1:72 Hawker Typhoon IB

From a failed interceptor to a hunter of ground targets

The Hawker Typhoon entered service with a bad reputation. As a high-altitude interceptor it disappointed, and troubles with the Napier Sabre engine and with the strength of the rear fuselage cost pilots their lives. The type found its place elsewhere: at low altitudes, where its four 20 mm cannons and its bomb-carrying capacity made the squadrons an instrument against railway stations, columns and vessels in the Channel.

Three aircraft of the year 1943

The first possibility worked up is JP496 with the letters HH-W of No. 175 Squadron, as it looked in August 1943 at Lydd in southern England, where the unit was commanded by Sqn Ldr R. T. P. Davidson. The second variant is DN473 with the code OV-E of May of the same year, and the third DN406 with the marking PR-F of No. 609 Squadron of March 1943. All three fit into the same period, when the units were moving from patrol activity to systematic attacks on targets beyond the coastal line.

The color base under the print

The day fighter scheme of 1943 stood on a dark green and gray pattern on the upper surfaces over a light gray underside, completed by a light band around the rear fuselage and a propeller spinner in the same color. It is precisely across this band that the fuselage letters run, so the masking has to be finished and dry before the decals come to it.

What to watch out for during the build

In this period Typhoons wore conspicuous recognition stripes on the underside of the wing, so that the anti-aircraft defenses would not confuse them with German Focke-Wulfs. The stripes belong to the spray job, not to the print, and it is sensible to mask them before the fuselage letters are settled. Lay the motifs themselves on gloss, so that no air gets under the film, and draw the excess water off with soft paper in a stroke from the center toward the edges.