| Halifax "Manga Taipo" 102 (Ceylon) Squadron, RAF Pocklington, August, 1944 |
| Model:
Airfix 1/72 Halifax Built by: Bill Bourke |
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This aircraft was flown on 14 missions by Flight Lieutenant Ray Hogg DFC and his crew. Ray Hogg was my Geography Master at secondary school. He was a great teacher, as well as being willing to discuss aircraft at every opportunity. I decided to build this model in his memory and it was presented to the school at the time of their Centenary in March 1996. This kit has been around for many years and is definitely showing its age. A major rework was required to bring it up to acceptable standards and to correct faults and omissions. This included sanding and re-scribing all the main fuselage parts, wings and tail assembly, as well as boxing in the undercarriage bays in the inboard nacelles. Even after all this, I discovered that my kit had a very slight warp in the left hand fuselage near the tail, which did not become apparent until the model was nearly finished. |
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I scratch built the cockpit interior, as well the interior of the bomb aimer's position, including the bomb sight, which projects out into the clear nose cone. I also scratch built the interior of the gun turrets. I used the Falcon clear vac set for all the glazing including the turrets. Even if you do nothing else to this kit, the Falcon set will transform it and is highly recommended. Aerials are from stretched sprue, the tensioning "springs" at either end coming from the filament of a 200 watt light bulb. These are threaded on to the sprue and fixed in place with white glue (the idea came from my 12 year old son - the boy shows promise). The model was painted with Humbrol Dark Earth and RAF Dark Green, with the undersides being done in Coal Black. This aircraft was delivered new to 102 Squadron in August 1944 and Ray and his crew were the first "owners'', so I deliberately kept weathering to a minimum. Exhaust stains were done with artist's pastels. Decals were from specialist producers – mostly Model Decal - although I had to hand make the nose art decal using artists oils and a drafting pen. I had excellent reference material including contemporary photographs of this particular aircraft, with the crew standing around the nose. |
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| The model took about 4 years to put together, partly through frustration at trying to get bits to fit and the amount of work required, and partly through my own modelling skills going through a major transition as a result of joining the local branch of IPMS. I would like to do another Halifax sometime, but will wait until one of the major producers introduces a new kit. |
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