Lockheed hudson I 206 Sqn, 1/72nd MPM kit

[Mr T]

My latest model finished the end of last week of a Lockheed Hudson I of  P5143, 'VX-M' of 206 Sqn, Bircham Newton, May 1940. The Hudson was derived from the Lockheed Model 14 airliner to meet a RAF requirement for a General  Reconnaissance  (GR) aircraft or as a trainer. Buying a US aircraft for potentially operational duties caused a lot of comment at the time, as some believed the RAF should use only British aircraft. It was then decided,with the threat of war looming, to use the Hudson in its GR role as it offered better performance than the Avro Anson currently used.  The Blackburn Botha was the intended replacement  for the Anson, but was unlikely to be available in any numbers and when it did appear the Botha proved to be a disappointment, being underpowered and most ended up as trainers. The Hudson first entered service with 224 Sqn in May 1939. 206 Sqn first received Hudsons in March 1940 as replacements for Ansons although the latter lingered until June 1940.

The model was built using the MPM kit that first appeared in the mid 1990's and has been reissued by Revell. My model is from the original release and was a resident of the Shelf of Doom for some time, partially because I became disenchanted with the kit at a time when life and work were quite stressful. The kit, even for a limited run kit of the period is not the easiest. Although MPM had moved on to injected moulded transparent parts by that time, it still relies on butt joints in places where some more locating points might have been helpful, like the nose. Fit of some of the parts was also quite vague and not helped by the instructions. The kit has quite a few alternative parts to cater for later marks and this does not help the fit. For me the major jarring note is the Boulton Paul turret, that looks no advance shapewise on the Airfix kit from the sixties.. Thanks to a conversation with Tony O'Toole of this parish at the Bolton Show, the turret has been replaced by a spare from the Revell Halifax III kit with a scratch built interior.  Also from the Bolton Show I purchased some Deluxe materials 'Looks Like Glass'. not cheap, but you get a lot for your money and really does look shiny and clear. Paintwork is from the Mr Hobby Aqueous Colour range for the Dark Green and Dark Earth with Vallejo White Aluminium Metalcolor undersurfaces. The kit offers the decals for the aircraft modelled, but looking ata photo of the real aircraft, these were replaced with markings made up from various Modeldecal sheets. now it is finished I am fairly happy with it and can now give my full attention to the Group Build York.

As the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetic Corp. would say, 'Share and Enjoy'

 

[keith in the uk]

Very nice  clean and tidy build , I like it. 

[Steve27752]

One of my favourites.

[Wulfman]

Beautifully built and photographed, great stuff!
 

Wulman

[Harold55]

Great build of a very nice looking aircraft.  Love the paint job you have done.  I so wish someone would release a new kit of these in 1/48.  The CA one is just too much for me when I see them on eBay.

[RMCS]

Niiiice 

[Work In Progress]

Such a pretty aeroplane until they put the turret on it - and such an interesting shape after they did! Lovely model, the Halifax turret looks like a good upgrade

[Mig88]

Very nicely done indeed!!

 

Miguel

[John_W]

Nicely done. I built one of these myself and it sat on the shelf of doom and almost flew in to the bin a few times. It is a challenge and a retool from Airfix of the same quality as the Wellington/Blenheim/Beaufighter would be most welcome.

[Mr T]

7 minutes ago, Work In Progress said:

Such a pretty aeroplane until they put the turret on it - and such an interesting shape after they did! Lovely model, the Halifax turret looks like a good upgrade

Changing the turret made all the difference so far as I was concerned. The original kit turret was symmetrical and lacked the sloped shape of the original. It is a glaring error and there are plenty of photos that show the shape of the Boulton Paul turret and so I am not sure what was happening. I notice there was a build of the Hudson a few months ago in one of the magazines where no mention was made of the turret shspeand the interior detail added by the author to the kit turret bore little resemblance to the real thing The MPM Hudson always struck me as having a rushed and slightly unfinished feel to it. I remember a rumour going round that the moulds had been damaged I an accident and were hurriedly recut. 

[Mr T]

8 minutes ago, John_W said:

Nicely done. I built one of these myself and it sat on the shelf of doom and almost flew in to the bin a few times. It is a challenge and a retool from Airfix of the same quality as the Wellington/Blenheim/Beaufighter would be most welcome.

Quite agree about a retool from Airfix, or even Special Hobby given their current standards. It is a challenge to build, the nose section was tricky and came off at least once in the build. I nearly ditched mine and thought of getting a new one, but when I discovered I had not list any of the parts I decided to crack on with it as it was lonely as my only occupant of the Shelf of Doom. 

[F-32]

Very nice work, I've always liked the Hudson in the RAF scheme

[TheyJammedKenny!]

That is a fine, fine tribute to a workhorse of an aircraft, @Mr T!  Just beautiful.  The unblemished silver finish on the underside shows how much care you put into filling and sanding the joints.  Good call on using a Halifax III turret.  What will you replace it with on the Halifax kit, when you get around to building it?

[Mr T]

In the MkIII  kit, the transperiences have virtually all the variations across both kits including the turrets that are not needed. The interior parts are not all there, but not difficult to build from scratch. 

[bigbadbadge]

Great work on this challenging kit.  I built the italeri boxing and decided to punish myself some more and have this kit in the stash !!!

They do look a rather splendid machine. 

Chris

 

[SAT69]

On 3/23/2020 at 10:54 PM, Harold55 said:

Great build of a very nice looking aircraft.  Love the paint job you have done.

Definitely agree!