Complete build of Airfix’s newly tooled (2021) de Havilland Chipmunk T.10 in 1/48 scale. Product Ref A04105.

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As with most aircraft model builds the instructions start with building the cockpit. This is quite a spartan “office” – especially when compared to military aircraft, with two uncluttered instrument panels. This simplicity and dual control is one of the of the reasons that made the Chipmunk such a respected trainer, and why it continued in use for many years with the Air Cadets. I did consider using some aftermarket 3D decals, but decided to keep things “out of the box”.

One area that is missing (which is common with many kit manufacturers) is the harnesses – or lack of them. The two figures have harnesses moulded onto them, but there is no harnesses provided to go the seats for an un-manned aircraft. Again I did consider going down the aftermarket route, but I’ve had success in the past scratch-building harnesses with flattened lead wire that I decided to go down that route.

I had issues bring the two halves of the fuselage together. The cockpit “clicked” into the halves, but I could only get it to one side at a time. I tried both sides, and also filed and sanded areas; but could never get both sides to click into place. This meant that the bottom of the fuselage wouldn’t cleanly marry up, and that there was going to be a gap. I resigned to the fact that I was going to have to accept this and that filler would be required. It’s a shame because up to this point everything was fitting well, and if the cockpit was omitted the seam would barely be visible.

By far the biggest error of the kits is the locating pins for the wings are in the wrong position. This means that if the locating pins are married up with the holes it forces the wing to bend down – going from a straight dihedral to curving. In the photograph I have removed the location pins from the portside wing and glued it into position (you’ll see the wing is straight), but on the starboard side I have left the pins in place and keeping them located in the holes using the pressure of my hand (you can clearly see the wing is “drooping”). It’s a very simple fix, but I am shock that Airfix allows such a massive cock-up to slip past their quality control as it will affect the look of the finished model.

The next job was to mask the canopy. Although aftermarket masks were available, the panels are large and mainly square; it wasn’t too much of a fiddly masking with various sizes of Tamiya tape – and as ever a sharp scalpel blade, steady hand and plenty of patience are really all that is required. Whilst on the subject of the canopy, the main sliding part is constructed from three clear parts; and these are held in position with a jig which is part of the kit. I used Deluxe Materials Glue and Glaze (a PVA based glue), but I do think that careful application of Tamiya Extra-Thin would give a stronger bond – though at risk of foggy the windows.

Decaling the model required a little thought, cross-referencing the scheme options in the kits and comparing it to the reference photographs. The reference photographs proved invaluable because each scheme option was similar (especially the two white/grey/red ones), but there were differences. These differences included border around the walkway, and the colours of the ‘No Step’ icons, plus various others. In the end to make a faithful replica of WP840 I used decals from all of the four schemes in the box.

The biggest issues was to make the serial number (WP840), which also included the number 9 on the engine cowling and tail-plane. Initially I assume that I was going to have to purchase aftermarket decals, and a sheet has been produced for the Chipmunk to allow modellers to create their own serial numbers. But, with a little thought I realised that using a bit of creativity I was going to be able to create the WP840 by taking digits from different serial numbers.

With the a few applications of MicroSol the kit decals all laid down beautifully, conforming around the raised details and giving the ‘painted on look’ we all strive to achieve. Despite this the whites in the roundels were solid, with no red showing through.

I opted for a dark brown panel wash to highlight the engraved detail, a lightly brushed some on the raised details which I promptly removed again with a brush dampened with white spirit; adding a very subtle shadow effect and adding tonal variety to the colours.

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