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Keith Park's Hurricane OK1. 1/72 Hasegawa.


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My entry for this group build: OK1, Keith Park's personal aircraft while he was in command of No.11 Group RAF.

Auckland's MOTAT (Museum of transport and technology) is a few minutes away from my house in Auckland. The museum is split across two sites. The aviation hall (MOTAT 2) is on the second site and is dedicated as the Keith Park Memorial Aviation Display. A few years ago the museum added a second hanger so they could accommodate more aircraft indoors. It must have been about this time that they installed a large statue of Keith Park inside the hangers.

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I've always enjoyed visiting MOTAT 2 and have admired the fibreglass replica of Keith's aircraft on gate guard duty. It's great to be able to contribute to the group build with a New Zealand connection.

My kit of choice is the late model Mk1 Hurricane by Hasegawa. I've admired some of the attempts on here to mate the old mould airfix metal wings to the new mould fabric-winged hurricane. Not for me! I'm hoping for a relatively quick build with my choice of kit. I'm awaiting some Xtradecal lettering from Hannants and might need to look into the type of propellor before the end of the month.

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Troy Smith has provided some great reference info. I'll also be taking some inspiration from this excellent build by kiwichappers.

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Good initial progress.

Nose is together and the interior has been painted. Hope to close the fuselage over the weekend (this is a lightning paced build for me).

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Wings are glued together. Not too happy with the holes I've drilled for the machine guns. Might have to figure out a way to fill in one or two on the weekend and try again.

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Thanks all for showing an interest!

Update for the weekend. Yesterday I glued together the cockpit and closed the fuselage.

I considered adding detail to the walls of the cockpit, but after dry fitting the fuselage and the canopy I realised I'm not going to be able to see much at all through all the framing. So it was on with some Tamiya tape seat belts followed by the closing of the fuselage.

I've accidentally removed a bit of the fabric effect at the top of the fuselage with some sanding, but I think I've kept this to a minimum by removing a few drops of squadron putty with methylated spirits on a cotton bud. Strong enough to wear down and level the putty without eating away at the plastic. Not sure if I'll try to reinstate some of the lost fabric on top of the fuselage as by comparison to photos online the effect is overdone anyway.

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Dry fitting of the wings. Pretty good fit, but I think I can improve it with a bit of sanding.

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My back order for RAF white lettering has left the UK. I should have acted sooner and combined that order with some RAF markings as I've decided the kits decals are too yellowed for the job. Before I make an order, does anyone know where I might find a decal of the Air Vice Marshall's pennant? Seen below on OK2 and Keith's Spitfire, both at Malta.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f31/kiwichappers/Keith%20Park/OK2NormanFranks0001.jpg

http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/b436/AUCK1/NZ%20Aircraft%20Photos/SpitfireMkVKeithParkMalta.jpg

Edited by Magua87
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Wings on, nose attached, sanding has commenced. I've used a smidgen of filler where the nose, wings and fuselage meet on the underside of the fuselage and a few drops where the parts were cut away from the sprue. Otherwise it's going together nicely.

I might have some minor rescribing to do around the nose over the weekend and I should have the tailplanes on soon.

Photo from the phone.

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In my haste to close the fuselage I failed to remove ejector pin marks from the cockpit walls. I managed to remove these from the sealed fuselage with a file and I smoothed out the damage with some fine sandpaper at the end of a pair of tweezers! Not my finest hour, but it's looking pretty good now after a dry brushing with cockpit green to break up the blank walls (which are pretty difficult to see through the standard canopy).

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  • 1 month later...

I've been making slow progress on this build. I painted the underside of the aircraft at the beginning of the month, but lost my mojo trying to frame the canopy with a home made mask (Tamiya tape and a sharp knife).

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I kicked it into gear yesterday and finished the mask (good Friday night!). I sprayed the Dark Earth today (Gunze H72) and a few hours later masked off all the brown areas so I can get back to spraying tomorrow.

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I'll be spraying Gunze H330; I'm running with the colours specified in the kit instructions (except for the underside, which was sprayed with Tamiya XF-21). I've been reading a fair bit on scale fade, but decided against giving it a go on this kit as I had already sprayed the underside of the aircraft. Thinking I might grab an Airfix Spitfire or Hurricane for a quick build to experiment with at a later date.

My quickboost de Havilland Propellor has arrived and so has my BoB markings from Xtradecal. Onwards and upwards with this build!

Edited by Magua87
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Green paint applied for Hurricane camouflage pattern B. I've got some minor touch ups to make with a brush, but it's come out well. Thanks to Troy for his help in identifying the scheme.

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We've just ticked over into daylight savings in NZ, so I'll be able to use the airbrush during the week after work, which should speed things up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Touch ups completed and standing on her own legs with a gloss coat, waiting for decals.

I peeled back a piece of the canopy mask to see if the canopy was clear following spraying. I noticed I had forgotten to paint the gun sight! Whipped off the canopy (thank god for PVA glue), hit the sight with some matt black and back on it went. A bit more PVA to fill in the gaps, a touch of paint, and it's looking good. Should blend right in again when I give it a final satin or flat finish.

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Progress. Excuse the poor lighting and cellphone quality image. I'll snap some better photos when it's ready for the gallery.

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I realised that my Xtradecal sheet of white lettering was lettering only and didn't have any numbers; so the 1 in OK-1 is an I. I might rectify that with a touch of white paint before I wrap up the build.

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Edited by Magua87
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Here are two more poor quality images of my progress to date.

I've given the aircraft a panel line wash with Tamiya brown (can't see it in these shots). I've applied a Microscale flat coat and have done some exhaust weathering. The canopy came out well, with no glue marks.

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Those are the propellers sticking out of the blue tac. I munted the spinner when I removed it from the casting block. I was overzealous in my sanding, so now I'm building up the base with some squadron putty.

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I'm surprised how well my attempt to rebuild the spinner went. It required lots of filler, lots of sanding, and a bit of drilling. I I need to touch up the black paint tomorrow with some light brush work or perhaps another pass with the airbrush. Then that should wrap up this build! Pictures to follow when prop meets plane.

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Really impressed with your Hurri and I cannot fault your choice of subject either,.....Keith Park was a brilliant leader and Britain owe`s him a great debt.

Can I just point out that you seem to have missed the artwork below the canopy seen in your photo of Park alongside OK1,.....whatever this artwork was?

Cheers

Tony

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