Hawker 100th: Hasegawa Typhoon lB Bubbletop (late) 1/48
Hawker Aircraft is now a century old, so for this GB celebration build I chose Hasegawa's venerable Typhoon Mk Ib Bubbletop kit that's been sitting on my Shelf of Doom since the late 90's when it was issued and I just had to have one. Typhoon markings are typical RAF and not all that exciting with the exception of black and white bottom wing ID stripes and fuselage D-Day stripes options. I decided to keep it simple and just use the kit decals replicating scheme 2, SF-Z JR2671, a late model Canadian Tiffie of the 137th squadron then operating out of Eindhoven, Netherlands in the fall of 1944
Hasegawa provides absolutely no information on Tiffie 2671 other than to mention it was stationed at Eindhoven. After digging around and getting some great leads from fellow iModeler Michael Turner @michaelt, who is also building a Tiffie, JR2671 was most likely a replacement plane used by several Canadian pilots but was not anybody's personal mount. The plane suffered fire damage in an earlier Luftwaffe bomb raid and was completely destroyed when the Germans returned to the Allied base at Eindhoven on New Years Day, 1945 that killed Pilot Officer Arthur Barrow as he was taxing 2671 to the dispersement depot.
Here is the only photo of 2671 I could find. It shows fire damage to the fabric areas of the plane from the earlier attack. Note the prop spinner is missing and the burned fabric but everything else still functioned.
Hasegawa doesn't make these kits easy to build because they insist on using irritating fuselage inserts which requires a lot of care, filler and rescribing to get them to blend in with the rest of the fuselage. The trick is to install them separately to their corresponding fuselage halves and tidy them up prior to sandwiching the cockpit and halves together. This takes up quite a bit of frustrating time to dial it in just right before you can move on to the next step. Aside from this bump in the road, the rest of the build goes relatively smoothly. The fuselage is designed for an early model IB, three prop but everything is there for the 4-bladed late model. However late model Tiffies used the larger Tempest tailplanes and Hasegawa doesn't provide them. I replaced the kit tailplanes with the excellent Typhoon/Tempest resin stabilizers produced by Ultracast that fit perfectly, ez peasy.
Wheels, seat, gun barrels, and intake dust filter came from Barracuda and Quickboost. Decal roundels from various sources. With all the many modifications that Hawker did to the Typhoon lB as they came off the line, it can get real confusing trying to achieve total accuracy.
Tip of the hat to Erik Gjørup @airbum for organizing the Hawker 100th group build.
If you want to journey down the Tiffie rabbit hole, check out my complete build thread here:
https://imodeler.com/groups/hawker-100th/forum/topic/hasegawa-1-48-typhoon-mk-1b/
Thanks for looking.
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- 1. Tailplane clear lights added using Kristal Clear both sides
Congratulations Eric!
An awesome result, thoroughly researched!
A wonderful build thread too, in fact a joy to follow; a great contribution to the ever growing Hawker100 GB.
Well done!
Thanks for following along and your helpful input along the way, Spiros @five ten.
Wonderful work, Eric! One of my favorite WW2 aircraft!
Nice complement Sebastijan. Thanks very much.
One of your best models here so far Eric @eb801
Great WIP and a tremendous Typhoon, well done
Great compliment Pedro. It was a bit of a pain to get to the finish line, I will say that.
Beautiful model of one my favourite WW2 designs.
Thanks George. But it does lack handlebars and a motor between your legs.
Nicely done, Eric! You gave it a great war time feel.
Thanks. Gary. I tried real hard not to over do it. What a sad ending for this plane and pilot. Blown to smithereens on the final taxi.
Nicely done Eric that's one good looking Tiffy.
Much appreciated Tom @tom-bebout.
Nice work, Eric!
Glad you liked it John @j-healy
@eb801 - Very impressive Eric! The research time you put in definitely paid off.
Thanks Brian @brithebuilder. Down the rabbit hole I went on this Tiffie build. Really slows down the building process.
Great work on this Eric. Camo is nicely executed and you've produced a top notch result
Well, David @dbutir, I thank you very much for looking.
Excellent model EB @eb801! 👍 That Typhoon looks great man, with a very realistic appearance and your careful craftsmanship is evident everywhere I look. 😁 That one would make anyone proud and grace the sharpest display cabinets! 🏆
Good to hear from you Gary @garybrantley. I didn't find this an easy build but I am happy with the outcome for the most part.
🍻 @eb801 You should be happy! 😊
Can you walk like an Egyptian? 😁 Be careful!
Holy Bangles, Gary @garybrantly!
Well done. Very realistic!
Thanks Robert @bsc4849
Great build Eric. Saved a shelf of doom Tiffy. Excellent job on the old Hasegawa kit. Nice one
Glad you liked it Guy @thom. Thanks.
Great work! Exellent paintwork!
Thank you Lis @lis
What more to add than the above compliments, Eric @eb801
This Typhoon is definitely one of your best builds.
Glad to see that you saved it from the shelf of doom.
It was a pleasure to follow your thread, very learningful.
I am always amazed how much I learn from each build. Glad you liked it. I always appreciate your comments, John @johnb
It was a pleasure to follow this on the WIP. Great work, @eb801.
That's a real compliment TC @tcinla. Thanks to your Tiffie builds posted on MM, your suggestions sure saved me a fair amount of grief.
Looks great!
Thank you Greg @gkittinger
Nice job Eric!
Thanks for checking my build out, Bob @v1pro
Very cool, Eric @eb801. A fine build with excellent paintwork and decal application. Convincing weathering, not overdone. I did another SF-Z from the Hasegawa Typhoon IB kit using aftermarket decals - different serial number, mostly obscured by the full stripes. Obviously they recycled the codes with losses to the squadrons. 137 squadron RAF was an interesting outfit with a number of Canadian pilots, they previously flew the Westland Whirlwind before these were phased out to be replaced with Typhoons. The Canadians really liked the Whirlwind but respected the Typhoon for its power. They must have gotten quite used to dealing with the problematic engines on both aircraft. I found it interesting that the Canadians only got to use rockets with the RAF squadrons as all the RCAF aircraft used in ground attack were so-called "bomb-phoons". I hope to do the Airfix 1/24th kit eventually, still waiting in my stash. Thanks for the inspiration.
BTW, you did some impressive research for this build. There's one more book I don't think you mentioned that might interest you. It's Typhoon and Tempest, The Canadian Story by Hugh Halliday. I found the story of my elementary school social studies teacher in there - who we all knew as having flown a Typhoon in the war. Lots of good photographs and accounts of air combat. https://canavbooks.com/products/typhoon-and-tempest-the-canadian-story?variant=39377237868704
Thanks for the extra info and compliments Colin @coling. I got really burned out researching tiffies 1B. I purposely climbed back out of the rabbit hole so I could finish this beast. Note in the photo above at Eindhoven, this SF-Z sported a long range gas tank and two rocket launchers which I would have replicated but I didn't have the tanks. It also appears to be 3 bladed as well. Oh no...here I go down the hole again. Thanks for the book link. I hadn't heard of that title until you mentioned it.
Great build, paint work and weathering. I've had this and the car door version in storage since the kits were first released. Your build is prompting me to finally get to one.
Thanks Dale,@dtravis. Once you get the fuselage inserts dialed in, it goes pretty smoothly.
Go for it.
Excellent rendition of SF*Z. I agree, those inserts are silly, you nailed it by installing them in the fuselage halves separately.
Thanks Chas @chasbunch. That was Tom Cleaver's suggestion to install them in the halves separately. It's the only way to go.
Eric Berg (@eb801)
This has been a great journey. I have learned so much from everyone by reading the comments in your building log.
I sincerely appreciate the extra steps you took to ensure the subject was covered properly. This makes a big difference, especially later on down the road when the build log is used as a reference. (which I plan to do). I have two of these Hasegawa kits in the stash. One is the older "car door" and the other one is a 4 blade prop with the bubble canopy.
But what I have been thinking about doing is building up my 1/32 scale Revell Typhoon, and scratch building some stuff for the cockpit, and possibly the landing gear wells.
It has been a real pleasure to watch you work your magic on this one. She looks great in the headlines section.
Do you have any thoughts about what your next project will be ?
I definitely clicked on the "like" button. Two thumbs up, but only because I don't have 3 thumbs !
Louis @lgardner. Thanks! I’m working on DML’s Ta-152H but it will be a month before I resume as I’m currently away on vacation on the other side of our planet.
I’m still waiting for you to finish that Moskito!
Eric Berg (@eb801)
The Moskito is done, I just have to take pictures and post the article. I have a DML Ta-152 underway too. Great minds think alike. Safe travels !
G'day Eric (@eb801),
It was a pleasure following your build and, as I have said before, learning a lot about the progression of modifications to the Typhoon as your build inspired me to delve deeper into a complex subject.
It is hard to believe that such a transformation of the aircraft occurred under the single mark designation of "Typhoon Ib". Surely they should have been split into Ic, Id, etc!
You have also inspired me to resurrect my two "paused" Tiffy builds, which I will do later in the year.
In spite of the trials, your build has brought the best out of the kit and is something to be proud of.
Congratulations and Liked!
Thanks so much Michael @michaelt. Without your help and information you provided, who knows how this build would have turned out. I agree. Hawker should have marked the entire mk I series b, c, d and so on.