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

[Wildcat]

That looks great!

 

[Airframes]

Nice!
Hopefully, the residue from the 'BluTak' has gone, but it's normally best to remove this, with a damp cloth, before clear-coating.

 

[Catch22]

Nicely done John!

 

[Wayne Little]

pretty good result there John!

 

[JKim]

Thanks everyone for checking in and leaving your comments! I'll remember the tip about wiping off the residue from the BluTack. This one is fast approaching completion as I got a lot done today.

Time for decals! I cut out the aircraft code letters from a set of Aviaeology 1/48 black 8" RAF codes.

I got a nice Christmas present from Andy... a pair of white RAF "Y" codes for my DN323... Thank you very much sir! In my haste to get them ready, I tore off a little corner of one of the "Y". Should not be a problem. Per Andy's suggestion, I shot them with a light coat of gloss since they are old.

Here is the torn "Y" decal in place. I shot this one with a spot of clear and then carefully masked the corner of the "Y".

The "Y" is fixed. Not a perfect masking job but it should be adequate after all of the weathering.

Not too many decals on this bird. One thing about the decals... the Techmod decals were ditched in favor of the kit stickers, at least for the main insignias. After an initial test on one of the unused decals (it ripped during application), I sprayed them with a light clear coat. But I could get them to conform to the panel lines despite multiple applications of Microset/Microsol. The Hasegawa decals weren't much better but they settled down a little better.

After the decals, I gave the model a spray of flat. I noticed that the decals along the panel lines lifted after spending lots of time getting them to conform. Does anyone know... would a clear gloss coat prior to the flat help keep decals down? I didn't have many decals with lots of clear carrier so I just went straight to the flat coat.

Some views of the weathering in outside light...

All I have to do are the fiddly bits, which have already been pre-painted. I leave off with a picture of the wingtip lights. I went to the trouble of drilling little holes and filling the holes with green and red paint to simulate the light bulbs. These were attached with white glue but wouldn't you know it... one dropped off somewhere.

The fiddly bits are all attached including the door in the open position. This model should be done but I spent the last couple of hours grinding out a replacement light for the wing tip and it doesn't fit very well. I've glued it in place with proper modeling glue. It'll take some grinding and polishing tomorrow to get it took reasonable... the last thing I wanted to do since that will most likely require some repainting/weathering on both the top and bottom of the wing tips... arrgh!

If all goes well, I should have some pictures tomorrow with everything attached!

 

[Wildcat]

Looks great with the decals on, nice work!

 

[Wurger]

 

[Catch22]

Nice!

 

[Crimea_River]

Glad that the decals arrived in time John. The model looks great! Not sure what you mean by the decals "lifting" but it sounds like you have some air trapped under the decal in the panel line. To cure that, put a small dab of decal solution on the trouble spot and prick the decal with a very sharp pin. Give the solution maybe 5 to 10 seconds to settle in underneath the decal then wick off any excess with a tissue. Then don't touch it til dry. You can repeat as necessary.

 

[JKim]

Glad that the decals arrived in time John. The model looks great! Not sure what you mean by the decals "lifting" but it sounds like you have some air trapped under the decal in the panel line. To cure that, put a small dab of decal solution on the trouble spot and prick the decal with a very sharp pin. Give the solution maybe 5 to 10 seconds to settle in underneath the decal then wick off any excess with a tissue. Then don't touch it til dry. You can repeat as necessary.

I went a step beyond that! I cut the decals along the panel lines with a new X-Acto blade. That plus dabbing the decals down with multiple applications of Micro Sol seemed to settle the decals down into the panel lines but after the flat had been applied, the decals lifted up from the panel lines somewhat.

The wingtip light is finished! Here's a picture about 1/2 through the process... the rough shape in place and needing to be sanded and polished.

Here's a shot of the car door with a few details added...

Landing gear and bombs are attached. The kit parts for the little antennas on the bottom have sprue attachments right in the middle... so instead of trying to trim them, I just replaced them with stretched sprue.

Door is attached... nothing more to add!

That does it for this Desert Typhoon! Call er done!

I will put up a FINISHED post soon!

 

[Crimea_River]

What a beaut!

 

[Catch22]

Yeah, that's another fantastic build.

 

[Wurger]

 

[JKim]

In case anyone is interested, here is how the scratchbuilt wingtip light turned out...

Some closeup perspectives...

 

[Crimea_River]

Those details look excellent John. My only comment might be that the cockpit colour on the door looks more like zinc chromate than interior green.

 

[JKim]

Those details look excellent John. My only comment might be that the cockpit colour on the door looks more like zinc chromate than interior green.

Thanks Andy! That color is a home-mixed green. It's not exactly zinc chromate but it's probably closer to chromate than interior green. I guess I need to be docked for accuracy... I'm good at detail but not that great at accuracy, if that makes any sense!

 

[Crimea_River]

It does. The internet provides lots of references for colours and we can help as well. Don't hesitate to ask.