DHC Chipmunk T10 +++++ Finished +++++

[825]

Two of the just released AZ Models Chipmunks arrived from Mr H in Lowestoft yesterday.  I have been thinking of what to build for this GB and this little treat of an aeroplane is a goood start. Although a De Havilland Canada design, the majority of Chipmunks were built in the U.K. by De Havilland first at Hatfield and then at Broughton. So this should be OK for this GB.

 

I will complete it as one of the Navy T10s. The Fleet Air Arm received a number from the RAF and indeed still have some in flying condition for the Royal Navy Historical Flight. I'm not 100% sure which aircraft it will be but I'll work on that. Anyway here's the box and sprue shots.

 

 

 

Not a lot of it and a tiny little thing. But the detail is a lot better than the old Airfix kit and no Rosie the Riveter! Unfortunately none of the options are for a FAA aircraft or even one that got transferred. 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2017 by 825
Photos replaced

[825]

Work commenced on the interior. Black highlighted with an aluminium dry brushing. I should have probably used Revell's anthracite which isn't so stark. Too late now. 

 

 

The cockpit is tiny but has a reasonable amount of detail. IPs, control columns, rudder pedals and some framing on the cockpit sides.

 

 

And here's where we are at the end of the day. I had hoped to close the fuselage up but didn't quite get there.

 

 

Seat belts from Tamiya tape. Still to finishe the rear seat, but will wait until the cockpit is in the plane and the fuselage closed up as they are anchored on the decking behind the cockpit opening. 

[Grandboof]

Nice start Will be watching 

Martin H

[DAG058]

Will you entering your second Chipmunk into the DH GB?  

[825]

1 hour ago, DAG058 said:

Will you entering your second Chipmunk into the DH GB?  

 

Would love to but need to finish the Sea Hornet and Mossie. 

 

Anyway, here's the cockpit installed

 

 

and the fuselage closed up. The front end took a bit of pulling  together so might put a smear of cyano along the joint.

 

 

[stevehnz]

Looking good. I'm keen to follow this as I've long wanted to build a FAA Chipmunk, but was too slow to get some of the OH models Chipmunk decals which had a FAA option, these kits have given me another chance at it. The boxing with a Lycoming option has FAA decals, I'm not sure if they're for the historic flight one or not though?

Steve.

[825]

22 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Looking good. I'm keen to follow this as I've long wanted to build a FAA Chipmunk, but was too slow to get some of the OH models Chipmunk decals which had a FAA option, these kits have given me another chance at it. The boxing with a Lycoming option has FAA decals, I'm not sure if they're for the historic flight one or not though?

Steve.

 

I wasn't aware the boxing with the Lycoming engine had an FAA option. I don't think it's the Historic Flight livery but it maybe. The colour scheme is the light grey and red scheme from a few years back and I think the current livery for the Chipmunk is the black trainer livery. I didn't know that (or if) the FAA had re-engined their aircraft. I'll have to check things out and find out more. 

 

My intention is to finish it as a grey/red bird. Just not sure which one. I should be able to use the kit transfers and get the rest from my generic sheets.

[stevehnz]

I think the AZ models thread has colour schemes for these in them, also sprue shots from memory, the Lycoming bit is an extra, the fuselage halves are as standard so I think its a chop the DH nose off & attach the Lycoming nose exercise. I know it all costs a little more,  & I thought it a weird way of doing things., for the RN markings that is.

Kit no. 7559 with the Portuguese one on the box art, also the RN one & a couple of civilian ones, one having a Lycoming motor. 

Steve

Edited May 24, 2017 by stevehnz
Additional info.

[825]

On 24/05/2017 at 0:10 AM, stevehnz said:

I think the AZ models thread has colour schemes for these in them, also sprue shots from memory, the Lycoming bit is an extra, the fuselage halves are as standard so I think its a chop the DH nose off & attach the Lycoming nose exercise. I know it all costs a little more,  & I thought it a weird way of doing things., for the RN markings that is.

Kit no. 7559 with the Portuguese one on the box art, also the RN one & a couple of civilian ones, one having a Lycoming motor. 

Steve

 

After a bit of digging around the FAA option in the AZModels Chipmunk with the Lycoming engine option is indeed tthe current Royal Navy Historical Flight Chipmunk WK608. This aircraft is currently in the red and grey livery of the 60s and 70s. There is a bit about it here http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/useful-resources-and-information/chipmunk-rnhf along with some rather nice pictures. As far as I can tell WK608 is engined with a Gypsy Major engine as common to the vast majority of Chipmunks so it is odd that AZ have included it in this boxing. The engine cowling is a separate section in the standard Chipmunk model so presumably it is a straight replacement of the plastic with the resin Lycoming. That's certainly what the instructions suggest, which seem to be for every version. In fact apart from the resin engine and canopy for the T20 the sprues have all the optional bits. 

 

I've ordered one of this version from Hannants mainly for the transfers but I would prefer a Lossiemouth Station Flight aircraft if I can find out enough for this current build.  A bit more has been done but have to wait until tomorrow morning for the photos.

[stevehnz]

Looking at other Chipmunk photos on the Air Britain site, it appears the RNHF Chipmunk is an accurate example of the type & so I for one will be happy to build it OOB. The difficulty with doing one from a particular station to my mind lies not so much with different codes & serials, do-able from generic sheets, but with the unique badges many of the station flight examples seemed to wear on their fins. From what I'm seeing, the AZ RN Chipmunk is WK634, 902, so afaik, not the RNHF one.

Steve.

Edited May 25, 2017 by stevehnz

[825]

Thanks Steve, you are correct. I hadn't looked at the box artwork closely just the livery. The RNHF is also coded 906 while the AZ markings are for 902. I'll check my Stuyvesant book and get the background to both. I forgot that the station Flight aircraft often had the Station crest and this means robbing some other option as my painting skills are not good enough and I haven't learnt how to print my own transfers. The Britannia Flight at Rosborough had some Chipmunks but I don't know if they had crests. Some more research needed. Any contributions greatly received, Steve. And of course anybody else. 

 

Meantime, here is the fuselage cleaned up and the engine cowling similarly assembled and cleaned up. It is tiny. 

 

 

 

[stevehnz]

A google search for "abpics chipmunk royal navy" gave me a heap of hits. Once I found a photo of the one I wanted, in this case WK634, the one that AZ models, I could search by that serial number which brought up a heap more. I was interested to see that while wearing the white rudder, the entire rear fuselage below the rudder & fin was dayglo whereas what I'm guessing was an earlier scheme had a silver dope rudder with dayglo fin & also silver rear fuselage. I'd say both schemes could be done from the kit though there are differences in the position of the code number on the nose.

Steve.

[825]

On 26/05/2017 at 8:43 AM, stevehnz said:

A google search for "abpics chipmunk royal navy" gave me a heap of hits. Once I found a photo of the one I wanted, in this case WK634, the one that AZ models, I could search by that serial number which brought up a heap more. I was interested to see that while wearing the white rudder, the entire rear fuselage below the rudder & fin was dayglo whereas what I'm guessing was an earlier scheme had a silver dope rudder with dayglo fin & also silver rear fuselage. I'd say both schemes could be done from the kit though there are differences in the position of the code number on the nose.

Steve.

 

This arrived yesterday from Hannants and I will use the transfers for WK634 which spent a lot of its time at the Britannia Flight at RNAS Rosborough. 

 

 

I googled WK634 on Google images and like Steve says the livery changed in detail quite a bit. It seems to have been in Grey and Red, definitely is Grey rather than doped Aluminium. I think it is Light Aircraft Grey but will do a little research, and I am willing to be persuaded otherwise. However, the rudder is white in some photos and grey in others. In some pictures the red around the rear goes all the way to the end underneath and other pictures show it stopping at the tailplane. All are photos so they are the actual aircraft. 

[825]

And here is the progress report from the past few days. 

 

Fuselage complete

 

 

 

Lower wing on

 

followed by the upper wings and tailplane

 

 

Getting the wing root to fit took a bit of fettling as the fit wasn't great and it's a complex shape. There is definite need for filler. Believe it or not this side with the big hole was actually easier to tidy up in the end of the day than the other side but both faired in fine with putty and sanding. 

 

 

Airframe complete and some paint on. 

 

 

[TonyTiger66]

I'm a little late to the show. It's a good one !

 

I had wondered what this new Chipmunk would be like. 

 

It looks like s nice little kit. Well done on the wing roots, that was a big gap!

 

Great colour scheme choice.

 

Best regards

TonyT

[Col.]

This kit has arrived in fine time for our GB and kudos to you from me for choosing not only a RN subject but also one based at Lossiemouth  

Shame about the wingroot gaps but as you say a vast improvement in detail over the Airfix example.

[825]

This one has been sitting for a little while as I finished my Mossie and Sea Hornet for the DH group build. Their finished but we were away on holiday for a couple of weeks so no more work done to date. Got a chance to do some work on it since getting back yesterday. Masked up for the red. The instructions suggest Humbrol red H19. I don't have any but Tamiya XF7 is said to be the same. However, should FAA Chipmunks not be Fire Orange? I've put a few coats of the red on but it looks too ........ Red! No photo yet but any advice would be welcome. I've got Humbrol H209 which is described as Fire Orange but it looks a little too Orange. 

 

Having multiple problems with Photobucket so can't show pictures at the moment. 

 

[825]

First attempt using Photovillage. All masked up

 

[825]

It's taken about a week with lots of coats of paint. I laid down a couple of coats of matt white then Tamiya XF7 Red but it didn't look right. I then used Humbrol H209 Fire Orange. It looks good but it's really thin and translucent so took a lot of coats. 

 

 

 

A bit of touching up to do and a little smoothing off of the interface at points but look not too bad to me. And the colours look right at this size. IMHO at least. 

[825]

Not a lot done as we were away last weekend. As it was an anniversary celebration I thought Mrs 825 would probably take a dim view if I took some modelling stuff along. Anyway a fair amount of touching up done in the 10/15 minutes before going off to work in the mornings.

 

Probably a little more to do. Why is it when I want to mask off super thin strips it never works? But if you put multiple coats over a white undercoat then you get them when you don't want them. 

 

 

 

And painting these small anti spin strakes with the Orange has taken ages due to he translucency of the paint. I thought it best to paint them before fixing and then mask off for the grey, rather than spending a long time painting them in situ. Hopefully they're ready for sticking on tomorrow. 

 

 

[stevehnz]

Looking good, I got my copy of this a few weeks ago, I like the look of it.

Steve.

[825]

Strakes on, a coat of orange to blend them in. Still to mask off their front end and paint grey. Anti glare panel masked off and a coat of matt black added.

 

[TonyTiger66]

This is looking great !

I'm glad that you went for the Fire Orange, it looks far better; truly resembles the way these aircraft look in photographs.

 

I don't have one of these kits yet. Mainly because I have to curtail my spending and just buy one boxing. Which one, that's the problem, too much choice for my feeble brain   !

 

The anti-glare panel looks good; she's really looking the part now.

 

Best regards

TonyT

 

 

[Grandboof]

One good looking Chippie Well done so far 

Martin H

[825]

Thank you Gents. The Fire Orange looks a lot better than the red, although it takes lots of coats. It's also one of the older formulation Humbrol acrylics so I was a bit worried but it went on OK thinned with Flow Improver.  Here is the anti glare panel unmasked and the anti spin strakes finished off. Looks like a stray piece of masking tape has attached itself to the fin.  Easily fixed.