Halifax B.III 466SQN RAAF

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

As part of a club GB where we are building old kits (the ACTSMS turns 50 next year) I pulled out this very old Airfix Halifax, first kitted in 1962, this boxing 1967.

 

As I am also trying to get some RAAF subjects done for a club display at our comp in October I am trying to squeeze in as many of these builds for the remainder of the year.

 

So on with the show!

 

My kit is Craft Master boxing for the US market.

 

Good old instruction sheet (no colour guide at all for internals so I will wing it)

 

Decals from this Sky Models sheet for HD - E/NR152 (top)

 

Parts clean up, nice hard sliver plastic

 

Cockpit parts glued

 

Injection pin marks fill on engine nacelles and sanding and assembly started

 

And finally some interior green splashed around

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome with a nice choice Ray...  I've never seen one of these before. 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Thanks Dennis, I built a 'proper' Airfix boxing of this one as a kid, the plastic was black. It should be an easy build I hope.

[Graham Boak]

It's a fairly easy kit to make.  If you want to bother improving it an easy fix is to wrap some microstrip around the inside of the cowling to reduce the entrance, and the Falcon transparencies improve the upper fuselage and canopy.  Plus better turrets, but they'd be a bit more work, especially the rear.

[JOCKNEY]

Great choice Ray

To my shame I've never built a Halifax !

Best of luck

Cheers Pat

[Rob S]

Great start Ray. 

 

Will be watching this one. 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I managed to splash some paint around

 

and some assembly getting the cockpit sorted

 

and inboard nacelles together

 

Nacelles on the wing

 

and crew boarding

 

[stever219]

You don't hang around, do you?!

One observation though, by the time the Halifax II entered service the wheel wells, undercarriage legs and radius arms were in Night rather than grey-green, as were the bomb bays, not that you'll need to worry about the latter in this kit.

I have two of these to build, one of which is planned as a 462 (SD) Squadron example.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

30 minutes ago, stever219 said:

You don't hang around, do you?!

One observation though, by the time the Halifax II entered service the wheel wells, undercarriage legs and radius arms were in Night rather than grey-green, as were the bomb bays, not that you'll need to worry about the latter in this kit.

I have two of these to build, one of which is planned as a 462 (SD) Squadron example.

Thanks Steve, my usual style is to start late, not get it done by GB deadline and then come back in 2 - 3 years to finish it off .

 

This kit has no paint instructions so I was winging it, easy to repaint the main gear.

 

I also have dipped the clear parts in future which I forgot to post earlier

[Andwil]

Those a pretty big donuts the crew are eating!

 

AW

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I thought I had lost one of the side walls of the rear turret but founder it at the bottom of the trunk the kit had been stored in, phew!

 

The painted crew and minor assemblies being prepped for fuselage closure

 

For such on old kit I am finding this build quite relaxing for a change!

[CliffB]

Will you be using the stand then Ray?

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

19 hours ago, CliffB said:

Will you be using the stand then Ray?

 

I will Cliff, it will help me fit it in the display case and have some smaller models under it.

 

I think I will paint the base part black though

[GREG DESTEC]

Nostalgic plastic! 

great to see one of these built up again, classic  Airfix at its best.

 

Crack on Ray 👍

 

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Well I hit a wall with this one deciding how to paint the turrets. With poor framing on the clear parts I did not want to make it a chore or stuff it up royally ( there rear one in particular).

 

I ended up using decal strips for the first time. I consulted the pictures I could find of the real thing and pretty much ignored  them 🙂 The first shot shows the blurry rear one done with strips and a bit of paint here and there, passable to my eye.

 

I then masked up the mid upper as best I could, the rear turret in better focus here.

 

The clear part came away when I was removing the masking, so I touched it up a little and have since dropped back to a bath of Future to re-gloss it.

 

While painting the turret framing I laid what was left in the cup onto the rest of the model

 

Then taped the fuselage halves together, the inevitable puttying will follow in the next session at the bench

[DennisTheBear]

I have a, I think, 1962 boxing of this kit with parts galore broken of the sprue trees. Since it is destined to be built as an RAAF aircraft I'll mooch around watvhing the build.

 

DennisTheBear

[GREG DESTEC]

Good progress Ray 👍

 

I think the framing on the turrets looks great. Always a difficult task on these old softly defined kits. I fear the canopy will present the same challenges but it looks like you have the solution using the decal strips.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Cheers Greg🍺

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I think I will be masking the cockpit canopy part Greg, that is coming up after I sort out the seams which has begun.

 

I taped the seams to try and reduce the amount of damage to the surrounding rivets.

 

I did it on the nose as well but the area to be filled was a lo larger and I had to go outside the taped area. Second round of putty added there. I have a revieting tool that I will run over the seams when done.

[GREG DESTEC]

Hi Ray,

 

The old Airfix kits always seemed to need filling in the seams, and mine had bald patches on the surface detail as a result, largely unavoidable with raised details. 

 

Looking good 👍

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

I finally got the mojo to finish added the clear parts and mask them. the cockpit windscreen part was not moulded very well and needed a lot of putty around the edges

 

The other clear parts were added and masked

 

And paint added to the upper surfaces

 

Next will be more masking for the black and other colours.

[GREG DESTEC]

Nice job Ray, you're getting there now 😀

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Thanks Greg, sure am

 

Did some of the fiddley painting today, masked and sprayed the tail bands which I think turn out quite well. 

 

I laid down a white base coat over the black first.

 

Masking removed after the yellow was laid down

 

I also had to reposition the nose camo/black demarcation, it was a tad high

 

And did various masking and painting on the nacelles, all ready to fit now

 

Just have to  repaint the tyres and and formation lights to finish off the paint phase.

[GREG DESTEC]

Great progress Ray, the painting is bringing life to the beast!

 

Keep on keeping on👍

 

🍺 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Thanks again Greg.

 

Final assembly done and decals going on

 

As the kit did not have its original decal sheet I used after market and the only spar roundel set was for a Lancaster. Turns out the Lanc wing roundels are a lot larger than the Halifax's, something I can live with at this stage.

 

Some paintwork to touch ups and a final flat coat to go before removing the masking.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Thats looking quite good, probably the same markings I will chose when I get to build one. At least the same tail markings but not sure if the same exact aircraft. 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Corsairfoxfouruncle