Typhoon Mk.Ib mid prod./ four blade prop.

The Hawker Typhoon (Tiffy in RAF slang), was a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. It was intended to be a medium–high altitude interceptor, as a replacement for the Hawker Hurricane but several design problems were encountered and it never completely satisfied this requirement.

The Typhoon was designed to mount 12 machine guns and be powered by the latest 2000 hp engines. Its service introduction in mid-1941 was plagued with problems and for several months the aircraft faced a doubtful future. When the Luftwaffe brought the formidable Focke-Wulf Fw 190 into service in 1941, the Typhoon was the only RAF fighter capable of catching it at low altitudes; as a result it secured a new role as a low-altitude interceptor.

Hawker Typhoon

Through the support of pilots such as Roland Beamont it became established in roles such as night-time intruder and a long-range fighter. From late 1942 the Typhoon was equipped with bombs and from late 1943 RP-3 ground attack rockets were added to its armory. Using these two weapons, the Typhoon became one of the Second World War’s most successful ground-attack aircraft.
[Source: Wikipedia]

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Another Brengun model kit from the Czech Republic lands in our office. This is the 1/72 Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ib late production with bubble canopy and four blade propeller. The kit is comprised of 3 tan colored sprues, 1 clear for the canopy and a small fret of photo etch with the seat belts and delicate boarding step. A small well printed sheet of decals is provide with deep red over pure deep blue roundels. Markings are for 4 different aircrafts and are as follow:

  • 18-P, 440 (Can) Squadron, Summer 1944
  • HT-T, 175 squadron Celle, April 1945
  • DP-S, 193 Suqadron August, 1945
  • JCB- Personal aircraft of 123 wing leader Wg. Cdr. J.C. Button, April 1945.

The 2 different exhaust parts are provided should you decide to build the HH-T or JCB versions above (see also the picture of the box below). The model has exquisite receded panel lines which are in the Goldilocks side to some, not too shallow, not too deep. The panels lines depth are very consistent throughout the entire model. Optional to add to the model but included in this kits are the RP-3 rockets (8 of them) and mounting rails.  The cockpit for a kit this scale is very well appointed and the same goes to the wheel wells. The clear canopy is also in its right thickness.

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The sprues have no numbers for the parts to be identified -in a limited run fashion I’d say.- The part numbers are rather printed on the instruction sheet and being low parts count model kit, this shouldn’t be a problem. There is only one flaw that I noticed with this kit and please, be aware that this could be an issue with my sample and not a full general production problem: If you look at the very last picture at the bottom of the page, you can see that there is a slight misalignment on the mold halves (look at the runner next to the part’s close-up). This caused some minor -yet bothersome- flash and mold lines on more delicate parts. If this is the norm in full production kits, then more time will have to be invested doing some cleaning. Other than that and as a consumer who also buy model kits with his hard earned money, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this kit. It is worth the $18.95 (USD) price tag in my honest and humble opinion.

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My sincere thanks to Brengun for sending in this review sample.

Author: George Collazo

George has been hosting review sites and blogging about toy collectibles, travel, digital photography and Nikon digital imaging since 1998. His first model kit build was a Testors 1/35 DODGE WC-54 in 1984.

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