To see the dawn again: Halifax III 462 Sqn RAAF

[amblypygid]

Hello! Now that I have just about finished building the first subject in my personal 100 Group project, I've decided it's time to move on to the second subject, before I get distracted (say by that B-17 STGB that's coming up later this year). For those that might be interested, here's the Wellington thread:

 

This time I'm tackling Revell's 1/72 Halifax III kit, with the intent of building MZ913 "Jane". This is a not uncommon subject for modellers and appears in many publications; I'm sure the scantily clad lady on the front has nothing to do with that. MZ913 was delivered to 462 Squadron in August 1944, apparently, but other sources indicate that it first flew operationally in January 1945. The intervening period may quite possibly have been taken up with converting the airframe to use the Airborne Cigar (ABC) radar jamming equipment that 462 Sqn operated after it transferred in 100 Group.

I've had the pleasure of building the Revell Merlin-engined Halifax kit about six years or so ago, but I can't recall many positive or negative features of the build other than the widely excoriated fat nacelles, which obviously aren't going to be an issue on this Hercules powered bird. In any case, I'm no Halifax expert, and from what I've seen, the final result looks like a Halifax.

 

Building OOB isn't really an option as the ABC apparatus means there are three large aerials on the fuselage, which I'll scratchbuild. Profiles and photos of Jane indicate that a host of other ECM equipment was fitted: Piperack, Carpet, Monica, plus some slightly mysterious (to me) hemispherical bumps on the bomb bay doors, which I've seen described as being for rotating antennae. Decals for the markings and art will come from the DK Decals 100 Group sheet, and I've also acquired an Eduard etch set to jazz up the wheel wells and a few other external areas. I've done virtually no scratch building before, so this might be a bit of an adventure for me. I hope it won't take quite as long as the eighteen month Wellington build, but I know myself too well to believe that I'll be able to focus just on this build for any more than a couple of weeks; it's very likely that I'll put Jane aside now and then to dally with something else.

 

The thread title, by the way, is shamelessly taken from a history of 462 Sqn, though sadly I don't possess a copy. I'm sure it reflects the hopes of the many brave men that flew in Jane.

 

Before I go, let me post some photos of the real thing, both courtesy of the Australian War Memorial.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

[dogsbody]

Following.

 

 

Chris

[CedB]

Me too - happy to join in your scratch building adventure

[amblypygid]

Good to have you along! Time to start showing some plastic.

I won't post the sprue shots; there are a lot of them. It's a big old box, but I've converted into a top opening box to reduce the risk of damaging the plastic while extracting and storing the contents.

 

I must have started this kit some time earlier, because the first step of the cockpit work was already done. Slightly concerned that I don't remember this, given that I've not had the kit for a year yet... This has caused me a slight issue in that I applied some green paint that I now find is too green, but I can't get a decent coverage from my pot of Colourcoats interior green, despite giving it a long stir last night. Revell provide a decal for the IP but it's one of those slightly odd versions where the dial faces are all white. Rather than use that, and given the limited visibility of the IP in the final build, I've stuck some random bits of white on to represent the hands on the dials, and dry brushed some red onto what I think are probably the engine rpm indicators, based on the restored IP depicted here in the Canadian Bomber Command Museum newsletter: http://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/newsletter2005_1.html

 

 

 

Not quite an Eduard or Yahu etch IP, but I hope it's passable. I don't think I'll be attempting to add the large levers to the throttle/pitch quadrant, but I will have a go at adding the folding flight engineer's seat that Revell didn't model (probably understandably).

 

Since it's such an important part of this build, I thought I should tackle the ABC aerials straight away. According to my references, these were seven feet long, though I've had to estimate the depth and thickness from plans. Here are my efforts; the first one I made is distinctly slimmer than the next two.

 

 

Finally, a shot of some of the brass that will find its way onto the model:

 

 

 

 

[stever219]

Those rudder pedals don’t look very special, do they?  Revell had shown that they can do better, e.g. the 1/72nd Sea King Mk. 41, but if the main panel’s not very visible maybe they thought “why bother?”.

 

Your ABC aerial masts on the other hand look very neat: I want to do some 100 Group aeroplanes too (somewhere I have a substantially complete Airfix Halifax also intended for completion as one of 462’s bombers) and a set of your aerials would look very good on her (and put my building and painting to shame).

 

IIRC the gauges with red bezels are the boost gauges: the RPM indicators are upper-right above the gangway but I’ve not got my copy of Pilots’ Notes or the Haynes manual with me.

[amblypygid]

Thanks, Steve. Yeah, Revell didn't push out the boat on the cockpit; the seats are pretty rudimentary as well.

 

The aerials were simply cut out of a block of plastic. I made life harder than necessary for myself by using a thick block which I then had to saw into smaller pieces; simply using thinner plasticard would have been sensible but (inevitably) I couldn't find any in the stash when I looked. Forensic evidence of this process is present in the drop of blood visible on the paper that must have sprayed from the microsaw as I removed it from my thumb.

[bbudde]

Hello I'm in here for that. Cheers

[Mancunian airman]

This is worth following . . .

 

I do know that somebody producse etch brass 'ABC'  aerials but I dont know who.

However you have made your own so you are well on the way to 'scratch-building'.

I am curious about the small bulges within the bomb-bay days ? rotating aerial scanner you say ?

Where did the ABC operator sit in a Halifax ?

 

All will become apparent I'm sure as I follow your build . . . .

Ian

[amblypygid]

 Thanks, Ian. I believe Paragon once made some 100 Group after-market, but long out of production.

 

I've only seen two suggestions as to what the bulges are, both from online fora. One suggestion was that they were Mandrel aerials, but I believe that to be incorrect as everything else I have seen on Mandrel shows those aerials to be blade aerials (though also mounted on the bomb bay doors). The only other suggestion was the rotating aerial.

 

22 minutes ago, Mancunian airman said:

Where did the ABC operator sit in a Halifax ?

 

There's a very useful cut-away diagram in Confound and Destroy (pg250-251); this shows the special operator position as directly over the wings, between the front and rear spars.

[dogsbody]

Yes, that cockpit is way too green. I'm wondering if by that stage of the war the cockpit would have been painted black. Lancasters were by then painted black.

 

 

Chris

[amblypygid]

It's very possible, Chris; I have nothing that gives me any info either way. I have been perusing the informative photos from this thread, which are of the interior of the restored Halifax at Elvington: http://aircrashsites.co.uk/aviation-history/copy/

 

They show a full green interior, and right now I'm inclined to copy that simply to add some variation to the interior. I've mixed up a lighter grey/green and slathered that over all the green parts.

[amblypygid]

Interior repainted and given a wash, which darkened it down rather more than I'd anticipated. Some detail painting still required on the sidewalls. I've also drilled and tested the mounting points for the ABC aerials.

 

 

As you can see, I've also started putting in the windows, only some of which require masking.

 

The fuselage halves go together pretty well and at this point I don't anticipate any problems with this.

 

You can see the holes drilled for the upper ABC aerials very clearly there. The wing spars are, as usual with a Revell Halifax, a very tight fit, and required some sanding.

[amblypygid]

Not much to report; the windscreen transparency appears to be an excellent fit. Most of the last two evenings' work has been masking this part. The astrodome was a real pita.

 

[CJP]

Hi amblypygid- I have only just noticed your 100 Group build project so I had a look at my information I've collected over the years & found some information on 100 Group that I cut out of Scale Models magazine about 1980 - send me a PM if of any interest

CJP

Edited May 1, 2018 by CJP
correction to group name

[Frank083]

Very Nice start so far. Great work on that ´pit!

 

Frank

[dogsbody]

4 hours ago, CJP said:

Hi amblypygid- I have only just noticed your 100BG build project so I had a look at my information I've collected over the years & found some information on 100BG that I cut out of Scale Models magazine about 1980 - send me a PM if of any interest

CJP

Do you know which month that magazine was. I know I have a few of those from way back then, but I'll have to dig them out to see if I have that one.

 

 

Chris

[CJP]

4 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Do you know which month that magazine was. I know I have a few of those from way back then, but I'll have to dig them out to see if I have that one.

 

 

Chris

Just checked what is in my folder and is as follows -

part 1 January 1980 Liberator background & internal

part 2 February 1980 Liberator external detail & finish

part 3 March 1980 B17 Fortress background and internal

part 4 April 1980 B17 external

part 5 May 1980 B17 external finish

part 6 June 1980 Halifax background

part 7 July 1980 Halifax internal and external detail

part 8 August 1980 ( incorrectly marked as part 7) - Halifax colours and markings

part 9 September 1980 Stirling and Wellington background

part 10 December 1980 Stirling internal and external detail

part 11 January 1981 Stirling colours and markings

part 12 February 1981 Wellington internal & external detail

part 13 March 1981 Mosquito background

part 14 April 1981 Mosquito internal detail

part 15 May 1981 Mosquito electronics

part 16 - missing but part 17 seems to lead on from part 15 so maybe parts misnumbered in magazine?

part 17 June 1981Mosquito internal and external detail

part 18 July 1981 (this part is misnumbered as part 17) - Mosquito camouflage & markings - I also have page 370 missing

part 19 Addenda August 1981

 

there are about 56 pages of information on 100BG in these parts

regards CJP

 

Edited April 28, 2018 by CJP
text

[amblypygid]

6 hours ago, CJP said:

there are about 56 pages of information on 100BG in these parts

 

That sounds marvellous, CJP. PM sent.

 

13 hours ago, Frank083 said:

Very Nice start so far. Great work on that ´pit!

 

Very kind, Frank, welcome on board.

[amblypygid]

I sealed the fuselage today; fairly straightforward but I forgot my previous plan to stiffen the rear fuselage. Nevertheless, it seems to have gone together easily enough.

 

Following the instructions, we turn to the main undercarriage wells, and this is where the etch is first deployed. The plastic has reasonable detail, actually, but since I have the etch, might as well use it.

 

And here's the well structure all built up

 

 

Thanks for looking,

Chris

[CedB]

Very nice Chris, they're going to look 'the business'

[amblypygid]

Thanks, Ced. If I can get the other one done tonight, I'll see how they look with some primer sprayed tomorrow, maybe.

[amblypygid]

OK; other gear well done; thus far this set of etch has been a joy, rather than a chore. Test fitting of the wings indicates that they'll be tricky and may kink upwards more than I think is right. The fit of the gear well boxes isn't quite right, and it would probably have been better had I ensured the box structure was aligned to the wing by building it in situ. Revell would also have one attach the engine fire wall to two small connectors; again, the parts don't seem to align to the connection points moulded on the firewall, and even if they did, to get the angle correct would be hard. Therefore I've left these off for the time being in the hope that once the wings are done it'll be easier to get this part correct.

[pipthepilot]

Interesting build you have started here, I will be following along. The wheel wells look really good, the PE does look the business. 

[amblypygid]

Thanks. Here's how they look after primer & some IG treatment:

 

 

In my eagerness to see how they turned out, I forgot that I'd need to spray the remaining (roof) part of the bay.

 

Work has now begun on putting the wings together. After some experiments, I think it's easier to glue the wingtips and work inwards. We'll see.

[elger]

I like what you're doing with the PE. I do think that the gear bays should be black on the inside - but it's your model of course