1:48 Hawker Typhoon IB

Five faces of one fighter-bomber

While most sheets for the Typhoon stay with home bases, this one reaches farther. Besides machines from southern England it also carries an aircraft operating in Africa at the beginning of 1943, which with this type is a fairly rare episode. The Typhoon was designed for European skies, and in a warm climate its already demanding engine put up with things even worse.

The list of the machines printed:

• the aircraft with the code B, a serial from the R series, Africa, the beginning of 1943
• the machine of No. 257 Squadron, squadron commander Fokes, Warmwell, August 1943
• the Typhoon of No. 187 Squadron with the code EL-C, Appledram, June 1943
• the aircraft of No. 486 Squadron with the code SA-F, Tangmere, June 1943
• a second machine of the same squadron, code SA-H, Tangmere, December 1942

The squadron numbered 486 was a New Zealand unit and belonged to those that patrolled the coast with Typhoons against low-level raids. Two of its aircraft on one sheet allow a pair of models to be built with the same unit code letter and a different aircraft letter, which is rewarding for a display case.

December 1942 on the last line of the list is the oldest of the subjects and matches the time when the type was only just earning the confidence of its crews. Photographs from that winter show a surface markedly darker than the machines had a year later, and that is worth bearing in mind when choosing colors.

A note on the build: with the winter machine of December 1942 it is worth considering heavier wear to the paint, because on this type the leading edges of the wings were scoured by grass and by the gravel of field strips.