Handley Page HP 42 by Airfix

1/144 scale
Kit No. SK 502 (1965 release) and 3172 (1993 re-release)
Retail: $20.00
Decals: Two versions – both for Imperial Airways air liners
Comments: Interesting commercial airliner from Interwar Period (1919-39); corrugated surfaces on fuselage; nice stressed fabric effects on wings and tail assembly; decals bear carrier film and require some cleaning

History

Designed to meet a 1928 Imperial Airways specification of 1928 for a new airliner to serve the European and Empire routes from 1930 onwards, the Handley Page Heracles class airliners made an outstanding contribution to civil aviation in the years leading up to World War II. The first HP 42, G-AAGX “Hannibal” made its maiden flight on November 14, 1930, and a further seven machines were delivered by January 1932. There were two versions the H.P. 42E (Eastern class) of which four were built, the other four being H.P. 42W (Western class, the drawing office designation of these being the H.P. 45).

Although similar in external appearance, the two types had different engines and passenger seating arrangements: the H.P. 42E “Hannibal” class airliners operated between Alexandria, Egypt; Karachi, Pakistan; and Lake Victoria bordering Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania in East Africa. They carried 24 passengers and up to 3,603 kg (8,000 lbs.) of cargo or mail. The H.P. 42 W “Heracles” class operated in Europe and India, and carried 38 passengers.  At the time, the H.P. 42 was the first four-engined and largest British civil transport aircraft to be built, and gained an excellent reputation for passenger comfort, reliability, and safety.

On May 2, 1937, “Heracles” made Imperial Airways’ 40,000th crossing of the English Channel, and on July 23, 1937 it reached its one millionth mile of travel in 10,200 flying hours, by which time it had carried some 80,000 passengers. By the end of 1937, the fleet had collectively flown some seven million miles without any fatalities. It was not until March 1, 1940 that this passenger safety record ended, when G-AAGX “Hannibal” disappeared without trace over the Gulf of Oman, with its three crew and four passengers while on a flight from Karachi. At the outbreak of World War II, G-AAXF “Helena” was impressed into RAF service, while G-AAXC “Heracles” was wrecked by gales in March 1940.

Specifications (H.P. 42W Heracles class)
Powerplant: Four 555hp Bristol Jupiter XFBM engines
Maximum speed: 203 km/h (127 mph)
Cruising speed: 152-160 km/h (95-100 mph)
Wingspan: 39.59 meters (130 feet)
Length: 27.32 meters (89 ft. 9 in.)
Height: 7.82 meters (25 ft. 8 in.)

The Kit

Initially released by Airfix in 1965, the Handley Page HP 42 embodies both the joy and the drawbacks of buying old, aftermarket model kits. I first purchased an aftermarket example of the original 1965 kit, only to discover that it had a number of broken or missing parts, as well as a decal sheet that due to its age was clearly unserviceable. I bought a second newer kit, a 1993 re-release from Airfix’ Classic Airliners series, but it was also aftermarket and it too had broken parts, although the decal sheet was in far better shape. Unless you are lucky enough to buy one both new and sealed, a key challenge with this kit is finding a complete set of intact, unbroken interplane struts. Fortunately by cannibalizing the two of them I was able to build one complete kit.

The kit is injection molded in silver (1965 release) or grey (1993 release) plastic, and consists of 62 parts — a fairly high number for a kit of this scale — including seven clear parts for the windscreen and cabin windows. The kit contains a number of easily lost or broken small parts that require looking after should they separate from the sprues (tail wheel, cabin portal style windows, propellers, and mud guards for the main landing gear).

Construction

The beauty of this kit is that for the most part, it goes together without causing modelers headaches. The two fuselage halves definitely require sanding and a small amount of putty to hide the join seam, particularly up forward in the nose, but the major challenge is getting the various interplane struts to align properly with their fittings in the upper and lower wings. At one point I had to cut off part of one of the crooked “N” struts from one kit, and substitute that same section of strut from the second kit, to achieve the proper alignment between the two wings. Zap-a-Gap helped enormously at this stage.

The second challenge is that despite Airfix’ reputation for being roughly accurate, the “box kite”-like tail assembly, when cemented into the slot at the rear of the fuselage, did not rest on the fuselage at the proper angle. It is supposed to rest on the same horizontal plane as the fuselage, so that the horizontal tail planes are aligned with the dorsal surface of the fuselage, but instead it is a few degrees off and sits at an angle, with the forward end of the horizontal tail planes inclined about 3 degrees upwards in relation to the fuselage. I remedied this with a small amount of Milliput at the extreme tail end of the fuselage, which raised the back end of the tail assembly just enough to get it level with the fuselage.

Other than the two issues detailed above, the kit came together beautifully, although in the later stages the exhaust pipes to be fitted to the exposed engines were rather fiddly. It is important to note that it may be best to disregard the kit instructions on one point: they tell modelers to attach the exhausts before the engines are cemented to the fuselage. This in my opinion is counterproductive. It is far easier to attach the exhausts after the engines are cemented to the fuselage, allowing them to rest in position atop the upper wing and the engine nacelles on the lower wing while the glue dries, given the delicate and easily broken propellers which are already attached at that point, and the fact that the engines do not slip easily into the openings of the nacelles — some sanding is required, along with judicious amounts of liquid cement to melt the plastic a bit and ease insertion of the engines onto the front of the nacelles.

Painting

Since the HP 42 appeared in overall natural metal, I gave it a thorough airbrushing of Vallejo’s black primer, allowing it to dry 24 hours. I airbrushed the fuselage and the wings before cementing them together, for two reasons: One, it was easier to assure complete coverage of the wings this way, with their multitude of interplane struts, and Two, I used different paints on each. The fuselage is airbrushed in AK Interactive’s Polished Aluminum, while the wings and box kite tail are airbrushed in AK Interactive’s Aluminum, which has a slightly duller finish. I made a point to give the kit a generous application of Future with the airbrush afterwards, as I knew I would be handling it a great deal before it was finished and did not want to cause undue wear to the paint job. The tiny engines I brush painted using Tamiya’s Gun Metal, an enamel, and the propellers are painted in Humbrol Natural Wood, coated with Gunze Sangyo Clear Yellow. The exhaust pipes are Testors Flat Rust.

Decals

The kit decal sheet provides markings for one of two Imperial Airways aircraft, circa 1933 — Helena, call letters G-AAXF, or Heracles, call letters G-AAXC. I chose the latter. The decals were quite servicable and gripped the surface of the model readily, although they all had a milky residue that both appeared in the water of the decal dish, and had to be scrubbed off of the decals themselves with a Q-tip, before they could be applied to the model. I used a combination of Micro Set to prime to surface of the model, Micro Sol to help the decals lie down — and even Micro Sol did not entirely work its magic on the corrugated sections of the fuselage where “Imperial Airways” appears — followed by an application of Looks Like Glass, a very effective product that reduces silvering and restores a semi-gloss finish, giving the decals a luster that makes a final application of clear gloss optional. Looks Like Glass definitely gives decals that sought after “painted on” appearance. The acid test of the decals was that the largest of them, the word “Imperial” which covers almost two-thirds of the under surface of the fuselage, transferred to the kit completely intact, and once treated with the aforementioned products, looked as though it had been painted on with a stencil at the Handley Page works.

For a final touch, I purchased a set of high-quality aftermarket Union Jack decals from Decal Details, available via Historical Board Gaming in Bixby, Oklahoma. These decals are completely in register with realistic color and a very nice gloss finish. I cut two of them out, soaked them in water, applied them to both sides of the corner of a sheet of ordinary typing paper and laid it out to dry. The decals adhered to the paper very well on their own, but I added a bit of Elmer’s glue where I spotted tiny gaps, doing clean up immediately. When dry, I cut out the flag I had created using decal scissors, and superglued it to Part No. 74, the flagpole above and behind the cockpit framing.

Conclusion

This is a fun kit that is not too taxing on a modeler’s skills, and harks back to the era of classic commercial aviation which, ironcally, was also a time in which only the well-to-do could afford air travel. Some builders out there with Advanced Modelers Syndrome, and more patience than I, may chose to build a partial interior for this kit in 1/144 scale, but I am delighted with this kit as is. Highly recommended.

Reference

• Airfix Instructions