The Little World

The Best That Could Be Done.

There are some kits that you can build to the max of the craft. Others are on a lesser level – they can be to the max of your skill or the max of their limited potential, As long as you get to one of these points, you have had a win.

This old kit has no wheel wells – the designers moulded the wings with closed gear doors – just in case you were mounting it in a flying pose. There are few details inside the gear doors as provided, but they do have the advantage of being hella sturdy. Once glued in with medium-viscosity cement and set tight, they ain’t goin’ nowhere.

The decals were a real surprise – I opted for spares-bin roundels for the wing and tail flashes, but the side roundels and codes are straight off the 1974 sheet. They soaked, released and set down very well – just a tiny drop of Mr Mark Softer to wrap them round. The kind of luck that encourages you to buy a scratchie…

The original aircraft were flown by the RAF and RCAF in Europe – many for tank-busting and ground attack after the D-Day invasion. This model retains a little of the invasion stripe markings but the wings have been re-finished. Some photos on the net have Typhoons with mismatched invasion stripes caused by gear doors needing replacement – showing that the patterning was individual by different squadron painters.

A very sincere thank-you to the club member who donated this old gem.