AIRFIX 1:72 HP HALIFAX
Reviewer: Jason Sou (rec.models.scale)
This aircraft was one of the famous trio of RAF four-engined heavy bombers, and entered service in November 1940, not long after the Short Stirling but more than a year ahead of the Avro Lancaster. Although overshadowed by the reputation of the Lancaster, the “Halibag” was used heavily by RAF Bomber Command and Coastal Command, and over 6000 examples were built before production ended in 1946 (a Mk IX which ended up with the Egyptian Air Force).
The early Mk I, MK II, and Mk V had four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and this configuration is depicted in the Matchbox 1/72 kit. This Airfix kit , however, consists of 122 pieces moulded in black and allows modellers to build the Mk III version which was the first to introduce the Hercules radial engines. The Mk III was the last major production version and entered service in February 1944, and over 2000 of this variant were built.
When building this kit, it must be remembered that this moulding is over 30 years old so don’t be disappointed on opening the box and finding sprue trees and pieces, including transparencies, ‘floating’ about loose. There was a small amount of flash on some components and I noticed some injector pin marks. Detail has been represented by typically overscale rivets and raised panel lines. A couple of my transparencies were slightly scratched but a bit of a polishing with toothpaste worked wonders! Six crew members are provided including both gunners in their turrets. The flight engineer/wireless op is hard to spot once the fuselage is joined, as is most of the internal detail. Both gun turrets fit quite snugly and a little trimming was required to ensure turrets revolved. Once the canopy was fitted gaps were evident so some putty or wood glue will be needed here.
Wings and tailplane assembly was quite straightforward and no problems were encountered. Fit of the mainplanes was so good that no filler was required. Control surfaces are all movable and this was a common feature on kits of this era. Undercarriage units appear to be reasonably accurate although wheel wells lack any kind of detail as might be expected. A H2S radar fairing is moulded as part of the fuselage halves and an undernose pitot tube, underside aerial railing and D/F loop are also attached to the forward fuselage. The kit benefitted from a light overall sanding , before aerials etc were fitted, to remove the overscale rivet detail on major components.
The Bristol Hercules engines are represented by one piece mouldings and are not overly convincing, so could be replaced. A point to be wary of is that the port outboard engine (refer to instructions stage 14) is the only one to feature the flame suppressor exhaust on the lower left side of the engine nacelle – the other 3 engines having the exhaust on the lower right side.
Disappointingly, Airfix only provide one choice of decals for this kit ; NP-C of 158 Squadron RAF which completed 100 missions and survived the war. Another choice featuring one of the Halifax’s with nose art, such as the famous “Friday the 13th”: would have been welcome. Anyway, the decal sheet is very small for a kit of this size and contains two type B overwing roundels, two fin flashes for the inboard vertical tail surfaces, 4 yellow bars which run diagonally over the outboard tail, two dull red serials, and dull red squadron codes NP-C + fuselage roundels. I found all decals adhered well and the only complaints here concern the almost transparent outer edges of yellow tail bands, and the faded colour of the fuselage codes and serials. Yes, maybe one could argue that they are weathered, but the red portion of the wing roundel and fin flashes is quite bright and contrasts sharply.
All of my criticisms aside, this Airfix kit is not that bad overall when one considers that this is a 1960’s product – and besides, what other model producer has a Halifax Mk III in their catalogue? Once I have completed my Matchbox Merlin engined Halifax, I’m sure they will look quite impressive sitting side by side in my RAF Bomber Command cabinet!
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Sideview supplied by Jason as shown on/in the box