Wedell-Williams 45 racer - Dekno 1/72nd scale

 

 

 

(Photos from the SDASM photostream)

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/wedell-williams-45-racer-dekno-172nd_15.html

 

The latest offering in Dekno’s prolific kit range is this Wedell-Williams 45, another beautiful racer added to their attractive line of sports and civil planes.

The kit comes in a sturdy little box and components are separately bagged protecting the contents. In tune with their latest releases, the bigger parts are cast in resin while smaller parts are 3D-printed at a high definition. The latter come in cradles and the modeler has to carefully separate the parts, remove any rest of the printing pips to prepare the parts for gluing or painting. The level of detail is very nice for the scale and the surfaces well represented. You get a detailed cockpit floor, joystick, seat, rudder pedals and instrument panel (for which a decal is provided). More detail is already molded into the fuselage internal sides. Stabs and wings have locating devices. A beautiful set of Arctic Decals is included, with optionals. The clear canopy is vacuformed and a duplicate is kindly provided in case of boo-boo. The instructions are succinct and clear; two schemes for the model are depicted. On my sample only very few surface spots needed the slightest touch of putty and sanding. The general fit is good necessitating virtually no filler on the fuselage seam and just a little on the wing-to-fuselage joint.

Contents:

Beautiful stringer detail:

All the fiddly parts protected in their 3D-printed cradles. Two vac canopies at the bottom of the image:

I drilled the wheels...:

... to be able to hold them while painting them:

The fuselage halves after a quick cleaning showed a good fit:

Separating some of the printed parts. Even if the printing resin has reasonable mechanical strength, being careful will pay off:

A few spots were touched with a smidgen of putty to fix little pits:

Great set from Arctic Decals coming with the kit. These are full-sheet carrier, so each individual subject needs separation and trimming:

After sanding the puttied little pits:

Here is a useful tip: The cowl halves trap the engine. The oil sump at the bottom of the engine hits the lower cowl half at a point where there is no recess for it:

You need to shave the bottom of the oil sump as far as you can (up to the circular relief) and then the fit will be spot on:

A wash of the bigger parts before proceeding to painting and assembling:

Painting and assembling ensues:

Given the relatively small number of parts and the simplicity and practicality of the engineering the build can proceed at a fair pace.

Fuselage closed. I had to shave a bit the inst. panel and the cockpit floor. You may like to do this before gluing them to one side of the fuselage, as it will be more comfortable to do it at that stage:

To seal the hairline at the seam, masking tape is closely applied and then putty applied. I saw in photos of the original a prop with an unfamiliar configuration at the hub, I am scratch-building one in case I would like to use it as an alternative:

 

A little hole is drilled to insert a toothpick as a handle. Do not force it in or you may split the fuselage open.

The vertical tail is a butt joint, I resorted to use a metal pin to secure it:

The horizontal tail halves are glued:

Now, this plane had no dihedral (wings were "flat"), but I will follow here the late Modeling Mogul Jim Schubert and give the wings just a smidgen of dihedral, because otherwise -especially when looked from above- the model wings would appear droopy. The root of the wings is not a perfect fit (due to the artisanal nature of the production), so I will be using 10 min epoxy to glue them, as it acts as a filler and allows adjustments while setting. When gluing, give priority to align the wheel well cavities so their halves (part on fuselage, part on wing) match , as well as setting the correct dihedral, and all related properly to the fuselage and tail feathers. The 10min. epoxy will allow (to a point) those adjustments. The rest if needed you can sand/fill a bit to match later. I added a very small and very thin piece of styrene sheet over the last bulkhead above the seat to hide the seam:

(Alternatively, although I do not recommend it, some modelers may like to eliminate the tongue/slot device and sand the fuselage and wing root contact surfaces flat (just enough, as to keep the span true), using metal pins to secure the wings. A tad risky, but different folks, different strokes).

I ended up with some small gaps, fixed using a bit of filler:

A coat of primer revealed as usual some work to do. Besides some nicks and pips, the wings are a fraction of a millimeter thicker than the fuselage karmans. In my sample fortunately this difference evidenced on the bottom, so some sanding to get the surfaces flush and then some re-scribing will be in order:

A not uncommon canopy arrangement on racers was a front section and two sliding portions that hid on the fuselage sides in pockets, and when up joined at the mid-line above the pilot. Have that in mind when deciding if you want the full canopy or just the front section:

 Like so (other WW designs portrayed):

Careful treating of the surface should result in a better finish later:

Fabricating the Pitot. Additional ones for future use since we are at it:

After the engine is painted it is enclosed between the two halves of the cowl, taking care of its proper orientation (sump down). The lower cowl has a little recess to clear the lower fuselage volume, but in my sample it wasn't big enough:

Trough some trial and error more material was gradually removed until the cowl was aligning with the flight line and the back of the engine made contact with its locating recess. You could instead sand the area of the lower fuselage front that impedes the cowl from properly fitting, if that's feasible (didn't try):

A second coat of primer and things start to look good:

Painting stage now. I opted for the scheme that has only the cowl in black:

The home-made prop is completed. I had forgotten to prepare the canopy, so one is separated, trimmed, washed, and given a bath in acrylic floor polish. I will now have to mask and paint it, something I could have done together with the other parts, oh well. The internal rim of the cockpit is painted leather:

We approach now a more delicate task. The retractable landing gear legs of this plane were a veritable metal rod spiderweb. They are rendered in the kit as very fine (i.e. to scale) 3D-printed parts. This process leaves by necessity some "sticks" that can be confused as being also parts and need very careful removal. Here are samples of 3D-printed models I have "built" (more like "cleaned and painted", actually):

Also for this kit you have to remove the sticks that don't belong. 

In the case of the kit's LG, and due to its small size, this task should be done slowly and carefully, determining what has to be removed with a very, very, sharp blade or nipping tool, never forcing the part. I use a brand new "old" razor blade taped on one side, far sharper and precise than an X-acto.

Here are views of the LG, so you don't nip any structural member by accident:

If you break a structural member, or one seems to be missing, you may use CA glue to glue finely stretched sprue in its place. No big deal. 

If you want to thread really fine (not necessary), the canopy as explained had three sections: a separate front and two sides that slid into the fuselage. You will have to add a (red) line at the top of the aft section where the two sides met in reality (each had a thin metal flange). The front and top only had actual metal frames (painted red). As the kit's canopy has frames all around, I think I will be using just the front section, as seen in some of the photos of the actual plane:

Decal application proceeds. I don't think the reference numbers on the decals and the instructions coincide, but the images are clear enough to follow. I am using the dark blue set instead of the alternate black, as photos show a dark grey, not a black hue, when compared with the cowl in the same photo (which is black):

You can deal with the canopy frames masking and painting or applying thin decal strips. I went for the latter, and decanted for using just the front part of the canopy:

Every time I paint a model a certain color, I also airbrush a piece of decal paper. This stock can be used as explained for canopy frames, access panels, etc.:

Front of canopy and cowl+engine are glued on, all decals are applied, getting closer to completion now:

Final parts:

And completed model. Photos seem to show the wingtip nav lights protruding only under the wing, and so was done with this model.

 

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/wedell-williams-45-racer-dekno-172nd_15.html