1:72 Hudson I/II

From an airliner to a patrol machine

The Lockheed Hudson came about by converting a civil twin-engine transport, which the British ordered even before the war broke out. It served with Coastal Command, searched for submarines and escorted convoys. It made its mark twice over: it was among the first machines to shoot down an enemy over the home islands, and in 1941 it forced a German submarine to surrender on the surface, which is a unique episode in the history of aviation.

Small windows, where a brush loses

From its civil origins the fuselage kept a row of small windows in the side, and with them a cockpit with divided panes. In 1:72 one such window is about a millimeter across, so the thin frame between the panes comes out narrower than the track of an ordinary brush. That is exactly why pre-cut film wins here: the frame stays straight and the same width along its whole length. The package carries film for the outer side of the glazing and one insignia mask.

• Subject: a British twin-engine patrol and reconnaissance aircraft
• In the package: glazing film and one insignia mask
• Meant for the kit by MPM in the scale given
• The film follows the width of the frames, which is unreachable with a brush
• No decals and no inner glazing mask

Apply the largest pane first and work from it toward the small panels. Tweezers with smooth jaws help more than fingers, because small pieces of film crease easily. Apply the paint from a greater distance and lightly, so that the edge does not lift. Before taking the masks off, run a pointed tool along the joint so that a piece of dry paint is not torn away.