**** DONE: 1/48 Hawker Typhoon 1B - Mediterranean Theater of Operations

[JKim]

Ahhh too late guys! Impatient John pulled the trigger on some decals. I ordered the aforementioned Techmod decals AND a set of 8" RAF black lettering. Both sheets were on the more affordable side and I got both for under $20. Looking at the printable decal sheet solution... it just seemed to require more effort than I was willing to spend. So I am set on decals for this Typhoon... unless you can find some appropriately sized WHITE "Y" decals... otherwise I will use the ones on the Techmod sheet OR I will consider masking my own OR I can leave them off.

Thanks for the info Geo! I was aware that DN323 is also depicted in pictures without the "Y" but I like the look of at least one code letter on the plane.

 

[Crimea_River]

Tsk, tsk. You're beyond help man!

Having said that, I've found some Y's for you in my decal files, one set in white and one in sky. Looking at your picture I would bet on white. Both decals are 1/2 inch high, translating to 24 scale inches. Yours if you want them. Send me a PM with your address and I'll drop them in the mail for you.

 

[fubar57]

Nice one Andy.

Geo

 

[JKim]

Yes, I want them Andy! Always good to have choices and it looks like I am covering ALL the bases on this DN323 build! I got a little antsy with the T-Bolt nearing the finish line and me wanting to get on the Tiffy as soon as The Wog is complete. Waiting for the clear coat to dry on the Thunderbolt, I tackled a little mini-project on the Typhoon... the seat cushion. Having decided (for now anyway) to not add any aftermarket to the cockpit, I figured a seat cushion would be an easy add.

Using the giant Airfix kit as a model, I traced a pattern on a piece of sheet styrene...

I traced the diagonal lines using a panel line engraver... nice little tool BTW.

Used the same engrave to trace the outline and out pops the rough cut of the seat cushion.

The edges are beveled and rounded off and the cushion is dry-fit to the seat to check dimensions.

Hey, there is a hole in the cushion! I debated whether to leave the cushion alone but decided to give it a shot. Marked the approximate location and used a pinvise and micro drill bit to open up three closely spaced holes. This was then opened up with the tip of an Xacto blade.

Not perfect but it should do! Looking at the picture the cushion is probably a hair too tall so I'll probably shave a little off the top to complete.

 

[rochie]

that seat looks great

 

[Wurger]

Agreed.

 

[tigerdriver]

great choice, love the typhoon but the perceived wisdom on the modular fuselage has always put me off this kit . Will be watching with great interest

 

[JKim]

great choice, love the typhoon but the perceived wisdom on the modular fuselage has always put me off this kit . Will be watching with great interest

Yes, I am leery of that too! I've seen two approaches online. One is to attach the modular pieces to the fuselage halves before the halves go together to ensure that the joint along the sides of the fuselage are good. This results in a significant seam at the top (which is easier to deal with than the fuselage sides). Or I've seen the modular pieces added after the fuselage sides are glued together resulting in (a) a good fit all around or (b) nasty fit all around. Not sure how I'll go but I'll do plenty of dry fitting as I go.

 

[Crimea_River]

Great looking cushion John!

 

[Wayne Little]

 

[JKim]

Now that my Thunderbolt is just about complete, I took the opportunity to do play around with the modular fuselage assembly of the Hasegawa Typhoon. The fuselage consists of five pieces (not including the openable car door on the starboard side). This was to allow Hasegawa to sell the teardrop canopy version of the Typhoon 1B without having to retool a whole new fuselage.

Modeler's are always worried when wings and fuselages are broken up into multiple pieces due to the seam issues associated with the joining of these parts. I've read enough online builds of the Hasegawa Typhoon to know that this modular approach can result in some nasty seams so I decided to do some dry fitting of the main components to see if I could minimize/eliminate as many open seams as possible. Please note that no glue is involved... just tape and fingers!

The fuselage halves go together well. Excellent actually... these joints should be hassle free when it comes to glue time.

The port side insert goes on even better... if I do this right, I won't even have to sand!

When the two starboard inserts are installed, the potential issue rears its head. When the bottom and side joins of the inserts are optimized, a small gap opens up along the top.

But... very slight finger pressure is enough to close this gap. Using tape on the inside of the fuselage, I can see that it doesn't take any real force to close that top gap on both the front and rear inserts. A non-issue as far as I'm concerned.

Of course the wing fit plays a role in this. I was curious to see how the taped up fuselage, with all of the joints acceptably tight, fit in terms of the notorious wing root joint. Bottom looks ok... MAYBE some minor putty work if I get sloppy.

Port wing root ok...

Starboard wing root has a gap... not surprising. And note... all of the other joints in the picture are still good with tape only.

But we have lots of neat ways of confronting the wing root gap before it even happens, don't we? I cut a spacer from a piece of sprue and shimmied the fuselage apart near the rear where the starbard wing root gap was the biggest. Since this is a test run and I wasn't going for an exact fit, I left the spacer on the long side so that it forced the fuselage apart a bit.

Rechecking the wing roots... port side still ok.

Starboard side... now ok!

Bottom of the fuselage still has a gap.

So what does all of this tell me? Based on the dry-fit, I KNOW I can get all of the seams mated without a gap: fuselage sides, modular fuselage pieces, both wing roots... with the exception of a small gap at the bottom of the fuselage. And I'm pretty confident I can get rid of that last gap too. Nothing's guaranteed of course but I feel much better about the fit of this kit... it is surprisingly good!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Good way to make sure John.

 

[Catch22]

Good stuff John.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far!

 

[dneid]

Good write there, John. I have that kit on the stack. Nice to get a preview of the fit.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Seems nothing much wrong with that fit John, let's hope is all works out the same when your truly assembling it.

 

[JKim]

Seems nothing much wrong with that fit John, let's hope is all works out the same when your truly assembling it.

Well there's that eh? I guess it will all come down to when the glue hits the plastic! Based on my pre-fitting, I have a basic "strategy" of gluing the bottom edges of the fuselage inserts first to allow a little bit of "give" at the top to close any gaps but I don't know how this will work in reality.

 

[JKim]

A bit of progress to report on the Tiffie. This build will go much faster than the T-Bolt... smaller, less parts and no PE details to mess with. But... I did splurge on a set of AM resin exhausts by Ultracast. I wasn't happy with the kit pipes and couldn't hollow them out myself due to their configuration. The Ultracast pipes are more detailed and beefier... appropriate for a mean bird like the Typhoon!

The cockpit is a delicate tubular affair unlike the usual tub assembly. Can you find the missing locator hole?

I did a double take when I saw it... not believing Hasegawa would make such a silly omission. Easy to fix though.

The kit instrument panel is molded with raised dial details. I gave it a shot at conventional painting... drybrushing silver on the dials but I couldn't get a decent result due to the shallowness of the raised details. Since the kit also included a IP decal AND I recently purchased a punch and die set, I thought it would a perfect opportunity to punch out the individual dials from the decal and apply them one by one.

I'm no authority on RAF aircraft and I couldn't find any clear references on the cockpit color so I went with black with metallic tubing with some green on the upper half of the interior (mostly the doors). Not much in terms of added detail on this pit. The seat pad... some wiring on the control stick... a throttle lever from sprue and a couple little levers here and there.

I scrounged the seat belts from a leftover PE sheet. They are Luftwaffe belts so perhaps I've committed some sort of heinous crime here but they will have to do.

After the instrument decals were placed on the IP, a few details were painted and then the whole panel was given a shot of flat coat to even out the finish. I put a drop of Future into each instrument face to give them some contrast against the flat panel finish.

The tubular frame went together without a hitch, sandwiching the floor and the seat bulkhead in the middle.

Almost forgot the two lower IP panels that attach to the main IP like pants legs. After this dries, the IP is glued into the cockpit frame and I can proceed... to the modular fuselage of doom!

 

[Wurger]