Typhoon Ib out of a big box

[null_null981707818191]

I thought I'd make the most of finishing (for now at least) my D-Day Air Assault set by posting in this forum group some details of the aircraft component of the set - a Hawker Typhoon Ib. If you're interested in how the diorama turned out, I've posted about that separately in the Dioramas section... Look under D-Day Air Assault lockdown project

The kit is nice to build. There were no real fit or finish issues, and only a little bit of filler was needed (on the starboard wing root). There is a reasonable amount of moulded detail inside the cockpit area of the fuselage:

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However, the cockpit opening, once the fuselage is closed up, is so small that if the pilot is going to be included, you can hardly see any of the detail. But nevertheless, I know it's there!

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And here's one of 'Stap-me' Stapleton (whose aircraft this was) in the 'office'. I like to use the somewhat better detailed pilot figures produced by PJ Productionsd, but as already mentioned, hardly any of him was going to be visible - besides which I had to amputate his legs to get him in anyway, so I stuck with the figure that was included in the kit, just adding the harness made from painted masking tape...

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One of the nice things about this kit is the option to open up the gun covers in the wings. So I detail painted the guns and ammunition:

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As a result, when the wings are closed up, I think it adds a little bit of extra interest (although it's a pity I didn't deal with the ejector pin marks...):

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Taking this option gives a pleasing extra detail, especially when the neatly folded cover panel is added, and an armourer is allowed to get on with his work:

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Once the painting was completed - as usual, I used brush-applied Vallejo Model Air colours - it was on with the decals (again, straight from the box). I had difficulty getting the invasion stripes to work; even with Microsol, they didn't want to wrap around the wing fronts, line up with the guns and the wheel bays and the rear edge of the wing, and allow for the bomb mounts/pylons to be covered (amnd all at rthe sdame time), so I scrapped them, and masked and painted the stripes (although the stripes at the rear of the fuselage were OK):

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Even trickier were the yellow wing edge warning strips, so once again, it was out with the masking tape and on with the paint:

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The next two pictures show how little of the pilot is actually visible:

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As I said earlier in this post, it was actually quite a fun build, with no major problems or issues, even for an elderly newbie like me. And the finished model I think captures some of the rather imposing stance of the actual aircraft:

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And this picture gives a more general overview:

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As do these two:

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I hope I've done this kit justice, and that you've enjoyed looking at a few pictures of this part of the set build. Thanks for reading this far, and just to show you what it looks like in amongst the rest of the diorama set with which it came, here's a picture of the whole thing (with more to look at on the Dioramas forum page):

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[Dark Earth]

Nice work Landy !

The Typhoon kit is quite a gem - and the diorama spieces make it look nice and active.

When I read the post title though - I thought this was going to be the 1/24 scale Typhoon. 

Chris

[dogsbody]

That looks great! 

 

A small tidbit of infornation. The yellow on the wing leading edges isn't a warning. They are Identification markings.

 

 

Chris 

[Padefc]

Nice build well done

[Peter s]

Nice job. Also makes a change to see the bomb rather than rocket option. Its only when you put a figure next to them that you realised how HUGE those bombs are. I had exactly the same issues as you with the stripe decals. I've rarely found D-day stripe decals worth the effort. What I tend to do is cut narrow strips across the width of them and use those as a guide for the masking tape.