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Airfix 1/48 Hurricane


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Hi everyone,

 

No doubt I've messed this up slightly, but it would be interesting to hear your opinions;

 

After assembling the cockpit and it's frame work, I'm now at the stage where the wings come together, but I'm getting a really bad fit.

The frame for the guns isn't a perfect fit into the recess on the bottom wings but I've put them in as best as they can go, but the tops of the wings are a really bad fit and I'm not sure if it's the gun frames causing the problem. 

The gun bays won't be on show, so I shaved them down to get the top wings fitting, but they are still a really bad fit.

 

Seeing this is a newly tooled kit, it's fair to assume the error is mine and not the kits, but has anyone else encountered this before?

20171005_135829_zps74tohcck.jpg?t=15070820171005_135905_zpsgexposnt.jpg20171005_135940_zpsnbxi9kdx.jpg

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Are those spars or gun bay frames ? Either way i would definitely sand those down. Between what looks like paint on top and any tight tolerances that probably is causing the problem. Add to that the paint might cause glue adhesion issues. Im not familiar with the current airfix models is the plastic white ? Or is it primed ?

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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Glad it's not just me. I plan on building a second one so the lessons learned from this will definitely be applied. 

 

Both sides have been sanded down quite significantly, and the top wings bit slightly better but still fit really bad. 

By lining up the wings leading edge perfectly, it causes the trailing edge to not line up.

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Ok you could trim the spars down more if you arent planning open gun bays. And you could also sand the inside of the upper wing above the spars to help fit ? 

   The wings sound like the one shrank after it came out of the mold? I would make the leading edge flush and fill and sand the trailing edge to fit? 

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From your second picture, it looks like the rear spar is not properly seated in the channel in the lower wing. If that is the case, the spar will sit too high and make it difficult to match up the wing halves. I have one of these kits built and don't remember having a problem like yours so I dug out my Mk.I trop version and a quick dry fit showed no problems as long as the rear spar seats in the channels in the upper and lower wing.

 

I will say that I did not follow the kit instructions; I glued the wing spars to the wings first and then built the cockpit on top of them. This makes it tricky to fit some of the framework, but it can be done.

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Unfortunately, a newly tooled kit doesn't guarantee that everything will fit perfectly. So your fit issue may not necessarily be down to human error.

 

I built this kit last year, and I encountered a similar problem with the upper port wing root/fuselage join. I needed a very strong clamp to get it into the correct position.

 

I think you should be able to sort out your fit issue by reaching for the course sanding stick and addressing the top of that wing spar. I know it's a bit of a pain in the a***, but a repeating cycle of sanding and test fitting should get you there in the end. 

 

Best wishes.

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Thanks for all the replies. It pretty much confirmed what I had resigned myself to do. 

 

The wing spars & gun bays did not fit perfectly into the recess on the bottom wing. It never came close. So I've glued them in the best way possible.

 

A significant amount of the spars have already been shaved and sanded off. I have thought about cutting off half the spars but I feel the issue lies more closer to the wing root than further out, so I'll start focusing on the underside of the top wings next. 

 

Upon reflection, I probably should have at least done a test fit of the spars into the wings right at the very start before building the cockpit. However, I figured that a brand new kit would be less likely to have fit issues unless it was of my own making. Sides, I had already built the cockpit months ago and have only just come back to this project after doing a commission build. 

 

Will post some more progress shots today if time allows.

 

Thanks!

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18 hours ago, Darby said:

Didn't have that on my Sea Hurricane. I did have a bit of a squeeze with the wing to fuselage due to the tolerances/paint layer and a step under the nose which could be sanded out. 

...had the step under the nose issue on 2 of mine - glad it's not just me ...

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Sanded like crazy today and finally managed to get the wings sitting correctly. Glad the gun bays will be covered- you don't want to see the mess I left inside those wings..

 

I've anticipated problems fitting the fuselage so there's been plenty of dry fitting happening. All in all it's ok, though the biggest problem now once the fuselage is fitted, is the pilot seat leaning too far forward..

 

20171006_133548_zpsr4ktgnjh.jpg

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1 hour ago, ArtickWarspite said:

Sanded like crazy today and finally managed to get the wings sitting correctly. Glad the gun bays will be covered- you don't want to see the mess I left inside those wings..

 

I've anticipated problems fitting the fuselage so there's been plenty of dry fitting happening. All in all it's ok, though the biggest problem now once the fuselage is fitted, is the pilot seat leaning too far forward..

The next time I do one I will glue the wing spars to the lower wing and then build up the cockpit framing. I use Humbrol glue so it melts the plastic, I reckon that by following the instructions, when I glued the cockpit together, I effectively shrunk the distance between the forward and rear spars (doesn’t have to be much as the kit is engineered very precisely) and so I fell fowl to the tight tolerances the same as you. I shaved the spars rather than sanded though, much quicker and tidier imo.

 

Is the instrument panel shunted too far forward too then? I don’t understand how that’s happened for you.

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Hmm. I just left the gun bay parts out of mine, but it fell together otherwise.

 

It is very tight on tolerances so things like thick brush painting on mating surfaces can conspire to cause big fit problems on some modern Airfix kits, but my Hurricane only needed a 10thou shim under once wing fillet on the belly fairing and everything else was great.

 

Looking carefully at your photos, it looks like the rear spar is not actually located properly in the recess moulded into the inside of the lower wing half. That in turn could be down to the spars being assembled slightly too close together on the fuselage tubular structure parts. The main spar looks to be correctly seated but the rear spar is sat on the ledge of its recess rather than in it. That will mean the whole cockpit area ends up pitched a degree or so "nose down" within the fuselage halves.

 

Thinking back, I had used the Ultracast seat and armour plate and brass tube to join to the kit trusses. I dry assembled all the pre-painted parts (airbrushed with Alclad so minimal paint thickness) and didn't glue it until the wing spars were correctly seated in the wing recesses to ensure it all lined up properly.

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14 hours ago, ArtickWarspite said:

Sanded like crazy today and finally managed to get the wings sitting correctly. Glad the gun bays will be covered- you don't want to see the mess I left inside those wings..

 

I've anticipated problems fitting the fuselage so there's been plenty of dry fitting happening. All in all it's ok, though the biggest problem now once the fuselage is fitted, is the pilot seat leaning too far forward..

 

20171006_133548_zpsr4ktgnjh.jpg

If you haven't glued the fuselage on, at this point, I would be going back and carefully detaching the rear spar from the lower wing to try and get a better fit of the spar in the channel. Option B would be to detach the rear cockpit framing, seat and armour plate from the cockpit "tub" and gluing it directly into the fuselage. The mismatch of parts inside the cockpit itself won't be particularly obvious if you keep the canopy closed.

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Thanks for the replies,

 

Oddly I spent a bit of time test fitting and lining up the wing spars and cockpit framing back at the start. I have seriously considered taking off the smaller spar and redoing it, but it's all attached to the bottom wing now and will not come out easily. 

 

I might attach the seat to the fuselage and then attempt to slot the seat pins into their relevant holes upon assembly. 

 

The instrument panel hasn't gone in yet. 

 

By the way, is there any other RAF pilot sets aside from the ICM one? (I know that's been re boxed multiple times under different brands, but are there any other different ones out there? 48th scale.

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So after today's effort, it's almost impossible to attach the seat to the fuselage and then line up the seat pins into the cockpit frame work. 

 

I really didn't want to , but I had to follow the above advice and take out the smaller wing spar- which in turn led to having to take almost the entire cockpit apart. 

 

Now having lined up the spars properly- the cockpit side frames now appear ever so slightly too short. But it's very minor. The cockpit went back together easily enough and now the fit of the seat and the fuselage is much better.

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On 08/10/2017 at 23:47, ArtickWarspite said:

By the way, is there any other RAF pilot sets aside from the ICM one? (I know that's been re boxed multiple times under different brands, but are there any other different ones out there? 48th scale.

 

Eduard have a couple of sets...

 

8507.jpg

KIT No. 8507

 

8508.jpg

 

KIT No. 8508

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've got more updates on the Hurricane. 

 

Now that the wings are all together- filled and sanded, I've come to put the fuselage onto the wings, but it's not fitting. There's a big gap towards the front and I believe it's the firewall getting in the way of the front of the cockpit. But it's not fitting on at all so something is getting in the way. 

 

There were supposed to be images, but I'm not really keen on paying photobucket money to upgrade my account- especially since it's not a very good site. Are there any other good and free image sharing websites that are worth using?

Edited by ArtickWarspite
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I use imgur & there is i think villiagephoto, flickr, and a couple others. As for you fit sounds like a correct diagnosis you’ll have to just kind of keep looking till you find it. If it is that issue with the firewall. You may have to sand a little ... fit ... repeat and try to get it to work ? 

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