Old Man Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 (edited) Recently I took an old Aeroclub Demon off the shelf where several still reside. Building it was such fun I thought I would do another. When I found the Bomber Command GB criteria had been revised to include pre-war Bomber Command subjects, I decided to make one of my remaining Aeroclub Demons into a Hind, using some markings from an old ModelDecal Hart Family sheet. There is not a great deal which needs doing to make a Hind out of a Demon: one gun channel needs filling, windows have to be let into the sides, new exhausts need to be contrived, some indication for a bomb-aiming hatch provided, a suitable tail-wheel scrounged, and a few other little bits and bumps tended to. These blend nicely into the enjoyable business of adding various details and minor fixes to the kit, most particularly making some representation of the intricate thing which was the standard Hawker tail assembly with its off-set fin and variable incidence tail-plane. Though rated as a light bomber, the Hind was never seriously intended as a combat aircraft. The small improvements it offered over the Hart, ranging from slightly livelier climb and better performance at altitude to more efficient crew stations, did not change the obsolescence of the design, viewed as a service light bomber in 1936. While a few Hinds sent to the Middle East bombed and strafed on 'Air Control' operations in Palestine, the real and very valuable service of the Hind was as a species of operational trainer in the early days of the RAF expansion program. Expansion meant not just more airplanes, or even more aircrew. It meant more ground crew for maintenance and repair, for supply, more administrative personnel and staff, and it meant welding all these into functioning units which could field operational aircraft to carry out assigned duties to plan. Units were formed on Hinds, learned the trade and became practiced squadrons in every way on Hinds, and then, when more modern aircraft became available, the Hinds were passed on to more newly-formed units and the process repeated. From this emerged a great proportion of the squadrons which carried out the air offensive over Germany during WWII. In a very real sense, the Hind is the little acorn from which the great oak of Bomber Command grew. This model represents a Hind of 103 Squadron's C Flight, circa 1937. An expansion unit, 103 was activated in August, 1936 with Hinds which it flew till July 1938 when these were replaced by Battles. After service in France in 1940, the unit received in succession the Wellington, the Halifax, and the Lancaster. These old kits have points to recommend them still today even in compare with newer limited-run kits from AZ Models and and A-Model. Scratch-building the exhausts was the trickiest bit of the work needed. Personally I hope Airfix does a re-tooled Hart --- messing up their old mould for this type was one of their worst mistakes... Here is a link to the build thread in the Bomber Command GB forum: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234970423-hawker-hind-conversion-from-vintage-aeroclub-demon-172-done/ Edited January 12, 2015 by Old Man 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 That's a lovely model OM, enjoyed seeing it come together in the build thread & the end result is a treat to look at! Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rivers3162 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Fantastic build of a very important interwar aircraft. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Beautiful Hind, Old Man! Regards, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VG 33 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 This is a very nice looking Hind. Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Superb build and superbly informative post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skids Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 That looks fantastic, even more so that its only 1/72 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 A beautiful model of one of my favourite aeroplanes. Excellent work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Very nice model. Thanks for the history as well, extremely useful and informative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Lovely build and good use of the figures! Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Hey Old Man, ONE EXCELLENT little Diorama.. LOVED IT... The Hawker Hind looks EXCEPTIONALLY STUNNING and the rigging et al is MIGHTY IMPRESSIVE.. BRAVO.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batcode Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 superb work, looks great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristol boy Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Great to see another of your projects, keep them coming. You've inspired me to try scratch building and the results should appear here soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire31 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 That's a real charmer and a beautiful rendition of the Hind! Kind regards, Joachim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Brilliant model! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 That's a lovely model OM, enjoyed seeing it come together in the build thread & the end result is a treat to look at! Keith Thank you, Sir. Right up until the final push, it was a very enjoyable build, and most of my last-minute problems were my own fault, from that heady mixture of haste and inattention looming deadlines can provide. Not that a week's worth of flu helped much, either.... Fantastic build of a very important interwar aircraft. Well done! Thank you, Sir. In future I intend to do one of the Middle East Hinds (there is an excellent site on 211 Sqdn out there). Beautiful Hind, Old Man! Regards, Jason Thank you, Sir! Like you, I am a great fan of this whole family of machines --- they were superb in their day both on aesthetic and operational grounds. This is a very nice looking Hind. Patrick Thank you, Sir. Mixing a bit of white into silver makes a very good aluminum dope finish, and the nose is foiled, with foil aged only very slightly --- spit and polish is a good part of training in any service, and so I expect these were kept pretty well buffed up. Superb build and superbly informative post. Thank you, Sir. I like to have a bit of a story behind a model, and they are not always tales of glory and derring-do. As it turned out, a very great deal depended on the RAF expansion scheme in the mid-thirties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 That looks fantastic, even more so that its only 1/72 Thank you, Sir. I work strictly within the Gentleman's Scale for aeroplanes. A beautiful model of one of my favourite aeroplanes. Excellent work! Thank you, Sir. And thank you for your photo archives, which I have found very useful on occasion. Very nice model. Thanks for the history as well, extremely useful and informative. Thank you, Sir. For me, anyway, modelling grows out of an interest in the history. Lovely build and good use of the figures! Martin Thank you, Sir. The figures were a lot of fun. I made them for the Demon build, and swapped them into this one. The pilot is from an Emhar Yak kit, the passenger a greatly altered pilot from a new Airfix P-40. The first is a much heftier fellow than the second, which I like. Not only do they serve to fill the cockpits (which I did not detail save for an instrument panel decal and some variation in color, but they do seem to bring a bit of life to thing. Hey Old Man, ONE EXCELLENT little Diorama.. LOVED IT... The Hawker Hind looks EXCEPTIONALLY STUNNING and the rigging et al is MIGHTY IMPRESSIVE.. BRAVO.... Thank you, Sir. I must confess I like to rig. I use very fine tempered brass wire (painted) for the short bits, and EZ-Line elastic for the longer ones. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 OM, what gauge of wire do you use, and where do you get it from? I've been tempted to use something like that myself for rigging, as using threads or stretched sprue of any kind scares the ___ out of me! My thought is to drill small holes where you want the wire, then just pop it into place. I've yet to try this, but I have some biplanes I need to get to (such as some of my Hart family kits), so I suppose it's time I tried this. Regards, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 OM, what gauge of wire do you use, and where do you get it from? I've been tempted to use something like that myself for rigging, as using threads or stretched sprue of any kind scares the ___ out of me! My thought is to drill small holes where you want the wire, then just pop it into place. I've yet to try this, but I have some biplanes I need to get to (such as some of my Hart family kits), so I suppose it's time I tried this. Regards, Jason It is a stiff brass wire rated at 0.004" (four thousandths of an inch) diameter. A fellow named Berman sells it in coils on the trades and wants sections of several modelling websites. I found him on HyperScale. If you do not see him after a bit of looking, let me know, and I will hunt up the e-mail address, which I expect I have still somewhere. The stuff straightens reasonably on its own out of the coil. I do not recall the cost but it was reasonable. I got four or five coils, and have gone through one and started on a second only recently. To color it I put a puddle of dark paint on some foil, press the wire down into it with a brush, and draw it through a couple of times, letting it dry on a paper towel. I keep the lengths to about a foot for this, and make up three or four at a time, so as to have some always to hand when needed.. I mostly fasten it with white glue, as there is no risk of damage to the finish, but sometimes I use CA gel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 superb work, looks great Thank you, Sir. Some of the 'look' must be credited to wife's skill and eye with the camera. She laid out and printed upo the serial runs on this for me, too. Great to see another of your projects, keep them coming. You've inspired me to try scratch building and the results should appear here soon. Thank you, Sir. I look forward to seeing that. Break a leg! That's a real charmer and a beautiful rendition of the Hind! Kind regards, Joachim Thank you, Sir. These were extremely good-looking machines. Brilliant model! Thank you, Sir. The old Aeroclub kits repay a bit of TLC very handsomely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 (edited) Thank you, OM! I have some steel wire, but it's too thick I believe for reasonably believable 1/72nd scale rigging (I also stick to the Gentleman's scale), and it's a bit too stiff and hard, so it's not the easiest material to work with. If the brass wire straightens out, then that may be just what I need. I think I might just run some black paint pen over the wire to darken it properly; if that doesn't work I'll try your method. Time to get rigging, methinks, and get on with my biplanes! Regards, Jason Edited January 12, 2015 by Learstang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Cracking build, certainly creates an inspiration to do a few of these interwar classics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 ... Thank you, Sir. For me, anyway, modelling grows out of an interest in the history.... Me too, I have to have an interest in the history to stand a chance of finishing a model! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Thank you, OM! I have some steel wire, but it's too thick I believe for reasonably believable 1/72nd scale rigging (I also stick to the Gentleman's scale), and it's a bit too stiff and hard, so it's not the easiest material to work with. If the brass wire straightens out, then that may be just what I need. I think I might just run some black paint pen over the wire to darken it properly; if that doesn't work I'll try your method. Time to get rigging, methinks, and get on with my biplanes! Regards, Jason It's always time to rig, Sir! Have at it! Cracking build, certainly creates an inspiration to do a few of these interwar classics Thank you, Sir. It is a very interesting period, running for me a very close second to the early phases of the Great War. As the machines lose wings, I seem to lose interest.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 really nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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