1/72 Airfix Armstrong Whitworth Whitley GR.Mk.VII - No. 502 (County of Ulster) Sqn - RAF - 1941

 

Depicted as an aircraft flown by  No. 502 (County of Ulster) Sqn , Royal Air Force operating from RAF Limavady, County Londonderry in November 1941.

The Kit

•     1/72 Airfix Armstrong Whitworth Whitley GR.Mk.VII  (Kit No A09009)

Aftermarket

• Master Models .303 Barrels (rear turret)

The Build

Airfix's Whitley was first released in 2015 so its fit is not up to their latest standards.  Fit is not terrible but it does require more effort than I wanted to expend to clean up all the parts prior to fitment. 

Detail in the cockpit is more than adequte for the scale.  I wasn't sure if seatbelts were used, I epxect they were but I decided to just leave them out.

 

Cockpit Bits

Some clamping was needed to align the wings and even more for the engine nacelles

Wing Parts

 

Ultimately if you take your time, dry fit a lot you will get it together without any major steps or misalignment.

 Painting

I reckon the Coastal Command scheme of Dark Slate grey and Extra Dark Sea grey is one of the most attractive schemes going around.

 For the Dark Slate grey I used Tamiya XF22 RLM grey which has the green tone the I think Dark Slate grey seems to have.  

After base coating with XF22 I used some splatter masks and various greens and dark greys to had break up the XF22, A light coat of XF22 is then applied to merge it all in

Base Coat - Tamiya XF22

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The painting guide from the instructions was scaled up (thanks JM) and taped over the model.  When painting with masks like these I use a brush to push down where the mask is sitting a little high.

Paper Masks for the Grey

 

 The underside is SMS Insignia White.  This is my favourite white paint. The flaps and undercarriage bays were masked out and painted interior green (SMS) and Silver (SMS again)

SMS Insignia White

Decaling

Airfix's modern decals are good.  There wasn't many to apply and not a lot of detail for then snuggle into so this didn't take much time.

Decals On

Weathering

Oil paints mixed with odourless thinners were used for the wash. Darker colours like Sepia was used where the control surfaces joined the wings and tailplanes. Lighter greys were used on the underside than on the top.

Weathering was done with oil paints stippled into the surface with a selection of brushes. I even tried adding some rain or moisture streaks on the vertical surfaces.

Rain marks

Top Side Weathering

UnderSide Weathering

Finishing Touches 

Most of the fiddly bits fitted well enough.  The exceptions being the turrets.  I thing the metal barrels for the rear guns upset the fit of the clear parts so a lot of adjusting was needed before I got something I could live with.  The clear part that covers the front turret doesn't fit well. Airfix do point out how to resolve this in the instructions but even after following that fit still wasn't great.  Eventually I decided enough was enough and decided it was good enough.

Conclusion

This build was intended to be relatively quick. Hence I decided to build the kit pretty much straight from the box.

But, after building new Tamiya and Arma Hobby kits, this model brought me back to earth.  A lot of time was spent dry fitting and adjusting things to improve the fit.  This was time well spent however as it was possible to get the parts to fit well enough.  

In the end I am happy enough with the result and happy to have a Whitley in the cabinet. 

The Photos

1/48 Arma Hobby Hawker Hurricane IIC - 11 Sqn RAF - 1944 - Tamu Burma

 

Depicted as an aircraft flown by Squadron Leader Denis Sharp DFC RNZAF based operating from Tamu in Burma in December 1944.

Denis Sharp had quite an interesting career/life flying Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain. He later trained to fly Hurricanes off aircraft carriers before ending up in Singapore in 1942. He flew the last Hurricane out of Singapore before the island surrendered ending up crashing it in Indonesia. 

After reaching Colombo he volunteered for a "special mission" thinking it would get him back in the cockpit but ended up serving with the Chindits as an air-controller directing supply drops.

After the Chindits he served and commanded both 5 and 11 Sqn RAF flying Hurricanes out of India and Burma.  He later flew Corsairs with the RNZAF before rejoining the RAF to fly Meteor, Vampire and Lightning aircraft.  In 1959 emigrated to Australia where he lived out his life.

 If you're interested in more details on him here are some links.

• Sharp / Healy Family Website
• Chindits Loin Cloth Website
  

I wanted to do a SEAC Hurricane IIC with the Tropical Filter because I think it makes the Hurricane look quite brutal.I also wanted to try and do a machine used by a  Kiwi. Quite quickly I stumbled across Denis Sharp (via those 2 websites). 

I found the aircraft serial and code in the Squadron record books for 11 Sqn which I downloaded from the UK national archives.  11 Sqn's records are also typed and very thorough which made it simple to find out what aircraft were flown by each pilot on each day.  This aircraft was flown regularly by Sharp but also by plenty of others.

The Kit

• 1/48 Arma Hobby Hurricane IIc (Kit No 48005)
  
  This was the initial release of this boxing so it had a lovely 3 D printed seat, exhausts and cannon barrels although I chose not to used the barrels

Aftermarket

• Master Models Cannon Barrels

The Build 

There has been plenty written about how good this kit is.  My experience was the same. While not quite a Tamiya kit fit wise, it's not far away. 

My only issue is the large sprue gates which require you to take a bit of care when removing the part from the frame and bit of time to clean up these.  There was also a slight bit of sinkage on the left hand horizontal tailplane join area.

The resin seat included in my kit is an excellent update to the kit.

The instrument panel decal and other cockpit decals look great

Major Sub-Assemblies

 

The fuselage to Wing joint was the best I've experienced.  No gap and no filler needed, just a click fit.

Painting

After priming I painted it all over Mr Color Dark Darth (C369).  My Hurricane Expert (Well Bruce's Scale Models) advised that a hard edged camouflage was the go so I scaled up the instructions and printed them out

 

Masks Scaled Up From the Instructions

 

Working in sections allows you to paint the pattern pretty easily with the aid of some tape.  Mr Color Dark Green (C361) was used for the green.

Dark Green Going Down

Upper Paint completed. A number of different greens and browns sprayed through various splatter masks to add some tonal variation to the finish.

 

Some Tonal Variation

Ready for Markings

Markings

There are no decals for this particular machine but they are pretty simple so I just made masks using the kit decals for the sizing.

To ensure things are aligned correctly I like to make the edge of the masks on the panel lines.I chose kabuki (Ok Washi) sheets over masking vinyl because it's easier to burnish down.

Masks On

The dark blue of he roundel was a custom mix of Tamiya Flat Blue, Royal blue and black. The Light blue is Mr Color Air Superiority Blue (C74) . SMS Insignia White was used for the code letter and Gaianotes German Grey for the serial.

More weathering with the airbrush and splatter masks.  Tamiya XF81 (which I really like for RAF dark green) was used a lot to add some variations. The brown was varied with some random browns to dirty it up.

Masks Off and More Weathering with Splatter Masks

Chipping was done with Hairspray

The Photos