Master Model has come to the rescue of big scale Typhoon modelers with their latest releases in 1/24 scale. Both the Hawker Typhoon Mk IB Early Type Cannons with Uncovered Barrels with Flat Recoil Springs (24-014) and Round Recoil Springs (24-015) have been released. Despite the large scale, Airfix’s 20mm Hispano Mk.II cannon barrels can still be significantly improved over the injection plastic offered in the kit. This set is specifically applicable to the Airfix 1/24 Hawker Typhoon and provides an option not included in the kit, the flat recoil springs. There are currently two releases available. The Hawker Typhoon Mk.IB was released in 2014 with a second release in 2016 featuring additional parts for the ‘Car Door’ option. The first production batch of Typhoon Mk.Ib used the uncovered barrels featured in this set.

Notable is the superb re-sealable packaging that Master Model uses that makes the parts easy to review and then stuff back into the package securely until final assembly. You will want to be careful handling the metal parts as their size still makes them easy to fly in the air and become an easy sacrifice to the carpet monster.

Assembling the aluminum and brass parts is quite simple due to the excellent fit. You will need to modify the cannon wing mounted fairings by 4mm though. I glued the fairing together and then proceeded to use my digital calipers to measure 3.8mm back from the tip of the fairing to cut. Some judicious sanding to make the cut perfect was followed by reaming the hole for mounting the new aluminum barrel fairing tip to 3mm in diameter. You can see from the photograph below that I ended up with a less than smooth transition from plastic to aluminum in the fairing. I would suggest that you make your cut at 2mm from the tip and sand down until the plastic and aluminum match. To avoid knocking these barrels off in the building process, I would propose making sure they fit properly, then save them for installing later in the build. The three photos with the green background are from the Master Model website.

Be sure to use your favorite CA (super glue) or epoxy, as the normal plastic glues or solvents will not react with the resin or brass. You will also want to be careful painting the Hawker Typhoon Mk IB Early Type Cannons with Uncovered Barrels with Flat Recoil Springs to make sure you don’t hide any of the gorgeous detail.

Highly recommended! This set is a super upgrade over the injected kit parts. You can see from the comparison photographs that the Master Model gun barrels are a significant improvement over the kit parts, not only in detail, but you also don’t have to worry about fixing those barrel mold seams. This excellent Hawker Typhoon Mk IB Early Type Cannons with Uncovered Barrels with Flat Recoil Springs set will aim you in the right direction!

Thanks to Master Model and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this set.