realworkingsailor

A minor setback, and a lesson learned. Yesterday afternoon I was all ready to begin applying the decals and lettering. My intention was to first start with the sky coloured band at the tail. Well, I was not at all happy with the kit supplied decal, firstly because it had to be cut free from the invasion stripes portion, and secondly, because it simply refused to wrap neatly around the tail. It was like playing wrinkle whack-a-mole. There was no amount of setting solution that would ever make that decal comply with the instructions is was being given. So rather than get overly frustrated I decided to go with plan "B": mask off the area and paint it. Properly. And boy, am I glad I went that route. Lesson learned, don't waste time with large stripe decals if you have the option to paint instead. This also reinforced my earlier decision to paint the invasion stripes. One thing I've found with Cartograf decals, while their printing is nice, the decal film can vary in thickness considerably. On my Wellington build, the decal film was thicker, so the decals were fairly robust, and didn't distort when applied. The film for the decals supplied with my Typhoon kit is considerably thinner. This isn't normal a problem for smaller decals, but for larger ones this can be a problem, as the decals will be easier to tear or distort or some miserable combination of the two. The supplied decals for my Hurricane build also had very thin film (hence the issue with the registration number balling up into a mess). For my Defiant build, the film thickness was somewhere in the middle, not as thick as the Wellington decals, but slightly thicker than for the Hurricane, or Typhoon. I should add that since my little detour, I've resumed applying the lettering and have not run into any further issues or, at least, I'm ready for any issues that my crop up and I can plan ahead for dealing with them. Andy

If I may, one of my other hobbies is collecting brass model locomotives, so I may be able to provide some insight. Pretty much all brass model trains available are hand assembled, even commercially made ones. Generally the production runs are very small (a few hundred units of a given type), so the industry does not lend itself to expensive tooling and mechanization. The only fundamental difference between a brass locomotive kit (or scratch build), and a "factory" assembled model is the box it comes in. Pretty much all of the solder joints are located in areas that are largely invisible, so that a causal observer wouldn't see them. (There is a little tarnish and staining on this model as its previous owner suffered a house fire and the model was subject to the liberal application of water that fire departments are rightfully well known for), it's otherwise in good mechanical condition. The model was built by Samhongsa in Korea and imported by Van Hobbies (who had a working relationship with Pacific Fast Mail). After removing the three screws that hold the shell to the frame, you can see the underside, and interior is quite mottled with solder joints. Adding to an earlier post about soldering multiple details, in most brass train models, multiple different solders are used with different melt temperatures. Starting with the highest temperature solder and working down to the lowest (although it's worth noting that in the above model, none of the solder will melt with your typical OTC hardware store soldering iron. To perform any repairs, generally a resistance soldering iron is needed, at the very least. Andy

It doesn’t look like it, they have a web storefront in $US through their parent company (Hornby Hobbies), the only customer support I found was just helpful tips and suggestions, as well as the usual returns information. The technical support and spares is all in their UK “Airfix” storefront. I suspect if you dug around on the “US” website, you’d just end up there anyway. Andy

Thanks Mike! Yeah, it’s really nice that Airfix does stand behind their products. Gives me confidence in buying their products in the future. I can now stop staring at the mailbox hoping that maybe something might show up, and start staring at the mailbox knowing that maybe something might show up! 🤪 Andy

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it! @Egilman I wouldn’t claim to be a master yet, but given how inexpensive a package of poster putty is (and how far it goes), I can afford a little error in my trials. Well, I received some good news this morning, Airfix has shipped out the replacement landing gear parts. Yay! Andy

As always, thanks everyone! No point getting too verbose about the next stages, so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves: Big sigh of relief, everything went according to plan. Just a couple of very minor touch up spots. This is probably one of the more complicated paint jobs I've done (on account of the invasion stripes), but I wouldn't hesitate to do it this way again. Andy

Thanks everyone! Mike (@Landlubber Mike), Thanks! I agree in many cases painting is the way to go, especially for invasion stripes. Speaking of which, they really pop after the grey underside has been painted: Really pleased with how things have turned out so far. Hopefully that continues. After masking the undersides, the blue-grey has been added: The photos don't really show it well, but it is the lighter blue-grey that everyone chose. Once the paint has had the chance to fully dry, it will be time to start making the skinny little poster-putty worms for masking off the camouflage scheme. Then there will be a lot of breath holding, and finger crossing that it all works out and I'm not left with a mess. Andy

Are they anything like Archer’s rivet decals? Or, at least, the next logical step. (Instead of just a dot of resin, an actual moulded detail). I thought from your initial picture they were flat, but I see they’re anything but. A very interesting product, I would imagine slightly less expensive than PE? Andy

Thanks for all the likes, everyone! After a little filing and sanding treatment, painting has now begun. As I mentioned in my first post, I was considering modelling this after a Canadian operated Typhoon, sometime in the mid-summer (later July - early August) period when the camo schemes were slowly being restored. From what Ive seen, this usually meant the upper invasion stripes were painted over first, then as time (and paint supplies( allowed, the lower surfaces followed suit (in some cases it looks like these striped areas may have lasted into the winter of '44-'45). I initially thought that I could mess around with the supplied invasion strip decals to achieve the look I was after, but I've instead decided that I would try my hand at painting the striped myself, and not have to mess around with large sheets of opaque decals (which can cause trouble with merely a backwards glance). Over the course of my "research" (looking at YouTube videos of model builds for hours), I saw a technique whereby the builder painted the invasion striped first, before the rest of the model. This made a lot of sense to me, as the amount of masking is considerably reduced (just mask the stripes, not the whole airplane)and even more reduced for me as I'm only striping the lower areas. I would say that things have turned out fairly well. Just a couple of tiny spots to retouch, but otherwise I'm pleased. The stripes work out to 6mm wide, at this scale, and fortunately I had a roll of masking tape that exact same width. Also of interesting note, the Canadians didn't quite follow the painting specification when applying the stripes to the tail section of the airplane. On British planes, the sky band forward of the tail was uncovered, with the first white strip immediately ahead of it. The Canadians simply incorporated this band into the aft most white strip, which is why my tail bands may appear to be in the incorrect location. I'm not sure if this applies to other Canadian aircraft, but it seems this was the standard of 143 Wing Typhoons (438, 439 and 440 Squadrons). Andy

I have to continue to express my profound gratitude for the continued kind comments and "likes", you guys are the greatest! I figured things would begin to speed up, and I don't think I was too far off! First up came the seatbelts. Some minor surgery was required on the right hand side of the seat (left in the above photo). Airfix has a cast on lever on that side of the seat, and by carefully inserting a sharp chisel blade I was able to cut it free from the seat. The important thing is to leave the detail intact, so a lot of care was needed. By cutting this slot, this then allows the lap belt to be properly anchored on the side of the seat, with the lever passing over top. I know these particular seatbelts are not 100% accurate for a Typhoon, but for me (and any casual observer with a magnifying glass) they're close enough. After the seatbelts were attached to the seat, the seat could then be mounted in the cockpit. Overall I think the aftermarket made for a nice little upgrade, at a relatively cost effective price point. With these details, I am seriously giving consideration to having the canopy open, I think it would be a disservice to hide all my "hard" work! *Eagle eyed viewers may notice the bandage on my left index finger. This is due to an unrelated bread slicing incident last evening, and not the result of any lapse of due care and attention in the employment of my hobby knife. Incidentally, if you're slicing some crusty bread, make sure you have a good grip to prevent the serrated bread knife from grabbing and rolling the loaf and dragging your finger into its path. Oh yeah, and keep your fingers further away from the knife next time too.....🙄 Once the glue for the seat had set, the fuselage halves are then mated, and glued, and taped together. There's a few extra bits and pieces to navigate around to get the halves to join up, but with a little care, things came together nicely. The rudder and tail fins were next to go on. Nothing really remarkable. Just be aware that, as far as details go, the tail fins are not symmetrical, make sure the correct one goes on it's proper side. I think I did a quadruple double check on that before I applied any glue. I'm pretty sure I got it right... I think... The lower half of the wing was next. This was a multi step process to get them glued into place. Tape was used to hold things in place temporarily until the glue set. For today's finale, the upper wings were also attached. The kit does make provision for the gun bays to be left open, but I decided on mine to keep them closed. A personal decision, mostly because, for me, I felt it complicated the painting and lettering process. The next steps are hardly worth documenting; there's a few areas where some filler and some sanding is require. Nothing too major, the worst spots are the chin fairing under the radiator, followed by the forward joint of the lower wing (just aft of the radiator outlet). This shouldn't take too long and painting will happen soon. Andy

From what I read about the Heyfords, it was to give the dorsal and nose gunners a clearer field of fire. Andy

Thanks again, everyone for all your valued contributions, both with this build and the discussion about a future build! There was a little good news in the mail yesterday, the PE bits I'd ordered arrived! Yay! Still waiting on the replacement parts from Airfix, but I can start building finally!. First up, the goodies: The replacement instrument panel looks pretty good. The gauges are very nicely printed on the PE, almost legible! I also picked up some PE seatbelts. I know they're not 100% correct for the Typhoon (or Tempest), but they're close enough that some minor fiddling will suffice. The price was right, so I figured "why not?". The PE has been attached to the Airfix part. I had painted the moulded knobs on the lower "legs" previously. It looks sooo much better than the kit supplied decal. For $5, even if it's going to be hard to see, it's a worthy investment. There is, of course, the issue of the PE increasing the thickness of the original part. I figure there are two options to deal with that. 1) thin the original part of compensate for the added thickness, or 2) skive off some more space in the fuselage halves. As you can see, I've opted for the second option. The shape of the panel is rather complicated. It's curved vertically, as well as having a raised centre section. Thinning the back may have caused issues with fitting the compass/gunsight casting. Some careful work with a sharp blade and sanding sticks and I soon had everything fitting together cleanly. Had it been a straight forward instrument panel, as in my Hurricane or Defiant, it would have been much easier to thin down the panel. The paint was subsequently restored and the panel fitted to the first fuselage half. I then decided to fit the cockpit floor/radiator/wheel well piece next. I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the seatbelts, so installing the seat had to wait. I think this also makes things easier as you don't have to risk snapping off the control stick. As I mentioned earlier, I'm replacing the kit supplied munitions with some aftermarket castings from Eduard. You can see the difference clearly, between the kit part and the casting. Going the aftermarket route also required some changes to the underwing mounts, as you can see above, the mounting lugs are in slightly different places. After glueing the fairings to the underside of the wing, I used some scrap styrene to fill the mounting holes. The styrene was then cut and sanded to shape, and a little filler was used to smooth everything out. New holes were drilled to match the replacement munitions, and after the above photo was taken, a quick shot of primer was applied to confirm everything looked good. It's nice to be constructively moving forward with this build (for now). And it's probably nicer for everyone following not to be bombarded by endless pictures of paint chips (😁). Once the seatbelts are dry and the seat installed, construction should move quickly. I expect I'll have something that looks more or less like an airplane by the next update. Andy

Nice! Another version I’ve seen involves painting the standard desert camo, then over spraying with a thin coat of EDSG. Done well, the underlying camo comes through as a two-tone blue. Andy

I will nit-pick the year, Beurling was in Malta in 1942 (June through October). 😉 I’ve seen a few striking interpretations of the Malta Spits where the “Mid Stone” of the standard RAF tropical camouflage scheme was replaced with EDSG: https://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/BR323 Andy

Yeah, after the siege was lifted, they all seem to have reverted to standard camo, but I’m more curious about the by-necessity free for all that happened during the siege. Records are sketchy, from what I’ve found, the Spitfire squadrons were, at some point, able to scrounge a bucket or two of extra dark sea grey from a Beaufighter squadron. But there’s no visual record on how it was applied (other than memories and recollections that it had to be thinned down to make it go further). I’m considering, sometime in the future, trying my hand at making a model of one of George Beurling’s Spitfires. Andy

Looks pretty good, doesn’t look too far different. If you want some real fun, try to figure out how the Malta based RAF Spitfires were painted during the siege in ‘42. Andy

Say that ten times fast…… 😜

Thanks again guys! Well, the sun came out a little earlier than expected, so I've gone for one last kick at the colouring can! All things being as equal as they can, here's the first chip, as per my Wellington build, against my green cutting mat: This comes pretty close to the earlier sample I posted. Same light and background as the first photo. With the double grey, the dark green still comes perilously close to dark brown. It looks much better better against the dark earth, than against the grey(s). Where the lighter green looked very olive-y against the dark earth colour, against the grey(s) it looks much better, closer to what the prototype colour would have been. I think my decision has been confirmed with this final colour comparison. The nice thing about playing with paint chips is that it can be done ad-infinitum, ad-nauseam without harming any models. I've done this many times for many models to evaluate possible painting schemes and colour combinations. It's a very useful tool/procedure. Incidentally, I must apologize for those faint dark streaks in the photos... it seems there's a fair degree of dog-snog on the window glass (from where the dog presses her nose up against the glass while trying to hypnotize the squirrels). When the weather warms up, I shall have to wash my windows! Andy

It can also be a bit of a torment. On more than a couple of occasions I’ve had a great idea for a project based on a model kit, hopped on to Scalemates, checked out all the aftermarket stuff I would have needed for said project, only to find out I’m already too late for the party and all those aftermarket parts and decals are sold out, no longer in production, or otherwise completely unavailable. 🙄 That winter scheme looks intriguing. I wouldn’t be too worried about the white, I’m sure in real life those planes got so thoroughly grunged up you could easily pass on any paint flaws as pre-weathering! Andy

Some of that may be exaggerated due to the ambient light, as well as my camera, but in reality there is still a startling difference in the tonality. I think a sunny day is forecast for Wednesday, I’ll post one more set of photos for a final confirmation. I’m also leaning towards the lighter green as well. Andy

Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback. I think it's safe to say we've all settled on the lighter/bluer shade of grey, and I'm happy with that choice. I'm going to throw a couple more paint chips at you all, although this time it's a quick comparison of greens. The natural lighting is flat again today, but should still be adequate. The first option for green. This is the same green that was voted (unanimously) the favourite when I was building my Wellington. It looked good against the dark earth colour, but in the flat light, against the two greys, it comes up a little brown. This is the second option for green. It definitely shows as green in the flat light, and shows well agains the grey(s). In bright light in can look a little olive, but it seems a better match for the green on the museum bird in the article in my previous post. Just for a laugh, here's the paint sample I posted for my Wellington (the green chips above were cut directly from this sample piece): Sure changes the way those greens show, although if I remember correctly, that was in indirect sunlight. Anyway, I'm still interested to hear what everyone has to say. Andy

LOL, nah, no traps, besides I’m not yet allowed to do any heavy lifting! 😜 To be honest, I still have no preference, nor do I have any conclusive evidence to support one shade of grey or the other. I did find some well lit photos of preserved Typhoon MN235 at the RAF museum: https://warbirdsnews.com/aviation-museum-news/hawker-typhoon-back-on-display-at-raf-museum-london.html While the dark grey on MN235 is pretty well spot on for the blue/grey option, I’m not certain how accurate it may be. The article above includes a fairly extensive historical timeline for the airplane, including repaintings (1972 and 1994). Lacking further references for these events I can’t determine if the painters used the correct paint, what was on hand, or, for later repainting, just copied what had been done before. Andy

Thanks everyone for all the feedback! One thing I like about this forum, there's no shortage of help if you're willing to ask! Although I am very inclined to agree with the major opinion that the blue/grey preferred, I am going to run the test one more time to be certain. The light today is much flatter than yesterday's, and I've cut off the unpainted sections of plastic. I've also sprayed a small swatch of medium grey (the underside colour), for an additional comparison. First up the darker grey: The contrast with the green is a little more pronounced this time around, and there's a fair contrast with the lighter grey underside colour. Next up the bluer grey (and the popular choice): Again, the contrast with the dark green is still good, not quite as much with the underside colour, though. For reference here is yesterday's photo: Let me know what you all think, if the light or the addition of the light grey panel changes your opinion(s) any. Andy

I had the opportunity, on one occasion to be in Toronto harbour, just prior to the CNE air show. For whatever reason, they landed the Lanc at Toronto island airport. It’s one thing to hear a Lanc pass by at a distance, it’s quite another to have it roaring by directly over your head! Andy

All opinions welcome! I am leaning in the direction that you, @Egilman and@Edwardkenway have suggested. The more I look at it under different light conditions, the more “correct” the bluer grey seems. I’m wondering if the darker grey might be more appropriate for some of the early war Coastal Command or FAA aircraft (Sunderlands and whatnot). Andy