Matchbox 1/72 Hawker Siddeley HS.125/600

MATCHBOX 1:72 HAWKER SIDDELEY HS.125/600

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
Kit Review submitted: 3 August 2009

Kit Details:

Aircraft History:

The development of the Bae HS.125 began on 1961 when a design team at De Havilland, lead by J. Goodwin started work on the DH.125. It was conceived as a civil airliner which could allocate 2 crew and 6-8 passengers and the project, which included many advanced innovations, was shortly called Jet Dragon. Two prototypes were build, the first one having its maiden flight on August 13^th 1962. Both units, each propelled by a couple of Bristol Siddeley Viper 20, absolved an extensive test program, in order to get a certification as soon as possible. During this phase, the first series machine was finished, having Viper 520 engines and augmented span and length.

When eight DH.125 Series I were completed, the new series IA/IB was introduced, which could carry heavier loads due to its stronger Viper 521 engines. De Havilland targeted the US mark from the very beginning, and organized there a wide distribution net and had the 8th production machine traveling through the whole states performing exhibition flights. This strategy proved itself as correct, since till the early 80´s some 60% of the planes build were sold in USA. On that days De Havilland was overtaken by Hawker Siddeley, which built 20 Dominie T.Mk I trainers for the RAF. The HS.125/600, which has its fuselage elongated by 0.94m, can accommodate up to 14 passengers.

The Kit:

Inside the classical Matchbox packing (the one with the window at its rear) there are three sprues (white, red and black -> best Matchbox tradition!) containing 44 styrene parts incl. 2 pilots, one sprue with 5 thick transparencies, a small (suspicious) decals sheet, the instructions and a clear stand (!)…Those were the days, my friend.

The plastic is sturdy, but the surface is not the best I’ve seen on Matchbox kits, showing some roughness around the few engraved panel lines and on the parts which make themselves into the engines. The canopy, as awaited, is thick and has heavy framing. Nevertheless, a few dry fit test reveal no major problems (it must be said: Matchbox kits are mostly an easy build).

Instructions:

A slim and long paper sheet, folded twice. The front side, printed in black and orange (!), brings brief history in five languages, a short list of Pk-1xx series kits, the color table with codes for Humbrol normal and Authentic paints, a few phrases about how to handle decals and the lovely detail painting guide. The reverse side shows the construction through 9 absolutely easy-to-follow steps. The alternatives are wheels up or down, and the access door which can be placed open (although there’s absolutely no interior).

Construction:

First of all I glued the access door closed on the left fuselage side, and also added the cockpit parts: rear blanking, floor and rudimentary seats. Nothing will be seen through the narrow and thick canopy, so that it is no worth to put more detail into the office. I superglued two steel washers onto the rear of the blanking to avoid tail sitting. The passengers windows consist of 4 clear parts which are glued to the fuselage halves from the inside, each part covering three windows. Further, the main wheel wells are just openings on the bottom of the fuselage (!), so that I blanked them with styrene card. After the windows were masked; I sprayed the insides of the fuselage and wings halves with some dark grey, not because this is right but to add some opaqueness to the plastic (remember, this kit is 3-color and will be painted white!). Then the fuselage and the two wings were glued (separately), the nose cone was added, and all was left aside to dry. No major gaps shown.

Each engine consists of five parts: two halves, a blanked exhaust cone, a frontal plate showing “deflectors” and the intake cone. This subassemblies required some heavy filling and sanding. When everything was dry, the wings and the engines were glued to the fuselage, and all gaps filled and sanded on a couple of sessions (corrections being necessary). After this work was finished, I glued the one-piece tailplane and the upper fin section on the top of the main one. The way this is engineered makes it hard to get the right angles/alignment (which I didn’t, dam!); maybe a complete fin with two tailplanes would have been better. Again, more filling and sanding.

Time for painting, hurray! (I hate it to work with white gloss). Since the engines and the leading edges should be silver, I sprayed the whole plane with Revell R90, just to get a first homogenized underground over the 3-color dude. After proper masking was done, I sprayed the fuselage sides and the rudder with Humbrol H15 blue gloss. Normally this blue sections are supplied as decals but I was absolutely sure that this wouldn’t work properly. More trouble free masking and the first white layer was airbrushed. Not only a second, but also a third layer was necessary, due to the dense underlying blue (blue on white would have meant a horrifying masking job). As you can imagine, now the whole paint layer became rather thick, which was very apparently when retiring the Maskol blotches from the fuselage windows (the paint partially pealed off). In hindsight, I will never do things this way again, rather painting with matt white and finishing later with clear gloss lacquers. After proper masking around the engines exhausts was done, I sprayed them with Humbrol 27003 burnt steel metalizer and later polished these sections (before retiring the masks) [*]

Finally, I painted the red gloss area of the rudder by hand. Now I added the landing gear and was ready for decaling (oh, trepidation!). Please read below.

Versions:

1) RAF, N° 32 Squadron, Northolt;

2) Hawker Siddeley demonstration aircraft; both in overall white gloss with a blue gloss stripe on both fuselage sides, silver engines and wing/tailplane leading edges.

Decals:

I will never understand the world of decals. After the very bad experience I had with the decals of the T2C and the F3D, I was really afraid, since I had no spares. The sheet hadn’t yellowed, but…O.K., let’s try them. !Oh, surprise! Would you believe it? They performed superbly, with absolute transparent film and perfect setting. No explanation. Thanks to the Angels of modeling.

Overall:

Well, if you want a HS.125 it must be Matchbox or Airfix. Perfect for a beginner or a weekend project. Recommended on that basis.

References:

“Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aviation”, Aerospace Publishing Ltd London, (Spanish version), Volume 4.

[*] Some negative experiences in the past showed me that the polished metalizer layers should be the last ones you apply, since normal paints will not bond properly onto that surfaces. If anybody knows a better trick (which helps to avoid complicated masking jobs), then please write an addendum. I would be very thankful for a good tip.

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