1:32 Fly Hurricane IIC in Burma, 5 Sqn, 1943-44

[Kallisti]

Time to return to a long-running project I've been doing on and off over the last 5 years, namely Aircraft my Father Fixed. I started this project with this topic back in 2012:

 

Aircraft my Father fixed!

 

As you can see in that thread I've build quite a few of the aircraft so this thread is a bit of a re-tread as I'm going to build another Hurricane IIc from my Father's time with 5 Sqn in Burma. The reason being is that Fly came out with a IIc Trop kit which is better than the conversion I was forced to do in the original build (Here if you are interested). I also want to get the colour scheme right this time but more importantly build a diorama depicting a story my Father told me when I were a nipper...

 

One night when they were all resting in their tents, everyone was woken by a loud CLANG! Rushing out of their tents they saw a red-faced ground crewman in the cockpit of a Hurricane and the aircraft's bombs lying on the ground under the wings! Turns out he'd accidentally hit the bomb release switch and released the bombs by accident. Thankfully the bombs didn't fall far enough to fuse themselves!

 

So my aim is to try to depict that scene - how well I achieve that aim will have to be seen!  To start with here is the box of the Fly kit

 

 

Lots have been written about the surprise appearance of these kits last year, but I'd just liek to say its great to see new kits in differing scales of important aircraft. Next, the obligatory sprue shot

 

 

The brown styrene sprues are from the kit, the other bits are the extras I'm adding. These include Montex canopy masks, HGW fabric seat belts (although these MAY get saved until I do the Hurricane IId when it gets released...) plus some figures etc that I'll describe individually below. The kits comes with a small PE fret which contains radiator grills, cockpit details and some seatbelts

 

 

The bombs come from the spares box, in particular from the Tamiya Spitfire IX from a few years back

 

 

Next, is the figure of a pilot in shorts and bush hat, I can't for the life of me remember where I got this from but for several years I've been looking for figures appropriate to this diorama

 

 

Next another figure with a bush hat, the flash has obscured the title but it says "LRDG no.2 Into the Sun". I'm going to replace the head as I don't like the heavily bearded look. I've ordered some "expressive" heads from Hornet that will be used to depict the appropriate reactions of the participants.

 

 

Next is a selection of legs, torsos and bush hats donated by the Airfix 1:32 Australian Infantry set. The white one is from the Airfix 8th Army multipose set, which is 1:32 while some of the other figures are 1:35 - careful positioning around the diorama should mitigate the discrepancies between the scales. The white figure will be the one standing in the cockpit looking shocked. The grey figure will have arms and hands adjusted to looks shocked and may have the head replaced.

 

 

The final figure is from Ultracast and will need some modifications and a replacement head

 

 

I'll also add some bits and bobs including some boxes

 

 

and various bits from these 

 

 

The base will be an old picture frame, suitably treated with claycrete and vegetation etc etc

Edited May 13, 2017 by Kallisti

[Badder]

Lookin' forward to seeing what you come up with,

Rearguards,

Badder

[Kallisti]

First stages in this build are of course the cockpit. Hurricane cockpits are always quite interesting with the framework etc. On this kit, its a bit tricky due to the sparsity of locating pins, but with careful alignment its possible. The seat is cast in resin and care needs to be taken when removing the resin flash at the back not to break off the tabs that are intended to attach to the framework bars - ask me how I found that out!

 

 

There are PE panels to be attached to the famework and pedals and a reasonably nice joystick. The compass is included on a resin sprue and looks nicely cast. Sadly while cutting it off with a razor saw, it pinged off into that parallel dimension that exists under the workbench, so I'm having to scratch build a replacement from a piece of plastic rod.

 

 

The PE fret contains some seatbelts which I've painted up and folded as I think I'll use them on this build in preference to the fabric ones as I'm going to have someone standing on the seat so will hide most of the seat detail

 

 

Finally for this update, my package from Historex arrived with the sets of Horent heads I ordered. These are superb also sadly two of the brims on the jungle hats broke off during transit, but the "frightened" heads are superbly exspressive!

 

 

I've been matching these up to the figures and the next update will show the progress on the figures I'm using...

[spitfire]

OK I'm hooked, I've got a few of these kits in the stash so will be very interested how it goes, and your dad's story makes it even better.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Kallisti]

As promised here are the figure I intend to use:

 

 

So from the left:

 

 

This is the culprit of the accident, he'll be standing in the cockpit with left hand holding the windscreen and right hand raised to his hat in a "OMG!" pose. The body and arms are from the Airfix 8th Army Multipose set and the head one of the Hornet "Aussie" heads.

 

 

This is a pilot figure who has come out to look at what has happened. He's wearing boots and is carrying a pilot's helmet in his hand. He'll have the bush hat on his head at a suitably rakish angle. This figure is from Master Casters as you can see in the background but I've replaced the head with one from the "surprised" set from Hornet.

 

 

This figure has one hand held to his face in a "omg" pose. This figure is the standing figure from the MiniArt"British Tank Riders" set, with arms posed differently. The head is from the Surprised Hornet set and the bush hat from the Airfix Aussie Infantry set.

 

 

This figure is from the Resin Cast "LRDG no.2 Into the Sun" with the bearded head replaced by one from the Shocked Hornet set.The hat is being held by a hand so he is taking his hat off while shouting at the careless ground crewman.

 

 

The final figure is the Ultracast one, sitting having a fag and shouting at the clumsiness. The original head with a beret has been replaced from the Shocked Hornet set and the bush hat is from the Airfix Aussie Infantry and again will be worn at the typically rakish angle. My reference photos are from the family album of the few photos we've got of my Dad from that time

 

 

 

My Dad is the one on the left in the above photo, with his Corporal stripes  The photo on the right gives me a bit of a problem as I don't have any figures that are bare chested with bush hats and trousers! Oh well, plenty of pics of shorts and socks, so the figures should be okay I reckon!

[scottbowsher]

This looks really interesting and I love the story behind it!

[Kallisti]

So having polished off the Guardians of the Galaxy spaceship, its back to Earth and Burma in 1944...

 

The fuselage has been put together and the cockpit has been fitted along with seatbelts etc.

 

 

I bought the Yahu Models Instrumnt panel, which was gorgeous, but I did feel a lit like a cheat as it looks just TOO good

 

 

I used the PE etch seatbelts that came with the kit

 

 

 

The rest of the cockpit was built using the PE that comes with the kit. As you can see the wings have also been attached. This was a bit of a nightmare as the kit parts have no location pins or guides. I added my own instead to help align the joints and ended up attaching the top of the wing to the fuselage first then adding the lower wing, making sure to not mess up the wing's dihedral in the process.

 

 

There was also the added complication of a resin frame inside the cut out for the landing lights as you can see in the above photo. The joins were not very clean and will require a lot of clean up

 

 

The starboard upper wing joint was particularly difficult as it was constantly trying to sink below the fuselage surface, The resin frame in the landing lights also causes the joint to open a little more than it should so will need some filler 

 

 

The port wing was a lot less trouble although the gap near the landing light is quite large as you can see in the next photos (the black is from the paint I used inside the wing behind the hole for the landing light)

 

 

 

Back to the starboard wing and the gap near the wing root is also a bit gaping!

 

 

So once all this has dried, I'm goign to be doing a lot of filling and sanding...

 

[Kallisti]

Sanding, filling and sanding... well it seems to have done the trick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll need to slap some primer on to be absolutely sure though. I did make a very pleasnat discovery on the PE fret and in the instructions - they include a PE version of the strengthening strip for the underside which covers the horrible joint completely!

 

 

 

In the previous two photos you might have noticed some filler in front of the UC bay. This is to fill the holes left byt he fitting slot for the alternative air intakes

 

 

but since I'm goign to use the large Volkes filter, this needs to be filled. This does not seem to be mentioned in the instructions, but the filter does not cover this area completely

 

 

The oil cooler is a work in progress as well, with 4 pieced of PE for each grill which go together without much problem with careful CY applications

 

 

These are the resin cannons - the spring detail is nice and crisp and there are no moulding lines

 

 

Which can't be said for the version on the sprues. note, these are the flat spring types as opposed to the round springs of the resin cannons. I see no need for aftermarket replacements for the resin cannons.

 

 

Prop blades have been cleaned up and painted - there were some sharp mould lines on the edges, but these cleaned up without too much problem. I used a custom yellow mix to fade the colour down a bit. I won't be chipping the blade but I will dirty it up a bit later. Finally for this update, the scenery is being worked on as well .These still need washing and weathering...

 

[HL-10]

Great  work, especially with that Fly Hurricane which leaves a lot to be desired with its fit!

Watching your progress with great interest

 

[spitfire]

Sounds like you had to do more sanding and filling than the old Revell Hurricane, but but's looking good now.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Kallisti]

Nah the old one was a complete whatsit - the corrections needed to convert the Revell Mk I to a Mark II needed cutting off the entire front of the plane and replacing it with the resin update from Grey Matter figures, which was a non-trivial exercise!

 

Before:

 

After:

 

[Kallisti]

I thought I'd taken photos of building the base but I obviously haven't However its one of my usual bases using an old picture frame, claycrete, artists acrylic paint and various scatter products plus various grass tufts. This shows what it looks like along with my initial ideas about the layout

 

 

The bloke with his back to us is going to have to move, its just rude to turn your back on the audience! The placement of the various pieces of gear also isn't finalised. and of course the bloke currently standing on the wing will be standing in the cockpit, but that is masked off currently.

 

The tail and elevators have been attached, along with some details provide in the PE set and some I've just scratch built

 

 

 

The tail trim tab adjustment brackets come with the kit PE, but strangely enough the tail brackets don't so these were just scratched with some spare PE and wire. In other news, the nav lights on the wing tips have had work done on them

 

 

 

Then finally for this update, I've been painting the figures with their initial colours, which will have washes and details added as time goes on, but here is the team as they look today

 

 

Arms and hats will be added once painting has gone a bit further as it simplifies the painting a bit. A slightly lower angle shows the facial expressions a bit better. I've used a darker skin tone as the base as they would all be suntanned

 

 

I've tried to vary the shades of khaki on the shirts and shorts to provide some variation as there undoubtedly would be in real life.

[Kallisti]

Quite a bit of progress over the May bank holiday, to start with this:

 

 

Main camo scheme painted along with white SEAC stripes. This was pretty bog-standard masking and spraying, nothing clever. Undersides are XF83, top is XF 81 and XF 82. There is still weathering and washes to be done... In the meantime, the bomb carriers have been put together. These, like the 250lb bombs  were left over from the Tamiya Spitfire Mk IX build I did for this project a few years ago. The important thing here was getting the alignments on the wing undersides right.

 

Here you can see the black dots I used to try to position them and in the background a photo I found of bombs on a IIc. The bomb carriers themseves and at the bottom middle of the photo

 

 

You can also see where I've painted the cannon shell ejector slots black. Other jobs have been progressing, eg canopies:

 

 

Masked with Montex masks and brush painted. Propeller has been painted and assembled. The boss is supposed to be a dirty white. i did this with Matt white sprayed with X19 smoke

 

 

Finally in this update, the figures have all had an oil wash, using a variety of browns and yellows, from yellow ochre, through burnt umber to raw sienna and raw umber, with a bit of transparent gold ochre for the faces. They all look very shiny still as I need to wipe them down with a cotton bud/soft cloth to start removing some of the oil paint...

 

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Kallisti

[Kallisti]

Another weekend another step or two forward, this time decals have been added and Kleared over ready for weathering...

 

 

The serial number and code were from the "Fighter Squadrons of the RAF" by John Rawlings book and sourced from generic lettering decal sets. The kit comes with a nice selection of stencil decals, not many but enough to make it interesting. I'm sure I have a set of decals somewhere in my stash that has even more detail, but I can't find it.. 

 

 

Here you can also see the bomb racks added under the wings

 

 

Sadly i was a bit dumb on this - I put the deacals on before I had given it a clear coat so they went on over a matt finish and although there is no silvering there is a noticeable difference in the texture. I'm hoping that a few more coats of Klear might fix that... here's hoping!

 

Finally, yet again are the figures. These have now been matted down a bit more so not quite so shiny, although the flash has made them look a bit more shiny that they look in RL. Next job here is goign to be the faces... problem is my figure painting skills have gone a bit rusty as I've spent the last couple of years building SciFI etc, so it might be a case of a refresher course ie watching some youtube vids...

 

 

[Biggles87]

Sorry to inundate you with ' likes ' but I've only just found this.

What a great project, and your figure painting skills don't look too rusty to me.

 

John

[Kallisti]

Well had a bit of an accident yesterday - was spraying matt varnish on the figures when by accident on one figure, I picked up the can of primer instead of matt varnish

 

 

Its sadly rusined and this was the figure which IMO had the best paint job  Looks like I'll have to strip the paint and start again...

 

In other news, weathering has begin on the Hurricane

 

 

 

I'm making it a bit dirty as in the conditions out in the bush in Burma, there would have been a lot of dust and mud (particularly during the monsoon season)

 

More anon...

[Kallisti]

Well today we are back to being a bit more successful on the painting front. Having been disappointed with my first attempt at painting the bombs, I stripped them back to plastic and started again. I found some photos (in b/w naturally) of standard 250lb bombs and also thinking about what they'd had to do through to get to Burma from the UK, I started with a lighter colour for the bombs and a different colour for the tail. Then the weathering and it came out quite well I reckon...

 

[hendie]

On 5/13/2017 at 6:13 AM, Kallisti said:

Then the weathering and it came out quite well I reckon...

 

very realistic - subtle and nicely done.

[Biggles87]

I agree, I don't think any unused bombs remained in pristine conditions for very long.

 

John

[snapper_city]

Looking good Andrew. 

[Kallisti]

So now I've completed the Mosquito build for the DeHavilland GB, I feel encouraged to return to this, and in particular to repaint the figure I ruined by spraying primer instead of varnish.  I stripped the figure back to bare resin, separated the arms and repainted the flesh colour. Once again I've gone for a darker flesh tone to refelct the suntan that would have been unavoidable in Burma. This time though I had a go at mixing a little red into the paint for the elbows and forearms to indicate perhaps a bit of sunburn! Sadly its a bit too subtle to get picked up in the photos.

 

Here he is with the arms reattached and the base coat of paint comprising several slightly different shades of khaki

 

 

As you can see I've done a better job with the face - the eyes aren't so "googly" and the mouth is a better shade. The eyebrows aren't too dark and the little bit of hair is not bed either

 

 

He's still a bit too shiny, but the next stage will be the oil paint wash and picking out the highlights and shadows. I was very pleased with the shoes last time, will try to do that agaub!

[RichO]

Very nice bombs!

[mick]

great work

[Kallisti]

So here is the figure complete and with matt varnish, even happier than before with how this has turned out!!

 

 

 

 

Now all that is left is to finally assemble the diorama on the base to finish this off. I'll be doing that today will try to get pictures of it later to upload...

[hendie]

excellent figure painting skills