AIRFIX 1:72 HANDLEY PAGE HAMPDEN

Reviewer: Myself  (braithy@bigpond.com)

This twin engined four seat medium bomber was developed to meet the 1932 issued requirement of the same type.  Two proposed designs were ordered into production, the Handley Page HP.52 became the Hampden and the Vickers Type 271 becoming the Wellington.  The Hampden entered service in 1938 with the nickname "The Flying Panhandle" because of its pod and boom fuselage layout.  The Hampden proved to be an underperformer in terms of a day medium bomber and was easily shot down, while it's design was advanced in 1936 it was obsolete by 1939.  Another shortcoming was the fact that the fuselage was so narrow, another crew member couldn't trade places with the pilot if the latter was wounded.  So it was transferred to the night bombing role with moderate success and later the Coastal Command as a torpedo bomber where it served until mid 1943.

This is a reissue of the earlier and quite aged Hampden kit of the 60's/70's.  The plastic is more modern but it is still issued with the aged tooling.  Some of you might be surprised to learn that this is my first attempt at building a WW2 RAF bomber in this scale!  The only other 1/72 WW2 bomber of any type I have modelled is the Heinkel He 111, and admittedly, given my wide range of subjects in my collection, even I am very surprised by this.  I have previously modelled some WW2 bombers including the Lancaster, B-29 and B-17 of note, but these have been in 1/144 scale and sit like small puppies next to my 1/144 B-52.  So at long last I have decided to tackle one of my favourite subject types in 72nd scale - WW2 bombers, in particular RAF.  This should help when I decide to commence my other projects of this subject that include the likes of the Lancaster, Stirling and Hudson all in my vast collection of unbuilt kits.  

It's the Hampden which is the subject of this review, and I have over recent times heard mixed reports on this kit so it was with some curiosity and also apprehension that I decided to delve into the project.  This is marketed as a 'Skill 3' kit by Airfix targeted at more competent modellers, probably based on the number of parts in the kit, about 125 in all and some 9 clear parts for glazing.  Quite a detailed history of the aircraft is given on the bottom of the box and other info provided on the cover includes the model's measurements, no. of parts they list (123) and the Humbrol paint colours (numbers only) that the kit calls upon, very useful if you use Humbrol, because you can stock up on the paint at the same time as getting the kit (you'll have to research those Humbrol numbers though, if you prefer another brand).

All the parts come packaged in just one plastic bag, and as is usually the Airfix case - whether in a bag or not - a few parts had mysteriously detached themselves and were floating loosely in the bag.  The parts are molded in light grey and contain a myriad of raised rivet detail which is excessive and typical of earlier Airfix kits, and etched control surfaces.  The plastic is crisp but has a bit of a soft feel to it, if you model Airfix kits a lot of this era, then you should understand what I mean.  The fuselage and wings were very slightly warped in my box and a couple of 'dents' show themselves on the main wing undersides.  While no substantive flash encumbers the parts at the same time you still need to run the #11 blade across most parts just to clean them up.  There are 8 sprues in the kit which hold the parts, but its worthwhile mentioning that there is one sprue each to a fuselage half, and one sprue to the upper wing sections and another to the lower.  In otherwords that's four sprues that contain just six parts between them.

The instructions come in the form as a 10-page A4 sized booklet - although sections were separated in the box.  One deals with the busy looking 17 assembly steps - but in some areas a bit vague on positioning (another common Airfix trait) while the other sections provide a brief aircraft history, a discussion on the symbols used in the instructions and three 4-view diagrams for the versions the kit replicates, these views are bottom, top and either side.  It's also pertinent to add that you need to keep your wits about you - read the instructions in full first and make notes on the versions certain optional parts will be used for.   Two British and a Swedish version can be made from this kit and each has it's own subtle differences that are not always evident in the instruction step you are following - ie: sometimes its best to read ahead.

Finally we start construction and the first area to embark upon is the cockpit and interior areas of this early-war bomber.  The first thing to tackle is separating the fuselage halves from their sprue and Airfix in their wisdom have not done the modeller any favours by having the thick part of the sprue literally attached to the fuselage half!  Do not attempt to detach this by hand as you will gouge the fuselage.  My sprue cutters are the "blunt nose" type so this was not going to help (not long enough in the 'mouth' to reach the actual mating point).  I have an old cheese chopping board that I can cut into without fear of damaging the desktop so I simply used the #11 blade and patiently cut the sprue off with good result.  In fact I would suggest using sprue cutters of some description with all the parts because the plastic is easy to put a gaping hole in.

Back to the construction - the interior consists of a long floor with a separate cockpit floor that steps up over the front.  Upon this goes a very basic seat and a control wheel that seems severely overscale and should be shortened to be more realistic.  Four figures are provided in the kit, each is different and two are in crouching positions, but the figure that is obviously supposed to be the pilot looks like he is already molded onto a seat or cushion!  This makes it particularly difficult to get him onto the underscaled pilot seat with the oversized control wheel between his legs!  Might be best to leave the figures out all together but I added them in okay after a fair bit of fiddling about.  A stool is placed at the other end of the interior floor upon which is placed the topside gunner. An instrument panel is attached to the 'dashboard' but if you want any instrumentation then you have to scratchbuild it because the face is completely blank!  Mind you not a lot can be seen once the windscreen is put on, so this can be left up to the modeler to judge.

I had a lot of problems aligning the interior properly within the fuselage halves. There are alignment rails for where the floor and interior unit had to go, but I could not get it to sit correctly.  In the end I didn't do a good job at all and had to use filler inside the bomb bay to plug up the interior gaps.  This also made the join of the fuselage halves very problematic. I strongly recommend you take your time to dry fit this step and test it out thoroughly beforehand - my resulting effort that was disappointing, ended up affecting my finished model!

Furthermore it is quite busy in this instruction step because you also have to add in seats for the other crew members (and crew figures) as well as windows and upper gunners guns.  The guns in particular are a 'bit of fun' because they are placed inside alignment holes within the fuselage that in theory should allow them to move.  But the instructions are absolutely hopeless in this regard, the shape of the 'gun holder' and the way it is drawn in the instructions does not seem to match.  Having said this, you will need to use all your brainpower to work out this jigsaw piece - what is the right way it should be placed in order for it to swing correctly and have the guns pointing aft! The shorter of the two pins goes into the fuselage slots (that's how I did mine anyway).  But even if you do work this out you then have two other considerations. Firstly, the gun holder won't swing at all if you place the gunner figure there because he gets in the way.  The second is that you also need to keep in mind what version of this aircraft you are building, since there are two canopy pieces to place over the gunner bay - the closed piece won't allow the inclusion of any guns.  I managed to put the gun emplacement in correctly but the figure would not allow it's ability to move so I affixed it in place.

I then had to use all the tricks in the trade to keep the fuselage halves from splitting apart - pegs and rubber bands, clamps etc were all put to good use.   At this point I was going to give the project away - it was clear that things didn't go right, in particular the problems with the interior.  But having made notes on writing this review and knowing that the kit is a hard find here, I decided to push on and complete the project, albeit after a lot of time and a few more stop-starts!

Once the fuselage halves were together - which I would rate in normal circumstances as a reasonable fit, filling and sanding were needed to plug up the gaps and remove the join lines.  Because of this work it was also bye bye to plenty of panel lines and rivet detail!!  The Clear glazing and as appropriate, guns, were added in at this point.  I used some white glue to fix the unpainted guns into the glazing - after test fitting of the glazing of course - and then painted guns prior to placing glazing onto aircraft.

This is where you find out that figures in the aircraft perhaps is not a great idea.  It is hard to fit the glazing and guns onto the aircraft because the figures get in the way, so either some unscrupulous cutting or positioning is required.   Again, going back to my stuff up in the interior, it also caused a few problems with fitting the glazing correctly but in all I would say that the fit would be okay if you managed everything well up to this point.  The canopy for the pilot is probably the hardest to fit.  For those who are skilled and want an open pilot canopy, the canopy itself slides back from the first frame, thereby leaving the windscreen and angled down side window in place.  The framework on the nose glazing in particular is not replicated very well and appears off-centre.  More will be spoken of this in the paragraph surround kit accuracy below.  

As spoken of above, the topside gunner behind the pilot will need to be chosen on whether or not he has a gun emplacement.   The options for his canopy are either closed fully (thereby not allowing a gun to be shown) or open to the point of being nothing more than a small 'verandah like' canopy.   The worst thing about this is that the instructions mislead you into thinking that the closed canopy piece is slightly open at the bottom which could possibly allow for guns to poke through - wrong! 

Handley Page Hampden official picture, note the open pilot canopy and verandah-like canopy over rear upper fuselage gunner

I decided to leave the bomb-bay open and placed the bombs inside, supplied in the kit.  Both open doors and closed bomb bay cover are provided in the kit.   Interior of the bomb bay is blank, but alumunium bomb railings and the olive painted bombs give it some edge.  The rest of the bomb bay was painted in black, like the underside of the aircraft (since I had chosen to do a night bomber version of in RAF), which would have blacked out most of the detail if there was any in any case .   The rear tailpiece was separately assembled and went into place at the end of the fuselage and went on rather well, but small amounts of filling and sanding were still required.

Now we come to the wing construction phase.  The highlights of this phase include a fully moveable undercarriage system and moveable flaps.  The undercarriage strut and framework is one-piece, which I painted aluminium, and these are placed uncemented into alignment grooves inside the lower wing halves.  Covers are provided over the frame tips to be glued into the wing and this allows the undercarriage to move freely.  The wheels themselves are also left uncemented over the hubs so that they are allowed to move freely also.  For those who wish to build wheels-up, like myself, the gear doors fit quite well with a little care being taken and allowing the undercarriage to sit freely in place inside the wheel wells is good - allowing half the wheel to be exposed as it should through the bay during flight.  You can move the wheel slightly and spin it around!  Once done, the upper and lower wing halves are affixed - encasing the moveable flaps - with pegs and rubber bands in the right spots to keep them secure.  The Hampden has a distinctive wing profile and I found it easier to rest the model upside down and place some playing cards in place under the wings to support them at the exact profile.  Of course holding the reference book upside down also will help! :)

Engines were the next construction phase, and here it is paramount you work out your version before going ahead so you know what exhaust stack, for instance, that you will be needing.  I assembled the engine cowling, including exhaust, first and painted it with an antique bronze front and aluminium intermittent collar.  I also painted on the camouflage and underside black markings so this job did not have to be done later.  I then attached the painted engine component and left to dry.   Choosing to do an RAF version meant that the propellor blades were painted black with trainer yellow tips.  At the same time I also placed the two remaining bombs on their racks under the wings. The instructions say to paint these yellow and apply a maroon stripe decal near the nose.  I disagreed, the pictures I have show a much darker colour bomb. I chose an olive drab. Then I thread through the propellor shaft and held in place behind the engine with the supplied stopper, testing it to ensure the propellor was moveable but not the shaft (that is, as in an up and down warping fashion)!  I found that the cones needed to be drilled out from inside in order for them to sit correctly on the end of the propellor shaft.  This was because they were not really hollow and affixing them as they were would basically mean they sit on the end of the shaft and look out of proporation than they should be.  I then affixed the engine cowlings onto the end of the aircraft and with careful placement these fitted quite well.   Finally the additional touches of external antennae, rails, landing light, forward upper nose gun and so forth were added.

The kit provides decals for one of three versions to build.  There are two RAF examples, both in upper earth brown and dark green with black underside camouflage for night bombing roles, an No. 49 Sqn RAF Scampton, UK 1941 example and a No. 106 SQN Finningley, UK 1940 example.  The third is a swedish example being finished in upper olive drab and lower steel blue-grey of the Swedish Air Force, Hampden P5 version, 1938.  While this is a reissue kit, the decals supplied are totally new decals made especially for this reissue.  I was not impressed with the decals at all.  The red in the RAF insignia were more brown than red and I thought those centre dots (which go on separately) were too small when placed in the blue/white roundel. Also they had a bleed through effect, with white appearing around the edges, especially on the upper wing red/blue roundels.  However, they did slide on nicely and conformed very well with decal fix.  I'd still recommend you replace them with an aftermarket source if you are a perfectionist.  Those of you thinking of doing the Swedish version can't escape either, the Sweden insignia has a very light blue that just doesn't look right at all.

There is some talk that aftermarket stuff is available for this kit including an Airwaves etched brass set, Falcon vacform clear parts and perhaps some white metal parts for undercarriage and engines.  Personally I can't confirm this but am confident they all exist, but I did not use anything other than kit parts in building this model.  But it might be worth investigation as some of these would surely enhance the kit.  I know that the Falcon set exists and have seen comments made by other modellers in r.m.s. using it (No.8 set RAF Bombers).

In spite of the muck up on my part the kit does not look too bad in finished form, and would look better if built correctly and the decals were replaced with ones in better register.  I found most of the fit of the aircraft not bad but as pointed out early in the review the cockpit and interior was a bit of a tough job. The careful requirement of detachment from the sprues was something you need to keep in mind at all times and the excessive rivet detail soon disappears once you start filling and sanding joints.  The perfectionist will need to rescribe some detail.  Accuracy wise the kit will pass quite well but there are a few flaws as one would expect of a kit this age in heritage.  Framing on the glazing is not quite correct according to photos and other reference pictures.  There seems to be an absence of a Browning machine gun in the forward decking port side - which would be fired by the pilot, although it appears that perhaps part number 53 (by interpretation of the instructions) could be used for this purpose.  The aft facing belly gunner seems to have too much glazing around him (should have more wall space) and the upper area of the aft fuselage is not quite rounded enough.  I'm not convinced the wing has been captured in its glory either.

I found parts of the project a bit frustrating and didn't at times put 100% effort into it - but probably more because I lost motivation.  Overall the kit is not bad, typical of the recent Airfix reissues of this style (read the Lockheed Hudson review for probably similar thoughts on a similar project) and would best suit intermediate modellers and up.  It's the only game in town that I am aware of so is an instant recommendation on this value.  I'll probably think about getting another one at some point in the future and have a better go at it.  In the meantime it will pass as an exponent of early RAF war bombers at the back of the modelling cabinet!

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Sideview of the Mk.1 Hampden, note the rear upper fuselage gunner canopy
Note also more pointy looking nose glazing compared to kit and omitted undernose antenna

Three view diagram of the Hampden Mk.1