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1/32 Handley Page Hampden (Tigger Models)


AlexM

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Hi folks,

 

having finished the SM.79 last year, I started work on the Handley Page Hampden (also a vacuform from Tigger Models). After a promising start, it didn't make any progress the last few months. Now, since I have vacations and since weather is bad (today fell snow, though I thought winter was over :mental: ), I hope I can make some progress with the Hampden.

 

Talking about the kit, all you get are some styrene plates where the main parts are molded in, and first have to be cut out by the modeler. There are no surface details (at least at the Hampden kit, though there are other vacuform kits that have some kind of surface detail). Other “minor†details like the whole interior, defense weapons, engines or decals are absent. There are parts for the main wheels of the Hampden, which look nice from the inside, but very soft on the outside. The basic parts look like this (check out the website of Tigger Models for more pics):

 

dEujlEy.jpg

 

2PmEaEF.jpg

 

 

Unfortunately there were some issues with the fuselage parts. Viewed from above, the rear fuselage did widely spread away from each other at the end what made some heavy surgery in form of large cuts along the upper and lower side necessary.

Also viewed from the side, when I aligned the two fuselage halves, the rear ends didn't match well (one of the rear ends showed upwards respectively the other one downwards), so I had to cut away and later glue back the right rear fuselage halve.

Then, the difference in height between the upper main fuselage (I mean the area behind the cockpit) and the area in front of the cockpit was way too small, so that the canopy wouldn't have matches, respectively the Pilot wouldn't have seen much more than the struts of the canopy. To solve this problem, one could either raise the main fuselage rear the cockpit, or lower the area in front of the cockpit. I went for the second option. After that I realized that the height of the (untouched) fuselage was a bit smaller than on the drawing in the in the Warpaint Series book, so maybe it would have been better to raise the area behind the cockpit (of course I don't know if the drawing in the Warpaint book is accurate). Nevertheless, wheatear my model is accurate or not (probably not :)), it still looks like a Hampden in my eyes.

Another small issue concerns the fuselage at the upper rear defense strand. On the real thing, the fuselage was raised to house the defense turret. On the kit, the fuselage is totally straight, so I had to cut out this and insert some plastic sheet to create that raised area.

Finally, some curious issue: There was lots of whatever dirt melted inside of the rear thin fuselage area (looked like hay?). No real problem, since this area won't be visible on the final model. Just wonder what was going on during production of this kit… :rofl:

 

 

2tyX69B.jpg

 

OhrAmLD.jpg

 

yS281m8.jpg

 

LwOVgJh.jpg

 

fwXH9Xm.jpg

 

The interior was made according to some cut-away drawings, but I'm pretty sure it's not 100 % accurate. Though, too much will be seen on the final model. Here after some paint:

 

DP2glI4.jpg

 

tNAtqYe.jpg

 

 

Btw, does anyone know the correct color of the flame floats stored at the front? I painted them red, but thats pure speculation :hmmm:

 

Cheers

Alex

Edited by AlexM
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Good work so far. As you say, it looks like a Hampden, although there are some significant accuracy issues (like the total height of the fuselage for instance.

 

Another issue is the too-small diameter of the engine cowlings, which should be in the 44 mm area. I did turn a new cowling master out of aluminium, and pulled a few vac-form cowlings for my own (future) use. I then sent the master to John, if he wants to use it. Of courses changing the cowlings implies changing the nacelles shapes.

Anyway, if you are interested (with this correct dia, you can fit - tight -a Vector engine) by the new cowlings, let me know. Either I have enough spares for you, or I can at worst cast a new resin master from my own vac copies for more vac-forms.

 

I'll watch this one with interest.

 

Hubert.

Edited by MostlyRacers
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Guest Peterpools

Alex

Wonderful progress on the Hampton ... interior detailing looks just fantastic

Keep 'em coming

Peter

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It's a silly bomber...

 

Maybe, I don't know the exact IQ of the Hampden, couldn't find any info on Wikipedia :rofl:

 

Solving the issue with the engine cowlings will be at least "interesting"... The kits parts will fit nicely with the nacelles:

 

20150401_125342_zpskz4m1spx.jpg

 

But the diameter is in fact too small. I have Vector resin engines for the build, and it's impossible to pull the kit's cowling over them (besides the fact that it won't be accurate). For comparison, I placed the cowling of the SM.79 to the Hampden wing (the SM.79 cowling has about 44 mm diameter, those two planes had in fact the same/similar engines as the Alpha Rome 128 was based on the Bristol Pegasus):

 

X6WApcR.jpg

 

Changing the cowling for the Hampden won't be the problem. Adjusting the shape of the nacelles will be (did someone say putty orgy :whistle: )

Edited by AlexM
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Neat!  Its a different looking plane for sure..................and can really appreciate anyones efforts to make a nice looking vac! This is the last frontier for me as I have not yet taken the plunge with vacs yet, and its pretty much the only area I havnt tested the water in.

 

Looking forward to more of this!

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Thank you all for your interest. "Unfortunately" the weather became better, the snow melted away, and I was able to roll out the summe-car with season license plate of the garage, so I hope this won't divert me too much the next days :D

 

To Hubert: PM sent :thumbsup:

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