Typhoon Mk.Ib

This was my first Hasegawa kit that I have built and my 9th build to date. I have to say firstly, that this kit was a pleasure to build right out of the box. There are plenty of after market extras that can be purchased to enhance the plane with items such as a resin and photo-etched cockpit, wheel bays and wheels, flaps, ailerons and rudders, engine and Hispano Cannons and magazine compartments. The molded parts are very good quality with nicely recessed panel lines and rivet details, zero flash except on a couple of tiny parts, no ejector pin stress marks on visual surfaces, blemishes or warp. The parts fit together excellently without the need for any filler and joint lines just needed a fine sanding to smooth them down. The assembly and paint instructions are clear and easily understandable. Decals come with two Squadron options and they include decal stripes for the underside black identification stripes, the top side walkways on either side of the cockpit and the rear fuselage tail band, along with the instrument panel decal. I didn't use any of these and painted all of these areas for more realism. My only drawbacks I had with this kit were two items: 1) The fuselage around the cockpit area is built up by three separate panels that fit into the two main fuselage halves. These didn't fit flush and were slightly stepped down or up from the surrounding fuselage surfaces. Therefore, extra attention was required to smooth these areas down to make them flush and hide the joint lines in the areas that shouldn't be visible. When doing this, some of the surrounding panel line and rivet details were lost or affected such that they needed correction. Therefore, I re-scribed these features back into the plane around the effected areas. The reason for the 3 fuselage panels around the cockpit is because Hasegawa have included interchangeable inserts within their molds so that two options can be offered from the same molds; the Bubble-Top canopy version and the Car-Door canopy version. This kit is based on the latter - Car-Door style. 2) The decals are good except for the Roundels which are thicker than the rest of the decals. This is because they have 2, 3 and 4 colors that have been printed in layers, thus making them thicker than a single layer of printed ink. I had one Roundel break apart when applying decal setting solution, but I was fortunate to be able to reposition the broken piece back into the location it came from without seeing a joint. I then had a second Roundel begin to crack, so I diluted the setting solution that had been applied to it with water to prevent further damage. Again, I managed to save it without seeing damage. I would highly recommend this kit to the intermediate to experienced modeler, for there are some small fiddly bits to handle which could be easily lost or damaged. Even built straight out of the box it builds into a great looking model. For the newer modelers, if you happen to get this kit, you will need some patience. If you're a lover of the Tiffy as it was affectionately named by RAF personnel, then this is a great version to add to your collection if you don't already have it.