Nicely done so far Andy!
GB-63 1/48 Hawker Typhoon 1B - Stormy Weather
- Thread starter Crimea_River
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- Thread starter
- #82
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks all. The wings are firmly on now as are the tailplanes. I also stuck on the cannon barrels to increase the chance of them being snapped off - I already lost some of the tiny details that I added to the bottom of the wings and am glad that I decided to attach the fragile bomb stabilizers to the bombs rather than the pylons.
I also shot some Sky onto the fuselage for the tailband as well as on a part of the spinner and its back plate.
The reason for the partial colouring on the spinner is this: many of 439 Squadron's aircraft sported a unique patch on their spinners and you can see this on JR500 in the photo and profile on page 1. The profile shows the patch to be white and the back plate could be white or Sky. There's a school of thought that says that the patch may well have been the result of a simple mask being applied over the early Sky spinner colour when the later directive to paint all spinners black was carried out. I like this idea and could well see the back plate being left in Sky as well, so that's what I'm going with unless someone can show me facts to the contrary.
Below is a detail of two of the lights. The landing lights, which were present on both sides of this particular aircraft, received a silver decal on the inside which I cut from some spares left over from a Tammy P-47. This represents the frame that bisected the lens. The wingtip nav light got the usual treatment of drilling a small hole and dabbing some red paint inside before gluing the lens on. This was repeated with green on the other side.
There are still a few patches of surface primer here and there that will need smoothing out before I start spritzing in earnest. I also want to get the gun sight and windscreen in place before that as well. Back hopefully later Sunday with more to show. Thanks again for following along
I also shot some Sky onto the fuselage for the tailband as well as on a part of the spinner and its back plate.
The reason for the partial colouring on the spinner is this: many of 439 Squadron's aircraft sported a unique patch on their spinners and you can see this on JR500 in the photo and profile on page 1. The profile shows the patch to be white and the back plate could be white or Sky. There's a school of thought that says that the patch may well have been the result of a simple mask being applied over the early Sky spinner colour when the later directive to paint all spinners black was carried out. I like this idea and could well see the back plate being left in Sky as well, so that's what I'm going with unless someone can show me facts to the contrary.
Below is a detail of two of the lights. The landing lights, which were present on both sides of this particular aircraft, received a silver decal on the inside which I cut from some spares left over from a Tammy P-47. This represents the frame that bisected the lens. The wingtip nav light got the usual treatment of drilling a small hole and dabbing some red paint inside before gluing the lens on. This was repeated with green on the other side.
There are still a few patches of surface primer here and there that will need smoothing out before I start spritzing in earnest. I also want to get the gun sight and windscreen in place before that as well. Back hopefully later Sunday with more to show. Thanks again for following along
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Looking good.
le_steph40
Chief Master Sergeant
Jock Tamson
Staff Sergeant
Nice 
Like it
Good work so far Andy!
- Thread starter
- #89
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks again gents. The prop has been masked and painted. The Sky patch is tricky to cut but looking at photos, the demarcations were far from perfect anyway. I'll be weathering this area yet.
With the yellow prop tips came the yellow recognition strips on the wing leading edges. The Sky band on the fuselage has also been masked.
Zooming in to the cockpit area, you can see that I added framing for the gun sight and the crash pad both of which still need to be painted. Haven't yet figure out what type of gunsight to add yet as the reference pic is inconclusive. On the rear deck, I added the brackets that supported the head armour plate and painted the area black. I will leave the canopy closed on this model so didn't bother with the sealing strip this time.
Thanks for looking in.
With the yellow prop tips came the yellow recognition strips on the wing leading edges. The Sky band on the fuselage has also been masked.
Zooming in to the cockpit area, you can see that I added framing for the gun sight and the crash pad both of which still need to be painted. Haven't yet figure out what type of gunsight to add yet as the reference pic is inconclusive. On the rear deck, I added the brackets that supported the head armour plate and painted the area black. I will leave the canopy closed on this model so didn't bother with the sealing strip this time.
Thanks for looking in.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Nice work Andy. 
Looking good Andy.
Lovely work so far Andy!
- Thread starter
- #94
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thank-you friends.
Leading edge strips masked off and the MSG undersides have been done. First, I used straight Tamiya XF-83, then lightened it with white with more thinner and shot a random pattern over the MSG base. Then black was added and the process repeated to get the worn look. This always washes out in my photos but the effect is definitely there.
This coat is always fragile so I went ahead and glossed it right away and left it overnight.
I have by now lost all of the ejector chute deflector plates and one of the two hard point brackets that I painstakingly added earlier which will need to be replaced after the AEAF stripes are added. This will be done over some hairspray along the leading edge so I can chip some of it away. That's my next task.
Leading edge strips masked off and the MSG undersides have been done. First, I used straight Tamiya XF-83, then lightened it with white with more thinner and shot a random pattern over the MSG base. Then black was added and the process repeated to get the worn look. This always washes out in my photos but the effect is definitely there.
This coat is always fragile so I went ahead and glossed it right away and left it overnight.
I have by now lost all of the ejector chute deflector plates and one of the two hard point brackets that I painstakingly added earlier which will need to be replaced after the AEAF stripes are added. This will be done over some hairspray along the leading edge so I can chip some of it away. That's my next task.
- Thread starter
- #96
Crimea_River
Marshal
Today's task was to complete the AEAF stripes on the underside. I masked these based on known (theoretical) 18" widths with the starting points of the outer portion of the white bands under the wings as per the photo reference on page 1. I also noted that the bomb carriers were left in MSG so I had to mask those off as well. From there it was a just a matter of carefully measuring off the proper spacing and adding the masks. First off, I shot some hairspray along the leading edge to enable some chipping to happen and then I sprayed the white fields. Then I masked for the black bands and shot some Tamiya NATO Black. Both colours were applied in an intentionally patchy manner.
The hairspray didn't work that well and after damping the area down with water several times and going over the areas with a stiff brush, I eventually got the effect I wanted, despite the paint adhering quite well.
It was during painting of the stripes that I noticed that the black undercarriage cover in the reference shot on page 1 (detail produced below) didn't match the spacing of my stripes.
Compare this with the stripes painted on my model for the same wheel:
As you can see, the black stripe on the detail photo is much further down the cover so that the lower edge intersects the point where the straight trailing edge intersects with the curved bit. Also, the stripe is nowhere near wide enough to match the 18" requirement. On top of that , the entire lower portion of the cover appears to have been painted white. If matched exactly, there should be a patch of MSG on the bottom of the cover.
I thought for a second that maybe this Tiffie got a cover from another aircraft, maybe one with the earlier Typhoon recognition stripes but that pattern would have resulted in TWO partial black stripes appearing on the cover, with the bottom edge being black. Looking at the below excellent pic of another 439 Squadron bird we see that the bottom of the cover is also entirely white and the black stripe is higher up, more like what my pattern would indicate. The stripe pattern on the wings of this aircraft matches almost exactly what I painted on my model.
{photo ref: John Kalen - The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada }
My conclusion is that the rapid application of the AEAF stripes resulted in the painters "eyeballing" the undercarriage covers. They certainly would not have jacked up the airframe, retracted the u/c, and painted the covers to match the wing stripes exactly. In doing this, it's possible, if not likely, that they would have got the black stripe in the wrong place and improperly sized in some cases, depending on how artistic the painter was. They also evidently didn't bother with leaving the bit of MSG on the bottom of the cover and just painted the whole thing white.
With all that said, I'm going to apply the black stripe exactly as seen in the photo detail of my bird and paint the entire cover bottom white. I'll do the same on the right side given that there doesn't seem to be a photo of my bird from that side.
The hairspray didn't work that well and after damping the area down with water several times and going over the areas with a stiff brush, I eventually got the effect I wanted, despite the paint adhering quite well.
It was during painting of the stripes that I noticed that the black undercarriage cover in the reference shot on page 1 (detail produced below) didn't match the spacing of my stripes.
Compare this with the stripes painted on my model for the same wheel:
As you can see, the black stripe on the detail photo is much further down the cover so that the lower edge intersects the point where the straight trailing edge intersects with the curved bit. Also, the stripe is nowhere near wide enough to match the 18" requirement. On top of that , the entire lower portion of the cover appears to have been painted white. If matched exactly, there should be a patch of MSG on the bottom of the cover.
I thought for a second that maybe this Tiffie got a cover from another aircraft, maybe one with the earlier Typhoon recognition stripes but that pattern would have resulted in TWO partial black stripes appearing on the cover, with the bottom edge being black. Looking at the below excellent pic of another 439 Squadron bird we see that the bottom of the cover is also entirely white and the black stripe is higher up, more like what my pattern would indicate. The stripe pattern on the wings of this aircraft matches almost exactly what I painted on my model.
{photo ref: John Kalen - The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada }
My conclusion is that the rapid application of the AEAF stripes resulted in the painters "eyeballing" the undercarriage covers. They certainly would not have jacked up the airframe, retracted the u/c, and painted the covers to match the wing stripes exactly. In doing this, it's possible, if not likely, that they would have got the black stripe in the wrong place and improperly sized in some cases, depending on how artistic the painter was. They also evidently didn't bother with leaving the bit of MSG on the bottom of the cover and just painted the whole thing white.
With all that said, I'm going to apply the black stripe exactly as seen in the photo detail of my bird and paint the entire cover bottom white. I'll do the same on the right side given that there doesn't seem to be a photo of my bird from that side.
Last edited:
fubar57
General
Good eye there
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Again the good eye for detail.
