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Airfix HP Halifax B.III...... total upgrade.


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Are you sure this isn't a test shot of a NEW Airfix kit? This is flippin' amazing! This bears little resemblance to any builds of the old Airfix kit that I've ever seen. Wow. And all in just four weeks...really superb craftsmanship, General. Keep amazing us with your projects - we love them! :):):)

Cheers,

Bill

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I saw her at the Sutton show and along with the Whitley the halibag looked absolutely stunning.

I would not have attributed this model to Airfix if I had not recognised it as the AMW feature.

Your build work and finishing is out of this world.

cheers,

Zhizhou

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Strewth that was quick !...thanks guys, as always your kind comments are very much appreciated.

Bill, thanks my friend and fellow detail nut, it was a lot of fun to chuck together, I think the time constraint actually worked in my favour as I had a few others to get done at the same time so it had to clear the local airspace quickly before other builds could land. I think there's a lot of fun to be had from doing up these old kits.....now where's that old Hampden !

John I agree with you..personally I always preferred the look of the later marks.

Thanks fellas......Zhizhou thanks, you really should have popped over for a bit of a natter and a cream bun ! (the mirage table looked amazing !).

Hey John how you doing ?...I know its not a Stirling, (have to wait a bit longer for one of those)... but it is another heavy...cheers.

Edited by general melchett
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That is absolutely fantastic! Like you I built her in my youth and tried to upgrade the kit about twenty years ago but this is amazing. All in four weeks? That shows tremendous discipline.

A truly inspirational build. I love to see these old Airfix kits in a 'new light through old windows' type of way but this looks pretty much like a state of the art tooling.

Well done that man!

Regards

Jim

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Are you sure this isn't a test shot of a NEW Airfix kit? This is flippin' amazing! This bears little resemblance to any builds of the old Airfix kit that I've ever seen. Wow. And all in just four weeks...really superb craftsmanship, General. Keep amazing us with your projects - we love them! :):):)

Cheers,

Bill

LOL Bill, I almost was about to post the same reply then I saw yours.

What an unbelievable result !!

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Thanks again chaps, Jim, not sure about discipline......I'll have to check with the memsahib before agreeing to that one :whip: ......but yes they are a lot of fun to work on. If the shapes are pretty good then just a bit of TLC is usually what's required for these prehistoric antiquities......it just gets a bit much to swallow when newer kits need the same amount of work.

With such a fine example they may be more likely to think they don't need to.

Graham....funnily enough that was my first thought immediately after posting the comment, hope it doesn't put em off !

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If you had posted that and told us it was a test shot of Airfix,s upcoming new tool we would have fell for it hook,line and sinker,got out the keep

net,fired up the barbie, broke out the knives and forks and tucked in the napkin! Outstanding!!!!!!

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This is a beautiful model! We can only hope that the upcoming Revell kit looks half as good when it is released.

One small nit, the flap angle and hinge point do not appear to be correct. The Halifax, like the Hampden, had Handley-Page slotted flaps. You can kind of see how these work in the linked image:

http://adg.stanford.edu/aa200b/airfoils2/images/flaptypes.gif

The slotted flap is shown in the lower left corner. Since the hinge point is below the lower surface of the wing, the flap moves down and back when operated to open up a slot between the wing and the leading edge of the flap. The slot gets bigger the more the flap is deflected.

You can see the hinge points in the linked image of the Halifax preserved in Canada:

http://www.williammaloney.com/aviation/RCAFRoyalCanadianAirForceMuseum/HandleyPageHalifax/pages/38HandleyPageHalifaxFlaps.htm

The only picture I could find of a deployed flap is of the unrestored aircraft at Hendon. I assume that the flap is still attached and the hinges are undeformed:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/peteredin/7946356112

It's not clear to me what the maximum flap angle is, but the cockpit indicator looks like it goes to 80 degrees

By the way, you can find pdfs of the Halifax Pilot's Notes (and many other aircraft) at the following link:

http://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/170185-british-aircraft-pilots-notes-also-commonwealth-aircraft-too/

These notes have useful images of the various controls and panels as well as operating limits and procedures. Very interesting reading.

Edited by VMA131Marine
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Oh my! That's a little beauty there Andy - stunning piece of work and quick too!

I agree with the comments above - this was probably the best looking heavy of the time!

Thanks for showing

ATB
Rick

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Thanks again fellas, glad you like the old beast...

Cheers Rick, yep she was quite a machine.....and extremely versatile, flying with Bomber and Coastal Command, Special Duties units, glider tug, air ambulance, general troop transport, armaments and test trials aircraft at Boscombe Down and Farnborough and finally as a civil transport (Halifax and Halton|). Not a bad CV....

VMA131Marine.....thanks for the comments and links, the flaps could be deployed at up to 90 degrees and were quite often seen at this angle when powered down. I have many photos showing this feature, looks quite odd though. The rear of the inner nacelles disappeared inside the main nacelle body at these acute angles.

Here are a few shots to show the angle, (I always try and do my homework before cutting plastic. :winkgrin: .One of the perks of our Bomber Command sig archives)

img059_zpsugrgxv2p.jpg

img060_zpst3rnrid5.jpg

Thanks again...

Melchie

Edited by general melchett
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Melchett.

Some people build kit models, some people can create scale models, but few can take a kit of indeterminate quality and create a scale replica. I know the frustration of the original kit and you've taken this, applied Zen, subtracted gnarrgghhh, applied skill, research and understanding of your subject and delivered a sublime example of this Marque.

K'NOCKED MAH HAHT OFF!

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