PK-604 - HP Halifax +++Finished+++

[GREG DESTEC]

So here is my second entry for the GB - The Brown series Halifax, which can be built as a Mk1, 2 or GR2.

 

I am leaning toward the Coastal Command variant with the largely white finish, which i may rattle can on as i am a brush painter, and white ain't that much fun to brush, especially on such a large model. 

 

Heres the photos...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers! Thanks for looking, Greg 

Edited March 18, 2022 by GREG DESTEC
Titles

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff Greg

I'm thinking of doing the same with the white of my coastal command Wellington, white is up there with yellow as virtually un-do-able with a paint brush !

Good luck

 

Cheers Pat

[stevej60]

Cracking kit to enter with Greg,look forward to this one too.

[GREG DESTEC]

1 hour ago, JOCKNEY said:

Great stuff Greg

I'm thinking of doing the same with the white of my coastal command Wellington, white is up there with yellow as virtually un-do-able with a paint brush !

Good luck

 

Cheers Pat

 

1 hour ago, stevej60 said:

Cracking kit to enter with Greg,look forward to this one too.

Thanks chaps!

 

I've never built this kit before, so I'm looking forward to it😎

[Scargsy]

I wasn't aware this was originally a Matchbox moulding, I'm planning to build the slightly later rebox 04670 for the 'Big and British' GB so will be following along for hints and tips!

[Rabbit Leader]

Well done Greg, the Matchbox Halibag can be turned into a real stunner and I'm sure you will bring it home most handsomely indeed. I did start one of these around March this year, however put it back when I got bogged down modifying the nose pieces. Seeing yours built might just entice me to go back to it. 

 

Cheers, welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 

[GREG DESTEC]

On 12/31/2021 at 5:09 AM, Scargsy said:

I wasn't aware this was originally a Matchbox moulding, I'm planning to build the slightly later rebox 04670 for the 'Big and British' GB so will be following along for hints and tips!

Hi Scargsy,

 

Yeah, Revell still kit out a lot of the old Matchbox moulds. You are very welcome to follow along but I think my kit is a tad basic compared to yours, which I think was an all new tooling when it came out. 

I will be interested to see your Halifax progress in the Big and British GB when it happens.

 

Cheers and Happy New Year

 

Greg🍺

 

 

[GREG DESTEC]

On 12/31/2021 at 5:16 AM, Rabbit Leader said:

Well done Greg, the Matchbox Halibag can be turned into a real stunner and I'm sure you will bring it home most handsomely indeed. I did start one of these around March this year, however put it back when I got bogged down modifying the nose pieces. Seeing yours built might just entice me to go back to it. 

 

Cheers, welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 

Thanks for the kind comments and welcome Dave, much appreciated 👍

 

I'll certainly do my best with this one🤓

 

Cheers and Happy New Year

 

Greg 🍺

[bigbadbadge]

Nice choice, I bought one of Ebay a few yrs ago supposed to be complete but both fuselage sides were missing,  got my money back and the seller said to keep the bits so was thinking of using with my Revell newer tooling to fo a Mk1.  

Looking forward to this .

Chris

[GREG DESTEC]

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Nice choice, I bought one of Ebay a few yrs ago supposed to be complete but both fuselage sides were missing,  got my money back and the seller said to keep the bits so was thinking of using with my Revell newer tooling to fo a Mk1.  

Looking forward to this .

Chris

Thanks Chris,

 

I got this kit when Revell reboxed it shortly before they issued their all new tooling. I always liked the Merlin engined Halifax. 

 

Not long to go now before kick off 🤓

[Adrian Hills]

Greg, I’ve built a couple of these and like the kit. White looks great so looking forward to your build 😊

[PeterB]

Way back I did a DIY conversion from the Airfix kit, but eventually decided to get the Revell boxing of the Matchbox kit to replace it - of course within a few weeks Revell brought out their new mould! I rather fancied the version with the old style mid upper turret but Matchbox only provide the late 4 gun version - maybe I will use the old Airfix Hudson turret from my old conversion. I had completely forgotten this kit was Matchbox so maybe I will enter it in this GB, though I am going to have to put some more shelving up in my roof first! I think I was intending to include it in the "Big and British" GB but we will see.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited January 9, 2022 by PeterB

[GREG DESTEC]

 

 

 

12 hours ago, Adrian Hills said:

Greg, I’ve built a couple of these and like the kit. White looks great so looking forward to your build 😊

 

11 hours ago, PeterB said:

Way back I did a DIY conversion from the Airfix kit, but eventually decided to get the Revell boxing of the Matchbox kit to replace it - of course within a few weeks Revell brought out their new mould! I rather fancied the version with the old style mid upper turret but Matchbox only provide the late 4 gun version - maybe I will use the old Airfix Hudson turret from my old conversion. I had completely forgotten this kit was Matchbox so maybe I will enter it in this GB, though I am going to have to put some more shelving up in my roof first! I think I was intending to include it in the "Big and British" GB but we will see.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Thanks Gents,

 

Work will proceed shortly in tandem with my proposed Mosquito build.

 

Cheers Greg 👍

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Greg

Have you had a chance to look at your Halifax yet ?

Cheers Pat

[PeterB]

Hi Greg,

 

I see yours is the same Revell Boxing as mine so I presume you also have the same lightweight fuselage moulding with fine raised panel lines - the rest of mine is much more Matchbox like with trenches. I am wondering if for some reason Revell had to replace the fuselage part of the mould  on Sprue A though that does not seem likely as although the nose section for the GR II also has raised lines, everything else on that sprue including the nose for the BI/II and the tail endplates has trenches. Strange, but I guess the only way to tell is to compare it with a Matchbox original! Anyway, gluing the nose sections and half the bomb bay doors on together with an extra support in the middle of the bay before joining up the fuselage halves seems to have worked for me and the joints are not perfect but pretty good, though I did have to do a fair bit of adjusting before the glue set. 

 

As Graham said it may not be too accurate but it seems to be going OK so far. I will be replacing the horrible props though and maybe reducing the size of the spinners.

 

Good luck with your build.

 

Pete

[GREG DESTEC]

3 hours ago, PeterB said:

Hi Greg,

 

I see yours is the same Revell Boxing as mine so I presume you also have the same lightweight fuselage moulding with fine raised panel lines - the rest of mine is much more Matchbox like with trenches. I am wondering if for some reason Revell had to replace the fuselage part of the mould  on Sprue A though that does not seem likely as although the nose section for the GR II also has raised lines, everything else on that sprue including the nose for the BI/II and the tail endplates has trenches. Strange, but I guess the only way to tell is to compare it with a Matchbox original! Anyway, gluing the nose sections and half the bomb bay doors on together with an extra support in the middle of the bay before joining up the fuselage halves seems to have worked for me and the joints are not perfect but pretty good, though I did have to do a fair bit of adjusting before the glue set. 

 

As Graham said it may not be too accurate but it seems to be going OK so far. I will be replacing the horrible props though and maybe reducing the size of the spinners.

 

Good luck with your build.

 

Pete

Hi Pete,

 

I am getting started as we speak. The joins on the fuselage are in danger of being stepped dependant on how you align them. I have glued the bomb bay floor in to help the dry fitting in doing and have inserted all the clear internal parts. 

 

It's  odd that many of MBs  kits have raised lines and trenches. The Spitfire I'm working on is the same. I may sand of the raised lines, and partially fill the trenches, as they are quite deep on my example.

 

I'll post up some pics later. 

 

Cheers Greg 👍

[GREG DESTEC]

7 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Greg

Have you had a chance to look at your Halifax yet ?

Cheers Pat

Hi Pat,

 

It's just been started, no slacking from me mate. The Spitfire is getting paint too.

 

Cheers Greg 😁

[TonyW]

I'll be following along closely here, the Halifax is a particular favourite of mine.

 

I've never built a Matchbox one, but that could well change in the near future. Seeing two getting started in the GB has rekindled my interest in the plane.

I'm more used to the Airfix version, the early Mks look like a different plane altogether to me. Fascinating stuff.

[GREG DESTEC]

Hi Tony,

 

I had only built the Airfix one previously. The MB kit is a bit more involved with a bomb bay and interchangeable nose and turrets. 

 

The only thing about The kit I am dubious about, apart from the trenches, is the thickness of the wings. 

 

I'm well on with the Spitfire so this one should get more attention at the weekend.

 

Cheers Greg 🍺

[Graham Boak]

Greg: There is a lot to be dubious about with the Matchbox Halifax.  The shape of the nose, the clumsiness of the turrets and guns, the shape of the engine cowlings, the crude lumpiness of the secondary intakes, the thickness of the propellers, the undersized undercarriage legs, too wide uppersurface to the ailerons, non-asymmetric canopy.  I'm not sure about the shape of the cowling fairings on the upper wing.

 

Peter.  The thin but clean fuselage, very floppy on initial assembly, is original Matchbox.  It stiffens up with the bombbay in place.  I don't recall doing anything with the spinners.

[PeterB]

Hi Graham,

 

You are certainly right about the props and the cowlings. I still need to do a bit more research but I know there seem to have been at least two configurations for the front of the engines - the kit provides one version for the B I/II and another for the GR II but I believe it is more complicated than that. Late B.I and also B.II seem to have had an oil cooler intake added underneath the main radiator, and that radiator also came in 2 versons - Gallay and Morris. Also the exhausts/shrouds changed more than once. As to the props I think I might replace them with some left over from when I did my Lincoln conversion using a second mould Airfix Lancaster. Probably not quite right but a lot closer than the kit ones. On my old DIY conversion I used the Airfix Halifax props with plunge moulded spinners, but I now realise they had the wrong direction of rotation - Hercules engine powered props apparently went the opposite way round to Merlin ones but I had very few pics back then!

 

Greg - I will post more on this in my own build thread when I have finished reading up on it - it may be of use in your build if you decide to modify the kit a little.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[Graham Boak]

There were three intake/cowlings on the Merlin Halifax.  The Mk.I ser 1 and ser 2 had a deep angled intake, which is not represented by anyone, for the Merlin X.  Texts suggest that an additional intake was added underneath for the oil cooler, but studying the photos it appears that in fact the cowling was "shrunk" to give a smaller opening, for the Mk. 1 ser 3, the Mk.II and Mk.V. both series 1 and 1(Spec) fitted with Merlin XXs.   Finally the Gallay drum radiators were abandoned and Morris block radiators fitted, in the Mk.II/V ser.!a for the Merlin 22.  The shape of the tailfins and the nose did not affect the official name of these variants.  Matchbox make attempts at the second and third.   If you are prepared to spend some time sanding and sharpening up the intake fronts than you get a fairly good appearance. 

 

The attempts at an ideal exhaust are sufficient to fill at least a small book, but it isn't clear to me how many are seen on operational aircraft, I think unshrouded, shrouded, and fishtail before the eventual "gilled" one seen only on very late examples  - the Matchbox is a crude attempt at the most commonly seen variant.  Something to check on the particular aircraft you are modelling rather than the variant.

 

The Merlin engines go the wrong way round compared to pretty well everything contemporary.  The RAE eventually declared a rule that future engines should go the more usual way around rather than the RR way.  I've no advice on better props, other than the unobtainable Aeroclub?  There was a good set of auxiliary intakes - was this White Ensign too or Freightdog?

[GREG DESTEC]

Morning all,

 

The Halifax is underway now and i have decided there will be every little adaptations made to my build. I am largely just building it OOTB. There appears to be a lot of inaccuracies all over the place with this kit, which trying to correct, for me, would be beyond my meagre skills set, so i will enjoy gluing plastic together and see what comes out the other end!

 

I have an edition of Flypast that has a walk round of the YAM restoration/recreation so i will refer to that for any bits and bobs i may add, which will likely be in the pit, particularly the lower half as i am building the GRII version with the glass nose. 

 

Anyway here are some progress shots for your amusement. The last ones show the airframe loosly taped up to give you an idea of how large the model is. I have put  Bf 109 on top for an idea of comparison.

 

TFL, Cheers Greg  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rabbit Leader]

Yes, she’s a big kit that Halifax and always looks impressive no matter which way you build it Greg. Looks like you might need a larger work bench too, there’s not much elbow room on that small table. Nice update mate. 
Cheers.. Dave 
 

[GREG DESTEC]

33 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Yes, she’s a big kit that Halifax and always looks impressive no matter which way you build it Greg. Looks like you might need a larger work bench too, there’s not much elbow room on that small table. Nice update mate. 
Cheers.. Dave 
 

Cheers Dave 🍺

 

More progress soon. Bench permitting 🙂