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Hawker Typhoon IB - 1:72 Airfix


Paul A H

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Hawker Typhoon IB

1:72 Airfix


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The Hawker Typhoon started life as a medium-to-high-altitude interceptor which was intended to replace the Hurricane in RAF service. It was designed to meet Air Ministry Specification F.18/37, which called for an interceptor based around the formidable 24-cylinder Napier Sabre engine. As well as a more powerful engine, the aircraft also featured a much thicker wing than that used on its predecessors. This gave the Typhoon tremendous strength and also allowed it to carry more fuel and armaments than either the Hurricane or the Spitfire.

The Typhoon was rushed into service in an attempt to counter the threat posed by the Luftwaffe's then-new Focke-Wulf Fw 190. This proved to be an unwise decision when the immature design ran into serious difficulties, culminating in an incident In August 1942 when Hawker test pilot Ken Seth-Smith was killed when the tail of his Typhoon broke away during a test flight. The problem was eventually traced back to the elevator mass balance, which necessitated some re-design work. Although never trouble-free, the Typhoon matured into an effective low-level interceptor, successfully countering the threat of the Luftwaffe's 'tip and run' fighter bomber raids.

The Typhoon's story doesn't finish there, however. Thanks to its speed, toughness and payload capacity it was perfectly suited to the fighter-bomber role. Following the Normandy landings of June 1944, the Typhoon's second career really took off (no pun intended). It was used for both tactical strike raids against pre-ordained targets as well as close air support for troops on the ground. Although responsible for a relatively small percentage of the total number of German AFVs destroyed in the months following D-Day, the effect that rocket and cannon strafing attacks had on enemy morale was profound, drawing compliments from the Supreme Allied Commander himself, General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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Over the years, the Typhoon has proven to be a popular subject for modellers. Early kits from Frog and Airfix were superseded by Academy's very decent effort in the 1990s. More recently there has been a series of kits from new Czech firm Bren Gun. Airfix are the latest to join the fray this long-overdue replacement for their old warhorse of a kit. The kit is presented in a compact top-opening box adorned with a striking image of a Tiffie unleashing a rocket attack on an unfortunate target somewhere below. Four sprues of plastic are crammed inside the box, together with a small clear sprue, decal sheet and instructions. All together, the kit is made up of a respectable 74 parts. It looks nicely moulded and the panel lines look reasonably restrained. My only gripe is that some of the lines fade out towards the very top and bottom of the fuselage. These means there will be a little re-scribing to undertake prior to painting. The overall shape of the model looks good. I couldnt detect any serious shape errors from examining the parts on the sprue, but some have claimed it may be a mm or so short in the fuselage. Given that the model is 174mm long overall, I imagine the vast majority of modellers will be able to live with this.

As with many recent Airfix products, the kit offers an interesting mix of detail, innovative design and straightforward construction. This is evident right from the start, as the cockpit floor is moulded in a single piece along with the main landing gear bays and the interior parts for the prominent chin radiator. The cockpit itself is comprised of a seat, an armoured rear bulkhead, an instrument panel with separate gun sight, a control column and rudder pedals. There is also plenty of sidewall detailed moulded on the inside of the fuselage halves. The overall effect should be very nice indeed.

The wheel wells, which also form part of the cockpit assembly, look good, with structural and hydraulic details picked out nicely. The only fly in the ointment is a small ejector pin mark in both sides. This will be difficult to remove, so I imagine a great many modellers will choose to live with it instead. The prominent radiator features a separately moulded oil cooler/carburettor intake and exhaust flap. The exhausts themselves drop in to place once the fuselage halves have been joined, which makes painting much easier. The tail wheel has to be fitted before the fuselage halves have been joined though, which may make it vulnerable during construction. Handle with care!

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The lower wing has been moulded as a single span and it must be joined to the fuselage before the upper wing halves can be fixed in place. This is a slightly out-of-the-ordinary construction sequence, so pay attention to the instructions carefully! The prominent 20mm cannons are attached to complete gun bays which fit inside the wings. The cannons are quite nicely detailed, but if you want to show them off, you'll need to cut away the corresponding panels in the upper wing and use the pre-folded replacements provided.

The horizontal tails are moulded as solid parts, but the rudder is a separate part and can be deflected if desired. The undercarriage is very nicely detailed indeed and the tyres have flat spots moulded in place. A separate set of undercarriage doors is provided in case you want to build your model as it would appear in flight.

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A full set of rocket rails is provided, as well as separately moulded 60lb rockets. Also on the sprue is a pair of bomb racks and bombs. The huge four-bladed propeller is crisply moulded, with a further four parts used to make up the hub assembly. The cockpit canopy is nice and thin and is moulded in two parts, so all of that lovely cockpit detail won't go to waste.

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A choice of two schemes is provided on the decal sheet, both illustrated with full-colour painting diagrams:

Hawker Typhoon IB, flown by Squadron Leader Basil Gerald "Stapme" Stapleton DFC, No. 247 (China-British) Squadron, No. 124 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force, Royal Air Force, Eindhoven, Netherlands, December 1944; and

Hawker Typhoon IB, flown by Flight Officer A H Fraser, No. 439 (Westmount) Squadron, No. 143 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force, Royal Air Force, Eindhoven, Netherlands, February 1943; and

The decal sheet is nicely printed and includes a small selection of stencils as well as the markings for both of the aircraft detailed above.

Conclusion

This kit looks to be another winner from Airfix. Some very minor gripes aside, this could well be one of the best aircraft kits that Airfix have released in recent years. It is well detailed, well designed and offers some interesting features, particularly the cannon bays for the wings. Highly recommended.

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Review sample courtesy of logo.gif

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Having purchased this kit at the Milton Keynes show I have to say it looks great in the box, and at only £6.50 represents great value for money.

Keep this up Airfix.

Julien

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Nice review of a lovely-looking kit! I wonder how well the invasion stripes decals will work? However, I'm glad they've added them as I've never fancied having to paint them on myself.

Regards,

Jason

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Nice review of a lovely-looking kit! I wonder how well the invasion stripes decals will work? However, I'm glad they've added them as I've never fancied having to paint them on myself.

Regards,

Jason

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  • 3 years later...

I made an rather different building approach om this build. I glued the undercarriage part (B 30) with coolers, pedals and stick directly to the wings (C 47) instead of the fuselage. I contiued by gluing the instrumenpanel and seat to one of the fuselage halves. Then I glued the rear parts of the fuselage part together. After that I carefully squeesed the fuselage backwards to the wings and cooler. When in place and glued together I continued with the upper wing parts (D60 and D61).

 

I like the way that Airfix did with the prop and spinner (step 17) making i possible to glue the prop to the fuselage as the last step during building and after painting everything. I hope we se more of that solution in new kits. Italeri has done that in the past with their Dornier Do 217. But sad that Airfix didn't made the same solution for the tailwheel as one have to glue that in place before getting the fuselage halves together if following instructions. One part that isn't numbered in the instruction is the cooler (?) in step 12.

I also liked that they made four landing gear doors (up or down). This made it possible to use one pair (D55 and D56) for masking the modell during painting.

So in total one nice little kit with great value for money!

/André

Edited by Andre B
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I also like the ability to add and paint the spinner last. I can't imagine adding the prop and spinner at early stages of construction. My ham hands break everything in sight so I leave off props antenna etc until last.

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On 4/8/2017 at 8:00 AM, Gerrardandrews said:

One of Airfix best new tools, not much wrong with it, and seems to fit together well.

 

I agree on the fit, but accuracy-wise, it's a bit short and the rear fuselage is too slender. It's one of those things which, once seen, is hard to unsee.

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Just built this kit and it went together beautifully. As has been mentioned, the prop and spinner assembly are great as you can make that one of the last fixes, unlike the tailwheel which I lost at some stage. I opted for the rocket option which meant drilling holes for the launchers, but I did wonder how I would locate them after fitting the invasion stripes. The answer is I couldn't. Tips on this for future projects would be appreciated. I ruined the decals searching for the holes so I finished up painting them. 

Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the build.  

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11 hours ago, Vinnie said:

Just built this kit and it went together beautifully. As has been mentioned, the prop and spinner assembly are great as you can make that one of the last fixes, unlike the tailwheel which I lost at some stage. I opted for the rocket option which meant drilling holes for the launchers, but I did wonder how I would locate them after fitting the invasion stripes. The answer is I couldn't. Tips on this for future projects would be appreciated. 

 

Are you using a decal setting solution of any kind, Vinnie? I find if I give them time to conform over the holes, it becomes clearer where they are and I can use a pin to re-open them, as it were.

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6 hours ago, Procopius said:

 

Are you using a decal setting solution of any kind, Vinnie? I find if I give them time to conform over the holes, it becomes clearer where they are and I can use a pin to re-open them, as it were.

 

Yes, I've been using Humbrol Decalfix but it really doesn't seem to do much. I've added microsol/set to the shopping list for my next order. As an aside, the kit has three sets of invasion stripe decals for the wings and fuselage. These seemed to be very thick compared to the rest of the decals on the sheet. Is this possible? The fuselage one which I did use dried with wrinkles.  

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11 hours ago, Vinnie said:

Yes, I've been using Humbrol Decalfix but it really doesn't seem to do much. I've added microsol/set to the shopping list for my next order. As an aside, the kit has three sets of invasion stripe decals for the wings and fuselage. These seemed to be very thick compared to the rest of the decals on the sheet. Is this possible? The fuselage one which I did use dried with wrinkles.  

 

Yes, try Micro Sol instead. I never had any experinces that Hunbrol Decalfix did any difference. But with Micro Set an Micro Sol miracle was made. But mentioning D-day markings I usually paint them on instead of using D-Day decals. Actually I've never heard or read one use those D-day decals concerning Spitfire, Typhoon, Tempest or Mustang with 100% good results without wrinkles...

 

Sad that you lost your tailwheel. Just wonder what the people at Airfix was thinking concerning that part. It's one of the worst solutions ever...

Edited by Andre B
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One thing more I like with Airfix latest kits is that they made the yellow wing leading stripes as decals (decal nr. 2-4). That makes the build of a kit much easyer and often with good result. They did it with their Spitfire IXc and now again with the Typhoon. I hope we se more kits with the yellow wing leading stripes as decals...

 

Eduard has also made an nice set for the Airfix Typhoon with an new seat, seatbelts and instrumenpanel...

https://www.eduard.com/store/Eduard/Typhoon-Mk-Ib-S-A-1-72.html

 

And Xtradecals makes more decals for the Typhoon Mk. IB...

http://www.hyperscale.com/2013/reviews/decals/x72179reviewpm_1.htm

 

/André

Edited by Andre B
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Damn you, Andre.:rofl: This hobby costs me enough already. Now you've shown me somewhere else to spend my money. Glad I've finished the Typhoon, but..............., mmmm, let's see what they do for my Airfix Dornier. :wicked:

Seriously though, thanks for the links.:thumbsup2:

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2017-04-21 at 9:40 AM, Vinnie said:

Damn you, Andre.:rofl: This hobby costs me enough already. Now you've shown me somewhere else to spend my money. Glad I've finished the Typhoon, but..............., mmmm, let's see what they do for my Airfix Dornier. :wicked:

Seriously though, thanks for the links.:thumbsup2:

 

 

 

I was thinking the same when I saw the CMK detail set. For sure an expensive little kit in the end... ;)

Sheers / André

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  • 5 months later...

Following on from Paul A H's comments about following the instructions, take it from me that Paul makes a good point there. I didn't and nearly ended up in all sorts of trouble.

 

I'd built the whole wing up, upper and lower surfaces, undercarriage & gun bays, the lot.

 

Then noticed the instructions. 

 

I'd not added the radiator to the front of the wing nor, fortuitously, glued the two fuselage halves together. Radiator was then glued into one half of the fuselage and fuselage assembled.

 

The wing assembly then slotted home. Wouldn't have if I'd already installed the joystick.

 

Much easier to read the instructions :rage:

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  • 4 years later...

Hi, 

 

Nice review and allmost looking for one to buy, probably with lots of opposition from my wife (as she always says build those 300 others first!) 🙂

 

When reading about the length issue, I was trying to determine if it was a great deal or not, but my calculations came out something else. The length of 174mm must have been the width if you ask me, as if I downscale te span, it ends in 175,9m. The length, being 9,73m scales to 135,1mm. So the question is where is the mix-up then? Is the length effectily shorter or is the span 0.9mm to short each side?

 

Thanks for your answers all! 😉

Tom

Edited by 128fiddler
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I've just been upstairs and applied my micrometer to the Airfix Typhoon and Arthur Bentley's plans from Scale Models November 1975.  Those uninterested in "getting it right" stop reading here.  Sadly, I have to confirm that the rear fuselage (at the transport joint) is 1mm too narrow (6mm vs 7mm) whereas the fuselage is also 1mm too short.  Not in itself any big deal but unfortunately this is all in the engine cowling, and not at the front of it, where it could easily be fixed.  I have to say that the tail can be easily fixed by overlapping one longish piece of 20 thou card and one shorter piece of 40 thou card, sanding down the ends/steps, and then clamping the fuselage together when you glue it.  You'll probably need to make a slit between the leading edge of the fin and the fuselage.  The length I believe can be lived with, or perhaps compromise by adding a 40thou circle to the nose and fairing it in?  I suspect this might look worse to those who care.  Or something thinner to compromise?  Hacking the entire nose and radiator off to add 1mm seems too likely to end up looking worse.

 

The wing span matches tip to tip.  I didn't attempt to measure.

 

Alternatively, of course, Airfix got it right and AB got it wrong.  

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I think this ground was also covered back when the Brengun and Airfix kits  came out, and the Brengun was ascertained to be somewhat more accurate dimensionally, though of course more expensive and more likely to cause hair loss.

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