Here’s the latest incarnation of the big Airfix Tiffie - the car door version of the kit first released in 2014.
There was scope on this build to include Airscale’s great Typhoon decals in the cockpit, along with dedicated Eduard etch. Worth doing, as the view into the driver’s home is much greater than otherwise applies to the slider.
Radu etch augmented the rad area, and Roy Sutherland’s resin carb intake replaced the Airfix item. Some masking allowed the areas behind the mesh to achieve depth and contrast by rendering them black.
The car door turtle deck is a precise fit, once the recessed plastic of the slider version is accurately removed. Airfix missed the anti-collision beacon out from the instructions. Note the recessed hole in the image below that needs to be drilled out (if your markings choice carried it). The part is on the clear sprue.
I’ve always felt that one of coolest things you can give your car door Tiffie is wind down one of the windows about 2/3rds. On the Airfix kit, the clear plastic door is brittle and easily broken, re-glued, broken, reglued, lol. Self inflicted pain when working to a tight ten week schedule.
The model was displayed by Airfix on their stand at Scale Model World, last week and will join my slider Typhoon on display at the Margate visitor centre. Happy days.
When I was told the test shot was coming my way, AMW editor Chris Clifford, asked what scheme I had in mind for it. My immediate reply was one of the three desert filter trials airframes, sent to North Africa in 1943 to 451 Squadron RAAF.
Of the three aircraft originally earmarked for embarkation, none made it - all victims of incident and accident and three more car door Tiffies were duly substituted, DN323 among them.
The war in Africa suggested a need for tropicalised Typhoons, so trials lasting roughly April to October 1943 were conducted on two main areas of investigation - the efficiency of an underbelly filter and subsequent, measurable engine wear in the desert theatre. In terms of the former, there are no known photos of the filter actually used in North Africa, although Chris Thomas sent me his entire DN323 image collection, one of which was DN323 in profile at Boscome Down, immediately before crating up. I believe the filter fitted in the image was a ‘dry type’ prone to catching fire when fuel from the verticle inlet manifold ran back into it and was changed to a ‘wet type’ that resolved this.
The pilot had a lever under his right elbow, that switched airflow from the chin scoop to the belly filter for ground running and take off, this being switched back to the chin once clear of ground debris. As the motors were driven hard on trials, thick black exhaust deposits can be seen in some photos, while in others, this is absent, no doubt cleaned off as a prerequisite to engine removal and strip down. Mine is depicted ‘clean’, ready for trial.
In the end, the demand for Typhoons in Europe and declining German fortunes in Africa, meant the need for operational Tiffies in the desert disappeared. An interesting side note in the type’s history though and the chance to render the big scale Typhoon differently to the majority.
As I mentioned previously, the open car door gives one of the best cockpit views around, so it was good to enjoy shoe-horning the full Airscale and Eduard suites into it. Some limited use of punch and die bits are necessary for buttons and so forth but nothing major.
The other adaptation was to cut off the reflector sight lens and replace with ultra thin clear card.
Cheers LD but please disregard my use of interior grey-green. The correct finish is silver lacquer. I made this apparent in the AMW write up as a bit of anarchism on my part.
