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#1
01-12-2008, 11:12 PM
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OTDAEABT Contest - Maly Modelarz Handley Page Hampden
The Hampden and the Indian Head penny (1898) arrived. It looks like it is theoretically within my very modest skill range: no interior, no detailed engine.
The color scheme is a mystery. It appears to be in a combination of the Bomber Command temperate night land scheme (dark green and dark earth upper sides and black undersides); the Coastal Command temperate day scheme (which was extra dark sea grey and dark slate grey upper sides and sky undersides); and the desert scheme of dark earth and mid-stone upper sides and azure blue undersides. This aircraft has upper surfaces in two shades of brownish color; one slightly on the green side and one slightly on the tan side and undersurfaces in a sort of darkish sky color. The code letters are white and present another mystery, as they are “UD K” and I am unaware of any Hampden unit that used the code letters “UD.” The cover illustration shows a Hampden with the UD-K codes in grey, but in the standard bomber command scheme (green, earth, black), and dropping a torpedo. Hmmmm. If anyone can shed any light on this aircraft, I would be grateful. I have laminated the formers to 1mm card, cut out the fuselage formers, and glued up the first fuselage section. The formers and the skin fit perfectly and any unevenness is due to my clumsiness rather than the fit of the parts. My wife, Lil, is quite supportive of this effort. She noted that there is plenty of time until St. Patrick’s Day, especially since this is a leap year, and she anticipates that under the pressure of this contest, this time she might actually see a completed model. Me, I’m not so sure. Don 
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#4
01-13-2008, 12:35 AM
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I have noticed that kits of this vintage from MM and GPM are in colors that are, at best, poorly rendered and at worst, purely imaginative. I also have been unable to unearth any Hampden unit using 'UD' as the squadron code. I hope the remainder of the build goes as well as the first fuselage section. You should have it done with time to spare...
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#5
01-13-2008, 07:20 AM
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Don,
Coloring of the models from this period (publication date) tends to be off in a rather big way and the markings of the aircraft might be way off as well. That was still the time when good sources with this type of info were rather scarce in Poland so designers often took some liberty in designing the models. As for your build - looking good and I'm happy that OT came up this idea to put more builds going :D
__________________
Constructive criticism of my builds is welcome - if I messed up and allowed others to see it, I certainly deserve it  Michael Krol
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#6
01-13-2008, 08:02 AM
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Quote:
http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/h455.html Possible colour scheme for Hampden torpedo bomber http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/b/1271/102/0/1 It's RNZAF 489 squadron but operated from the same base as RAAF 455 squadron. Regards, Charlie Last edited by CharlieC; 01-13-2008 at 08:34 AM.
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#7
08-20-2015, 04:09 PM
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this is probably the squadron 455 RAAF
Quote:
I was looking for information about Hampden bomber and landed on your board. Since we do not know English, I am helping each translation with Google Most likely he is right, CharlieC. This would involve Squadron 455, which was code UB. In Poland abbreviation of the bad connotations, it was the political police in the years 1944-1956. And perhaps the model designer wanted to avoid bad associations. In the end, Maly Modeler was then issued for the youth, now less popular. Obviously - the era of computers. A content description of the issue that Hampden was also used to fight the terrestrial, maritime patrols and night raids on Germany. Hence, perhaps this compilation of painting. And torpedo and camouflage land in one plane. Besides, there was little in Poland professional books formations allies in the West. It was also important to choose as nice painting pattern to encourage young people to modeling. Therefore, the colors were not always in line with the actual camouflage. Black bottom in the model never went out well. There would attract attention at all, he would not have to even notice. And is not the point in modeling. Faithful reproductions of museum is different. I do not remember doing that Monogram aircraft models in dark colors. I've seen some of them were imported into Polish in 1972-75. In our model has to please and hence as the possibility of printing issued in interesting colors. best regards Peter
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#8
01-13-2008, 08:24 AM
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Thanks, Charlie. I agree that it's the closest fit so far to my Hampden. The "UD" codes might be a typo or other error. However, it still may turn out that the "UD" codes really did exist for the Hampden. Several Coastal Command flights used the Hampden and I do not know if any of them used two-letter codes.
I have Michael J.F. Bowyer's Bombing Colours, which seems to have all of the Bomber Command Codes, including those of the Operational Training Units and other such miscellaneous outfits, but I do not have any equivalent book on the Coastal Command. There is a very useful RAF Coastal Command site (http://www.rafcommands.com/Coastal/indexC.html), but it does not provide squadron codes. Anyway, I am doing this as a strictly "out of the box" build and will be satisfied if it ends up looking like an airplane, even an imaginary one. Don
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#9
01-13-2008, 08:41 AM
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The "UD" code was RAAF 452 squadron flying Spitfires - it was in the UK until March 1942 then reformed in Australia for the defence of Darwin. Looks like the most likely code is "UB" which got mangled in translation.
Regards, Charlie
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#10
01-13-2008, 09:26 AM
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Excellent analysis, Charlie - RAAF 455 Sqn. sounds like a reasonable assumption. Don, I forgot to mention that you have surged to the lead in the "British WW2 Medium Bombers with Questionable Colors and Markings" category. Well done!
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