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Reviewer: Simon Skinner (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  13 May 2004

Aircraft History:

The Hawker Typhoon was one of a couple of aircraft developed primarily as the Hawker Hurricane replacement (the other was the Hawker Tornado) and first flew in February 1940.  The plane was troubled by engine problems, although they were not as severe as those of the Vulture engine whose failure ended the Tornado program. The Typhoon also had a structural weakness in the rear fuselage that was not fully cured until after it entered service in September 1941.

It's main role was envisaged as a fighter, but attributed mainly to its poor rate of climb, the Typhoon was very disappointing in this role and soon the RAF were looking at employing it in other tasks.  This is where the Typhoon found a niche, in the fighter-bomber role, and during the last two years of the Second World War it equipped some 26 Squadrons of the 2nd Tactical Air Force.  One of its most famous and successful tasks was as a tank buster/killer during the final defeat of Germany.  Soon after the war ended the type was retired from service after some 3,270 Typhoons were built.

The Mk.IB version was regarded as the definitive fighter-bomber variant with four distinctive wing mounted cannons, and underwing weapons including light bombs and rockets, built in three series equipped with different Sabre II powerplants, IIA, IIB and IIC.  

The Kit:

Recently bought out another modeller’s stash and the crumpled box of this kit was amongst them.  Not having previously had experience with High Planes kits, but having heard a fair bit about them (both poor and good stuff) I decided to open it up and build up the kit.  Inside the box are thickly molded short run plastic parts in a sickly pale blue colour along with a very clear vacform canopy (nope, no spare) from Falcon, resin parts for the armament and white metal for the undercarriage.  My first real foray into short run multi media!  The parts are certainly short run with a fair bit of flash to clean up and you will need some sharp sprue cutters to get them off without damaging them.  The surface detail is variable, some parts have quite well defined engraved detail whilst other areas, particularly the fuselage, lack any real surface detail to write home about.

Instructions:

The instruction sheet is an A4 double sided sheet with two assembly steps that will be adequate for the more experienced modeller, but possibly confusing for the less initiated.  There’s some text accompanying it to assist and to also advise that the modeller will be required to do some work during instruction – let that be a warning to you!  Inset diagrams are provided for cockpit and undercarriage profiles and a reasonable colours and marking diagram is also provided for the versions offered in the kit.  Basic and generic colour information is provided to assist.

Construction:

Before construction can begin on any of the sub assemblies, the parts need to be very carefully removed from the thick sprues and then prepared, which means sanding off the flash and rough edges, thinning down the thickness on some of the parts and removing ejector pin lugs and the like.  

The cockpit was where the first stage of construction began, and test fitting revealed that I was in for a horrid time getting the small amount of stuff supplied jammed in between the fuselage halves.  I spent considerable time trimming and sanding until the seat, floor, panel and stick would fit.  All the parts are oversized.  Scratchbuilding would be the way to go as my sculpturing efforts could later be seen through the clear canopy!  Talking about see through, I noticed that there is no blanking plate behind the intake, so one has to be scratchbuilt and added lest you have a direct view through the intake to the cockpit.

The fuselage halves can be affixed together and all the trimming and work in the cockpit meant they would fit together quite well.  I am not sure from the instructions whether the propeller shaft and stopper should be inserted in place before the halves go together, but I had already made up my mind to have a fixed, non moveable propeller which I would add after completion of painting.

The wings presented the next major challenge for the project.  Test fitting revealed misalignment with the upper and lower halves as well as a poor fit onto the fuselage.  I shaved off all the locating pins and affixed the wing halves together and found also that the wing edges needed considerable thinning.  To add the cannons you must also drill out locating holes in the wings leading edge, which I did before affixing to the fuselage, and this was no easy task.  The fit to the fuselage is poor and will not align up correctly, so more sanding until I could achieve a reasonable fit and then fill the large unsightly resultant gaps afterward.  I am not sure whether it was my doing or a fault of the kit (I honestly think the latter) but the wings dried with the wrong dihedral.

Adding the tailplanes and rudder were also challenging and the rudder in particular needed a fair bit of sanding and filing work to thin it and enable it to affix properly and without a step to the tail fin.  The canopy was carefully trimmed and put into place and I found it fit well.  This needs to be done before painting as the windscreen overhangs the fuselage slightly.  

Versions/Decals:

The kit allows for three versions to be produced, two from the RAF and one from the RCAF in the standard dark green, ocean grey and medium grey camouflage schemes.  The decal sheet provides only the essentials and are fairly thin and on the whole quite well printed, although my opinion of the sky codes were that they were a touch too green and the red on the roundels too scarlet.  The decals responded well to decal setting solution and once sealed in with a varnish showed virtually no silvering.

Accuracy:

Overall the accuracy of this kit to my assessment is quite acceptable.  The measurements to scale are within 1 or 2 mm to my reckoning and not out of proportion.  Whilst it certainly captures the brutish look of the Typhoon I didn’t have any scale plans to provide a more accurate assessment of the kit, however I thought the dihedral of the wing as mentioned above was wrong and the whole propeller assembly looks a bit too pointed in my opinion.

Overall Recommendation:

This kit is certainly not for the faint hearted modeller as it requires considerable work and persistence to achieve a decent result at the end.  I certainly found the whole experience a huge challenge that bordered on being a chore and it nearly found its way into the disposal unit a couple of times.  With that said, it could be that I am not really cut out for these types of challenging kits and perhaps I just don’t have the skills or nouse to achieve a really good finish from a kit such as this one.  Needless to say it is one for the experienced modeller only.  Perhaps I scored one of High Planes earlier efforts as this kit did not match up to my expectations of the reasonably good reputation I had thought of them, and therefore perhaps my judgement in not wanting to rush out and buy another High Planes kit any time soon is clouded by my experience on this one.  Whatever the case I would leave it up to you to decide for yourself and can only pass off my experience.  I therefore can only recommend this kit to those who want a real challenge and know what they are getting themselves into.  As there are plenty of, in my opinion, superior mainstream offerings of this kit out there on the market, I cannot really recommend this one at all.

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