Author Topic: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III  (Read 1548 times)

Offline Rob Hart

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1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« on: June 09, 2021, 11:42:51 AM »
Revell kit:










Offline DaveB

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2021, 07:32:01 PM »
Great work on your Halifax, Rob -

Beautifull set off on your airfield display too.

Regards

Dave
As we say in fencing, what's the point!

Offline William Adair

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2021, 08:49:05 PM »
Lovely!

Offline macsporran

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2021, 09:05:49 PM »
Very nice. Is that the old Matchbox kit or is it Revell's own tooling?
Sandy

Offline Rob Hart

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2021, 12:50:49 AM »
Thanks. It is Revell's own tooling.

Offline Monty

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2021, 03:37:39 AM »
What a lovely model, Rob! It looks very well detailed and beautifully painted! Well done! Marc.

Offline Alexis

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2021, 11:36:30 AM »
Super job on the paint work Rob , she turned out FANTASTIC  8)


Alexis
Hurra ! , Ich Leben Noch
Body and life is a vessel we use to travel the planet . Femininity is the gift , The miracle comes from what we do with it .

Offline WD

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2021, 01:18:36 AM »
Rob, that is just a beautiful build and the base is fantastic too. Good Lord, how I do love WWII bombers!

How is this kit?  did you run in to any problems?

I'd like to know more about this particular airframe: squadron, date, location, etc.

WD

Offline Early Bird Fan

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2021, 07:55:32 AM »
that's a beautiful looking Halifax, paint work is first class

Offline gedmundson

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2021, 03:05:01 AM »
Really nice Halifax, Rob. Excellent build, and great paint job & finishing.
Cheers,
Gary

Offline Rob Hart

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2021, 05:37:46 AM »
Rob, that is just a beautiful build and the base is fantastic too. Good Lord, how I do love WWII bombers!

How is this kit?  did you run in to any problems?

I'd like to know more about this particular airframe: squadron, date, location, etc.

WD

The model represents an aircraft of 1341 (radio countermeasures) flight stationed at Digri, India in May/June 1945. The markings came from DK Decals 72016 'No. 100 Group RAF'. To convert the kit from a bomber to a RCM aircraft, I fabricated a 2nd ADF 'football' from one of the kit's 250 lb bombs and carved some bomb bay fuel tanks from balsa wood. I made straps for the tanks from some 1/43 race car seat belts. I rescribed all of the panel lines so they would better hold a pin wash and used an Eduard Zoom set for additional cockpit and crew stations details. I used an Eduard canopy/wheel hub mask set and an AML camoflage mask set. The rest of the build was pretty much out of the box.

The kit fit fairly well with the exception of the engine cowl halves. They simply did not match up and, since the seam ran through the middle of the carburetor scoops and the oil coolers, i ended up doing a lot of tricky sanding and re-scribing. The nose transparency is very thick and had a lot of optical distortion. I attempted to minimize that by sanding the interior of the piece with successively finer grades of sanding wands (from 180 grit to 12,000 grit), polishing with plastic polish, and then brushing on a coat of Future. I ended up with less distortion, but a somewhat cloudy clear piece.

The kit lacks two diagonal bracing bars in the aft section of the cockpit transparencies. They are visible and should be added. I missed this detail until after the clear part had been installed and painted. The kit provides all of clear parts for the earlier versions of the Revell Halifax kits and the instructions indicate that some of ones on the sides of the nose that were not present on the B Mk. III are to be installed. The Eduard mask set compounds the error by providing masks for those same windows despite the set being dedicated for the B Mk.III. Check references. The nose gun was a Vickers K, a drum fed weapon with a pistol grip and shoulder stock. The gun provided in the kit appears to have a .50 calibre receiver and grips and a K gun barrel. Some late model Halifax B Mk.IIIs had .50 calibre guns, but in the only photo that I could find of the subject, the nose was covered with a tarp. I went ahead and used the kit gun with a Mini World machined brass barrel. The auxiliary bomb bay doors are represented as scribed lines on the fuselage whereas the lower edges should stand proud of the sides of the fuselage where they transition into the bottom of the fuselage. I didn't address this issue.

Some reviews say the propellors blades do not taper enough from half way the length to the hubs. I couldn't find an image of the propellors that was taken at an angle that confirmed this and left them un-modifed. Some reviews also say that the tire/wheels are too small in diameter. To that end, I bought some aftermarket tires. They turned out to be exactly the same size as the kit tires and had a weird block tread pattern that looked like they belonged on a dirt bike and I ended up using the kit tires.

The paints are all Tamiya Acrylics (save the oil paint washes) matched to mixes that I found on the internet:

Offline Manni

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2021, 01:06:11 AM »
Wonderful work, Rob. I like the decent shading on the wings with all the panel lines. A lot of work and a great end result.
Bye, Manni
"Ich hab' da mal was vorbereitet.": Jean Pütz
"Warum noch mehr Bausätze?!?": meine Frau

Offline Rookie

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2021, 03:09:23 AM »
What a beautiful model this has become Rob, hats off!

I very much like these big WWII bomber beasts like the Short Stirling, Vickers Wellington, Avro Lancaster, but the Handley Page Halifax being my favorite.

But I promised myself I would stick to only WWI subjects. Seeing this beauty in all her glory makes it hard to keep that promise though...

Willem

Offline WD

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #13 on: June 26, 2021, 10:14:58 AM »
Thank you for the info Rob, much appreciated.

WD

Offline lone modeller

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Re: 1/72 Halifax B Mk.III
« Reply #14 on: June 28, 2021, 08:20:03 AM »
First class model and a huge improvement on the old Airfix kit. Interesting to see an aircraft from an electronic countermeasures unit, and a really good base to set the model off.

Stephen.