Fly 1/72 Harrow by Roland Sachsenhofer

Valom's 1/72 scale
Handley Page Harrow
“Toothy Markings”

by Roland Sachsenhofer

Handley Page Harrow

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Description

Valom 1:72 scale Handley Page Harrow “Toothy Markings”, Kit No. 72116

This kit from Valom offers the rare-if not single- opportunity to build a Handley Page Harrow bomber/ transport. And in a quite exotic finish.

The all black surfaces and the belligerent shark mouth tell the story of “Operation Mutton”. This was an effort to stop German night bombers devastating British cities by “bombing” themselves with “LAMs” or “Long Aerial Mines”. This weapon consisted of a 120 meter long cable, having on the one end an explosive warhead and a small-, on the other end larger parachute. Once the cable had been captured by an enemy’s aircraft wing, the warhead would be dragged towards the doomed plane –where it would explode on contact.

It seems as if up to six German bombers would have been destroyed this way until “Mutton” had been stopped in early 1941 as being not effective enough.

My model depicts K6994, a Harrow being used for “Mutton” operations in early 1941 by 93th Squadron from Middle Wallop.

The Valom kit impresses with a detailed cockpit and near to perfect fit of the –multimedia- parts. The only matter having me seen in doubt has been the layout of the undercarriage assembly.

This consists of three very thin and rather soft plastic rods per side plus a faired wheel to be arranged in a correct way.

Assembly was as tricky as this sound- but in the end it results in a sturdy rigging, and that is quite amazing!

The rigging between fuselage and the wings underside have been done with etched metal struts from “R&B”, which worked very well.

A word has to be said concerning the decals: these in general are quite lovely, but the British fin streaks are completely out of measure and much too big. The same is to be said about the “sharks grin”. I have cut a quarter of the toothy decal, even so, it seems to be a little bit too long.

I would like to recommend this kit to everyone having interest in more exotic aeroplanes, seeking for a comfortable building experience. I for myself have opted for a second “Harrow” build in a pre-war camouflage- there is a lot of modelling fun inside this kit!

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If you are interested in the building process and in the models parts, please have a look on the workbench at Scalemates: https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=10148&p=albums&album=34430

As ever, remarks will be appreciated: ro.sachsenhofer@gmx.at

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