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Rocket Typhoon


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My second build for this GB is a Hawker Typhoon Ib, FJ-Z MN978 of 164 Sqn, No 123 Wing based at B-77 Gilze-Rijen in February 1945. This was the personal aircraft of the unit's CO, Sqn Ldr Remy Van Lierde.

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Remy van Lierde was born on August 14, 1915 in Overboelare, Belgium. He enlisted in the Aviation Militaire Belge in September 1935. Having initially qualified as an observer, he began pilot training in May 1937, and qualified in April 1938.

At the outbreak of World War II he flew several reconnaissance mission in a Fairey Fox biplane. Considering that he was up against Bf109s, that is incredible bravery and devotion to duty. He was shot down and wounded by German flak on 16 May 1940 and was taken prisoner. Having recovered from his injuries, he escaped from Belgium in September. After crossing occupied France he came to Spain, where he was arrested for crossing the border illegally. He was interned in several Spanish prisons, including the concentration camp at Miranda de Ebro . Eventually he managed to escape from there also, and came to Britain in July 1941. He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in September.

On operations, he flew Spitfires and Typhoons with 609 Sqn. His made his first kill, a Bf109, in a Typhoon on 20 Jan 1943. In March of that year, he was on an offensive sweep to Chièvres when he shot down a Ju52. He knew that he was in the area where his house was and his wife still lived. He was reunited with his wife after the war and found out that she had watched the engagement and had salvaged wreckage from the Ju52 which had fallen in their garden!

In April 1944 he was posted to 3 Sqn and converted to the Tempest, before being promoted to Squadron Leader in September and taking command of 164 Sqn, again on the Typhoon. At the end of the war van Lierde's score stood at six aircraft and 44 V1s shot down.

After the war van Lierde transferred to the Belgian air force and flew Spitfires again. He was for a time the adjutant to King Leopold III. His final posting before retirement was as the commanding officer of the air base at Chièvres, which he had attacked many times during the war. He retired on 1 Jan 1968.

Remy van Lierde passed away at Lessines, Belgium in Jun 1990.

Here's what I will be using:

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Kit:

09060 Hasegawa 1/48 Typhoon Ib with tear drop canopy

Resin:

48059 Ultracast Typhoon Radiator with dust filter

48074 Ultracast Typhoon four blade prop and spinner

48080 Ultracast Typhoon Tempest-style tailplanes

48036 True Details Typhoon wheel set

QB 48068 Quickboost exhausts

And a resin and PE cockpit taken from the Eduard Tempest kit.

Decals will be from a variety of general sources.

Edited by Enzo Matrix
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A suitable companion for the Tempest. They will look good as a pair.

Very much so. Always nice to read something on the pilots who flew such machines as well.

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Here we go with some sprue shots.

This kit is Hasegawa at the top of their game. There is one minor fit issue which will become apparent later on.

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This sprue will not be used in this build. I've included it for completeness.

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And here is the resin.

This model will represent a late model Typhoon with four-bladed prop and Tempest-style tailplanes. The radiator also had a dust filter. All of these items come from Ultracast.

Also included are wheels from True Details and exhausts from Quickboost.

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And finally, a resin and PE cockpit from an Eduard Tempest.

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Ignore the transparent sprue in this shot. It's from the Eduard Tempest.

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Let's get the minor fit issue out of the way.

"To be forewarned is to have four arms" as Kelly Bundy said. :lol:

The Hasegawa Typhoon is available in two flavours - the "car door" type and the "bubbletop". In order to cater for both types, there is a bit of jiggery-pokery involved with the fuselage sides in the cockpit area. Unfortunately on this kit the fuselage inserts are not a good fit. If you set them so they meet at the centreline then there will be major problems with the contours on the fuselage sides. Far better to ensure that the fuselage sides are smooth and to deal with a bit of a gap along the centreline.

This is a well known problem with this kit and has been mentioned a number of times on Britmodeller and other online modelling forums, hence me having four arms.

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The Tiffie is one of the few Allied aircraft i've got waiting to build so it'll be great to follow this. I'd have thought if you're going to be throwing that much resin at the kit you'd have gone the extra mile and sorted the wheel well out with either an Aires or CMK one. It also seems a shame to use the Tempest cockpit when again Aires and CMK do one, any particular reason for choosing this route?

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The Tiffie is one of the few Allied aircraft i've got waiting to build so it'll be great to follow this. I'd have thought if you're going to be throwing that much resin at the kit you'd have gone the extra mile and sorted the wheel well out with either an Aires or CMK one. It also seems a shame to use the Tempest cockpit when again Aires and CMK do one, any particular reason for choosing this route?

A very good reason. In my experience, Aires stuff simply does not fit! :(

I had a nightmare with an Aires cockpit on an Airfix Seafire a few years ago, which led to me having to junk the fuselage and replace it with a spare.

Then in the recent Mustang STGB, I attempted to add Aires undercarriage bays to the Tamiya kit and once again found that the resin simply did not fit. By the time I found that out, it was too late to revert to the kit parts and I had to replace them with wings from the ICM kit.

That was fair enough, as the ICM kit is freely available and quite inexpensive. However, the Hasegawa Typhoon is not freely available and certainly is not inexpensive.

I did actually buy the Aires undercarriage well set for this kit, but when I came to dry fit the parts I noticed that the resin is about a millimetre too thick. There is no way that it will fit, so I'm not even going to take the chance. I have learned my lesson.

As for the cockpit, I won't take a chance on the Aires set and the Eduard set was about a third of the price of the CMK set.

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A very good reason. In my experience, Aires stuff simply does not fit! :(

I had a nightmare with an Aires cockpit on an Airfix Seafire a few years ago, which led to me having to junk the fuselage and replace it with a spare.

Then in the recent Mustang STGB, I attempted to add Aires undercarriage bays to the Tamiya kit and once again found that the resin simply did not fit. By the time I found that out, it was too late to revert to the kit parts and I had to replace them with wings from the ICM kit.

That was fair enough, as the ICM kit is freely available and quite inexpensive. However, the Hasegawa Typhoon is not freely available and certainly is not inexpensive.

I did actually buy the Aires undercarriage well set for this kit, but when I came to dry fit the parts I noticed that the resin is about a millimetre too thick. There is no way that it will fit, so I'm not even going to take the chance. I have learned my lesson.

As for the cockpit, I won't take a chance on the Aires set and the Eduard set was about a third of the price of the CMK set.

Fair comment, you must have been very unlucky though as the 2 Aires pits i've now used have both gone in, or maybe i've been lucky! They took a bit of work to get them in though. Not only did I have to thin the kit parts down, I had to take a fair bit off the resin parts as well. I've got a Tamiya mag with a build article on a Tiffie and the builder used the CMK wheel well so I know that'll go in and I think thats the one i'll be using. I never knew the resin pit from the Eduard Tempest was available separately, i'll bear that in mind. Like you say these kits are pretty hard to find, i'm still looking for the Bubbletop one like this, its the car door one i've got.

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I never knew the resin pit from the Eduard Tempest was available separately, i'll bear that in mind.

It's not as such... I contacted Eduard through their website and asked if I could buy an unused set. Libor at Eduard was very helpful.

It gives me a lot of confidence as to Eduard's aftersales service such I ever make a major mistake with a kit and need some replacement parts.

Edited by Enzo Matrix
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It's not as such... I contacted Eduard through their website and asked if I could buy an unused set. Libor at Eduard was very helpful.

It gives me a lot of confidence as to Eduard's aftersales service such I ever make a major mistake with a kit and need some replacement parts.

Well they always say "if you don't ask...."

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  • 4 weeks later...

I decided against using the Eduard cockpit in its entirety - mostly because the fuselage of the Eduard Tempest is somewhat wider than that of the Hasegawa Typhoon so the Eduard resin doesn't fit. But then again, it doesn't seem to fit the Tempest either. :fraidnot:

So instead I used parts of the Eduard resin to represent the upper fuselage structure. The Hasegawa kit provided the tubular framework and the instrument panel. The IP itself is dressed up with Eduard etch. The Eduard resin seat has a Sutton harness taken from an Eduard Spitfire I Zoom etch. The cable looms are from thin solder.

Oh, and there are a couple of random Airscale placards bunged in for good meaure.

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The fit problems are now sorted. I have used the Eduard cockpit floor, trimmed to fit and glues to the wing undersurfaces between the wheel wells. I'm really, reeeeeely glad I didn't try and fit the Aires resin wells now! :analintruder:

The Eduard resin footrests and rudder bar was glued in place against the cockpit framework. Oh... and I straightened up the rear bulkhead before I added the wing! :D

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And here is the wing in place. The fuselage halves really need a sprue spacer to get rid of the gaps at the wingroot. But never mind. As you can see, there are gaps along the fuselage top which will need filling so I might as well have a go at the wing roots at the same time. :D

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Okay, that's enough messing around with this one. Time to select a gear for my backside.

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  • 1 month later...

Okay, that's enough messing around with this one. Time to select a gear for my backside.

I have been building this one, I assure you. I've just been rather remiss in updating the thread - so this update is a little picture heavy.

Here is the airframe assembled, with joints filled, sanded and painted over to reveal any seams. Looks really tatty, doesn't it?

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Primed and with a coat of Xtracrylix XA1006, all done behind the scenes just like on Blue Peter. :D What you can't see are the round-nosed scissors, sticky-backed plastic and the washing-up liquid bottle with the brand scribbled out in felt-tip. :lol:

Instead, you can see the disruptive pattern masked with paper stuck on with Copydex. Sprayed with Xtracrylix XA1001 Dark Green.

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All masking removed. The undersurfaces are Xtracrylix XA1003 Medium Sea Grey. The yellow is Lifecolor UA140, which has the best covering power of any yellow that I have seen - although that's not saying much... ;)

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A close up of the undercarriage bays, which have been dressed up with some solder and etch from the Eduard Tempest kit.

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And finally, with a coat of Klear and the decals applied. Roundels were from the kit with codes and serials from various general sheets.

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It will be finished in time. :lol:

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Disaster!!!! :frantic:

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I put the first very thin coat of matt varnish on and this happened. :wall:

Those white speckles are actually there, not something to do with my awful photography skills. :fraidnot:

The matt varnish is Klear with Tamiya flat base added. I've used it dozens of times before. Never had this problem. It has happened on my Tempest as well.

I'm going to set to with some fine worn micromesh and see if I can polish the mess off.

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Hope you're getting the paint cleaned up okay? Was enjoying the updates 'til reading this one :(

I should really have updated sooner. My apologies. I had the problem sorted within 24 hours.

All I have to do now is paint the canopy and windscreen (it is all masked up and primed) and fit the canopy, windscreen and various small parts such as the pitot. It will be finished on Saturday and I hope to upload pictures then. One day before the end of the GB, which is always the way with me! :lol:

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I'd have thought if you're going to be throwing that much resin at the kit you'd have gone the extra mile and sorted the wheel well out with either an Aires or CMK one.

Sorry to resurrect this but for some reason I have only just caught up with this on - looking good so far Enzo!

Anyway, re tank152's comment above, what is actually wrong with the kit wheel wells? I have this kit and was about to make a start on it so I would like to judge how much prep I need to do beforehand.

cheers

Rick

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Anyway, re tank152's comment above, what is actually wrong with the kit wheel wells? I have this kit and was about to make a start on it so I would like to judge how much prep I need to do beforehand.

The wheel wells of the kit follow the edges of the well opening. They should actually have walls which are set back from the openings. The walls should have some struts and crossmembers.

However... I am pretty sure that the Aires resins sets simply will not fit. I just used a bit of Eduard etch to dress up the kit bays and was very satisfied with the result.

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