Airfix Huricane Attempted Build

[dogsbody]

Dear members, after a few decades of not finishing the few kits that I've started, I've decided to try to complete at least one kit this year.

My choice is the Airfix 1/72 Hawker Hurricane. I would like to do it as one of the 20 Hurricanes the RCAF acquired in early 1939. Some of these were later sent back to Britain in early 1940, along with No.1 Squadron ( Fighter ) RCAF. I want to do it up as one of those during that year in Canada.

 

Some images here:

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/results/images?form=image&lang=eng&FormName=Image+Search&PageNum=1&SortSpec=score+desc&HighLightFields=title%2Cname&Language=eng&QueryParser=lac_mikan&Sources=mikan&Archives=&ShowForm=show&SearchIn_1=&SearchInText_1=hawker+hurricane&Operator_1=AND&SearchIn_2=&SearchInText_2=&Operator_2=AND&SearchIn_3=&SearchInText_3=&Media[]=&Level=&MaterialDateOperator=after&MaterialDate=&MaterialDate=&DigitalImages=1&Source=&cainInd=&ResultCount=50

 

 

What I need is a source of number decals to do the underwing numbers. I am assuming they would be in the same font as RAF numbers and letters. The RCAF numbers for the Hurricanes are 310 to 330. See: http://www.rwrwalker.ca/RCAF_301_350_detailed.htm

 

Looking through the images posted above and a few others that I have, it appears that #315 was the only one fitted with a radio mast and it is without a venture below the cockpit.

 

 

Any information that can be provided will be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

Chris

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by dogsbody
Adjusting text

[bobmig]

I believe this may help, Chris:  http://iliad-design.com/decals/72Prehurri.html

Bob

[dogsbody]

5 minutes ago, bobmig said:

I believe this may help, Chris:  http://iliad-design.com/decals/72Prehurri.html

Bob

 

That's awesome. Bob! Thanks for the quick reply

 

 

Chris

[Graham Boak]

It's a very nice kit, but there are a few things to watch out for.  Nothing vital, but forewarned is forearmed.  The fit of the upper and lower wings to the fuselage can cause problems, as I found that aligning the upper and lower ailerons etc meant that there was too much span on the upper parts, and some filing is necessary at the tip and leading edge.  Others didn't see this, which I don't understand, but did find that the fit of the wings to the fuselage was too tight.   I had no problems there, but it is not uncommon with the tight tolerances on other Airfix kits so check how well the cockpit interior fits.  I found it awkward to fit all the undercarriage struttery in place.  The wheels have the wrong number of spokes, but you can (or could) get the correct ones as aftermarket.  You have to fill the fabric covering behind the gun panels as this was metal for the armourers to kneel on.   (There is at least one other panel that needs the same treatment - I think this is at the rear of the wing root and presumably is for access to the cockpit, but can't be sure from memory.) 

For additional tweaks, the two half-bulges on the lower nose immediately behind the spinner can be opened up, and a couple of holes drilled into the port cowling.  I don't remember whether the kit gives you the stirrup/step for the pilot.

[JackG]

This is great idea, love the subject.

 

If it is just the  '315' you need, and have clear decal film, you could print your own.  The font looks to be RAF_WW2_851ATH which can be downloaded here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020210183915/members.aol.com/p5219/fonts.htm

 

It's the fourth one listed on the web page.  Comparing it to the decal art, I'd probably stretch the height a bit to better match.

 

regards,

Jack

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

I found it awkward to fit all the undercarriage struttery in place. 

I have recently had a go at one,  some very neat features, some annoying stuff ups.

In addition to Graham's points.

 

I did greatly thin the wing  trailing edge,   which is way too thick.  This will probably cause some minor fit  problems, but it really impreoves the finla look.

 The UC well bits,  I added the front spar and then used upper and lower wings to lcok this in position,  let set and then add the rear parts,  and if needed, use  the upper wing as jig again.  This allows you to  line up the cross members on the side part with the front spar attacments points, which lack a postive location,   which is why using the upper wing as jig helps.

 

Very impressive wheel well when done though, best in scale AFAIK.

 

The canopy is too high, and thus so is the windsceen,  it is possible to  sand the base of the canopy, and cut down the windscreen.  I cracked the canopy doing this though, but it was more to test the theory.

There are vac canopies out  there,  but the Rob Taurus ones look to just copy the Airfix mistake.  

I mentioned this  years ago, possibly because the fairing behind the canopy is to scale,   to do the above requires surgery.

 

I'll  do some research on canopies in the mean while.

 

The  bucket seat is too narrow,  by a noticable amount,   not such a problem closed up,   took  a while to notice,  but once you  do it looks odd as  there is too much space  on either side.

 

One final point, the early machines shipped to Canada probably lacked the rear seat armour?   the full early boxing may have this as an option,  mine not to hand to check.

It's not too hard to carve off though.

 

HTH

T

 

 

 

[dogsbody]

Thanks, Graham. I do have a set of Freightdog 5-spoke wheels. As for the entry, the kit doesn't have one, but I've got at least one from another kit in the spares and I also have an Airwaves etch set that I may use a few bits from. I'm aware of the wing issues and will attempt to rectify as best I can.

 

 

Thanks, Troy. I have the kit with the parts to build both versions.  I'm not too concerned about the canopy. I have a Falcon vac set and two vac canopies from Squadron. Anyways, this build is to mostly try to finish something before I get too tired of it. I'll never be able to finish anything that would ever come close to your work and the other masterpieces that I see here.

I'm more of a styrene butcher than a kit builder.

 

Thanks, Jack. Definitely something to consider. I checked the site out to see what was there and was instantly transported back to the one-room country schoolhouse, where I stared school in the early 60's and learning to print and write. The quick brown fox indeed!

 

My first school, in the 1980's, before it was torn down:

 

 

 

Chris

Edited January 21, 2018 by dogsbody

[dogsbody]

While looking through my RCAF Hurricane pictures, I've noticed that they don't appear to be armed. I have looked up what little information there is on these few aircraft, but there is nothing much out there. Here are some other pictures I have found online to show what appears to be a lack of armament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Troy Smith]

Hi Chris

 

not lack of armament, but very neatly doped gun port patches, painted in the relevant colours.

 

I've noticed this on Hurricanes up to the end of the phoney war,   as RAF didn't do much gunnery practice,  the patches didn't get regularly shot off and  I presume for a neat appearance they got painted to match.

eg  but if you look at other photos it's quite common.

 

the above also shows the metal panel behind the gun bays clearly.   note how the wing fabric is ballooning out as well

maybe clearer here, hard to see on black port wing, but pretty clear white side.

EDIT - note also patches over spent cartridge slots as well.

 

One other little glitch I forgot to mention, the control column grip is closer to 1/48 than 72nd, when I dry fitted the cockpit I thought it look odd and had a quick compare with the Bentley drawings.

HTH

T

 

[dogsbody]

Thanks, Troy! Though it's still on the sprue, I did notice the large size of the control column. I'm sure I've got one in the spares, or if not, I'll rob one from some other kit.

 

Another armament question. Would there aircraft have been fitted with a reflector gunsight or would there have been just a fixed ring sight in the cockpit?

 

 

 

Chris

[Graham Boak]

The photos of the Canadian one show the post of the fixed sight, so no reflector.  Presumably these were still in short supply and not considered essential for these examples.  

[dogsbody]

Thanks, Graham. Do you happen to know just where on the cockpit coaming the ring was fitted?

 

 

Chris

[Troy Smith]

37 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

Do you happen to know just where on the cockpit coaming the ring was fitted?

 

[dogsbody]

Wow! Thank you so much, Troy. I've been through every reference I have on the Hurricane and through a fair bit of the Internet and this is the first time I have ever seen this picture.

 

 

Chris

[airjiml2]

Chris,

 

Drop me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send you a RCAF photo of one of the early Hurricanes that illustrates the fixed ring in the cockpit.  (Which is very similar to Tony's photo.)  I am also happy to advise as to differing configurations for each of the aircraft.  (Please note there was no Hurricane 330, and 315 was not the only aircraft with an antenna mast.  Detail differences included props, lower bumps on the cowl, pitot tubes, and venturi fitment.)

 

There are two series of articles on RCAF Hurricanes I highly recommend.  I did one for IPMS Canada's RT in RT 38-2 and Carl Vincent has done a great series of articles in the last few issues of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society Journal.

 

Jim

[Graham Boak]

The lower bulges on the cowling were to cover the vacuum pump which replaced the venturi for the cockpit instrumentation and the Constant Speed Unit, required for the Rotol constant speed propeller.  Although these were not always present on the aircraft, the mountings for them were a standard fit on the Merlin III.  This required the change in nose cowling ring from a single unit to upper and lower parts.  Aircraft without these bulges are very early deliveries indeed.  (Possible the first 50, but that factoid needs to be checked.)

 

[dogsbody]

23 minutes ago, airjiml2 said:

Chris,

 

Drop me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send you a RCAF photo of one of the early Hurricanes that illustrates the fixed ring in the cockpit.  (Which is very similar to Tony's photo.)  I am also happy to advise as to differing configurations for each of the aircraft.  (Please note there was no Hurricane 330, and 315 was not the only aircraft with an antenna mast.  Detail differences included props, lower bumps on the cowl, pitot tubes, and venturi fitment.)

 

There are two series of articles on RCAF Hurricanes I highly recommend.  I did one for IPMS Canada's RT in RT 38-2 and Carl Vincent has done a great series of articles in the last few issues of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society Journal.

 

Jim

Thanks, Jim.

I'm aware there was a missing Hurricane, as one was lost en route to Canada. I do have the IPMS Canada RT 38-2, too. The Carl Vincent CAHAJ article sounds interesting. I really enjoyed his booklet Canadian Wings Vol.1 on the Blackburn Shark in Canadian service.

I only have the few photos that I have posted here, which is rather limited, but all that I could find out there. Anything extra would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Chris

[JackG]

Chris, do you have this book?

 

 

Presented as a diary, unfortunately no photos for the particular time frame you are centering on, but if the RCAF 1/401 interest you ...

 

regards,

Jack

[dogsbody]

No, I do not have that book, but I have no great interest in the history of No.1/401 Squadron.

 

 

Chris

[airjiml2]

2 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

The lower bulges on the cowling were to cover the vacuum pump which replaced the venturi for the cockpit instrumentation and the Constant Speed Unit, required for the Rotol constant speed propeller.  Although these were not always present on the aircraft, the mountings for them were a standard fit on the Merlin III.  This required the change in nose cowling ring from a single unit to upper and lower parts.  Aircraft without these bulges are very early deliveries indeed.  (Possible the first 50, but that factoid needs to be checked.)

 

I don't know much about the Hawker production order and numbers, but clearly RCAF 310, 311, 313, 314 did not have the bulges.  It is my understanding that 310 was the supposed to be serial L1759 which was the 212th Hurricane built.  Therefore it would appear that it was more than 50 aircraft delivered as such.

 

I had never considered the difference in the nose cowl ring, but you are 100% correct.  RCAF 312 had a one piece item while RCAF 315 had a two piece item.

 

Jim

[dogsbody]

If you look here, http://www.rwrwalker.ca/RCAF_301_350_detailed.htm , all the Hurricanes listed also provide the RAF serials, too.

 

Only 20 were ordered/sent but one was lost/never delivered.

 

 

Chris

[airjiml2]

2 hours ago, dogsbody said:

If you look here, http://www.rwrwalker.ca/RCAF_301_350_detailed.htm , all the Hurricanes listed also provide the RAF serials, too.

 

Only 20 were ordered/sent but one was lost/never delivered.

 

 

Chris

Chris,

 

24 were ordered.  20 were delivered and four (of which 330 would have been the first) were "ready for shipment" when the RCAF requested to cancel delivery.  Not sure where the 330 lost in transit story came from, but it is one of a long number of myths that keep getting repeated in the RCAF/CCF Hurricane story and are now accepted as fact when indeed they are complete fiction.

 

Jim

[dogsbody]

16 hours ago, airjiml2 said:

Chris,

 

24 were ordered.  20 were delivered and four (of which 330 would have been the first) were "ready for shipment" when the RCAF requested to cancel delivery.  Not sure where the 330 lost in transit story came from, but it is one of a long number of myths that keep getting repeated in the RCAF/CCF Hurricane story and are now accepted as fact when indeed they are complete fiction.

 

Jim

You seem to have much more information on the RCAF Hurricanes than is easily found on the Net or in most books. Do you have a source?

 

 

Chris

[dogsbody]

Anyone here have a link to an Airfix 1/72 Hurricane build that hasn't been frigged up by Photobucket? I'd like to see just how someone else may have gone about fixing the wing issues. I don't trust myself and my crappy skills ( actually the lack of skill ) to do the job.

 

 

Chris

[Troy Smith]

55 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

Anyone here have a link to an Airfix 1/72 Hurricane build that hasn't been frigged up by Photobucket? I'd like to see just how someone else may have gone about fixing the wing issues. I don't trust myself and my crappy skills ( actually the lack of skill ) to do the job.

 

 

Chris

hi Chris

 

what bit of the wing?  Thinning it?

see here

Or alignment issues?  I think if you get it to the right dihedral and thinned the wing,  the outer aileron join won't line up,  but that's not a hard fix.

Also,  the WORST is you stuff up the wing,  you could then get a metal wing replacement...

and it's not a rare or expensive kit at that.

I gave some hints on the wheel well above,  but it's a basically decent kit.   or did you mean something else?

 

HTH

T