HM4 Razzle Dazzle & Double Trouble

Most people would agree the HM4 Thunderbolt is a pretty extreme Machine. Today we take “extreme” just a bit further. Today we bring you the HM4… in battledress!

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Rebellious individualism is an incredibly powerful creative force. It is a force that has been responsible for some of – if not all – the greatest art in history. Art often thrives under adversity, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that during WW2, artists found their canvases in unusual places – such as on the nose cones of aircraft.That led to a thriving aesthetic genre called ‘nose art’, which often expressed rebellious individualism coupled with a light-hearted jab at the establishment – that’s a winning combination at MB&F!

HM4 Razzle Dazzle and Double Trouble take their inspiration from, and pay homage to, these airborne masterpieces. And, as they provocatively fly by, the cheeky pin-ups also take a playful poke at the establishment.Maximilian Büsser explains: “When I was making model airplanes as a boy, they were mainly WW2 aircraft. HM4 Thunderbolt is an aviation-inspired Machine with its roots in those model plane kits, so it was only natural to start imagining what might HM4 have looked like in that era. Hand painted nose art, real rivets, vintage-look dials, authentic military leather strap and the metamorphosis of the Thunderbolt is complete.”

To create the vivacious artwork of Razzle Dazzle and Double Trouble, the titanium fuselage of HM4 Thunderbolt has been carefully machined out for the design so that the paint and its protective layers of lacquer finish flush with the surface, so minimising the risk of damage. To set the scene and provide further authenticity, real titanium rivets have been hand applied to the Thunderbolt’s titanium fuselage. The dual dials glow and sparkle with a warm vintage patina created using a special blend of paint mixed with cream-coloured Super-LumiNova and very fine copper particles.

Nose art: With her colourfully playful hand-painted renditions of Razzle Dazzle and Double Trouble on Horological Machine No.4, award-winning miniature painter Isabelle Villa has perfectly captured the style and spirit of WW2 nose art. The case is first machined out to create a ‘canvas’ and after the painting is dry it is coated with protective layers of transparent lacquer so that the nose art finishes flush with the case. HM4 Thunderbolt is the quintessential machine as three-dimensional kinetic art.