GB-63 1/48 Hawker Typhoon 1B - Stormy Weather

[Crimea_River]

Username: Crimea River
First name: Andy
Category: Judge – Non-competing
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Hasegawa
Model Type: Typhoon Mk.Ib
Aftermarket addons: Aviaeology decals, Ultracast resin seat and exhausts.

I will see if I can squeeze in another build for this GB with my remaining Hasegawa Typhoon kit and parts. I built a late model Typhoon for GB 47 and used up my 4 blade prop and Tempest-style parts for that build. Having only a 3 blade prop and the smaller tail left, I searched for suitable subjects that fit the parts and decals that I had and came up with a rather plain scheme that will be the subject of this build. The aircraft to be depicted is Typhoon 1B s/n JR500 coded 5V-X of 439 Squadron RCAF as seen below:

The aircraft was flown by at least two different pilots in 439 Squadron but was lost in a non-combat accident in November of 1944. I'll post a bit more in the aircraft's relatively short service after I research it a bit more. The only distinctive feature of the scheme is the asymmetric white patch on the spinner that was sported by 439 Squadron aircraft. A portion of the patch can just be made out in the above picture which was taken from here: Intermission – Hawker Typhoon JR500.

 

[Crimea_River]

I made a quick start to this build on Friday. The first order of business was to attach the fuselage side inserts which distinguish Hasegawa's car door and bubble top versions.

It's important to make sure that all of the surfaces are flush rather than to try to align the upper seam lines. It's expected that doing so will result in a small gap at the fuselage seam but this is much easier to deal with than steps in the fuselage surface.

Next up was to assemble the wing halves after drilling out the holes for the bomb carriers and access step.

Then it was on to the cockpit. A few parts had been painted with leftover cockpit grey/green from a previous project. Rather than waste a cup of paint, I usually spray some out on parts in my stash of unbuilt kits that are to receive the same colour.

I had a left over Ultracast resin seat from my previous build that looks much better than the kit part so I used that. The armour plate in the kit was used but had some visible ejector pin marks that needed to be dealt with.

Fortunately, only the top one is visible and this was easily taken care of by filing the surface flat until the mark was no longer visible. The seat was then attached with CA glue.

I then assembled the remaining cockpit bits, which now await painting.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time detailing the cockpit as I plan on displaying the canopy closed for this build. Thanks for looking in and stay tuned for more on the fate of this airframe.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Jock Tamson]

Nice to see another Tiffie I'm liking the resin seat.

 

[Gnomey]

Good start Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. As promised, what follows is a short summary of this aircraft's fate with 439 Squadron. References are the Squadron ORB and the book "Typhoon and Tempest: The Canadian Story" by Hugh Halliday.

JR500 first shows up on 439 Squadron operations on 19 July, 1944 when it was flown by Flying Officer R.A Johns, RCAF carrying 1000# bombs targeting troops in support of the allied advance in Normandy. Though not his personal aircraft, Johns was the most frequent pilot of JR500, carrying out dive bombing and strafing attacks on enemy vehicles and positions as was typical of Typhoon operations at the time.

After its first 439 Sqdn. op, JR500 doesn't show up again until July 29 when it was flown by F/O R.H. MacDonald RCAF on a dive bombing mission against buildings near St. Martin de Fontenay. After that, the aircraft sees extensive service through August, being flown by Johns, MacDonald, F/Os Stitt, Scharff, Hewson, and Squadron Leader K.J. Fiset, RCAF on occasion. A busy day on August 18 saw four missions flown in JR500, 3 by Johns and one by Hewson, all strafing vehicles in the infamous Falaise pocket.

Toward the end of August and early September, the squadron moved 3 times, ending up for a while at B.58 Melsbroek Belgium. It was here that on September 8, Johns led the squadron in JR500 for the first time into German air space on an armed reconnaissance near Venlo, eventually strafing barges on the Rhine.

September saw increasing activity over Holland, with yet more pilots taking JR500 to the skies in support of troop advances. In addition to Johns and Laurence, we have F/Os I.W. Smith, M.P. Laycock, and B.P. Swingler flying JR500.

On September 28, Johns took to the skies in JR500 on a fighter sweep over Holland but had to abort with radio trouble. On returning to base, Johns experienced further mechanical issues that caused him to make 4 passes at the field before setting down with no power on the engine. JR500 was then apparently sent off for repairs while the squadron moved to B.78 Eindhoven at the end of September.

With JR500 out of action, Johns took Typhoon MN765 to lead the squadron on a dive bombing attack on a railway in the afternoon of October 5. After bombing the railway and on the way back to base, Johns spotted enemy vehicles on a road and broke to attack with his wingman. After making a short burst, Johns' Typhoon was hit by flak and he lost control, colliding with a church steeple and dying in the ensuing crash.

October 7 sees the return of JR500 to ops when F/O C.L. Burgess takes it on an afternoon mission to strafe railway stock.

October sees MacDonald as the most frequent pilot of JR500 with the typical ground attack missions through the month in increasingly poor weather. Others to pilot the aircraft are F/Os R.A. Hiltz, J.G Martin, I.W. Smith, W.G. Davis, and W.L. Saunders.

On November 3, F/O Ralph Nelson MacDonald of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, a 41-sortie veteran, took off in JR500 to do an Airframe & Engine (A&E) test. F/O R.H. Laurence was out at the same time and they engaged in a mock dogfight near Eindhoven. On recovering from a tight turn, MacDonald's aircraft flicked into a spin and crashed into a house, killing him instantly and destroying the aircraft.

Seven weeks later, Laurence was ordered court martialed but was supported by his superiors and found not to have broken any rules. In February, 1945 he was awarded the DFC following air battles in which he destroyed 4 enemy aircraft.

 

[rochie]

Nice choice Andy

 

[Wayne Little]

Nice Info, get stuck in mate...

 

[T Bolt]

That seat is a nice improvement

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nice quick start Andy, like your choice as well.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Continuing to research this build a bit and recalling what I went through on the other build, I'm currently thinking of getting some aftermarket 1000# bombs and pylons. This seems to be a poorly documented area but I recall that the modification to accept the 1000# kit involved moving the pylon outward to a more robust point in the wing structure. This is the best pic that I have of the arrangement, linked from my previous build:

In the above pic, the lugs for the earlier pylon arrangement can be seen behind and slightly outboard of the inner gun. It's also evident, to me at least, that the pylon for the 1000 pounder is much broader than the earlier unit that accepted up to 500 lb bombs and, having tried to address this on my other build, I know that it's not an easy fix. The Hasegawa parts don't include the larger pylon and I don't have anything close in my spares, nor do I have any British 1000 pounders, so I'm going to order the CMK resin set pictured below. It's actually stated to be for the Tempest but I can only assume that it's the same as was used on the Typhoon:

 

[fubar57]

Good stuff Andy. I've found nothing on the bigger bomb racks yet

 

[Wurger]

IMHO the bomb rack is the same Andy. The difference is that it was slightly moved to the middle between the two cannons. The early Typhoons had them moved towards the inner gun. See the two last bottom pics. If you have a close up look at the last bottom shots you may notice the double lug for the rack attaching. The same one you may find in the pic you posted above but next to the moved rack. The another difference was that racking of the large bomb forced to use the leading deflectors for the ejected shells in order to not hit the bomb. It can be noticed in the second image

1000lbs-bomb-underneath-a-typhoon-fighter-bomber-note-the-invasion-stripes-under-wing-august-1944 - Veterans Voices of Canada

vetvoicecan.org

Canadian Warplanes 3: Hawker Typhoon

Harold writes articles on Canadian military history, including Military Parachuting, Warplanes, Armour and Artillery, Castles, Fortifications, Sieges and Battles, Warships, The Cold War, Women in the Canadian Forces, First Nations and Black Canadian Military Service. Each article is supported by...

www.silverhawkauthor.com

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Great info gents.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks everyone. Wojtek, your input is always appreciated and I thank you for the pics. There are a few things to unpack in your observations so let me go through them in order.

RE: "IMHO the bomb rack is the same Andy. The difference is that it was slightly moved to the middle between the two cannons."

I agree with you that the rack was slightly moved outward from the original position. This is clear from the photographic evidence shown in both my and some of your pics. However, I would suggest that the rack fairing width also changed for the larger bomb. Here's why.

This is a screen grab of an underside view of an early Typhoon bomb rack discussed in this Britmodeller post and along side that is a pic of the Hasegawa-provided rack.

In terms of width, the two racks above look fairly similar. The Hasegawa rack measures 3.5mm wide which equates to 6.6 inches. Now lets look at the photo I posted from straight ahead on the 1000# bomb being hoisted in place. I have reduced the gamma and zoomed in to see the rack more clearly.

In this view, in my opinion, the rack fairing is at least half the width of the black AEAF stripe, which would put it at a minimum of 9 inches wide. Further, in the Britmodeller thread linked above, Chris Thomas says "..... there were two designs of bomb carrier used on Typhoons. The initial design (illustrated in the drawings above) was good only for bombs up to 500 lbs. From April 1944 1000 lb bomb carriers were fitted, which were broader and more streamlined. 1000 lb bombs could not be carried on the earlier design as incorrectly shown in the drawings."

So it is my conclusion that the Hasegawa rack is incorrect for the 1000# bomb fit-out and that I need to find something wider and more streamlined. The CMK resin part seems to fit the bill.

RE: "The another difference was that racking of the large bomb forced to use the leading deflectors for the ejected shells in order to not hit the bomb. It can be noticed in the second image."

For clarity, there are TWO different deflectors that need to be discussed: a larger one on the inner gun and a smaller one on the outer gun as seen in your referenced pic.

Both the screen-grabbed drawing and my picture of the Hasegawa arrangement show that the original INNER location of the bomb rack required a large deflector to be fitted as the rack almost covered the cartridge ejector chute opening for the inner gun. That deflector chute can be seen in the bottom left of the below diagram copied from the BM post linked above.

The Hasegawa rack includes this moulded deflector. The outward move of the bomb rack for the 1000# bomb eliminated this problem as the bomb was virtually centered between the inboard and outboard ejector chute openings. In the picture of the guys hoisting the 1000# bomb, the ejector chutes can be seen within the white striped areas, well clear of the bomb so this particular deflector on the inner gun was not needed.

The second pic that you referenced indeed shows a different, small deflector plate added to prevent the ammo links from hitting the bomb with the outer rack position. Good catch! I will add these small plates.

 

[Wurger]

Crimea_River
Actually I haven't found any info whether the bomb rack for the 1000lb bomb was changed to a larger one or not. In the images above it can be noticed that it wasn't. Certainly it could be that the maintenece crew could introduce a kind of correction to the rack cover. Anyway looking at the pic you posted above I would say that the width was about 9 inches. The black D-day ID strip was of the 18" and it looks like it got a half of its width. However the early quick ID strip set for Typhoons had the black strip narrower. Its width was 12 inches. The second pic from the bottom reveals that the "early" bomb rack fits within the black area and is a little bit narrower than the 12". If so .. it means that its width was also 9" with a margin of 1.5" form left and right. Unless I'm wrong.

 

[Crimea_River]

Who knows? I will take Chris Thomas' word for it that it was wider. It's certainly not 6 inches like Hasegawa made it.

 

[Wurger]

The 6" is too less with no doubt.

 

[fubar57]

One of the photos Wojtek posted above definitely is a larger bomb rack

 

[Wurger]

Yes , but the port one doesn't look like.