1/72 Westland Scorpion - Missing the ARC What If? GB Deadline By A Mile!

Gallery Article by Hugh Janus on Oct 2 2009

 

I so wanted to make the deadline for the ARC What If? GB with my two models, but failed miserably! 
I've only managed to complete one so far - something I've called the Westland Scorpion that's made from Me262 and Gloster Meteor parts and bits from the spares box.  I've imagined Westland being ordered to stop work on developing the Welkin, but the Whirlwind would still have been produced in limited numbers to give the RAF experience with 2-engined fighters.  As Westland had proposed a jet development of the Whirlwind in reality, maybe Westland could have been told to come up with a new design while sticking to the Whirlwind's basic tried and tested configuration - which the Scorpion has.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

No amount of ballast got the model to sit on its original nosewheel, and the prop I'd fitted to the rear fuselage (Canberras were often seen with them) annoyed me. The solution? Make it a tail dragger!  Not very innovative perhaps, but the Me262 prototype wasn't a nosewheel job either, and the Brits had the tailwheel Attacker, so what the hell!  Also I decided the timeline would be mid-WW2 (the British accellerated jet development in the 30's and the Scorpion entered production in 1942 ahead of the more advanced Meteor (which would have axial engines instead of the Scorpion's centrifugal jets) and away we go. Maybe jets over Dieppe?

Anyway I hope you enjoy it!  More on the build can be seen at http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=172788
 
Regards,

Hugh Janus

Photos and text © by Hugh Janus