¹⁄35

Storm Warning

Final construction

All the “dangly” bits are now add, dry fitting and making sure that things are properly aligned. This mark of Typhoon had 3 antenna, 2 rigid ones under the fuselage, one vertical the other horizontal. I did look at replacing the vertical one, because it was slightly warped, but didn’t have any airfoil rod that was small enough. I managed to straighten it though, so it was used. The other antenna was replace with a piece of the shaft from a broken drill. I believe this antenna to be for the IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) system used on later aircraft, so no wires between the tail and fuselage.

I wasn’t sure about the third aerial until the end of the build. I had seen it in pictures but could verify its location, until I found a sectioned drawing in one of my references. It is a whip aerial and is located on the third rib behind the cockpit, off centre on the starboard panel line. I would have drilled the hole for this before painting, if I’d known where it was located early enough. As it was, I damaged the paintwork, but the repair is all but invisible. For this aerial I used a bristle from the Humbrol liquid cement container, cut in half and painted steel. I inserted a small piece of stretched tube into the hole, then inserted the bristle, very prototypical.

Rockets

The making up and painting of the rockets took almost as long as the rest of the model. I don’t suggest that you go the route I did but they are pretty accurate. Not perfect, but the fill bands are there, phew, as are the pig tails, connected at both ends and including the connecting rings. I have written a separate article on these, which includes an explanation of the correct colours for the fill bands. Suffice to say here, they are not yellow. (see my article HERE)

Conclusion

I really enjoyed building this model, even though there were a lot of trials and tribulations with the rockets. The massive gap in the fuselage top deck was not a great issue, after a little thought and the finished model certainly looks the part. I will definitely be building another, because there is a 4 blade version.