As I'd mentioned
at the end of a previous post I'd had a few issues when building Airfix's 1:72 Hawker Typhoon.
The issues centered around the base of the
wings, the flexible nature of this piece had meant that when it came to
fitting the wheel covers, to depict the aircraft in flight, they
wouldn't fit without considerable trimming and so looked quite untidy.
Out of curiosity I decided to open up another kit and see if they would
actually fit prior to assembly and, as shown in the picture below, they
clearly did.
This
got me thinking, maybe there was a another way to build this kit,
starting with the lower wings so I didn't make the same mistake again.
And while I was at it, I'd photograph each step and share.
The Build
The first step was to attach the cockpit floor and the wheel wells to lower section of the wings. The wheel covers were then inserted from the other side. As I'd already established, the fit was perfect.
I then attached one side of the fuselage to lower wing piece and fixed the air intake into the correct position. From here on in I continuously test fitted the other side of the fuselage and the top side of a wing. In order to make sure the fuselage fitted there was a slight bit of filing required at the rear of the air intake and each time it snapped into place which meant care had to be take when removing it.
Next I assembled the cockpit on the half of the fuselage that wasn't attached to the wings. I remove the locating pins that would fix into other side as they weren't really need. This was because I continued test fitting to make sure everything was in place and that it hadn't moved from the correct position. Once the glue had set the cockpit was painted. If you're adding the pilot, as I was, then you will see next to nothing, especially given that Typhoon cockpits were painted black inside.
Once the pilot had been put in place, (I filled away his back and cut off his feet to make him fit cleaner), it was time to glue the second side into place. Just make sure the tail wheel and the clear light to the base of the aircraft have been put in place.
After allowing time for the glue to set I moved onto the wings. The gun bays were put in place, but as I was doing an in flight model these would be covered up by the top halves of the wings. I also made sure I drilled out the holes for the rockets launchers as there's no indication of their position of the exterior side of the wing.
And there we have it, both the top halves of the wings attached without any issues. I then added the flap to the base of the air intake just to finish things off. The instructions tell you to do this when joining the two halves of the fuselage but on both builds I found it to be far too awkward. It's much easier just to remove one the pins and slot it in later.
A minor bit of filling was required, the join at the base of the air intake is not the best. But after that it was all ready for some paint to be applied and that will be my next build post.
