Halt and Catch Fire (1/72 Brengun Typhoon Ib)

[perdu]

6 minutes ago, Teuchter said:

Nice choice. Is that a wee westie on the intake @stew dapple?

At first glance I thought duck, but on later observation you are undoubtedly correct.

 

Edmundo I will be lurking at the back near the bar, there are so many personals here I just have to.

 

My dad, bless him was a Scot who joined the RAF and had tales that he would tell but never tales of fighting when he earned his AG brevet.

 

And my return to modelmaking was engendered by me taking a Frog Typhoon and wrangling it into a better shaped car door Bombphoon, three bladed prop too.

 

I'll try not to heckle, keep me off that gin.

[Procopius]

On 8/6/2021 at 6:52 PM, Kitsticker said:

 

 

PC are you getting more British as time passes?

God, that's the dream.

[Procopius]

So for the first time in fifteen months, I've caught a cold. It's a toss-up as to whether I got it from the kids or Mrs P, who flew home from Michigan, or from the members and other staff at my employer's annual meeting, many of whom flat-out refused to mask up earlier this week, even after being repeatedly reminded that it was mandatory when indoors in Chicago. Thanks, guys.

 

In any case, some new reference material has arrived:

 

 

I'm happy to report it has rather more on our friend F/Sgt Meechan, including his arrival in the squadron (shortly before D-Day), and his departure at the expiry of his tour in February of 1945, as well as several personal reminisces, and a wartime group photo of the squadron showing him in the full bloom of youth. 

 

The big news for the model so far is that the wings are together, after much, much sanding down of the gear bays:

 

 

 

The landing light housings aren't walled off, so if you do nothing, they just peer into the open wing, which obviously we can't have. Now, if I were really good, I would've bought some of those cool little lenses for models, but I'm not and didn't think of it until now so here we are. Anyway, I walled off the housings with thin plasticard, and will have to correspondingly thin the clear parts for the lights (which, a quick dry fitting revealed, didn't fit particularly well ANYway) when it comes time to fit them. 

 

Since I paid for the little PE set for the kit (which comes with things no sane person should truck with, like PE landing flaps and rocket vanes) I thought I should use some of the bits, and so I shaved off the plastic throttle and sanded down the trim wheel.

 

 

The trim wheel is added, but the throttle, which is wee and fragile, will be attached once I'm sure I can actually close the fuselage up properly, unaided by harsh language.

 

I also painted some of the other small bits, like the radiator (originally I feared I'd biffed it and would have to steal a rad from another kit, but some brute force rectification yielded up the parts for use in the proper manner), and seatbelts. 

 

 

I also painted the intake area silver with Tamiya's new SP-11 lacquer, which has so far impressed me quite favorably. A very pleasant paint to use.

 

 

 

 

[Max Headroom]

Page 2 of a PC build. That’s me looking in through the window as there’s no room inside. Glad to see you back in harness, wafting your magic on the plastic. I’m taking notes 😁

 

Trevor

[HAMP man]

Cold out here innit?

[Procopius]

I've had a busy week, so apologies for no updates. I drilled out the wings to put in the Master turned metal cannons and installed them the other night. One wing went flawlessly, but the other....did not.

 

 

As you can see below, the cannons  cracked the plastic, quite a bit:

 

 

I covered both cracked areas with a thick mass of Tamiya putty (I hadn't used it in a while and felt nostalgic) and sanded it back somewhat frantically this evening. I don't think we're quite there yet, though. I put some Mr Surfacer over the sanded-down filler so tomorrow I can see how bad it looks. 

[Stew Dapple]

21 minutes ago, Procopius said:

cracked the plastic, quite a bit:

 

'Tis but a scratch! It looks like you've patched it up fine, but an application of Mr.Surfacer before will be better than finding it still visible under paint. The first picture gives the cannons a rather wall-eyed look, I've experienced the same thing with some of my photo's which led me to rush back the the bench to check that they didn't look as if the guns divergence was set to 250 yards behind the aircraft and relieved to find it to be a trick of the camera  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[CedB]

Nice progress PC - I'm in, of course  

[rob85]

Looks like it’s coming along delightfully Mr P, speedy progress. Nice save on the crack, I think that will come out nicely.

 

Rob

[Procopius]

On 8/15/2021 at 12:23 AM, CedB said:

Nice progress PC - I'm in, of course  

 

Buffers! You've been sorely missed. I was just thinking the other night I'd almost recovered fully from our continuous two-week pub crawl of 2019 and was ready for another go. At this rate perhaps I can make it over for my 40th in 2023. 

 

 

 

In other news, I've lost my glasses today, either when I took the boys to the park, or when I took a nap at home afterwards and one of the little darlings nicked them. Fortunately I can see well enough without them, but it's still annoying. I've spent the last decade of my life living in a world where nothing remains where I put it.

 

We have the cockpit in one half of the fuselage now, along with the intake parts:

 

 

A lot of sanding was needed for the cockpit parts, and the same plus some carving for the intake bits. I also attempted to trim some of the flash from the exhaust stacks, and cleverly succeeded in driving my micro chisel deep enough into my finger to draw blood, and, to add insult to injury, also broke the part. So I've ordered a set of Quickboost resin exhausts for the Airfix kit, which I hope will work. Sadly Quickboost doesn't make a replacement index finger, so this one will have to soldier on.

 

I'm trying to decide whether to use the injection-molded IP or the photoetch one. 

 

 

(The PE one has a film insert and the actual panels with dials and whatnot separate, it wouldn't go in totally devoid of features.)  

 

The advantage of the IM one of course is that it's easier to thin it down at the sides, but also more of a pain to paint. The PE one is kind of a hassle to assemble, can't really be sanded down at the sides, but is bendier and might look nicer? 

 

Work on the cannons continues:

 

 

 

Hopefully soon we can start closing things up.

 

 

 

 

 

[Procopius]

GLASSES UPDATE: Grant had taken them and hidden them under his bed. Grant is an inscrutable creature of strange and dark passions.

 

In any event, last night I was tired and went to bed early (for me, anyway), but tonight I elected to stay up even though I have an early AM doctor's appointment. 

 

I assembled the PE/film instrument panel. 

 

 

Naturally, a good deal of the paint has chipped off, so some no doubt clumsy, ham-handed repainting will have to take place. 

 

The fuselage is also now just about ready to be closed up:

 

 

 

Test fitting has indicated that the wing roots on the fuselage are too wide -- much too wide -- to fit into the wings without sanding, and despite quite a bit so far, we're not quite there yet. I estimate about 2-3mm (!!!) on either side to start, which is just bananas. I'm trying to be considerate for Future Edward.

 

[Terry1954]

Great progress Edward, and wow, you are indeed up late today. I've just had my breakfast here!

 

Terry

[Johnny Tip]

2 hours ago, Procopius said:

"Grant had taken them and hidden them under his bed. Grant is an inscrutable creature of strange and dark passions."

from the diary of Abraham Lincoln?  

 

Can't really add to the build, as I've only done the old Airfix Bombphoon, but I'll take a seat as a silent spectator if I may -so far I really enjoy what I see.

[Cookenbacher]

2-3 mm!!

We're in RS P-38 territory here.

[Terry1954]

9 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

2-3 mm!!

We're in RS P-38 territory here.

 

Make that RS P-51H as well.

 

Terry

[Procopius]

On 8/18/2021 at 4:03 AM, Johnny Tip said:

from the diary of Abraham Lincoln?  

 

 

Well, that is his namesake. No points for guessing who Winston is named for.

 

 

Grant: the man, the myth, the barely housebroken.

 

 

Last night after watching some extremely stupid reality TV with a friend in Boston over Zoom, I crept into the grotto and put in the IP, and then, in a moment of desperate courage, I glued the fuselage together.

 

 

 

The wings are test-fitted, not glued on, and infuriatingly, it seems that only the fronts of the wing roots needed sanding down. 

 

As you can see, the kit actually closed up pretty well (aside from the intake, which is always going to be dicey on a kit like this -- anyone who's built the AZ P-40 has experienced excactly how awful they can get). A sufficiently sharp blade run along the seams should (hopefully) obviate much of the need for filler, inshallah.

 

 

I still need to add a gunsight, as the kit thoughtfully omits one. It appears that in June of 1944, a Typhoon would likely have a MkIIL reflector sight, which at 1/72 scale looks enough like the MkII* sight (the distinguishing feature is a small adjusting knob for the angle of the glass pane -- to account for rocket drop-off -- on one side) for me to probably be able to get away with using one of my resin ones from Quickboost. 

 

 

 

[Bedders]

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

It appears that in June of 1944, a Typhoon would likely have a MkIIL reflector sight, which at 1/72 scale looks enough like the MkII* sight (the distinguishing feature is a small adjusting knob for the angle of the glass pane -- to account for rocket drop-off -- on one side) for me to probably be able to get away with using one of my resin ones from Quickboost. 

The secret's safe with me. No-one else needs to know. 

 

J

 

PS: I do like them cannon fairings.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Bedders

[AdrianMF]

On 04/08/2021 at 08:33, Procopius said:

You know you're in for a good time when you need to use filler on the seat.

Priceless! 

 

Just catching up on this one...

 

[edit] Caught up - splendid stuff! Having just installed a microscopic block of black plastic and a shard of celluloid into a Rareplanes Spiteful, I realise I'm always in two minds about gunsights - I think that in a model their main purpose is to obscure whatever detail you have carefully added to the instrument panel.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[stevehnz]

On 8/19/2021 at 6:28 AM, Cookenbacher said:

2-3 mm!!

We're in RS P-38 territory here.

 

On 8/19/2021 at 6:38 AM, Terry1954 said:

Make that RS P-51H as well.

Terry

Damn, I've got both of those & several Brengun Typhoons, its always nice to have stuff to look forward too.  

Coming along nicely Edward, I can see some wing root filling in your future.  

Steve.

[Stew Dapple]

Nice join on the fuselage mate, very tidy  

 

Hopefully the test fit of the wings won't be one of those cases where the test indicates a near-perfect fit but the application of any glue distorts reality to the point that the parts suddenly don't fit that well at all  (it's not just me this happens to... right?)

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Hamden]

 

Typhoon coming together nicely and really looks good!

Looking forward to seeing this in paint now

 

  Stay safe         Roger

[Andwil]

4 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

 (it's not just me this happens to... right?)

No, it’s not just you🥳

 

AW

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Only just caught up, and great to read another PC intro; truly the master.  As a fellow member of the Goldfish club - I have the tie and everything - I feel a definite affinity for F/Sgt Meecham.  For some reason I love the muscular brutality of the Tiffie, though the ‘Jug’ leaves me cold; taste is a weird thing.  Of course neither machine is a Tempest, let alone a Sea Fury, but still a mighty aircraft - one which you are doing characteristic justice.

 

Oh, and chalk me up as a big fan of the Tamiya lacquers; I love them

[perdu]

I took a couple of photos of Hendon's Tiffie yesterday not great but they suit the subject matter, this one no use at all.

 

Except it shows  the yellow antenna just below the trailing edge.

 

And this one which shows what happens when museum staff take off the gun fairings.  Holes appear.

 

 

 

[Cookenbacher]

17 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Hopefully the test fit of the wings won't be one of those cases where the test indicates a near-perfect fit but the application of any glue distorts reality to the point that the parts suddenly don't fit that well at all  (it's not just me this happens to... right?)

I hate it when that happens!