Car Door Incident - Hasegawa 1/48 Hawker Typhoon

Started by Editor · 77 · 2 hours ago
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    Editor said 1 week, 5 days ago:

    Yes Pedro @holzhamer, they were similar, but not quite the same as the ones used in Hurricane IIc. Indeed, I have even contemplated using the very nice 3-d printed resin cannon issued by Arma Hobby as an accessory to their 1/48 Hurricane kit. Learnings: the cannon barrels are all the same, overall length good, but the shrouds on the Typhoon were much more substantial, presumably due to a much thicker wing. That's why I finally opted for Master Model guns, they are perfectly sized, while the installation process will likely be the same for metal or resin bits. Hope this helps!

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    Editor said 1 week, 5 days ago:

    @fiveten, @johnb Thank you! Sometimes, one gets nerdy about one's own work so it is reassuring to hear that other people also appreciate the difference! 😀

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 week, 5 days ago:

    Wow, Martin (@editor), this is really looking great. The work on the cannon is impressive. It's awesome to have the patience and skill to add the new cannons to the wings without messing them up. Well done.

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    Pedro L. Rocha said 1 week, 4 days ago:

    @editor
    Makes sense Martin, guess I’ll have to add one of those MM sets on my next shopping cart then.
    Thanks for the detailed information, hope to see the next steps of your build soon

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    Editor said 1 week, 4 days ago:

    Thank you, George @gblair

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    Erik Gjørup said 1 week, 4 days ago:

    happy to find this one resuming production after correct parts has been found. Always a pleasure to find some well fabricated AM parts.

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    Editor said 1 week ago:

    Thanks, Erik!

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    Editor said 3 days, 23 hours ago:

    A deficiency of the Hasegawa kit are its barebone wheel wells. Back in the 1990s, wheel wells were generally moulded integral with the lower wing, resulting in "artificial" sidewalls which for the most part, would be an acceptable compromise. Or so I thought starting this kit.

    But for the cavernous wheel wells of the Typhoon, this simplification really sticks in the eye - that is, if you choose to care :D. The sidewalls are bare, and also unnaturally curved - the real wheel well was more of a rectangular box. The half-embedded oxygen tank looks odd.

    Had I known how much work I'll be putting into this project, I might have invested in the resin wheel wells from CMK. But this would have required a major surgery to the wing, weakening its structure and posing fit challenges. And besides, I don't like working with large resin bits.

    So the question has been what to do as an alternative. Being confined to the size & shape of the kit-provided wells, adding some relief detail felt like a second-best option. The most prominent part of this operation would be emulating the wing spar structure at the forward end of the well.

    Luckily, I am a new owner of a Silhouette Portrait cutter, so I decided to design the spar trusswork on my computer and have it cut by the machine in black 0.2 mm sheet styrene.

    After three attempts, the result was quite satisfactory in shape, dimensions and fit, and I'd say it even had some finesse!

    Here is the trusswork glued in position. An improvement over the kit for sure, and it goes a good way towards hiding the curved part of the sidewall.

    After some additional detailing with plastic card, here are the detailed wheel wells, sans some cabling.

    Lastly, here are the wheel wells after the application of primer.

    I'm happy with the result! Is it true to the original? I'd say 60%. Convincing? Probably 80%, or please tell me what you think!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 3 days, 22 hours ago:

    Those wheel bays do look amazing, Martin @editor
    I can imagine you're happy with the result. To me it looks very realistic, close to 100%

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 3 days, 9 hours ago:

    The wheel wells look fantastic, my friend @editor!

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    Editor said 1 day, 6 hours ago:

    I spent some additional time detailing landing gear pieces

    There were two types of wheels on the Typhoon. One typically associated with the type (to the right, this is a True detail resin replacement) looked nice, but for the chosen version I needed an early type (left), which thankfully is offered by Eduard in their Brassin range.

    First time on its wheels - glue-less so far, only checking the general look of the model.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 day, 3 hours ago:

    The Eduard Brassins look great, my friend @editor! The Typhoon looks very nice standing on its feet!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 day, 1 hour ago:

    All looking great, Martin @editor
    The general look is already impressive.

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    Carl Smoot said 23 hours, 32 minutes ago:

    Fantastic results so far Martin (@editor). Nice to see some of your work.

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    George R Blair Jr said 14 hours, 39 minutes ago:

    Your gear wells really look great with your Silhouette add-ons, Martin (@editor). My wife uses her Silhouette all the time to make greeting cards, and I have used it to make painting masks for my models. I have never tried to cut plastic on it, but yours came out really nicely.