1:24 Airfix Hawker Typhoon Car Door Build

Too bad about the misfits. Doing good though.

I agree. Hope the mis-alignment somewhere doesn't cause problems at the front end, with the cowlings and prop etc.

Airframes said:

I agree. Hope the mis-alignment somewhere doesn't cause problems at the front end, with the cowlings and prop etc.

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I'm not using any of the cowl pieces so all of that should be okay. But if I was, I'm sure it would have been a problem. It still doesn't make any sense to me how the entire lower wing could have keyed in as well as it did being back by that much. There was no room for any sloppiness when building all that framework. Puzzlement???

Really short session since I was doing 3D printing stuff.

Got the last seam sanded, painted some parts and started installing the exhaust outlets. I painted them first flat aluminum and then followed up with a partial shot of dark iron. After installation I will go back and soot the outlets and add some more dark iron. From handling some of the dark iron has already rubbed off.

All I did today was get the remainder of exhaust stacks on the Saber. It's now a "fully functional engine". I touched up the dark iron, added some black weathering powder, painted the outlet flat black, and went back and blended it some with a brush with some IPA. I looked at as many pictures as I could find to see just what color these realy are. Most are B&W so color was hard to determine. The seam down the middle of the stacks is intentional and represents a weld seam. It is NOT a mold line.



On Monday I'll be finishing up flight surfaces and start thinking about painting the beast.

Lovely work so far!

Short session again, but progress to report. The horizontal tail is one and both the elevators and the trim tabs are movable. Before showing that, I took a picture of the fully mounted fuselage with all of its filler. You can see in this image how far forward the leading edge is. This is the result of the heavy weight of the Saber (2,400 pounds) and the associated cooling system and coolant. The engine is heavier than a similarly powered R-2800 radial.



I got the tail planes glued together. In this scale, even the trim tabs are positionable.



Unlike the dubious Trumpeter PE hinges, these plastic ones are more stable. Being all styrene, it is very easy to get glue into them so I was very careful. To prevent glue from causing any problems I applied some petroleum jelly on the hinge points so they would remain glue-free. It worked.

Rudder, ailerons and flaps went in today. The airplane could now fly if it wasn't made out of a ton of styrene. I also started detailing the wheel wells. Like the elevators, the rudder was fully movable including the trim tab. I did get some glue on one the hinges since it's moving very sluggishly. I'm not going to play with it, so if it can be posed I will pose it and forget it. It's nice that it fits into the concave surface and is hinged like the prototype. The gap looks a little large. Real planes have tighter fits on control surface joints.



I then worked on the wheel wells. This required some pre-planning. Some of the details can go on now, but others that tie directly to the struts will have to wait until painting is complete. I don't want the strut sticking out when I have to seal off the wheels. There was an electrical line that attached to three places (black piping), a hydraulic accumulator, the retract cylinder along with its attached piping, and then another frame piece that blocks in the cylinder which is why it didn't go on when the rest of the wing indterior was installed. I used the chrome pen to highlight the retract piston rods. With a model of this scale, they could have engineered actual retracting gear including the pistons and locking links. I should have scratch-built something... oh well... that plane has left the hangar.



Lastly, I install the flaps (glued in the retracted position) and the ailerons. Ailerons went in slightly differently in that they had a single piece hinge piece that attached in three places to the aileron wing connector piece. Ailerons move nicely. You have to trim the intermediate edge of the outer flap so it sits correctly next to the inboard flap. I'm also annoyed that the 1/16" error again shows up with the lower flap sticking out past the wing trailing edge by that pesky amount.



And a view from above. You can see the flap sticking out. I set the ailerons correctly with one being up while the other is down.



Another day or so of assembly (come more parts around the cockpit) and I'll begin the painting process. The model has some real heft. There's a lot of plastic there!

Great work so far!

Thanks!

In the step where you attach the fuselage sides, it had you prepare them BEFORE GLUING to cut away the top deck behind the cockpit and install a new piece. I had noted this on the plans, but for some reason thought that it didn't pertain to the version that I was building. I then find out that a) the canopy wouldn't fit, b) there was no place to attach the upper seat belt anchor, c) I had discarded the part thinking that it was not going to be used, and d) even if I had the part, I was WAY TOO LATE to install since the fuselage was well glued together.

The reason for this mod was that the model's fuselage was actually for the bubble canopy (later) version of the Typhoon. The clue was the canopy tracks sticking up from the fuselage. And I was very careful to not damage them in the build. This was because the video I watched for the build made a point to tell you "Not to sand it off since it's part of the model." Unfortunately for me, he was building the bubble top version which Airfix had issued earlier. The included new sprue Z was for parts that were unique to the car door verison and this part was on that sprue.

It replaced the bulge and included pin holes for the fixed canopy and the upper seat belt. I had to do some minor surgery to create a surface that would accept these unique parts. I first taped the parts I didn't want destroyed.



I used my MicroMark shaving chisel to remove most of the material and then sanded it with the MicroMark power sander and then hand sanding. I re-scribed the panel line and attempted to restore the now-missing rivets. I'm not too good at this riveting thing.



I needed to locate and drill holes for these two parts. I started with a 0.032 and ended enlarging it to accommodate the parts. It was a careful drilling exercise because it was right on the glued seam.



I installed the belt. This will have to wait to be painted AFTER the plane is painted. It looks like the deck behind the cockpit is camo color and not flat black. I couldn't find any reference in the instructions about how to paint this area. Anyone out there know? I didn't want to install the belt after painting the body for fear to screw it up.



I'm recruiting the gun bay covers that I'm not using for the model to cover the bays for spray painting. I used some sticky wax to temporarily hold them in place. It's not sealed perfectly, but shouldn't give too much leakage. I may seal it better. I should experiment spraying some clean water and seeing how much gets in and where it ends up.



I installed the cowl part that covers over most of the instrument panel and, unfortunately, hides a lot of it. This was a bit of a struggle. It didn't fit right. I'm finding the engineering in these latter stages a bit wanting. I'm used to Tamiya and, boy, that really spoils you. I've dealt with Trumpeter's early troubles too. The cowl was being held off the lower part of the fuselage by the panel being too high, and there was a 0.040" gap on the starboard (right) side.



I removed some of the panel material mostly on the left side and then added a piece of styrene filler. I then glued it down and held it there with some tape. There's still a mis-match of height, although not horrible. I may or may not attempt to adjust that. This part of the model is very exposed. The front windscreen sits at the very back of this part. Before gluing it down, I air brushed the interior with NATO black and added a few more parts that also would not be easy to see when all built.





I prepared the main wheels. They had a terrible seam and I sanded the heck out them. They didn't require any filer, just sanding.



Notice the wheels are masked. I make circle masks by measuring the diameter with a digital calipers. I divide this number in half and set the same tool to this new dimension. I then use a specially prepared small Starrett machinist dividers with one point shaped to a chisel edge that's in the direction of rotation. I then cut the circles by taking a few light passes on the masking tape. It leaves a small pinhole in the middle which doesn't matter.

I sprayed them Tamiya Rubber Black. The paint's delicate.



Tomorrow I'll do more subassemblies (landing gear) and start getting ready for paint. The gear doors get a sliver of the invasion stripes. I may attempt to put them on the wing so they'll be masked with the rest of the model.

Short session... Touched up wheel paint, prepared a mask for the cockpit, completely broke off the top of the seat back, weathered the engine, and repaired the right leading edge wing joint.

The cowl fit was improved when the joint with the filler re-opened and I was then able to glue it with CA in a better position. There's still some misalignment on the upper left side, and I'm thinking about filling and sanding that. During all this handling, I finally completely broke off the top of the head rest frame. It had partially severed it a half dozen times since it sticks up when beyond the fuselage and is quite delicate. It's going to remain off until I can properly and safely reconnect it. I'm going to drill the frame pieces and use 0.010 piano wire (Guitar E string) to reinforce it. It will be protected by the rear canopy and armor glass that goes in when near completion.

I masked portions of the cowl to prevent removal of the rivet detail. When the lower joint on the right side broke I was worried, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise since I was able to re-glue it with CA in a better position. I also prepared a cardboard mask for the cockpit and have that seat top out of the way didn't hurt either. There's more tape under the mask keeping overspray off the panel.

Also shown in this image I painted that filled area at the edges of the firewall. Looks much better. I spent some time aging the engine some more with a few more details painted and using Tamiya Smoke on the lower reaches to dirty it up a bit. I need to get some Mig or AK oil leak materials.



While doing all of this, I noticed that the pesky seam on the right inboard wing leading edge open up. This was the one that was stressed over that internal fuel tank. I first used solvent cement, but it wasn't cutting it. I then used thin CA carefully applied into the joint and help it by hand, using accelerator until the joint was stable. I then schmered a liberal amount of Tamiya filler that I will sand down tomorrow.



Needless to day, I would rate today's session as one step forward and two back. That leading edge will survive regardless. Getting closer to paint.

Very nice despite the set backs. If the flying surfaces are going to be offset, the joystick and pedals would need to be as well

Lovely work so far!

I'll keep the surfaces straight then. If I attempt to move that stick I will have a broken stick in my hand. It's already dubious. The surfaces are still all movable so I can put them right.

Finished masking the bird. Since the pictures, I added some more masking around the cockpit to close even more gaps. I'm unable to prime it since I need to do that outside and the weather is not cooperating this week. I'm using the closed LG doors as a mask for the wheel wells. I used high quality modeling clay to hold the doors in place and put an additional amount around the gear mounting stub so paint won't leak in there too. When I set up the masks for the Invasion Stripes, I also mask the real gear doors since they get that paint also. Took a bit of work to mask all that engine stuff.



For the tail wheel well I just stuffed in wet paper towels. I chose to NOT do this for the cockpit since there were details there that would not take any pressure. I chose to build a cardboard cover instead.



To kill some time, I built the tail wheel and the main gear. The main gear have to plastic studs that fit into the wheels. You can't mix up which wheel goes where since the half-round pins face in opposite directions and I you put the wheel on the wrong side, the flattened-tire area is on the wrong side of the wheel. This pin needed major surgery to get into the wheels. The mold clearly had a defect and there was a plastic hood over the pin that needed to be removed for it to fit.

I added the Bare Metal Foil oleo sleeve and then added the separate scissors links. It was nice that this piece was separate becuase it made it much easier to apply the foil.



Tail wheel was simple and will rotate and swivel. I thought about replacing the styrene stem with brass, but it's bigger than 1/16" by about 6 thousandths and I thought it might be too sloppy a fit.



The model is at a standstill until I can get some primer on it. As soon as I get a mild day, with low wind and no rain, I'll do that. All the color coats I can door in the basement since they're all acrylic. I'm going to use Tamiya Gray Primer.