Dirk's Academy Hawker Typhoon 175 Sq

One of the most sexy aircraft of WWII in my humble opinion was the Hawker Typhoon. What an awesome aircraft it was. Its a shame none of these made it into the hands of an American squadron. Not because they would do better with them, not at all. I say that because it would have been cool to see the awesome nose art that could have adorned that wonderfully large nose and intake. Hey, that could be an idea for a future "What if" build.... Hum.

For this next build I will be using the Academy kit and building an aircraft from the 175 squadron.



The Kit







Reference Material



Motto of the 175 Sq

Stop at Nothing

Here is a side by side comparison of the parts. This is not meant to boost one over the other just some of the differences.

Academy Parts. You can see there is much more to the Academy kit when it comes to part. The Academy kit has recessed panel lines



Airfix Parts. You can see there is a lot less parts to the Airfix kit. The Airfix kit has raised panel lines



Here is the Academy Interior, The Academy kit has a bit of detail. Not much but its something



Thanks for taking the time to look at my project.

Till next time, B - Strong

Here is the Airfix Interior. The Airfix kit is void of any detail what so ever but that is not really a bad thing because in the end when assembled you won't really see it anyway. Especially if the cockpit canopy is closed

Great plane indeed, Ill follow along.

Well Its time to start working on the Typhoon. I was thinking about the difference between the two kits again and I decided that the Academy interior was pretty lame so I broke out the tools and set to work.

I started by removing the interior detail with my dremel





Evergreen styrene rod to the rescue



.020 Aircraft Safety wire was used to complete the frame work.





Repainted the interior



Instrument panel



Control stick







Seat and belts added

Back to the build

I got the fuselage halves buttoned up and just like that "POOF" all the interior work is gone. :-D



Wings





Next I moved onto the wings. As I've come to expect with Academy models the detail is pretty decent but not quite enough. Here is the wing from the factory



Here you can see where I opened the ejector ports for the guns. To do this I use some very small and sharp circuit board bits.



Here is the center section of the wing. Again some really nice detail. Nice but not quite enough.



But again compared to our old friend, the Airfix Typhoon, it looks like they didn't even try so I guess we are ahead of the game.



Not a lot is needed and again not much will be seen but I will sleep better at night knowing its there.





Well, thats all for now. Time to get on with life issues. Till next time, B- Strong

Time to apply some color

After the primer was applied we laid down the white for the invasion stripes. If you ask me nothing beats an aircraft with invasion stripes. Well except maybe for some great nose art.



I tried to lay the white down a little uneven to resemble being hand painted on.



Protecting the stripes while Medium Sea Gray is applied



Time for the Dark Sea Gray for the top



Masking for the Dark Green camo



Green applied, now we wait



That's all for now. Thanks for taking the time to look at my project

We are getting there



We turned our attention to some ROCKETS> Oh baby!



Time to finish off the invasion stripes. Nothing looks better on an aircraft then Rockets and invasion stripes



Most people go through many painstaking steps to get their invasion stripes JUSSST right. The reality is that they were usually slapped on with huge plaster brushes and mops.







So to achieve a more realistic look the black stripes were applied with a brush to to give it the appearance of being haphazardly applied.





That's it for now. Till next time.... B - Strong
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After the invasion stripes on the wings were dry I added more to the underside of the fuselage. Also painted the interior of the landing gear bay



Next it was time to do the yellow stripes for the leading edges. To do this I first applied a base of white



So far so good. I've never done this before so I have to admit I'm quite pleased. Next the Yellow.For those not aware putting the yellow over white gives you a brighter color.



Once dry, I had to re-mask and prep for the yellow



Next we attached those really cool rockets to the underside of the wings

The last pic of my last post was a mistake. Here is the view of the installed rockets





Finishing off the interior gear doors with some paint and then a oil based wash.





Attaching the Propeller



Till next time,,,, B - Strong

Tonight I got a little work done on the Typhoon.

First I replaced the red spinner with a black one which was more appropriate for this bird at this period of the war June 1944. Note: the tiny white dot on the spinner doesn’t exist. It must have been part of the flash off the wet paint.



Next I preped the tail for the Sky stripe. To date this kit has had the worst decals I've ever come across. The roundels were like cardboard and the sky stripe fell apart when I tried to put it in place. I admit I was being lazy trying to use the decal stripe but in the end painting the stripe will be far better.



So since the decal for the tail stripe disintegrated when I tried to apply I have no choice but to paint it on. Sure its more work but in the end it should look better even if the decal hadn't disintegrated



ot to bad I'm happy with it.



Then ole man Murphy reared his ugly head. You all know Murphy, right?  he wrote these laws...



It's a shame no build that was going this good should end like this.





Lesson learned, seal the freakin decals BEFORE masking....

Shame, replacement set of decals perhaps? Was looking brilliant, so worth a fix.

nightflier wrote:Shame, replacement set of decals perhaps? Was looking brilliant, so worth a fix.

Its just going to take some time to get them, Not sure the company involved is up and running at the moment and of course postal issues. This will go on the back burner for now while I work on the SR-71 and a F4F4 Wildcat. I'll be posting updates on that one shortly.

The Hawker Typoon is indeed a very sexy aircraft and was well suited to it's 'ground attack' role

You are doing a fine job Dirk.

Shame about the decals

I'm not happy about it but these things happen. We just have to model on

Okay, with new inspiration for this build due to finding replacement decals I set to work cleaning off the old decals.





Once the new decals were in place and dried I applied a gloss coat of Future floor to seal in the decals for good.

Looking good Dirk.

The new decals are in place, The build is completed, You can check out the finished model here:

Completed Build