Car Door Typhoon update.

simply stunning!

Any pictures of the whole section? How far are you taking this project?

Thanks Nicko – I’ve just looked at google images for Tufnol sheet’ and the range of colours looks spot on, as does the wear process you describe.

Perhaps a thin layer of Tufnol sheet? This would act as insulation, but also Tufnol is often used as a wear or rub strip/panel. The colouring may match the description from Cranswick. Some grades look burnt orange to start with, and when the surface resin rubs off and the fibreglass, cotton or paper reinforcement (depending on Tufnol grade) is exposed the colour becomes straw.

I think the vertical linings for the gun bays were a type of insulation to prevent the main fuel
tanks from getting too warm. They were inboard of the gun bays which were heated from take-offs channelled from the rear of the radiator.

This cockpit section just gets better and better. Fantastic work, Windhover, congratulations.

As for the colour in the gunbays – there are two wartime colour images of Typhoons with the gunboat access panels open; one is mid-43 the other early 1945. Both show the strengthening ribs in silver (and one shows the blocks which close the ammo boxes mentioned by windhover also in silver) but the flat panels between are all in light tan or, in the 1945 example some are in a yellow ochre.

I have seen colour photos of the inside of the gunbays on MN235. They appeared unrestored and the light tan/yellow ochre colour seems to be due to a lining of some sort which also covers front and rear walls, outer sides and floor of the gunbay. Colour, which varied slightly from panel to panel, was mid-tan, sometimes with an orange hue. Anyone any ideas on the type and purpose of this material? Ammo boxes looked like unpainted aluminium.

As for the cockpit colours, I would not dispute the silver tubing but certainly by mid-1943 the inside of the cockpit doors and interior walls above the bottom of the door were painted black – there are several photos of ‘car-door’ Typhoons with the starboard door open that clearly show this. There are also photos of Gloster-built Typhoons with door interiors in an unknown hue, definitely not silver; my guess would be ‘cockpit grey-green’. Were there any surviving cockpit outer skin panels or doors with the example under restoration?

As I mentioned; the standard interior colour for Gloster-built Typhoons… (and they built eight batches between September 1941 and November 1945; totalling 3,330 Typhoon aircraft)… was silver.
As we were stripping down our example we found all surviving parts were finished in silver with a light grey undercoat.
The problem for modellers is that the Hendon example is not totally representative. Besides being fiddled with whilst on evaluation loan to the USAAF… (one major addition being the small wooden container marked “Airplane Defect Reports” on the starboard side of the cockpit)… and being involved in a minor accident after only nine hours flying; MN235 has been repainted at least twice; once at 71 MU Bicester; and once at 27MU Shawbury; both in 1968; and painted again at RAFM Cosford prior to loan to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Rockcliffe, Ottowa.
People seem to be confused by photographs of the internal finish of the Langley-built Tempests. They were finished in Cockpit Green which was the standard Langley internal finish for Hurricanes, Tornados, and prototype Typhoons.
Additionally, No lids are incorporated in the design of the ammunition boxes which have four bearing blocks arranged to make contact with the underside of the gun doors when they are fastened down. The brownish appearance may well be cordite staining creeping up from the cannon breeches via the ammo feed chutes.

The information on colours is really useful, coule of supplementaries. What colour was the skin inside the cockpit and what colours were in the gun bays? I’m asking because the clours quoted in the Airfix kit don’t seem right. I’ve managed to find confirmation that some are incorrect but some I can’t. The interior of the gun bay doors looks to have a brown inboard section over the feed drum, is it?

Not knocking the kit, it’s really good, but I suspect some of the internal colours have been taken from the Hendon Typhoon.

Superb work as usual.

Windhover, what paint are you using for the structural tubes in the third photo of #1? I am about to paint some Hurricane tubes so am interested. For colour I was aiming for an aluminium finish but the colour of yours (albeit a small photo) looks good. I see you haven’t painted the stainless steel joining plates. Any particular reason for that?

Graham, the circular marking was likely gas detection panel made of paper..see this thread…https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/gas-warning-paper-on-spitfires-mk-i.37541/

When we stripped the armour plates from our Typhoon, there was no evidence of the Yellow circle on any of the plates.

I’ve seen it said that the armour plate behind the pilot’s seat in a Lancaster was marked with a yellow dot, to warn the fitters that this was an awful lot heavier than it looked. Was this also true of the armour plate behind the pilot in the fighters?

Looks good 🙂