Airfix 1/72 Handley Page 0/400

AIRFIX 1:72 HANDLEY PAGE 0/400

Reviewer: Erwin Bovyn (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 15 January 2006

Kit Details:

Kit : Handley-Page 0/400

Manufacturer : Airfix

Scale : 1/72

Type : Injection moulded

Paint : Humbrol

Accessories : Airwaves, Reheat Models, scratch

Documentation : Scale Models International May 1984.

: Airfix Magazine Octobre 1984.

: Scale Aviation Modeller International (SAMI) May 2005.

: Airplane Vol 12 nr 134.

Aircraft History:

As soon as WW1 changed into a trench war, it became clear that England would need a long distance bomber capable of carrying a heavy load of bombs over a long distance. Strange enough, this demand came from the Royal Navy who was the first to see its use and demand its development. The growing U-boat threat and the fact that U-boat hangars were situated on German territory will have been a major source of worry and a reason for the demand.

Handley-Page developed the 0/100 to be followed by the 0/400, a twin engine aircraft capable of transporting a big load of bombs on the inside of its body or one massive bomb on the outside.

In 1918, the US Air Force placed a big order for more than 600 aircraft of this type but the end of the war saw this order cancelled for the major part. Some survivors were rebuild as civilian liners but unfortunately not one of these military or civilian types has survived the age of time.

The Kit:

I think this kit was first released around 1968 and made its first appearance in the Airfix catalogue. The kit I bought was re-issued in the ’80s having a new box-art but with nothing changed to the contents or the decals.

All parts are moulded in dark green plastic, easy to work with but sometimes very fragile.

The construction plan provides a rigging scheme for both main wings, not for the tail section. Wings are provided in the form of an upper and lower wing half with pre-drilled holes to pass the rigging.

A major black point to this kit is the massive amount of ejector marks that can be found everywhere, especially on the inner hull parts.

I had always wondered why I had never seen these kits at events, in fact I think I ever only saw one of them but the kit provided me the answer to that question during its construction.

For those who are really interested in details concerning the build of this kit, I would like to refer to the description of it on the following site: www.ipms.gent.be

Click on “Columns”, search for the article and click on the flag of your language. You can read the article in Dutch, French and English.

Construction:

Wings:

Each wing comes in 2 parts, an upper and lower part. After reading the different articles on the building of this model in the above-mentioned magazines, it became clear that sanding these wings is an absolute must. It’s almost necessary to sand the complete upper side of the wings, they should almost be flat. I sanded them smooth but could not resist leaving a little bit of the wing structure so that it still looked like it was there; its good for the eye of the believer.

The main wings could be folded backwards to save place when the aircraft was stored or needed repairs. Wanting to represent this meant that parts of each upper and lower wing, where they join, had to be cut away so that they could be replaced by a canvas look-alike in a later stage. Make sure that all cut away parts are in the same angle on each wing.

The main wing supports need to be checked out for ejector marks. Once finished we can start gluing the upper part of the lower wing, the wing supports and the lower part of the upper wing together. Part of the rigging holes has been forgotten by the manufacturer, the X between the main wing supports standing behind each other.

This wing part will than receive its rigging.

Rigging.

The rigging plan is very simple and very easy to do. I used nylon fishing wire that has the advantage of being stretched very easily and to have a high breaking resistance.

Cabin and cockpit:

The inner sides of both hull sides show a lot of ejection marks and they all need to be cut or sanded away. I painted the canvas sides of the interior Clear Doped Linen and used a dark colour wood for the supports. The reproduced internal strengthening cables are painted gunmetal.

The wooden floor plate that will serve as base for cockpit and nose needs some adjusting. The bomb aimer receives a separate hatch and some flat pieces must be added on the bottom.

Windows are discarded and replaced by clear plastic sheet.

Important thing to do is to add a second seat to the cockpit. The pilot’s seat is reduced in size so that a second one made scratch can be added next and a bit lower to it; both receive seat belts. The right hand side of the cockpit receives a few cables and a handle found in an Airwaves WW1 set. The dashboard got bezels from Reheat Models.

Fuel tanks and bomb bay.

Two fuel tanks are provided and these will not be seen after positioning but they are very important regarding the strength of the kit. The hull is formed of four flat plates and not of two body halves as on other aircraft models. These fuel tanks do not only provide the correct width of the body, they provide it strength.

A bomb rack is fitted beneath these fuel tanks and eight bombs are provided in the kit. You can position them hanging from the rack unless you want to build the other version with the spectacular looking big bomb.

Rear gunner’s position.

No problems in its construction, painted in dark wood colour.

Hull assembly and lower tail plane:

The construction plan suggests fixing the bottom plates to the right body side before putting the other sides together. I was not pleased with the result and glued the left side to the fuel tanks already mounted on the right side. That way, the exact body width was kept and the floor plates were supported both sides. It was left to dry overnight before the top body plate was fixed.

Take care to ensure the tail plane is mounted horizontal.

Tail:

Once again a lot of cleaning-up to be done on the struts and do take the time to let it all dry. The construction plan does not mention any form of rigging at the tail but it is an absolute must. It’s rather complicated and time consuming but fairly logical on biplanes.

Central wing parts:

Cockpit protection, wind generators, handrails and underside hatch better wait till the central wing parts are mounted.

The lower central wing part consists of one part including the bomb bay opening and the lower wings. It is extremely important to position this part in a correct way because the correct alignment of the wings will depend on it.

The upper wing parts have pre-drilled holes so that rigging can be put through it.

Once done, they can be positioned and adjusted so that they make a nice unit with the hull.

When all this was done, the other parts except for the cockpit protection, could be mounted.

Engines:

Two engine halves and two rear pieces, one of them provided with what looks like cooling openings, form each engine. The radiator needs good cleaning and adjusting. I opted not to fix the propellers immediately. Both engines receive exhaust pipes both sides, drilled at the end and painted rust.

The engines are “floating” between the wings; they do not make part of a wing. Each engine receives five supports connecting it to the lower wing (2), hull (2) and upper wing. The upper wing connection is provided with some kind of horizontal ladder hanging above the engine. This acted as a kind of platform for the mechanics and will later receive separate rigging.

Hull and lower wing have location holes in which the supports can be fixed. Those on the lower wing are a bit tricky because they are located just at the wing’s edge. The most rear support on each wing also needs to share its location with the last wing support.

Central wing parts.

When dry, the lower part of the central wing can be glued onto the struts on the hull and those above the engine and behind of it. Take care of the correct alignment and leave to dry. Do not fix the rigging until the unit has dried and has its correct alignment. When good, the upper part can be cemented and adjusted.

Fixing wings to body:

I opted to spray paint both wings and the hull assembly before starting to fix the main wings. That way, I could handle smaller parts when spraying. On the other hand, I knew from before that repainting the wing joins would be necessary.

Fitting both wings did not bring many problems except for a few small adjustments but the main thing to look for is that both wing ends must be fixed in an up going angle; they can not stay horizontal.

Once dry, it became time to replace the wing parts that had been cut in stage 1. I drilled two small holes in each cut out triangle at the wing join and inserted two pieces of metal wire, one facing left the other facing right. Next, I cut triangular pieces out of a paper napkin and glued them onto the wing and the metal wire using diluted white glue.

Landing gear and trolley:

Be careful when cutting these pieces from the sprue.

Tyres are painted dark grey, the landing gear itself is painted RFC Green.

The tailskid can be inserted on a trolley, also provided in the kit.

The complete trolley in RFC Green with a light wash. Do not cement the skid support.

Painting:

Rather simple, only one colour, RFC Green, a colour that has been discarded from the Humbrol range. RFC Green is a khaki colour with a brown tint in the green.

The cockpit protection is painted leather. Plans and pictures show different ways to paint the propellers, some texts even stating that these were partially canvas covered. I stayed with wood brown and painted them entirely that colour with steel propeller disks. Machine guns in gunmetal.

Decals:

I opted for the WW1 version with the two-tone cockades. I first prepared the surfaces with a coat of gloss varnish, than cut them out as much as possible and fixed them using Humbrol decal Cote 1 & 2. Once dry, they were sealed with a coat of matt varnish.

Finishing Touches:

First of all: control, repair and (re) positioning of the rigging where needed.

Next is the construction of balances on the under and upper sides of the big upper wing flaps. These balances are not provided in the kit; they are made from Evergreen profiles and are connected with wing and flap using fine copper wire.

Engines receive a light dry-brush at vents and radiator. I mentioned in stage 10 that each engine had some kind of working platform above it. This platform was secured by cables and I would like to refer to the IPMS Gent site for description of the rigging.

The complete aircraft can receive a coat of matt varnish once pitot tube, bomb aimers hatch, armament, cockpit protection and the two windscreens are mounted.

Conclusion:

This HP certainly is not an easy kit to build unless the fact that the rigging of the main wings can be described as rather easy; I would only recommend it to modellers with experience in rigging, building and detailing WW1 biplane models.

The kit shows its age and demands quite some attention, sanding and time to dry but I think the result is quite worth it and I am glad I finally dared to build it.

Keep ‘m building,
Erwin Bovyn
IPMS Gent (B).

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