GB-47 1/48 Hawker Typhoon - WW2 D-Day and After – Western Front

[Crimea_River]

Here's another little nuance that I learned about that might be interesting to you. When they converted the Typhoons to carry 1000 lb bombs, they actually moved the racks OUTBOARD a bit, apparently to take advantage of a stronger attachment point. The below photo posted on Britmodeller shows this very well.

Here we have a thousand pounder being hoisted onto the rack. Just inboard of the rack, within the black stripe, you can see the attachment point for the old 250/500 lb bomb rack. Below you can see the old location of the rack and it's clearly closer to the inboard cannon.

No problem says I at first, except that after a closer look, it seems the rack for the 1000 lb bomb is slightly deeper and wider than the one for the lighter bombs. Does anyone have details of this?

Hasegawa only gives me the 500 lb rack so it's off to the spares box to see if I can find something close,

 

[Wayne Little]

Interesting info.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. No joy on the rack so I guess I'll try to do something to the kit racks to beef them up a bit.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Andy!

 

[fubar57]

Good stuff Andy. Wasn't aware of the bomb rack differences. I've PM'd you some photos, not the best but might help a bit

 

[Crimea_River]

Got them thanks and they do help.

 

[Crimea_River]

I landed on a half-assed fix for the bomb rack fairings. Though I do think they are deeper and wider than what the kit provides, I decided to just go ahead with making them a bit deeper and leaving the width alone as this would have involved a lot more work with little gain. Here are the kit parts:

Though I've not seen pictures to confirm it, I've deduced that the protrusions on the sides represent some sort of extension of the cannon shell ejection chute as the 250/500 lb rack was situated very close to the opening. My modification consists of snipping off these extensions and the locating pins and then simply gluing on a bit of card.

So with those set aside to dry. I tackled the tail planes. Once again, these are the larger Tempest type units that are provided as resin parts in the later "Sharkmouth" offering by Hasegawa. After shaping these to the fuselage and dry-fitting as best I could, I set up this jig to fit the parts. As these parts are quite loose and not a great fit, my plan was to place them with 5 minute epoxy and then, once set, run some CA into the joints.

Well, I learned something: 5 minute epoxy does not stick to the resin and styrene so I had to start over and go with straight CA. This proved to be tricky in that I had virtually no working time and so had to move fast. After a lot of fussing I got these things in and it's something I don't want to have to tackle again. The pictures below show the parts in place before blending the fairings in and don't really show how crappy a fit these parts are.

There's going to be a LOT of work to make these seams look presentable so that's how I'll be spending the next few days. Thanks for looking in.

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

Sure you'll whip them into shape Andy

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[Wayne Little]

Have fun Andy.....

 

[Crimea_River]

!!@**!?///^!!#!!

 

[Wayne Little]

I understand and completely agree with that......I think?

 

[Crimea_River]

Earthwork continues with mudding of the bottom surfaces of the chin intake. This is already application #2.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Mudwork continues on the tail. It's getting there.

The port landing light was dished out with a drill bit, coated with a chrome pen, drilled in the center, a clear bulb made of stretched sprue glued in, and details such as the wire and lightening holes added with a thin felt pen.

All is now ready for the lens. On the other side, the lens has been blended in and primed to check for fit. A minor dent needs to be filled in. In the background can be seen the deeper bomb carrier now installed and primed.

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Good stuff Andy. I need to get one of those metallic pens

 

[Crimea_River]

Got it for Christmas last year. LHS had them.