1/48th HP Halifax BIII - Fonderie Miniature

[tomprobert]

 This build has been on and off (more off than on to be fair) the bench for the last 7 years! It finally crossed the finish line earlier this week and thank Christ for that!

 

Fonderie kits have a poor reputation but when I first bought this and fellow modellers imparted their horror stores I didn't think it could be that bad. I was wrong. It was worse. It didn't look too bad in the box to be fair - lots of flash but nothing a good clean up with a new blade and a sanding stick couldn't put right. It was when I started building the thing that the true horrors emerged. The fuselage was badly warped, the interior parts simply didn't fit, wings were different thicknesses, one stabiliser was positioned higher on the fuselage than the other, the vacformed canopy and tail turret were hopelessly inaccurate and not worth using, the rear fuselage had the turret faring missing and it was too narrow, props were completely the wrong shape, most white metal parts, including the undercarriage legs, were badly warped and mis-shaped, dropped flaps fouled the bomb bay doors and the decals, probably due to age, had yellowed and broke up when I tested them in water. In short, it was a nightmare and was a resident on the Shelf of Doom for long periods as I plucked up the courage to do some more work to it. 7 years later and it was finally done. 

 

Work completed is summarised here:

- Interior mostly made from scratch

- Scratch-built bomb-bay and wing bomb cells

- Bomb load from the Tamiya Lancaster

- New vacformed canopy (thanks Neil!)

- Rear fuselage widened and new turret fairings made

- Sanger vac rear turret transparency used

- Prop blades slimmed down and rounded (I'm still not happy with the shape!)

- 100 Group aerials added

- Xtracolor enamels

- DK decals

 

Anyway, it was fun I suppose and she's not come out too badly. My model represents Handley Page Halifax B Mk III MZ913, Z5-N of 462 Squadron RAAF, Foulsham (100 Group), April 1945.

 

All the best, 

Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Archimedes]

Fantastic Tom! What a neat finish and of such a rarely built (and challenging) kit! Hats off to you Sir!

 

Best regards,

Paul

[Alex]

Looks great!  Congrats on persevering with this challenging kit!

[LSP_Kevin]

That looks amazing, Tom! I think you should be mighty proud of conquering this beast, and turning out such a fine model in the process.

 

Kev

[dennismcc]

Fabulous job, as usual, I bought two of those kits and after looking in the box sold both of them, so I can appreciate the work that has gone into the build.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Tony T]

The holy grail of vier motor planes. Congratulations for braving it and completing it so magnificently.

 

Tony

[jenshb]

I'm  constantly amazed by your presistence in turning sows' ears into silk purses, and this is no different.  A friend has started the Sanger/Contrail vacform, and refers to Fonderie Miniatures as Fonderie Torture.  With good reason from your description.

[Tony C]

Can only agree with what has already been said, outstanding work 

 

I used to have one of these in the stash but moved it on and got the Sanger kit instead (not that I’ve started that yet) but do still have the FM Hampden kit, which I keep taking down from the shelf for a look, only to shudder and put it back on the shelf!

 

The Law of Modelling will not doubt come into play, one week after I do eventually start it, with a mainstream manufacturer announcing that they will be producing one! 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Tony C