1/48 Typhoon IB MN413, 440 RCAF - Heavy Hitters II GB

Cory, the photo of I8-T in your first post is also shown in my reference "Typhoon and Tempest - The Canadian Story" by Halliday. The caption reads "On July 26, 1944 F/O Nelson L. Gordon (440 Squadron) was on a sortie near Caen when hit by flak. He baled out and was back on squadron within 2 hours....Next his Tiffie is being recovered after he belly landed at B.9" No date is given, nor is the pictured aircraft equated with s/n MN413. In fact, this book has MN413 on strength with 438 squadron and the aircraft involved in the flak hit incident described above is noted to be MN403, coded I8-J.

This info conflicts with the caption of the same photo at the IWM website which states "Airmen of No. 419 Repair and Salvage Unit, aided by an AEC mobile crane, remove damaged Hawker Typhoon Mark IB, MN413 'I8-T', of No. 440 Squadron RCAF from the landing strip, following a wheels-up landing at B9/Lantheuil, Normandy, on 1 August 1944." Although I would trust this site, Halliday's loss list appears to be well researched, being summarized from "The Typhoon File" by C.H. Thomas and cross referenced to ORBs

The only other reference to a crash land by Gordon in my book is one that he did on Sept 9, 1944 in Belgium after a glycol leak in MN817 which was subsequently destroyed by fire, so this aircraft is not likely the one in the picture.

Given that the numerals following the MN are obscured, probably due to the overpainting of the invasion stripes, it's difficult to say which is correct. This will matter to you when doing the port side of this plane, where the numbers will likely be visible and the "MN" possibly obscured.

In another reference I have, which is a compilation of production data taken from "The Hawker Typhoon and Tempest by Francis K. Mason", MN413 is noted to be a Typhoon 1B from the 5th production batch and states "All aircraft with sliding hood, whip aerial, faired cannon and Sabre II, most with four blade propeller. Delivered between December 8th 1943 and June 6th 1944". Your picture shows a plane with the sliding hood and the whip antenna but most likely a 3 bladed prop.

So, in summary, it seems you picked a subject with some conflicting info in various sources, though the picture is a good one but will not help you with the port side. I would agree with the guys that this aircraft appears to have a 3 bladed prop and no AEAF stripes on the upper wing. Flipping through the rest of my book, I have maybe just one other 3 bladed possibility but decals would be an issue. 5V-K "Butcher Boy", s/n MN553, had 23 ops symbols and what appears to be a white spinner with a tin, tight spiral or concentric rings would be a neat scheme if decals could be made.

Thanks for the info Andy! Not really sure where to proceed in regards to the s/n, but I have some time to figure that out.

I would love to see your other option, as it sounds pretty intriguing. I imagine I could make the decals, but at the same time I of course don't know what their complexity is like.

Nice one Cory, one of my top ten models.

Here's a picture of "Butcher Boy" 5V-K of 439 Squadron. S/N is claimed to be MN553 on another website but I have not verified it. Colours of the spinner are not specified and open to speculation. Source: "Typhoon and Tempest - The Canadian Story" by Halliday.

Thanks Vic, heard good things about it minus the cockpit section inserts potentially.

Thanks for the pic Andy, that is a fantastic scheme! The art seems like it would be easy enough to make actually, looks like I'll be switching to this scheme. Couple things I've noticed on it. There seems to be a sudden colour change directly under the roundel, could that be the remnant of an invasion stripe? I also see something similar on the wheel well cover. As for the spinner, I want to say the lighter colour could be sky, as it seems to match the V in particular, and certainly looks a lot different than the white in the roundel.

I've looked up the serial number and one place said it was shot down on August 12, 1944.

EDIT: I've also looked into getting that book Andy, but it seems to be $80-$200 which is insane.

Great photo Andy, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to have to paint that spinner...!!!

Nice pic. The 'Colour change' under the roundel is the AEAF stripes, and on the wheel doors. The stripes would still be in place on the under sides, but as they were 'washable' distemper-type paint, they are worn and dirty, particularly on the lower fuselage, with some of the Medium Sea Grey showing through.
Note also the tones in the photo - it looks like the original negative was either orhochromatic film, or possibly colour film printed onto monochrome paper, giving the outer ring of the roundel in particular a darker tone, and altering other tones. From this, I think the lettering of the name might be yellow, possibly red, and the spinner might be a yellow base, with either red or black rings. Although the spinner looks lighter than the roundel, remember it's in full light, whereas the roundel and lower fuselage are out of direct light.

Amazing info Terry... will ask your opinion on a Ventura marking matter some time, source of much debate colour wise!

Terry you da man!

The shoot down of MN553 5V-K is verified by Halliday to be on Aug 12, 1944 by flak, though he may be using the same source as here: The 439 Aircraft Registry Page 7 - Typhoons Mk 1B

looked through my stuff and found very little about I8 T, lots of pics of I8 P though !

will go through my stuff again for 5V K and also have a list of all Typhoons built and their fate in the back of a book i have so will go through that as well Cory

Thanks a lot Terry, I'll have to decide later what I'm going to do with the spinner, but I have time! And no Evan, I'm not looking forward to painting it.

My initial inclination on the nose art was red lettering and yellow bombs. What are your thoughts on that Terry?

Andy, that's actually the same site that I found earlier.

It'd be nice to nail down what happened to the plane, thanks Karl.

Of course, I've put in my order and didn't get any serials as I had all the numbers for MN413, but now I don't. I should be able to fudge the 6s I have though without an issue, as long as they're the halved serials that you commonly see.

Give me a size on those serials you need Cory, incase I have something to fit.

Re the spinner, there is actually a way of masking it! A bit of experimentation, but if you can get the measurements right, cut curved bands in Tamiya tape with a circle cutter and mask the spinner where appropriate. Randy Lutz did this with a Korean War Mustang spinner in a magazine article I have, came out sweet! (see pics)

Thanks for the offer Evan, I'll go measure them.

I was thinking of something perhaps similar to that, but with it being so narrow it may be very hard to pull it off. I am going to try at some point to "flatten" the spinner in photoshop and see if I can basically print one off. Problem with that is getting the dimensions perfectly right.

They're 0.4cm tall Evan.

Here is the first version of the nose art. Thankfully it's quite simple, however it is very tiny about 1.5 cm x 1 cm.



The yellow in the cleaver itself is complete conjecture, as you can't see it in the photo when zoomed out, however when I zoomed in extremely closely to trace the parts of the cleaver, the blade and handle did not touch each other, leading me to believe that there is another colour in between the two. Obviously I don't know what that is. I could also just colour it the brown of the handle, making it a little long. The bombs seem yellow to me, and I used the yellow of the roundel. I used the red of the roundel for the lettering. If anyone thinks any of the colours should be different, that can be very easily changed.

I'm concerned that since it's so small the lettering won't print very nicely, as it's only 0.25 pixels which is ridiculous, but proper. I'll likely print two of them, and attempt to lay on one top of the other to get better opacity. I'll do a test run once we have the colours more nailed down, at which point I'll make my final decision on which plane I'm doing. I'd love to do Butcher Boy, but if I can't print the decal due to its size I'll have to go with my original choice. It will look bigger on your screen because it's at 300 DPI, but the physical size remains the same regardless of the dots per inch.

Can't you just paint the name by hand Cory? Write it in pencil first to make sure it's right, then simply paint over.
Looks good anyway what you've done there, and thanks for the measurement - will check my stash.

Like the sound of your spinner idea too. If you can measure it right, should be sweet!

I don't know why Evan, but that thought never occurred to me. Should be doable!

Yeah, that's the trick. I'm not sure I can measure everything right, may as well give it a go though. I may miss things that I need to take into account, it may not be as simple as flatting the spinner. I guess we'll see!

EDIT: Actually, I should see if I can find an IL-2 or CFS skin for it, and work from there.

No worries mate, whichever road you take it'll turn out sweet I reckon.

btw, am I looking for codes for MN413 or MN553 (or both?)

I think you're probably right about the name and mission log colours Cory, and the decal design looks good. You'll find that the colours will almost disappear when the decal is applied, so a good compromise, rather than hand-paint on the model, would be to make the decal, seal it, and hand-paint over that. Once applied and set, apply a clear coat, let it dry, and re-paint as required. A lot less fiddly than trying to paint from scratch, getting in over the wing.
Serial numbers were black, 8 inches tall, so yes, around 4.1 mm in 1/48th scale, and these can be printed and used acceptably on clear decal sheet.