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

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Terry, good suggestion but I have decals for a number of small tail plane/3 blade prop bubble tops. Yes Glenn, happy to see that stage done.

 

[Airframes]

OK Andy, no problem.
Just found a set of "Ultracast" resin RPs and rails I got for the Monogram kit, and to be honest, there's not much difference, compared to the kit parts, although the resin items require assembly. If you need some RPs, let me know, and I'll send them off to you.

 

[Crimea_River]

Hey guys, I'm interested in your interpretations of what's going on with the paint around the lower parts of the fuselage stripes on this bird, to wit:

We know for a fact that the AEAF stripes were removed or over-painted not long after D-Day but that the stripes in the Medium Sea Grey zone remained. In the above photo, the camo above the "P" appears to be clean and free of any vestiges of the stripes but there is a narrow zone between the bottom of the P and the demarcation line of the upper and lower camouflage where remnants of the stripes remain. If there's fresh paint over the stripes, why didn't they go all the way to the MSG line? Why are the white areas in this zone dark, especially over the Sky band? Does it appear to you that the forward band is no longer white at all and maybe MSG instead? If so, what is there a dark fringe along the forward edge?

Very much interested in your thoughts as this is an interesting effect that I'd like to capture.

 

[Airframes]

My initial thoughts are that these were never "full" stripes, but those applied ( or modified) when the directive was issued to have stripes on the underside only. More likely to have been applied a "half" stripes only, due to the neat, straight edge along the top.
Thee may well be, and very probably are, stripes applied at an MU, before delivery of the aircraft to unit level, and were possibly in a more "substantial" coating, possibly, but unlikely, actual paint, rather than distemper, and this is reinforced by their very neat, even appearance. The photo was probably taken before the stripes were fully removed, or during removal, and the "black outline" may be masking tape residue, or the remains of the marks where the pattern was laid out.
I've seen similar effects when removing paint from models and "full size" objects.
As for the "wider" stripe, it may have been laid out incorrectly, but I think it's just an optical illusion, due to lighting, angles and the colour differences.

 

[Wurger]

IMHO the effect is a result of washing off with a dirty rag or something like that. It wasn't done carefully. At a couple of places there stayed the paint or its warp/ remnants. Being more grainy while cleaning, it got the deposit of the dirt , from the exhaust fumes for instance. Also it is possible the remnants of the white colour got some of the black pigment especially if the black stripes were ragged with a thinner too. In the case it indicates that the white paint was of a different kind than the black or just was more washable.

 

[rochie]

I agree, it looks like the rougher finish of the D-Day stripes has trapped more dirt and grime than the surrounding cammo paint and has not cleaned up as well.
Though it does look like the forward white stripe is missing, possibly cleaned off but leaving an impression of where it once was ?

 

[Airframes]

I agree with both, but I still believe that these were originally neatly applied "half stripes", probably done at a MU, or at least when more time was available if at unit level, when they were carefully laid out and masked before painting.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the responses so far. There is a similar pattern of wear on the other side as well. Also, the forward white stripe is visible:

I'm liking the wiping idea. If these were neatly painted half stripes, then why the irregular wear and why the sharp demarcation at the MSG transition?

Another clue is that, according to notes that I have, the MP series Typhoons were delivered to units before June 6, 1944 so that, at some point, this machine would have had the slapped on "temporary" stripes. I don't know when 440 Squadron took this machine on strength (I will check the ORBs) but it is known that Hardy did not receive this mount until mid September after he crashed his first one. The reason I bring that up is that, perhaps the Squadron codes were applied over a different squadron's codes by first applying the camo colours fresh and then the I8-P after masking over the old washed out stripes.

 

[Airframes]

That's certainly a possibility.

 

[Crimea_River]

Checked the ORB on line and indeed, the first appearance of MP149 in 440 Squadron is Sept 11/44 with Hardy flying. It would be interesting to know the movings of this aircraft before then. The first MP series a/c to be seen in 440 Sqn is in mid August (MP138) . Might these have spent DDay and the weeks thereafter in an MU? Or are my notes wrong on the delivery dates of this block?

 

[Crimea_River]

This evening I tackled the details behind the cockpit. Hasegawa had provided a moulded sliding canopy track but this never survived the seam smoothing operations. There are also several plates and brackets missing and so I decided to add these. So I turned on Andy Donnelly's Celtic Show in CKUA to get me in the right frame of mind and hopped to it.

This first pic as already a couple of steps into the process as I neglected to take pics of the how I got here. The first step was to add a long rectangular plate behind the seat belt bar on the forward side. This plate bolted to the upper fuselage surface via triangular brackets on each side. There was also a central bracket attaching the head armour. These were made of very thin styrene sheet and glued in place with CA. You can just make them out in white in the pic. Before all that, I cut the sliding hood from the sprue and traced the outside of the closed position to get me oriented for the stuff that needed to be added. Inside of that outline, I pencilled in the shape of the raised strip that formed the seal for the closed hood.

Next, I cut two very thin strips of styrene and glued them in place to form the track. Then using stretched sprue, I added the seal strip along the pencilled outline.

Here's the plate that I added to the front with masking tape in place for the paint overspray.

Et voila, the finished details painted in Rubber-Night-Coal Dust-Silhouette-Deep Pool Black (in case Terry and Karl want to know the shade).

Though the track itself will be painted with the camouflage colours, I sprayed the black over it to make sure that the slot was good and dark

It just occurred to me that the cylindrical object on the back of the head armour might not be correct and, sure enough, it seems Hardy's bird did not have this so I'll need to lop it off and retouch the paint there.

Thanks for looking in again.

 

[Wurger]

 

[rochie]

Nice details you've added Andy

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. All I've been able to do is lop off that object on the armour plate. Hope to get painting under way this week.

 

[Crimea_River]

I discovered today that there is work I needed to do to correct the detail under the windscreen. Hasegawa gives us a moulded coaming there but what really should be there is a tubular framework.

After removing the coaming, I added the framing using solder. This will all be painted black and then the gun sight will be added.

Speaking of the gun sight, I read an interesting post here outlining three potential types of installations. After looking at pictures of Hardy's mount, I'll be putting in a glassless modified Mk II sight.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Andy.
I was going to ask you if you intended getting rid of the incorrect coaming, and which gunsight you'd use. I made some notes, after research 20+ years ago, regarding the gunsight, which should be with the scale drawings I mentioned previously - but they ain't, so a search is in order !

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Terry, that link I posted above, if the info is correct, is well done with good pictures.

 

[Airframes]

Yes, it's good info, saved in my bookmarks,
I haven't read it all the ay through yet, but I will, to identify those Typhoons armed with RPs which mainly had the "modified" sight, with the dial for range / trajectory on the side of the sight head. (not all RP equipped aircraft had these, some using the "aim off" method instead, which is why I need to find my notes.).