Handley Page Halifax MkIII 1/48

[mungo69]

Ok, here we go.....

View attachment 43837

Tonight I've unpacked the kit and had a look around. Blimey it's big. There's going to be lots of work as there's plenty of flashing and reading other reviews of the kit it's going to to interesting to say the least. Got to be easier than a Viggen in splinter camo!!

There's a lot plane here, with resin bits, PE, and metal parts too (landing gear, pit pieces and some rather bent gun barrels!!). Made by Fonderie Miniatures.

Building the plane for a work colleague whose Grandfather flew in one and was shot down over France and ended up seeing out WWII as a PoW.

Anyway once i've started with the hammer and chisel i'll post my progress.

Cheers

Jer

View attachment 47061

 

[treyzx10r]

Jer thats a lot of plastic in that kit lol,looking forward to seeing it come together!. Nice that you have a story to go with it as well!

 

[Dave W]

Im interested in the Halifax so will be watching you build this as well.

 

[InFlames]

Good luck with the kit!

 

[mungo69]

Ok, been "quite" a while since my original post and i have made significant progress since a delayed start, so i'll start posting pictures as from now....

As you can see the kit was full or flash and i spent many hours tidying up the pieces and hoovering up!!

View attachment 53520

Testing the fitting of the cockpit to guage how badly it would all fit together and how much work i'd need to do to fix it!!!

View attachment 53522View attachment 53523View attachment 53521

View attachment 55843

View attachment 55844

View attachment 55845

View attachment 55846

 

[mungo69]

...........oophs!! forgot to add the all the cockpit detailing. Painted black a dry brushed for metallic feel. Dropped Klear into dial faces to current a glass effect.

View attachment 53525View attachment 53526View attachment 53524

View attachment 55847

View attachment 55848

View attachment 55849

 

[papa 695]

Nice start looking very good Jer

 

[mossiepilot]

That's looking great Jer, a nice looking office mate.

Tony.

 

[mungo69]

I did originally start the thread in April then got completely side tracked with other tasks (mainly provided by the Mrs) and by the fact i was frankly intimidated by the kit and what i'd read from other peoples builds!!!!! Anyway this has been a very challenging build but i have enjoyed it and as i'm now in the process of finishing her i thought i'd better start posting pictures (which i intend to do ever night)

So here's some more pictures.....

Here are the resin engines, i found them to be pretty good in detail and once housed i expected most of the engine would be hidden but i thought i'd try to do them justice and using Alcad aluminium and plenty of the great MIG burnt blue steel, smoke and rust i dusted them up and was pleased with the result.

View attachment 53562View attachment 53563

I keep all my bits in a box otherwise i'm under my desk trying to find where a piece has gone!

View attachment 53564

Here is the start of the cockpit assembly......took other pic's but they've gone!?

View attachment 53565

.........anyway the bits went together pretty well and I used CA glue instead of cement as i read of too many instances of melting the plastic.

Still can't find the pic's of the assembly (sneeky suspicision i've deleted them) i'll have to show how the completed "office" (liked the term Tony) fitted onto the fuselage.

View attachment 53566View attachment 53567View attachment 53568View attachment 53569View attachment 53570

Had to heat bend the walls to attach better to the inside of the fuselage (cheers toaster) also added and maps box and spot light on the desk. Basically I just went CA mad and stuck everything to the port side of the fuselage to start to make the REALLY flimsy plastic more rigid.

View attachment 55874

View attachment 55875

View attachment 55876

View attachment 55877

View attachment 55878

View attachment 55879

View attachment 55880

View attachment 55881

View attachment 55882

 

[tecdes]

Jer I do not know if it is just my machine but your attachments are coming up with invalid.

Your previous attachments are fine just this recent one.

Laurie

 

[Dave W]

Looking good Jer.I can't view the attachments in your last post though.Pitty because this is a really interesting build.

 

[mungo69]

No idea why attachments weren't showing. Edited and attached again, logged off and on and i can see them. Odd......

I have quite a few photos to upload, hope this was just a blip!!!

Going to go to the Yorkshire Air Museum to see the real thing when i've completed the kit (week or so away now......), probably would have been best to see it first!!!

 

[treyzx10r]

Jer that office is looking fantastic! I'm surprised at the amount of flash you had to clean up,as much as these kits go for I would'nt have thought there would be any!

 

[Saber]

Looking great love all the bits in the office.

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dave W]

Jer.I used to have a lot of trouble posting photos when i joined the forum.I found it very much a hit and miss afair.Then i discouvered the 'Tapatalk' app.Very easy to do it now.Posts large pictures and cost me £1.49 for unlimited uploads.

 

[mungo69]

Ok here's goes tonights new photos, hope people can see them, i'll reattach if there's a problem again.

As mentioned the Hailfax fuselage was really flimsy so i added support within the wings and in the fuselage too. Having bought some expensive styrene rods i realised i had a large pile of sprues in the box so set about reusing that. Thought it would be best to lay the sprue pieces along the wing to prevent flexing and some standing pillars to prevent being able to depress the wing surface.

Wings......

View attachment 53592View attachment 53593

Fuselage....

View attachment 53594View attachment 53595View attachment 53596

Turned out really well when when the fuselage pieces joined and the wings too, totally rigid. Cement this time to ensure a firm joint.

Nacelles were a nightmare to contruct and basically required hours of sanding to gain the correct shape.

View attachment 53597

.....in fact the wheel wells were worst. Nearly binned them but in the end I WON and completed them.

View attachment 53598

Wings joined.....and also some pictures to show the nacelles fitted....

View attachment 53599View attachment 53600View attachment 53601

Now to add engines and start to but the fuselage together.......could have built a Tamiya or Academy or Revell etc kit in the time to get this far!!!!!

View attachment 55901

View attachment 55902

View attachment 55903

View attachment 55904

View attachment 55905

View attachment 55906

View attachment 55907

View attachment 55908

View attachment 55909

View attachment 55910

 

[Saber]

Looking good and all that extra troubles will make it even more special

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk 2

 

[mungo69]

I have see a few other builds on the net where the fuselage was similar in shape to a banana fortunately when dry fitting i could see only a small bend and considered i would be able to straighten without having to use a jig of some description.

I also found that the two halves of the fuselage were not going to meet in various places either especially around the front of the plane so new i'd be filling quite a lot.

View attachment 53625View attachment 53626View attachment 53627View attachment 53628

View attachment 53641View attachment 53642View attachment 53643

As some photos above show around the pit i added more pieces of sprue to strenghten it. Still have some expensive styrene unsued in my tool box!!!

With a lot of patience i cemented the two halves of the fuselage together pushed the tail end that bent inside slightly against the opposite side and held (for ages) until the glue dried and i had what i considered a pretty staight fuselage. within the fuselage i glue all the bracing columns to the opposite sides to prevent the sides from moving in and out when held and to make stronger. I then covered all the seams and started many days of sanding and re-filling until i got a satisfactory finish.

View attachment 53637View attachment 53638View attachment 53639View attachment 53640

Post sanding.....

View attachment 53649View attachment 53650View attachment 53651

Dry fitting the wings.....

View attachment 53652

....didn't realise how big she is until then!!!

Having spent a short time sorting the canopy out (it was pretty straight forward thankfully - don't like vac formed ones) i then spent an evening masking up the canopy up!

View attachment 53653View attachment 53654View attachment 53655

View attachment 55933

View attachment 55934

View attachment 55935

View attachment 55936

View attachment 55937

View attachment 55938

View attachment 55939

View attachment 55940

View attachment 55941

View attachment 55942

View attachment 55943

View attachment 55944

View attachment 55945

View attachment 55946

 

[Dave W]

Looking good Jer.A couple of years ago I made a vacform 1/48 Halifax B2.Looks like there is nearly as much work involved to build this kit.Your cockpit is a lot better detailed than mine though.

 

[mungo69]

Cheers Dave, i have seen a vacform build on the internet and i'm pretty sure it's more diffcult than the fonderie miniature version. Do you have pictures of it?

Here are some more pictures, tail on now. Went on easily and again i cemented to weld it together.

View attachment 53718

....again loads more fillling and sanding at the joins.

Reshaped the radar dome mutiple times until it sat snuggly on the fuselage.

View attachment 53719View attachment 53720

Before attaching the wings i added on the engines having secured them within the engine housing. Also ditched the kits cooling flaps as they were poor and created my own.

View attachment 53721View attachment 53722View attachment 53723

Having completed the wing construction it was time to attach. In previous photos and below you can see the quite chunky bars that support the wings through the body of the plane.

I had obviously remembered to ensure within the wings all the supports didn't get in the way.........or had I......think it was luck rather than planning.

anyway the starboard wing was about 30mm higher at the tip to the port wing so when glueing i had to drop strips of styrene into the gap and applied lots of cement to weld to the wing to the body. I then filled and sanded to the arm ached.

View attachment 53724View attachment 53725

View attachment 53726View attachment 53727View attachment 53728

Landing gear attached, simple job luckily. Had to tidy them up and fill lots of gaps but the fitted ok and i was pleased with the outcome.

View attachment 53729View attachment 53730View attachment 53731

Nose and mid-turret were in a good condition and i spent a few as masking up but the rear turrents (x3 of them) were damaged beyond repair. I had to create my own. "gulp"

Made a basic vac forming tool out of two bits of MDF with holes drill in one and the other made as a frame to pin the clear plastic sheet to the air bed. Then attached the hoover to the back.

View attachment 53732View attachment 53733View attachment 53734

Carefully holding a piece of plastic card of the toaster (when wife wasn't looking) i waited until it bowed in the middle then dropped it over any small random item i could find that i had put on the airbed, pinched it togther with the frame and fired up the hoover.

After half a dozen practices i got confident to have a go probably.

Therefore I made a mould from one of the turrets that was in best condition using plain old DIY filler and then filling bubble holes etc with modelling filler and sanded till smooth.

........and here's the result. I was very surprised it turned out so well and that's another technique learnt!!!

View attachment 53735View attachment 53736

....mines the one on the right.....I hope it's obvious!!

Gun barrels were metal in the kit and looked like mini banana's so i used replacement resin ones.

View attachment 53738View attachment 53737View attachment 53739

Mid turret guns Rear Turret guns Guns in new canopy

View attachment 56009

View attachment 56010

View attachment 56011

View attachment 56012

View attachment 56013

View attachment 56014

View attachment 56015

View attachment 56016

View attachment 56017

View attachment 56018

View attachment 56019

View attachment 56020

View attachment 56021

View attachment 56022

View attachment 56023

View attachment 56024

View attachment 56025

View attachment 56026

View attachment 56027

View attachment 56028

View attachment 56029

View attachment 56030