Patrik

Biplane. Again. But this time without the scaffolding.

Snipe on a roost. And finally a biplane.

Hi Duncan, have a look here for inspiration on the interior. Based on my own research.

Red wheels seem to be logical assumption. Unfortunately, the available photography does not allow to decide definitely, so it is, in my opinion, up to the liking of each modeller. Nevertheless, the picture below shows another variation from the Airfix scheme - the propeller boss seems to be red as well.

Content of two out of the three boxings above. They differ from the previous floatplane boxings by - ques what😉 - shorter floats (on the right), as compared to the later longer type on the left.

I have not seen the first picture before. However, it means with certainty two upper wing tanks, because the fuel pipes are on both sides.

Depending how much you care, I think fair amount of work would await you if you wanted correct (Portuguese) Hind. In addition to the propeller and exhausts, I am not sure about the upper wing. The RAF Hinds and – as far as I can say – many if not all of its export variants had two upper wing fuel tanks. Unfortunately, the pictures of the Portuguese Hinds that I have seen so far are not conclusive in this matter. However, the wing from the AZ kit has just one tank. The front starboard central section strut is all wrong in the kit. Otherwise the kit belongs to the better ones offered by AZ, though it inevitably suffers from some simplifications dictated by its short-run nature. Speaking for myself, since I am in no hurry, I will gladly wait for the Hind recently announced by AMG. Despite having two AZ "Silver wing" Hinds in my stash.😉

It is a fight. The moulds were rather worn out and especially the big parts are full of mini scratches, dents and similar faults. And the silver is as usual merciless, so it took several rounds of filling, sanding, polishing … repeat, before the surface was acceptable.

The Portuguese Hinds do not seem to be somehow special. I suppose you have good references, so you are most probably aware that two of the Hinds were delivered as standard day bombers and two as dual control trainers. And some pictures show them with "ram's horns" exhausts, while other with standard "Hart" exhausts. None of them are reproduced in the AZ kit.

If you are not in a hurry, AMG announced Hind in the future. Judging by their previous boxings (Demon, Hart, Audax), I am sure it is worth waiting. The kit will be light years ahead of the AZ Hind. As concerns the Portuguese Hind, I will have a look over the weekend. The Hart family is a genuine can of worms.

There is no doubt that the wingtips of J7124 were red. However, I do not think the red was related to flight colours. In my opinion it was simply a kind of generic high visibility marking, allowing better identification of the airplane in case of emergency landing in inhospitable terrain. John F. Hamlin in The Story of 30 Squadron identifies J7124 as belonging to "B" Flight.

Hi Joachim, yes, I know about the detail, was considering how to represent it correctly in this scale and then decided for the simplification as can be seen in the photos above. However, I am going to glue the wheels in correct position. Patrik

Fitting the cowling was very shortrun-ish affair. The shape was not correct, it was too wide and had to be sanded down a lot. Now the shape is a bit less not correct and sanding it down had nice secondary effect, as it decreased the thickness of the plastic and made the whole thing look more realistic. The engine from the kit does not look that bad after few modifications.

Padding or no padding, I would not like to be the poor pilot watching the fast approaching airfield perimeter ditch from behind the protruding gun breeches while landing.

Beautiful builds indeed. I do not want to start nitpicking, however as I posted here earlier, only the photos of J9576 showed the airplane featuring the prominent engine valve gear covers. K1088 and A12-1, though Mk.II as well, were for sure without them.