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Handley Page H.P.42


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Fantasic photos, pity they were not in the IN when I made a search years ago. Many thanks for posting.

Sorry to be a nit picker but:

Four of the a/c ('Eastern') with 2 x two bladed props are H.P.42s. The other four ('Western') with four bladed props are H.P.45s.

So the Airfix H.P. 42 "HERACLES" artwork showing it flying over the pyramids is a figment of their imagination, as the 'Heracles' was a H.P.45 'Westerner'.

Karl.

P.S. With the model it looks like I'll need a heated ball peen hammer. :lol:

You know...that's what I love about this forum...the depth and breadth of knowledge of those present - I hardly think a day goes by which doesn't expand my catalogue of aero-facts! Brilliant - I just need a place to use them on someone else!

Andy

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  • 3 weeks later...
Fantasic photos, pity they were not in the IN when I made a search years ago. Many thanks for posting.

Sorry to be a nit picker but:

Four of the a/c ('Eastern') with 2 x two bladed props are H.P.42s. The other four ('Western') with four bladed props are H.P.45s.

So the Airfix H.P. 42 "HERACLES" artwork showing it flying over the pyramids is a figment of their imagination, as the 'Heracles' was a H.P.45 'Westerner'.

Karl.

P.S. With the model it looks like I'll need a heated ball peen hammer. :lol:

Sorry, late return to this and Karl, you are quite right.

Originally, when Imperial Airways sent their requirements, Handley Page designated the aircraft as HP42 and HP45 to reflect different interior arrangements, props and engines....however, in practice the aircraft were simply referred to as HP-42E or HP-42W

Derek

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You know...that's what I love about this forum...the depth and breadth of knowledge of those present - I hardly think a day goes by which doesn't expand my catalogue of aero-facts! Brilliant - I just need a place to use them on someone else!

Andy

Lol, doesn't seem so effective on the missus :blink:

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Some wonderful pictures - the HP42 is one of my favourite aeroplanes, and I normally only do military subjects. I have built two of the Contrail kits as comissions but would love to get my hands on another, especially now I have these superb pictures as reference. ( I never realised she had Frise ailerons for a start...) Thanks very much for posting them:-)

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  • 2 months later...

These pics are proving invaluable for my HP42 build, taking me off in lots of wonderful detailing directions!

Would anyone know of any interior pics, in particular, the passenger cabins? I have one or two, but the more the merrier!

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Lovely photos, many thanks. Those are really useful.

Just been looking at my new Airfix Swordfish and admiring the quality of the wing detail. Do you think Airfix could be persuaded to do a Swordfish on the HP.42 to 1/72 scale?? Perhaps not, but ...!

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Lovely photos, many thanks. Those are really useful.

Just been looking at my new Airfix Swordfish and admiring the quality of the wing detail. Do you think Airfix could be persuaded to do a Swordfish on the HP.42 to 1/72 scale?? Perhaps not, but ...!

put me down for 1 if they do :please:

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  • 8 years later...

I am just starting to build the 1:144 scale Airfix HP42 HERACLES and was interested to read about the  2 X 2 bladed and 4 bladed props. on the E and W types respectively.

Not surprisingly for an old kit, the decals have degraded and so I will have to find replacements. I understand that specials are produced on demand. Can anyone direct me to a supplier.?

Also I noticed that hand painted colour posters, produced for Imperial Airways in the 1930s, show the company name and aircraft name on the fuselage in blue, whereas the kit has black lettering.

I haven't found confirmation that blue is the correct colour.  It would be nice to have correct decals, so comments welcome gents.

In case I have to get custom made decals, it would also be good to know the font used for the company names, also the font of registration lettering. 

Finally where can I get a 1:144 scale flag showing the cross of St George with the union jack in the top corner. I see this was flown from a  removable staff when the aircraft was on the ground. 

The HP 42 was before my time, but I fondly remember spending time at Croydon Airport in the mid-50s. hence the association.

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The colour of the lettering on Imperial Airways aircraft is a vexed subject.  There are documents in the BA archive which suggest that the lettering on all mainline passenger carrying aircraft was intended to be "Imperial Blue" or "Company Blue", whereas the lettering on other company aircraft (e.g. mail-carriers, those only used for charter) was intended to be black.  I very much doubt that this was strictly adhered to.  The two Avro 652s G-ACRM and G-ACRM, which were very definitely in that second-line category, were almost certainly finished with blue lettering, and left that way when Imperial repainted them.  There are letters in the archive detailing occasionally quite acrimonious  correspondence between Imperial and Shorts because Shorts kept delivering aircraft with black lettering when it should have been blue (definitely the two L.17s, perhaps a number of C-Class boats).  There is more, but it doesn't answer the question.  If there's any record of a resolution to this, I haven't found it.

We're not helped in that the blue is so dark that it is often indistinguishable from black in black-and-white photos - particularly given that many of those will have been taken with a filter on the lens to darken blues to make the sky more interesting.  And there is no record of precisely what colour Company Blue was.  In internal records it is only referred to by that name or by reference to an ICI catalogue number - contact with ICI revealed that catalogue to contain only special mixes for particular customers; numbers issued in chronological order, and beyond that they hadn't kept the records.  As a best guess, Imperial "Company Blue" and BOAC "Corporation Blue" are one and the same colour, but while the 1960s BOAC blue is fairly well documented, there is evidence that it wasn't quite the same colour as that for immediately post-war.  (During the war, lettering on all BOAC aircraft was supposed to be black, with silver outline as necessary, but it seems some painters used blue when it was available...)

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Hi David,

Not a problem with the 1/144 scale Heracles decals, I have them, although not added into my website. But there is a nasty problem; I am not able to send decals straight to NZ because of the current Covid situation. It is the same whith shipments to Australia; I had to send a letter at first to a person living in the UK, who then mailed it to Australia. Just send me an email to arcticdecals[AT]gmail.com .

Regards,

Mika

Arctic Decals

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Evening all,

 

came across this post and was wandering if you guys have seen this old movie called Air Outpost?

 

 

It's quite nice and is showing G-AAUD HANNO going through a night stop at the old Sharjah airport in the 1930's. The airport, build as a fort, is now a small aviation museum know as Al Mahatta Museum and certainly a visit worth should you find your self in the United Arab Emirates one day.

 

Cheers

 

Johnny b 

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