Hawker's Typhoon had a difficult development period and once it entered service, had to overcome various teething problems. A kit which has its fair share of teething problems is Hasegawa's 1/48 Typhoon. Jessica Cooper gives her opinion.

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Thanks!

Nice review of the Hasegawa Typhoon. I have started (rather optimistically) two, both the bubbletop and the car door version, so a few additional comments are worthwhile:

The kit does a lot more more than just look like a Typhoon, in my opinion: Of all existing 1/48th WWII aircraft kits, I place it #1 in the accuracy of its general outlines, with special mention for both versions of its canopy.

Unlike some other subjects I have raved about in-the-box (like the Modelsvit Yak-1b, which did turn out to have some serious undernose radiator accuracy issues, once everything was put together), this impression of mine here comes after having actually done some work on the kits...

One question I have on this Typhoon kit is about the weird rectangular elevator trim tab actuators moulded on the tailplanes: They look like squarish profiled fairings, and seem rather odd(?).

The most often mentionned issue on these kits (which for some reason probably delayed my purchasing them for 12 years)is the inclusion of a different canopy variant fuselage insert that cause fit problems. It is a valid issue, but I feel it is often somewhat overblown: It is true there is a gap at the fuselage join if you leave things as they are, but the gap is nowhere near a humongous 1 mm as is often mentionned... It is 0.3 or 0.5 mm at best, and yet this is still a serious and valid fit issue.

This reduced dimension does mean it should be possible to get away with trimming the entire fuselage join to elliminate the gap, and thus obviate the need to add any potentially detail-damaging plasticard inserts. The difference in radius at the fuselage top is so small (0.2 mm per fuselage half at most) it will not affect the cockpit interior fit.

I did find that these fuselage inserts fit deceptively well, and yet turn out to have slightly mismatching curves compared to the fuselage surface, this other issue proving much more difficult to deal with than the fuselage join gap itself: I had to use pliers to try to get at least one side of each the insert "pairs" to match more closely the fuselage cross-section radius. It was only very light use for the pliers, but still surprising given how good the fit seems at first (this is where using a low-angle light shows up things that appear ok otherwise).

This is how it turned out so far, without the use of any plasticard additions:

The panel lines here are whitish but not filled, but here is on the left side of the bubbletop variant the only real surface detail damage I could not avoid: The nicely engraved "disc" screws (lovely work from Hasegawa) were damaged and I could only replace them with holes...:



The right side was much better:



Left side of the cardoor version looks rough at the joins, but that is because of the plier work:



Again the right side was better:



Cardoor worst side:



Bubbletop best side:



By trimming the entire fuselage join, the need for plasticard inserts is obviated, and the panel lines do match the way I did it, so that does seem like a good way to go. Doing this did not affect the fit of either of the canopy variants in the slightest:





It is true the use of these fuselage inserts is an unpleasant compromise that the modeller pays the price for, but, quite frankly, I wish this issue had not obscured the fact that these models are superior in overall accuracy to just about everything else out there: Every other component of this kit fits very well, and most Tamiya and Accurate Miniatures kits (with far bigger reputations) look positively retrograde in comparison... Too bad it is not my favourite subject, but I think it is the best 1:48th WWII aircraft kit Hasegawa has ever done, bar none, even if the flush-to-the-opening wheel wells walls will seem like a serious issue to some (a similar issue to the P-51 wheel wells).

Anyway, that was my take on it....

Gaston

Thanks for the review Jessie, I just finished this kit. It fit well and built up with no problems. However, I got all the way through the build without incident right up to the point where the squadron code kit decals lifted off the kit under my finger tips and tore in several pieces for no apparent reason. I had done everything right (I thought) but they were destroyed. Now I am in the market for some 1/48 Typhoon squadron code decals to replace them. Any suggestions? Thanks Jessie

Jim

Xtradecal has sheets of sky and medium sea grey code letter sheets which are probably exactly what you need.

Thank you, you're the BEST!

Jim

If you're looking for Typhoon decals. I know Avieology (sp?) makes a sheet for the kit, including the shark mouth version for the Bubbletop

This is always been one of my favorite planes and kits, I can't wait to build another one, too bad they're getting so pricy. The new Shark Mouth version is retailing around $65 over here in the US.

Matt

The Avielogy sharkmouth Typhoon sheet is very good, with a lot of explanations and a long text as to the various controversies surrounding the way it was possibly painted (red in mouth or no red), with a very detailed photo analysis of black and white pigment density right in the instructions: Despite this I happen not to be convinced with the sheet's conclusions, and I think the mouth may have had no red (you can use the sheet either way)....

Note that this sheet subject requires a four blade prop and so-called Tempest-type wider tailplanes: These have to be sourced from Ultracast and, as usual, despite the good resin quality, I had trouble getting the single prop blades aligned on that... I wonder if the the Eduard Tempest prop would not be an easier susbstitute...

I am not sure if Hasegawa ever provided the four-blade prop in some boxings, but I suspect they didn't if the resin exists...

Gaston

Gaston

The 181 Squadron boxing of the Typhoon does include the four blade propellor in it.

It says so on the box lid.

Good to know, but with a four-blade prop you also need extended span tailplanes, so if the kit doesn't have that it is incomplete.

Also this sounds like a limited-run issue, which might be hard to find unless it is recent.

One question of high interest to me: Did they provide the four blades as a single moulding, or as separate blades?

If it's a single piece prop, it will be worth my while to track one down.

Gaston

I'm pretty sure that most Typhoon kits are supplied with the smaller tailplanes, but that isn't a huge problem. Use the net to track down some resin replacements and you fix that small problem.

I know that there were 1/72nd scale Tempest tailplanes available a few years back, but not sure if they are still around today.

Like a lot of Hasegawa kits, it is a "limited edition" but it looks to me like the decals are the only thing to be changed.

If the prop is like the three bladed one , it will be in one piece which is then trapped between the baseplate and the spinner.

I love this kit and have several in my stash, that said, google Ultracast they have the Typhoon/Tempest tail planes as well the 4 blade prop and other Typhoon goodies. Hope this helps.

Hi Gaston,

To answer your question, the four-blade prop with the Hasegawa Typhoon kit is single piece with separate spinner and back plate.

Cheers,
Eric