides a kit that even I couldn’t screw up.  Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s resin.  They are actually in some respects easier than injection moulded models – not least because, as they assemble with CA glue, the seams are ready for treatment minutes after they have been glued so assembly proceeds at quite a pace.  I have just received their Supermarine Swift & although I haven’t “broken the seals” yet, it looks just as good.  I’m awaiting their Scimitar & Vampires.  I’m normally a 1/48 modeller but I’d happily settle for a small “sub-collection” of these 1/72 Czechmaster kits of subjects that are never likely to appear in 1/48 apart from vacforms, talking of which the Dynavector Wyvern in my stash seems to be calling me….winking at me with those “come on” jet pipes…gotta go! 

References:

“Westland Wyvern TF Mks 1, 2, T Mk.3, S4” published by 4+ Publications

Graham 

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Graham Tarran