First, a little background on this build. Last Thanksgiving my wife and I were waiting to move into a new house in a new town. The house had been started 12 months before, but thanks to the pandemic, material shortages, and worker shortages, our house still wasn't done. In the midst of all of this, I had commented several times on iModeler that I really liked building old kits, especially those from Monogram and Revell. The next thing I knew, I received a package from Tom Bebout (@tom-bebout) that contained a vintage Monogram Typhoon. I told him that it would be the next thing in my build queue. That's when we found out that our house was going to be ready around Christmas. So, everything went on hold while we packed and moved into our new house. We did all of this between Christmas and New Years. So now, everything is calmed enough that I am putting the Typhoon into the build queue.

I am always looking for something a little different to model. I don't know much about Typhoons, so I was doing a little research to see what I wanted to do. I found a photo of a reconnaissance version of the Typhoon called the Typhoon FR.1B. I was a little surprised, because I didn't know there was a recce version of the Typhoon. There isn't much information on the two recce versions, the FR.1B and the PR.1B. This is probably because there were only 60 of these planes, which were not successful in their mission, and were discontinued. It turns out these planes vibrated so badly that they couldn't take clear pictures. The online information about these planes is sparse, and at times, confused. I found info that said these two planes were the same, just with a different identification. Others said that the two planes had two different camera systems. I finally found info on one of the British sites that came from someone who had first-hand knowledge of these planes. There were actually two different versions based on the cameras they carried. Externally, both planes had their inboard cannons removed to make room for the cameras. The cameras were in one wing, and the opposite cannon was removed to balance the plane. The FR version had a movie camera in a shortened pylon that recorded the results of strike missions as they were going on. These were not popular missions among the pilots. Apparently the strike aircraft would wake the flak sites up, and then the recce plane would follow the last strike aircraft into vigorous enemy anti-aircraft defense. In any case, the plane's vibration made the film and photos somewhat less than useful.

I decided it would be fun to try and build one of the Typhoon FR.1Bs. The conversion would be pretty simple. and the paint scheme was identical to the other Typhoons. I looked in my stash and found I had some True Details photoetch designed for this kit. This PE set is truly from the dawn of PE technology, but it is designed for this kit and should make it look a lot better. I think I can piece the decals together from my stash, so off I go on my latest adventure.

5 additional images. Click to enlarge.

Amazing kit, George @gblair
A beautiful aircraft of which I also didn't know there was a reconnaissance version.
The PE will add a lot of details.

Golden oldie, George! That’s still a great kit.

Amazing progress, my friend @gblair! The cockpit looks superb after the PE addition and your scratch building. Prop looks great too!

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and John (@johnb). Nothing too demanding, so far. This has been a fun build.

Really great research, George @gblair
Looking forward to your scratchbuilded gunsight.

Indeed, amazing research, my friend @gblair!
I too find it great to research a subject deeply, the small numerous details that emerge upon researching are really engaging!

Really making the most out of an ancient kit. Nice work on your cockpit, it is looking really good.